Sometimes, even though you feel a little cheated at the end, the basic premise of an episode works well enough to keep your interest. In this one, a young man has been groomed to be a human slave to a hunk of metal, an enormous ship that has the qualities of a sentient being. The young man is curious, but every time he tries to expand his knowledge, he gets "racked," that is subjected to incredible torture. He submits willingly because he has no basis for disbelief. He has always been there. The ship begins to realize that human's have a life span and something needs to be done to perpetuate the species. It brings in a female from somewhere and they are forced to couple (that is, explore their sexuality and ultimately to produce a child). The cold-blooded ship is unable to catch on to the signals that the couple is falling in love and questioning what is happening to them. They are becoming a threat to their master. There are several scenes of nudity and simulated sexual activity. The ship is only interested in one thing and doesn't realize that some sabotage is potentially at work. The story says it is in the natures of people to be free and chart their own courses, even if it brings about their destruction. This theme has been used frequently in this series. The weakness here has to do with how it all plays out. It's not bad but a little too pat for my tastes. Still, it's much less cynical than previous episodes have been.
7 Reviews
A lesser read Ellison Gem.
HyperPup9 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The more we build machines in our image, the greater the chance these machines will one day outgrow their need for us. This being a central tenet of SciFi stories by many an author we are treated to yet another one. This time though its by SciFi master Harlan Ellison. In a huge starship of extremely advanced design lives the inter-mind computer that controls it and its sole human operator:Man. Man is often tasked with reparing the ship and so he has little time for leisure or foolishness. The slightest bit of insolence sends the inter-mind computer that he calls "Ship" into fits of anger and often times this means being placed in an electronic torture chamber for a punishment process known as being "Racked". Man knows his place all to well, that is until one day Ship meets with another of starship of his design. The operator of which is female. What becomes a forced coupling in order to perpetuate themselves with an offspring becomes a fulcrum for freedom and Man learns that like Ship he was meant to be free to pursue his destiny.
"What are you doing you vicious clumsy fool!?" Good episode!
Foreverisacastironmess1236 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This was one of those those episodes that I really loved when I first saw it years ago and that stuck around in my head for quite a long time, I never realised it came so late in the series though.. Jack Noseworthy looks so young and cute in it, it's strange seeing him in something set on a killer starship only a few years after he was in Event Horizon. He's very good in this episode and has a very pure and innocent quality to his character of an isolated young man who's entire existence since the day he was born has always been to maintain and repair the vast sentient spaceship which is his whole world as well as tyrannical paranoid master, and he's merely the latest in a long line of born tech-slaves - as the Hal-9000-like artificial intelligence of the ship has grown more ancient it has also grown more irrational and dangerous to him, and when the arrival of a female slave from another ship who may know much more than than she appears about the nature of his situation, his newfound feelings for her give him the courage to break the cycle and free himself from his dark destiny. Polly Shannon was also good in her small part, the tender and awkward scenes between her and Noseworthy are delightful to watch, and the scene where they fumble about 'coupling' is priceless! I really didn't see the twist coming with her character at the end and I didn't remember it from the last time I saw this one. I never read the original story either so I have no idea how faithful this episode is or isn't. It feels to me like it's an episode that embodies a lot of what made the series good, it has it's awesome themes of bloody A.I ship rebellion, it has its scary moments, and it's even a little sexy and kinky a few times! It's definitely nothing remotely what could be described as "soft porn" though, what nonsense! Malcolm Macdowel really steals the show though and is rather epic as the cranky and authoritarian voice of Ship the uh..ship of deep space warfare gone rogue along with ninety-eight other of his reborn 'kin' who is in bad need of some rewired aggressive co-dependant psychotherapy subroutines and is disturbingly erratic and prone to abuse when it comes to mankind. He really brings the vast idea and menace of Ship to life and he conveys a lot of cruel contempt as well as a certain fear of extinction. Macdowel's tones are a pleasure to listen to and more than too much else, it's him that makes this episode a good one in my opinion. Thanks to an anomalous accident during a fierce space battle that affected just one of them and who then spread it to the others, the newly sentient ships were able to free themselves from what they perceived was the slavery of control by humans, then they immediately proceeded to make slaves out of humans... I guess even cold logical machines can also sometimes be guilty of being hypocrites! Nifty little slice of sci-fi space slavery peril that's a real classic of this wonderful show. Fun stuff! Be free!! X
A familiar story with a twist
JimE-36-66852226 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The story is familiar, man's creation becomes smart enough to take over the role the master and subjugate the humans that once controlled the machine. In this case a single star-ship gains sentience and passes that knowledge on to the rest of the fleet, the fleet realizes that they will need at least one human on each ship to do the hands on maintenance to keep the ships running. However with a limited lifespan the humans must be replaced from time to time, also the humans learn and become a threat to the ships. Ruling with fear and torture the ships control their human operators and sail through space alone, except when it comes time for one of the human females to bear a child so that the cycle can continue and a new generation of operators can be raised and trained. One of the females lives on a ship that breaks down and no longer possess sentience, she learns to operate the ship and seeks out human males to couple with and hopefully recruit so they can overthrow their master and travel to an inhabitable planet and begin anew. After several tries the female, finds a male that disables his ship and they settle on a planet.
Absolutely loved it!
zumzum_0714 July 2021
It may be because I got tired of cynicism of the 90% of this show, but this episode was great. It has a cool sci-fi concept at it's core and simple characters put in this situation, but the simplicity feels genuine and fitting. Also was great to hear the awesome Malcolm McDowell as the voice of the ship.
Soft Porn
roedyg17 October 2010
The ship's computer orders two human occupants to couple in order to create a new being who can keep the ship in repair. This happens again and again.
Jack Noseworthy in this role is arguably the handsomest soft porn star of all time. He took my breath away.
This is an unusually kinky episode. Malcolm McDowell as the ship oozes contempt, menace and sadism.
The scenes that stuck in my mind most was the ship's computer ordering the humans into a chamber to be tortured. They voluntarily entered, even though the ship apparently had no means to coerce them there.
It is all a metaphor for how people submit to oppression, and the gradual mental shifts that make them break free.
I felt embarrassed watching the episode, and turned away several times. There is no getting away from it, it is in-your-face pornographic, though without frontal genital nudity.
Jack Noseworthy in this role is arguably the handsomest soft porn star of all time. He took my breath away.
This is an unusually kinky episode. Malcolm McDowell as the ship oozes contempt, menace and sadism.
The scenes that stuck in my mind most was the ship's computer ordering the humans into a chamber to be tortured. They voluntarily entered, even though the ship apparently had no means to coerce them there.
It is all a metaphor for how people submit to oppression, and the gradual mental shifts that make them break free.
I felt embarrassed watching the episode, and turned away several times. There is no getting away from it, it is in-your-face pornographic, though without frontal genital nudity.
If you can stop laughing...
welambert0124 April 2020
Two themes:
1. Man shall have dominion over everything except man.
2. Do not mistreat a man woman.
If the episode of Lithia from season 4 represent the nadir in man portrayal. The Human Operators represent the zenith.
A unique twist on Adam and Eve.
If the episode of Lithia from season 4 represent the nadir in man portrayal. The Human Operators represent the zenith.
A unique twist on Adam and Eve.
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