Abstract
The opening episode of Black Mirror’s (2011–) fourth season, “USS Callister,” follows the show’s commitment to topical relevance by taking on toxic white masculinity. To this end, the episode uses an adventure narrative typical of the classic TV show Star Trek but recontextualizes it in the interplay between the embedded reality of a digital game and the framing device of the gaming company where “real” characters interact. This two-tiered ontological structure allows the episode to address the role that adventure plays within the bourgeois normality of white-collar work within a neoliberal economy—as a form of escape for some, as a confining narrative that must be rewritten for others in order to attain self-determination. In its indictment of escapism as an elitist prerogative, and its embrace of autonomy for subjects outside the specific white male bracket, “USS Callister” struggles with the ideological implications of the adventure narrative as it veers back toward the confirmation of neoliberalism. To the extent that “USS Callister” itself relies on the thrills and pleasures derived from classic adventure as a form of commercial entertainment, the episode provides a valuable insight into the possibilities and limitations of digital culture to analyze and critique itself.
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Notes
- 1.
The episode’s director does not deny the status of “San Junipero” as “a cultural phenomenon,” but admits to still not having watched the episode in its entirety “because it’s too good. I couldn’t watch it because it scared me about doing this project!” (Strause, 2018).
- 2.
The same media cycle would also determine the context for the 2018 Academy Awards: in “an America where the ruling party seems willing to sacrifice many things—including decency and justice—to reassert white Christian masculinity as the tentpole of the universe, the best picture category offers a contrasting vision: a flaw-free indictment of that same colonial pathology (‘Get Out’), a blazing affirmation of young womanhood (‘Lady Bird’) and an aching gay romance (‘Call Me by Your Name’), among others” (West, 2018).
- 3.
- 4.
It is not merely the infrastructure of social interaction that is commodified in the digital realm; it is social interaction itself (monitored, mined for metadata, sold to third parties, etc.).
- 5.
“But on other levels it is about tyranny and it is about someone who has ultimate power—how technology can give us that power” (Jones, qt. in Maas, 2017).
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Hantke, S. (2019). Dethroning the King of Space: Toxic White Masculinity and the Revised Adventure Narrative in “USS Callister”. In: McSweeney, T., Joy, S. (eds) Through the Black Mirror. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19458-1_15
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