Black Mirror: USS Callister: Into Infinity
April 10, 2025 11:54 AM - Season 7, Episode 6 - Subscribe
Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister - led by Captain Nanette Cole - are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players.
A sequel to Series 4's USS Callister.
A sequel to Series 4's USS Callister.
Did not expect this to be as funny as it was. Jimmi Simpson was hilarious as Walton (did he get that name for his resemblance to John Boy?) and funnier than he's ever been since Lyle the intern. Cristin was fantastic as always and Plemons was practically unrecognizable with the AI de-aging, but Simpson had me laughing every time he opened his mouth.
posted by Stanczyk at 3:49 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]
posted by Stanczyk at 3:49 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]
Does anyone have a convenient list of which Black Mirror episodes over the series are USS Callister ones (so I can watch them all in order)?
posted by porpoise at 10:30 PM on April 12
posted by porpoise at 10:30 PM on April 12
"Yes you would. Bob, you would. I know you don't think that, now, but the power that you wield is not a good fit for you."
Damn, Milioti is wonderful and Plemons continues to impress. Billy Magnussen and Jimmi Simpson are their usual great.
"No no no! Label your disks asshole!"
posted by porpoise at 11:00 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]
Damn, Milioti is wonderful and Plemons continues to impress. Billy Magnussen and Jimmi Simpson are their usual great.
"No no no! Label your disks asshole!"
posted by porpoise at 11:00 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]
Does anyone have a convenient list of which Black Mirror episodes over the series are USS Callister ones (so I can watch them all in order)?
There are only two - Season 4's initial USS Callister and then this one. Black Mirror doesn't usually do sequels like this one; they have a number of little Easter-Egg things connecting things in-universe (the news crawl that was running on TV as the reporter was speaking had a lot of shoutouts to other episodes, and the gamer who liked pink was listening to a pop song from another episode) but that's it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:08 AM on April 13 [2 favorites]
There are only two - Season 4's initial USS Callister and then this one. Black Mirror doesn't usually do sequels like this one; they have a number of little Easter-Egg things connecting things in-universe (the news crawl that was running on TV as the reporter was speaking had a lot of shoutouts to other episodes, and the gamer who liked pink was listening to a pop song from another episode) but that's it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:08 AM on April 13 [2 favorites]
There are contrivances in this episode that (I would argue) go above and beyond even those you could expect from Black Mirror, but would be perfectly in line with the contrivances of a Star Trek–like universe. I suppose it's only fair to subject it to the relaxed rigors of what it's emulating.
They needed Walton’s clone to be alive for the exposition, so they resurrected him via contrivance (though the revelation that he was responsible for the DNA-cloning Pandora’s box was satisfying!) — but it was worth it just for the comedy of rescuing him from his Cast Away existence. (And, hey, if Star Trek can resurrect Spock…)
Daly's garage clone is cast as a sort of god-like figure. It's fine and expected that he has that power over the Infinity universe… but then he somehow has the power to put a cloned consciousness inside a meatspace brain? I'm reminded that one of the reasons Mass Effect 3’s ending was so widely reviled was because you basically solve a universe-wide existential dilemma by… having a private meeting with God and choosing one of three simplistic resolutions.
What clone-Daly was describing in one of those scenarios was what I thought we'd get: each of the DNA-clones somehow merging with their meatspace person, with two consciousnesses becoming one. That's the Severance-reintegration–style outcome that’d make everyone happy, much like ME3 having the option to make everything an organic/android hybrid so as to remove the age-old conflict between man and machine.
It would've worked out best for everyone except for clone-Walton. I mean, I'm sure it would've been interesting for original-Walton to suddenly gain all the empathy and perspective that clone-Walton had acquired the hard way, but too high a price to pay for clone-Walton to share in all of original-Walton’s crimes.
So we get the silly Innerspace-style ending. It's not the worst way to go, but it is a shame they had to do the Final Destination car-comes-out-of-fucking-nowhere trope just to hollow out original-Nanette’s body to accept clone-Nanette’s consciousness. I think they could’ve gotten there a different way.
It's tough to get the gang back together for sequels, especially for a one-off sequel to an episode of an anthology series that was filmed eight years ago. Impressive that they got back everyone except Michaela Coel (seems like she took a break for a while?), and especially impressive that Billy Magnussen showed up again just to get redshirted.
posted by savetheclocktower at 12:48 AM on April 14
They needed Walton’s clone to be alive for the exposition, so they resurrected him via contrivance (though the revelation that he was responsible for the DNA-cloning Pandora’s box was satisfying!) — but it was worth it just for the comedy of rescuing him from his Cast Away existence. (And, hey, if Star Trek can resurrect Spock…)
Daly's garage clone is cast as a sort of god-like figure. It's fine and expected that he has that power over the Infinity universe… but then he somehow has the power to put a cloned consciousness inside a meatspace brain? I'm reminded that one of the reasons Mass Effect 3’s ending was so widely reviled was because you basically solve a universe-wide existential dilemma by… having a private meeting with God and choosing one of three simplistic resolutions.
What clone-Daly was describing in one of those scenarios was what I thought we'd get: each of the DNA-clones somehow merging with their meatspace person, with two consciousnesses becoming one. That's the Severance-reintegration–style outcome that’d make everyone happy, much like ME3 having the option to make everything an organic/android hybrid so as to remove the age-old conflict between man and machine.
It would've worked out best for everyone except for clone-Walton. I mean, I'm sure it would've been interesting for original-Walton to suddenly gain all the empathy and perspective that clone-Walton had acquired the hard way, but too high a price to pay for clone-Walton to share in all of original-Walton’s crimes.
So we get the silly Innerspace-style ending. It's not the worst way to go, but it is a shame they had to do the Final Destination car-comes-out-of-fucking-nowhere trope just to hollow out original-Nanette’s body to accept clone-Nanette’s consciousness. I think they could’ve gotten there a different way.
It's tough to get the gang back together for sequels, especially for a one-off sequel to an episode of an anthology series that was filmed eight years ago. Impressive that they got back everyone except Michaela Coel (seems like she took a break for a while?), and especially impressive that Billy Magnussen showed up again just to get redshirted.
posted by savetheclocktower at 12:48 AM on April 14
Milioti is so insanely expressive. I love watching her act. I hope she's getting all the career opportunities she wants.
I feel like Walton and Karl both spending a lot of time in the NE quadrant of the dipshit x jerkface graph was a bit much. I enjoyed seeing Jimmy Simpson tearing into that alien squid thing though.
posted by fleacircus at 6:08 AM on April 17 [1 favorite]
I feel like Walton and Karl both spending a lot of time in the NE quadrant of the dipshit x jerkface graph was a bit much. I enjoyed seeing Jimmy Simpson tearing into that alien squid thing though.
posted by fleacircus at 6:08 AM on April 17 [1 favorite]
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posted by mrjohnmuller at 3:35 PM on April 10 [1 favorite]