Mindbender

Back in 2006 I wrote:

(One line in Mindbender is very thought provoking.

"pretty pictures for the masses"

Think about it.Firstly we are watching a TV Series made at a film studio,using
as one of it's subtext's a secret base underneath a film studio.The film studio
alluded to is in actual fact not a film studio,but a film studio pretending to
be a film studio,which really is a film studio when everyone stops pretending it
is.
The words "pretty pictures for the masses" only makes you realise that
MINDBENDER is a very fitting title.For even when we stop pretending are we quite
sure the illusion is broken?
For superimposed over the ordinary fascinating subtext that features in every
episode, MINDBENDER presents us with a further abstraction. An illusion of a
film studio within a pretence of a film studio, that is set within a secret base
underneath a film studio.But the film studio referred to is again not a film
studio but a film studio pretending to be a film studio,which is a real film
studio when everyone again realises it is.
However the psychosis continue's,because "pretty pictures for the masses" only
increases our paranoia.

We are watching this,we are the masses.Are we being deceived or exploited or
both?This statement goes beyond the episode,beyond the series,outside the film
studio and outward into the heart of the entertainment industry itself.And one
other thing.MINDBENDER does all of this with frightening economy.It almost
cannibalise's itself in the process, using everthing that has gone before in
order to acheive maximum impact.

So if MINBENDER says all this,I cannot ,dare not venture anywhere near the
entrance of the labyrinth that is TIMELASH... and less still would I tread the
lonely path towards the abomination that is the LONG SLEEP!)

Ok I am sure no one was thinking like that when the episode was written and made.Someone probably just thought what if the Aliens set a booby trap that sent everyone mad.A writers mind just did the rest.On the other hand,it might have been this eternal mirror image that gave the writer a idea to focus on how the story was to unfold.

It was also of course a combination of hallucination and reality.These were no waking dreams,but more a question of can we really trust our senses.At first Conroy thought he was going mad,then he entered almost enjoyably into his alternate reality.
Beaver James visions were nothing but hopeless,numbing fear.He clearly thought,what he saw was real.He was under no illusion.

Only Cmdr Straker,understandably,had the presence of mind to take control,to realise everything that was happening was a projection,a nightmare gripping all of his senses.Fortunately it may have been his obsession that saved him.There was very little else for the hallucination causing rock to grab on to,except perhaps his failure to prioritise his family life.
Yet he perhaps only survived,because in truth he cared more about the organisation he had built up to its present degree of effectiveness,than he did about his wife and son.


Mark UK





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