This is one of the good ones I remember from back in the day. When a story calls your attention and you still remember the punchline of the cosmic joke so well, it shows the story has staying power and a hell of a punch. Basically, we have the story of a man who falls in love, and is loves back. OK, not the most original thing in the world, but for him, it's earth-shattering and character-defining. It's something personal and meaningful is so many levels.
However, that unique experience is appropriated, repackaged and sold like any other product in the market, and eventually for him to feel as if he could live his dearest moment again, all he has to do is become a consumer himself and buy the most popular emotional experience like any other regular joe would do. His one-of-a-kind experience is still unique, but it's unique for every other person willing to pay for it. And that's all she's ever going to have of that time he fell in love. But shouldn't that be enough?
I wonder about the final scene in which Q.M. is in Blue Champagne resort all by himself re-living the moment he fell in love. I only noticed it this last time I watched the video. It makes little sense that the entire resort would be for his personal use, and that would rob the emotional impact for the viewer, because we all know this is now an experience he'll forcefully share with the rest of the world (or the rest of Betaville at least). But then it hit me, Q.M., alone, watching and feeling the most meaningful moments of his life, all by himself, is reflective of what he feels. To him, he's alone with Megan, but of course he's not. A bunch of losers is right there with him thinking they are alone as well.
John Varley is one of those authors whose name keeps popping up here and there if you read and watch a lot of SF. He wrote a great story this time, but I have to mention the fact that he stole the concept and even the term "feelie" from Huxley's Brave New World. I'm surprised they'd use the same term. Usually the writers of a television production or movie try to come up with an original name even if it's for the same old, tired sci-fi tropes. Take robots and androids, for instance. We have droids, replicants, synths, hubots, mechas, Cylons, skin-jobs, hosts, and all sorts of terms to refer to basically the same thing or a couple of similar things. They could've used a new term such as "sensies" for instance.
I hadn't noticed how leftist and anticapitalist this show is, but perhaps that's because I'm more aware of these things right now. So, naturally, the big villain is a corporation which uses the technology they control as they see fit and forces a woman into a kind of servitude or else they'll rob her of her basic right to move her body. The company "Feelie Productions" I think (or something like that) is not a monopoly, but things are almost just as bad, as they are dealing with an oligopoly of 12 companies. Remember: there are no small companies in this business. And they are all looking for the lowest common denominator that will maximize their profits, so culture and a message ("feelies that mean something") are a distant second place.
And the girlfriend is the moral reference who finds human truth and virtue in an agricultural commune. However one could look at the situation from another angle. In capitalism, technology gradually gets more popular and cheaper, and if market forces are allowed to flourish, soon the technology that made the sidekick possible would be widely available, and soon Megan would have access toa suit of her own, or at least an affordable alternative, so she wouldn't have to sell her soul to feel whole again. Especially considering she's a celebrity ad the star of the most popular form on entertainment in this reality.
Anyway, I love the interaction of the characters. QM begins as a dashing young man in search of some adventure, buit is open for something else. Megan begins seeming to be using him, but her desire to change is genuine and she only surrenders at her breaking point. And she doesn't leave him because she was duplicitous and evil, but the circumstances would always remind her of what she lost. The Grilfriend has many more layers than we had given her credit for, and she ends being the moral center of the story, representing the human purity that we all believed would be lost in Betaville. In the end she recognizes the love experience did QM good and that there were no villains among the main characters.
I was wondering hos realistic the Blue Champagne resort scenario would be. Had this episode been made now, they would probably have used the online app trope, so users would access the program in the comfort of their homes. On the other hand, the feelies only seem to be available in one expensive resort, not in theaters everywhere.
Well, Blue Champagne represents theaters in general, since Betaville represents our future industrial society. And apparently there are no poor people in this future; people's problems are of a different nature.As for the internet use of the technology, well, this tech is awfully expensive (that's the whole premise of the story), so it probably needs expensive equipment and facilities to run it, therefore you wouldn't be able to enjoy a good feelie from your PC. It's like 3D or IMAX technologies: you can only access it at certain places, and those places are full of expensive tech. I just think that if people go to these things mostly for sex, well, a bean bag in the middle of a big room with all sorts of strangers around would expose the patrons to some very embarrassing moments, and if men would be constantly having erections during sessions of feelies, the pants they were wearing seemed inappropriately tight. So, the best thing would be to place users in personal booths, like strip clubs private VIP rooms. Or perhaps that's just for the wealthy customers and the general "ballroom" would be a disgusting jizzfest. Or perhaps the morals of Betaville are so decadent that they don't even care about that anymore.
This was a powerful story with remarkable characters and a message with strong staying power you could be remembering 20 or 30 years from now. I'm going to take a page out of the Fanboy Critic's personal playbook and pull a "Starstuff" move and inflate the grade of my own favorite show by giving this episode 10 very weird, totally artificially-looking future plants that look more like Mardi Gras decorations or a child's art project and which are planted in a commune tended by future commies and hippies.
