People are different in many ways, and it seems that if your not of the norm these days you get labeled very quickly. How many young girls want to be like Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan, buying the latest fashions and doing up hairstyles just be impressive to their peers. Suppose we got rid of all the people in the world who were different, who did not live up to the norm, even if they had nothing medically wrong with them. Suppose in the future we just put them all on a spaceship and send them away because they look different, even if it wasn’t their fault.
Such is the case with this episode of Masters of Science Fiction titled The Discarded. In this episode we follow a group of people aboard a large spaceship floating though the galaxy. They are a group of people who were mutated by a virus on earth that left some of them disfigured or plagued with the virus, a virus that seems that it won’t kill them but make them suffer the consequences of looking different. They have all been kicked off Earth by the people of earth for the virus they have and because of the way they look. All is fine on their ship, until the day someone from earth arrives, a good looking space captain, whom is there to ask them to come back to earth as their blood is the only thing that can cure the now spreading virus back on the home planet.
This is one of the episodes in the series I enjoyed the most, it had a well rounded script with a great message from the future and shows that if people don’t stop being ignorant that such a thing as surrogating people will still happen in the future. It’s a story that says the human race will become more ignorant to the point where you’ll have to perfect to live on the planet. That’s the overall message the writer Laureate Harlan Ellison (Star Trek) whom not only wrote the short story, but co-wrote the script with Josh Olsen (A History of Violence). I for one thought the script was very well written and conveyed the message I stated above very well.
This episode not only had the support of a great writing team behind it but also a had a great cast and a great director in Jonathan Frakes, a director who is very familiar with the sci-fi genre. Behind him is an all star cast of actors including James Denton (Desperate Housewives), John Hurt (V For Vendetta) and Brian Dennehy (Cocoon). The acting and directing both go hand in hand with this episode as well. The talent that they bring to the table shows and that’s what help makes this episode so memorable.
The overall production value is very good in this episode, there are some great set designs for the interior of the ship and some decent CGI of the spaceships flying around. The film is full of some great visuals and the overall set pieces add to the feel and the tone of the script.
Overall, I really did enjoy what this episode had to offer, everything about it was pretty solid from the acting to the directing. I think my only gripe was with the whole entire production had to do with part of the plot towards the middle involving the death of one of the better characters in the film. However overall this is the perfect episode to round out the series on when it debuts on August 25th at 10 p.m. on ABC. This is one episode that fans of Science Fiction really need to tune into.
– Horror Bob
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
