Eye Of The Machine (2010) Review

 

Eye Of The Machine is more intriguing setup for stuff we'll never get to see, which infuriates me. But I can't deny the quality of the work either. 

WRITTEN BY

Ben Aaronovitch, doing some class-A worldbuilding here. 

PLOT

Kerr Avon, a student in the cybernetics field at Oxford University, falls in love with activist and fellow student Anna Grant. Together, they conspire to ingratiate Avon to the irascible professor Ensor's good graces so that the former can introduce his theories on AI. Meanwhile, Anna's Freedom Party is on the cusp of victory. What could possibly go wrong?

ANALYSIS

This one kept surprising me with the directions it was taking. I wasn't expecting an Orac origin story. Neither did I think Anna was going to be political at this stage. But I suppose the way all these storylines are linked is true to the more modern type of TV that these episodes emulated. In any case, what matters is that Eye Of The Machine held my full attention. 

Showing us the evolution of Avon's mindset through his interactions with Anna and Ensor is excellent writing. I like the way the two came to represent his conflicting ideologies - his innate empathy and the cynical, cold scientist. There's no real resolution to this, but there probably wasn't meant to be, given that they expected the series to go on in some fashion. The fact that we don't get to see Avon's famous credit fraud all but confirms it. 

I find it neat that so far, all of these stories have focused in some way or another on the effect that Blake's Freedom Party had on the characters before they met him. In fact, it seems that all of them take place around the same time. It's a good bit of worldbuilding, and emphasizes the legend of him nicely. 

CHARACTERS

It's no surprise that this is Colin Salmon's best performance as Avon, given how limited the character was in the main trilogy. With his passion for computer technology and defiance of politics, he is at his most recognisable towards Paul Darrow's original incarnation. There's also a few subtle hints of a violent background, which nod towards the more aggressive Avon of the later seasons. That having been said, Salmon distinguishes himself with a naturalistic and somewhat flippant take on the part. His scenes with Anna in bed are massively different from the rather theatrical flashbacks in Rumours Of Death for sure.

Keeley Hawes does a phenomenal job as Anna, giving her a likably witty and passionate personality. I love the way she bounces off of Salmon's Avon. She complements him so well that they become an instantly plausible couple. Her breakdown at the end was simply heartbreaking. I would have loved to have her back for more stories. There's no doubt in my mind that she's the definitive Anna. 

Geoffrey Palmer also passes his predecessor fairly quickly with a more bitter, crafty take on Ensor. The concept of him basing Orac off of Avon's work was a hard sell and he managed it with his fantastically cynical monologue of the tarriel cell's development. Not that he's entirely a bastard though! Palmer's Ensor is human enough to help when truly needed. In that regard, he's the perfect mentor for Avon. 

NOTES

*David Ensor? David???

*Who are Ensor and Anna supposed to be narrating the story to? Their Federation captors?

*Things I did not need to hear in Blake's 7 #1: Anna shouting at Avon to get his arse in the shower. 

*Is Ensor supposed to have some kind of weird crush on Anna? The reference to him programming her babysitter and the fact that he repeatedly invited her to parties is... icky

*"We never talked about politics" claims Anna, despite the fact that just about every conversation she had with Avon was either Ensor-related or a political debate.

*I'm appalled that Avon is convinced to hack the electoral commission's database by the threat of no sex. Avon's a simp. 

*"I never knew working in a group could be so exciting!" #NotMyAvon

*So is there any reason why all AI went insane before Orac? It seems like an interesting concept, but Aaronovitch never mentions it again. It's just an arbitrary obstacle, it seems. Or perhaps it was meant to be a future threat to Orac. 

*Avon's suggestion to make an AI by 'running a human brain through generations in a VR construct' seems awfully suspect. Like, what'll that do exactly?

*I like the symbolic comparisons between Orac's artificial intelligence and humanity's current state under the Federation("you can't have control and intelligence at the same time"). Superb stuff.

*How did Avon forget what he classified in Zen's programming? Did it have something to do with his mind-meld thing? Was it subconscious? That could've used some clarification. 

*I have no idea why this episode came out before Point Of No Return. On the Wikipedia page, this is clearly episode 3 of the Early Years, yet the years of release are all mixed up.

INFORMATION!

*According to Ensor, Alan Turing's paper "Computing Machinery And Intelligence" came out 300 years before the events of the series, setting the series in the 23rd century. This is later confirmed by Zen, who says that Ensor's lecture(which Avon was present for) took place in 2230, and Ensor disappeared in 2233. Thus, we can assume that the 'present day' of the reboot is somewhere in the mid-2230s. 

*Ensor refers to 'holy spirit', therefore some kind of religion has probably survived into this era.

*The characters of Ensor and Anna Grant first appeared in the original series episodes Orac and Rumours Of Death. There are several subtle references to those episodes. 

*Avon is from a 'hick colony in the frontier', and his father was a 'dull and loyal Federation servant'. I'm not quite sure if this is a jab at Avon: A Terrible Aspect or not.

*As with the previous two Early Years stories, the election of Blake's Freedom Party(featured in Voice From The Past) to power is a major plot point. In this case, Anna is revealed to be a member and major voice in the Party. I wonder if Blake knew her?

*The post-credits scene appears to take place some time after Liberator. Avon refers to his reprogramming of Zen in Traitor, as well as his credit fraud scheme, which seems to take place between this story and Rebel. 

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

ANNA: "Most people would rather be treated by a human being than a computer."
AVON: "Most people are idiots."

CONCLUSION

Thought-provoking stuff. I'm constantly impressed by the development of this reboot series, and the fact that it got cancelled is becoming more and more of a pain.