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Masters of Science Fiction The Discarded (2007) Online

Masters of Science Fiction The Discarded (2007) Online
2007 Stephen Hawking John Hurt Brian Dennehy Jonathan Frakes
Original Title :
The Discarded
Genre :
TV Episode / Drama / Sci-Fi
Year :
2007
Directror :
Jonathan Frakes
Cast :
Stephen Hawking,John Hurt,Brian Dennehy
Writer :
Harlan Ellison,Josh Olson
Type :
TV Episode
Time :
43min
Rating :
6.4/10

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Masters of Science Fiction The Discarded (2007) Online

Based on a short story by seven-time Hugo Award winner, three-time Nebula Award winner and Science Fiction Grand Master Laureate Harlan Ellison ("A Boy and His Dog," "Star Trek"). Story of despised minorities forever adrift in the darkness of outer space. As a last resort born out of their loneliness and despair they are forced to make an ominous pact with those responsible for their plight, in the hope that they will finally be offered refuge at home on Earth.
Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking - Himself - Host (as Professor Stephen Hawking)
John Hurt John Hurt - Samswope
Brian Dennehy Brian Dennehy - Bedzyk
James Denton James Denton - Barney Curran
Gina Chiarelli Gina Chiarelli - Annie
Lori Triolo Lori Triolo - Harmony Teet
Donny Lucas Donny Lucas - Steve
Vicky Lambert Vicky Lambert - Frenchy
Alex Zahara Alex Zahara - Bucky
Leanne Adachi Leanne Adachi - Sharon
Jason Diablo Jason Diablo - Smiler
Brian Dobson Brian Dobson - Samswope 2 (voice)
Barbara Kottmeier Barbara Kottmeier - Sis
Harlan Ellison Harlan Ellison - Nate
Ken Kramer Ken Kramer - Schmool

When Bedzyk asks Annie whether she ever wondered why she was 'discarded,' she answers in a few pregnant lines. At first, Annie says, "It's that thing about Malthus." Here she refers to Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), whose famous Malthusian equation argues that an exponentially increasing human population on Earth will preclude any possibility of a state of happiness or utopia for humans.

The short story "The Discarded" first appeared in "Fantastic" magazine in April, 1959.

"Too many people. No place to stand." John Brunner also wrote 'To Stand On Zanzibar', a novel dealing with the problems of overpopulation. The book uses the image that if everyone stood shoulder to shoulder we would completely cover the island Zanzibar.

In her discussion of Malthus, Annie says, "Too many people on Earth. No place to stand. The sheep look up." Scriptwriter Harlan Ellison was likely thinking of the 1972 dystopian science fiction novel by English author John Brunner entitled "The Sheep Look Up." The phrase comes from the poem "Lycidas" by Engish writer John Milton: "The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, But swoln [swollen] with wind, and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread: Besides what the grim Wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing said, But that two-handed engine at the door Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." Ellison got it slightly wrong: the problem with the sheep (to overlook Milton's political and religious subtexts) is not that there are too many of them, but that they are starving, and with starvation come disease and the wolves that can easily prey upon them. The shepherd (the "two-handed engine") can't feed them, but can only try to fend off the wolf. Science fiction author Henry Kuttner also took a title from this verse for his 1955 story "The Two-Handed Engine," co-written with his wife C.L. Moore; that story is very different from Ellison's, but shares the themes of a minority of people who may be wronged, and of guilt.


User reviews

Aver

Aver

Challenging piece of science fiction in the truest sense of the word. This episode takes us years to the future with the chilling effects of genetics, diseases and politics run amok. Both John Hurt and Brian Denehy play their roles with a passion and verve that may seem theatrical but do the job in propelling the story forward. (I'd like to take a minute out to praise the make-up artists on this episode. Genius. They serve to disgust and humanize. Is that craft, writing or both?) Excellent science fiction takes fantastic situations and places characters living lives that ring true to contemporary readers/viewers. This episode serves testament to that quality.
Ice_One_Guys

Ice_One_Guys

Sorry to say, but this movie is very bad. The dialog is empty, the characters unlikeable and after an extremely slow pace, a mediocre point is made.

The story is basically about a ship full of mutated humans who have been outcast by society. Eventually, they receive a special envoy from Earth with an unexpected message.

The basic problem is that this whole movie could have been summarized into a sentence and making a 1 hour movie out of it added nothing. What you essentially get is some effectively gross-looking characters with dialog that is so boring you want to blow their ship up every 5 minutes.

The director, Jonathon Frakes, is a bright fellow but not a very good director. That coupled with a simplistic script (and possibly other limitations) lead to this bad result. Brian Dennehy and John Hurt are well-established character actors so it's hard to believe that this is their fault.

If you recorded this on a TIVO-like device, don't fast forward through it. Delete it.
uspeh

uspeh

This man who reviewed this episode giving it one star is a fool. Far from saying that IMDb would-be critics are a case of the emperor having no clothes, they are in many cases jibbering naked idiots running around poking berries up their asses. He has only one piece of prescient commentary in the entirety of his above drivel, which is the error in which he refers to this episode as a "movie". It is indeed something of a mini-cinema verite experience, shot with all the filmic intensity and dramatic sincerity that one could manage on the shoe string budget ABC gave the producers of this genuinely hit-or-miss anthology series.

Bravo to Harlan and the producers for trying. To paraphrase a famous television critic "television is a medium because it is neither rare nor well done."
showtime

showtime

I guess the first installment of this series was about being nice to people (and not blow them up). Come to think of it, so was the second one.

Now the third one was, well, about being nice to people, whereas the fourth – I'm sorry. It's just too much being nice.

At least JERRY WAS A MAN had an edge to it. This is pure mush.

It's all about these mutants, but of course we all know it really isn't, but just to be on the safe side, we get a lecture on AIDS. It's about society being beastly to some people we could mention, this is a story about society being beastly to the less than perfect, the voice-box of Stephen Hawking tells us, and it's very beastly – just so we know.

They're all aboard this spaceship (so you see, it really is science fiction) and everybody's having a hard time. BRIAN DENNEHY at least gets a big hand, and JOHN HURT is reminded that two heads are better than one, even though the other one is very small and seems to have originally belonged to KLAUS KINSKI.

Of course, anyone not applauding such a noble intention, whatever its literary and cinematic qualities, is an insensitive brute, and here I go being beastly to a less than perfect piece of - Saturday evening entertainment. So sue me.
Cordanara

Cordanara

This is a story which would've been better if it had never been visualized. The mutants look really awful, or rather disgusting.

And knowing Harlan Ellison, we could've predicted the bleak end ... if I really got it, which I don't.

I fully expected Earth Central to blow up the mutant ship, after they got what they wanted. But they didn't? They sent more mutants? But why? If the mutant blood didn't work as a cure, why bother with the whole charade? And if it DID work, why not cure everyone? Surely there'd be room for 93 more?

Curiouser and curiouser, little mutant Alice said.