Spoilers for “Black Mirror” season 6 below.
For modern audiences, the storyline is strikingly reminiscent of the latest season of “Black Mirror,” which features an episode (“Demon 79”) where the main character has to kill a candidate for prime minister before he leads the country into a far-right, xenophobic, war-happy realignment. Why is it that British sci-fi writers are suddenly really interested in stories where they get to kill the prime minister? I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
Of the two recent shows, the “Black Mirror” approach is far more cynical. The episode takes place in the late ’70s, and the evil politician’s plans for the UK aren’t that different from what’s actually ended up happening in the 40+ years since. Similar to Reagan’s reign in America, Thatcherism in the ’80s led to a major rightward realignment in the UK’s political landscape. Although the Labour party would eventually return to power, it did so by moving more to the center, and was followed by an ongoing 14-year Tory reign — one that the “Black Mirror” writers don’t seem happy about. “Demon 79” ends with the world literally exploding in a nuclear Armageddon, with the implicit message being that maybe this short and quick death is better than what Britain’s currently going through.
“Doctor Who” took the more optimistic approach. Future PM Gwilliam is written in a relatively apolitical way — he’s bad because he’s got a nuke fetish, that’s all — and he’s defeated not through murder but through Ruby cleverly placing the mysterious old lady demon right next to him. It’s a family-friendly version of the same basic story arc, giving us perhaps the first version of this story where the hero doesn’t perish in their attempts to save the world.
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