Mar 24, 2021
Out of the Unknown: The Machine Stops (2.1, BBC, 1966)
"I asked for euthanasia again today."
"Why?"
"My lecture was unsuccessful. I wanted the homelessness that is beyond all human conception. I am easily depressed these days."
"The death rate is not permitted to exceed the birth rate. Were you refused?"
"Yes. Oh, there was never a more unfortunate woman than myself."
#Out of the Unknown#the machine stops#e. m. forster#Single play#Kenneth Cavander#Clive Donner#Yvonne Mitchell#Michael Gothard#Nike Arrighi#Jonathan Hansen#Jane Jordan Rogers#Lucy Hill#Philip Saville#1966#Annnnd we're back! Series 2 babey! I imagine a second series was far from a foregone conclusion at the beginning of the run so it must#Speak to the success of s1 that it was so quickly recommissioned (success almost entirely masterminded by the great Irene Shubik). And what#A way to open s2.. Screen adaptation of Forster's work was relatively rare during his lifetime (and he was still alive in 1966) so I'm not#Sure what Irene did to butter him up‚ but it worked (to the extent that‚ per the booklet with this set‚ he wrote to the BBC to commend them#On this adaptation of his story). It's not hard to see why he was impressed; this is without doubt the most experimental and avant garde of#The episodes yet‚ whilst also being one of the most carefully designed and impressively executed. A visual tour de force‚ from the#Intricate design of the machine interior to the alienating direction by Philip Saville. This is premium 60s TV and it's difficult to#Imagine it being produced with such care (and cost!) at‚ really‚ any other time in the BBC's history. The script closes tightly on Mitchell#And Gothard‚ mirroring not just the source text (this is a very faithful adaptation) but reflecting the isolation and claustrophobia of#This future society. A dystopia which does not realise it is a dystopia; a society which is inferior precisely in the things it considers#Superior (the embracing of technology above all‚ the rejection of nature and mechanisation of all). Actually Forster is strangely‚#Alarmingly even‚ prescient: it isn't hard to recognise in the automated living spaces and instant video messaging and computer designed#Comfort and entertainment‚ something of our own modern world. Yes indeed‚ we 'live in a society' but I'd like to think we're some way off#The dearth of energy and originality that Forster posited; and besides the message is ultimately hopeful. Even as everything fails around#Them‚ Mitchell and Gothard are comforted by the knowledge thst there are those who never left the natural world and who will prosper just#As the machine will perish. If the Internet comploded 2moro it would be catastrophe; but the cows and the flowers wouldn't know