SCIENCE FICTION LIBRARY

Anton van Beek, Steve Kirkham, John Martin, Denis Meikle and James Whittington on the latest sci-fi and fantasy video releases…

VOYAGERS

In cinemas now. Cert: PG-13

There’s nothing new under the sun, so they say. Nor is there en-route to the stars, if writer/director Neil Burger’s Voyagers is anything to go by. The new sci-fi offering from Lionsgate is William Golding’s Lord of the Flies set in space, in which a mixed sex contingent of young adults is sent on an 82-year mission to establish a human colony on a far planet. As they won’t see this destination themselves, the plan is for them to sire children along the way so that their grandchildren are the ones who actually inherit the new ‘Earth’, and in order to keep basic instincts such as desire, envy and anger in check for the duration, they are fed a daily diet of ‘Blue’ -a liquid tranquilliser that keeps them docile and obedient. But the bestlaid schemes of mice and men, etc: they find out about the drug and stop taking it, and, as in Golding’s novel about a band of school-kids who are left to their own devices on a desert isle after their plane crashlands, they soon revert to petty jealousies as a result, which lead to rival factions emerging, conflicts breaking out and, ultimately, murder and mayhem.

It is becoming commonplace for the latest generation of sci-fi films to adopt the idea of autonomous flight for their starships; Captains Kirk and Picard are redundant in this alternative futurescape - Colin Farrell, as ‘Richard’, is briefly on board (in what is little more than a cameo) to act as mentor and fatherfigure to the others before being suddenly dispensed with via a jolt of electricity, but no pilots or crew are present and the ship wends its merry galactic way with only a modicum of maintenance from its young passengers (who nevertheless seem to possess an intimate knowledge of its inner workings).

This adds to the impression of a parable being played out against a nominal background, as opposed to a genuine exercise in science fiction film-making, and that is exactly how Voyagers turns out: the thoughtful Chris (The Night Clerk’s Tye Sheridan) and devious, self-seeking Zac (Fionn Whitehead) vie for the leadership of the group after Richard’s untimely demise, but Zac eventually wins out by sowing discord and dissent and spreading fear via the fabrication of an ‘alien’ presence on the ship.

Simply transplanting Lord of the Flies into deep space was evidently deemed insufficient in itself to sustain an ambitious feature -we’re all familiar with the trope of human society reverting to primitive savagery when the veneer of civilisation is stripped away -so to give the piece contemporary relevance, Zac appropriates the Trump-Johnsonian mantra of ‘taking back control’, rousing his rabble through the employment of disinformation, ‘fake news’ and a fictitious threat from without; they even raid a secret weapons store in order to storm the ship’s control room.

All that’s missing is the building of a wall in one of the endless corridors, although the BLM movement also gets a timely nod with the casual shooting of a black protester against Zac’s rule (Quintessa Swindell) as she tries to raise her voice above the melee. The political analogy is laid on with a quite a large trowel as the situation deteriorates, but the finale has enough kinetic momentum to at least keep things entertaining - even if it is modelled on that in Alien; Zac is cast literally into the wilderness and democracy prevails.

Sela, the obligatory feisty female and initial source of discontent between Zac and Chris, is played by Lily-Rose Depp, the daughter of Johnny and Vanessa Paradis.

A somewhat ethereal-looking creature in herself, her androgynous looks act to mask her allegiance to either party until choice becomes inevitable. Whether this was intentional in her casting is for Neil Burger to answer, but if so, it is the only aspect of Voyagers where a degree of subtlety was brought to bear. The sexual awakening of the participants after they dispense with Blue is crudely drawn, the reversion to primitive type too one-dimensional, and the age-old message delivered with far too heavy a hand.

The noises that can occasionally be heard coming from outside the ship, whose innocent origin allows Zac to concoct his threat, were just as likely to have been the next plot idea landing with a dull thud on the pages of the script. DM.

DOCTOR WHO: THE COLLECTION - SEASON 24 (1987)
Blu-ray, Out now. BBC Studios.

Cert: 12

1987 was a year of change for Doctor Who. There was a new script editor – Andrew Cartmel – and, following the unceremonious dumping of previous lead actor Colin Baker at the behest of BBC Controller Michael Grade, a brand new Doctor in the form of Sylvester McCoy. For all intents and purposes, it was a fresh start for the series. At least, that was the idea…