The Screwfly Solution
is based on a short story by James Tiptree, Jr (a pseudonym for Alice
Sheldon, who wrote science fiction at a time when it was very much a
Boy's Club). The episode really has two closely interconnected
commentaries: the first is on violence against women, the second is
on the competitive nature of life. I found the latter commentary to
be excellent, but the former to be underwhelming. If you're going to
talk about something as culturally influenced as domestic violence,
making the violence a biological imperative ruins it.
The idea of humans
as a plague on the rest of the Earth has been done to death, but here
it's done so well and so literally that it becomes fascinating again.
We're conveniently introduced to two researchers named Alan and
Barney (Jason Priestly and Elliott Gould) who are attempting to wipe
out a pest called the “Kane Fly” by introducing chemicals that
affects the instincts of the males, causing them to forget the
correct procedure for mating. We're told the story of the screwfly
at the beginning, so apparently the Kane Fly is just another in a
long list of pests we've dealt with in similar manners.
At the same time, a
plague of misogynistic religious mania appears, somehow following
airborne disease vectors. City after city undergoes an outbreak in
which men begin murdering women. It's explained that the disease
erases the distinction between sexual urges and violent instincts in
men, so that their attempts to “mate” are replaced with attempts
to murder potential child-bearers.
There are a number
of things in this episode that don't make sense. Firstly, I could
accept the religious aspects as a result of infected men trying to
justify their violence, but on at least one occasion a man is shown
developing a belief in it without having been taught. A religion
that spreads via literal airborne pathogen?
My other major
problem is the manner in which male pride dooms the human race. The
disease's affects can be stopped via chemical castration, but our
military leaders apparently lack the professionalism to allow that,
even in the face of human extinction. Even as a card-carrying
liberal myself, I've never met a soldier who I think would refuse
such an option when the situation was so dire. This plot point seems
to exist simply to drive the story forward. The only male we
actually see use chemical castration on himself is Barney, whose
basically a “gay best friend to women” stereotype.
The ending
establishes that the plague was sent down by aliens. It's never made
entirely clear if they're tree-huggers protecting the Earth, or if
they simply want the planet for themselves. I prefer the latter
interpretation, because it fits the metaphor of the episode far
better: We destroyed the Screwfly because it killed livestock, but
that was for our sake, not the sake of the livestock. I likewise
highly doubt that the aliens give a rats ass about the precious Kane
Fly or any of the other species we wiped out.
About halfway
through the episode the perspective flips, because Allan is too
stupid to accept the chemical castration, and realizes he's become
infected. He warns his wife Anne (Kerry Norton) to get a gun and
head North with their daughter Amy (Brenna O'Brien). From that point
on, we follow Anne. It makes a degree of sense in terms of the
narrative. We've passed the point at which the brave scientist can
save the world, and entered the point at which the desperate woman
has to try to survive.
The remainder of
the episode is a tense thriller, but the inevitability of Anne's
death is pretty clear. Amy manages to get herself killed fairly
early, though, by trusting her now-deranged father. Anne's fate,
however, is just freezing to death in Northern Canada, which is
probably the best she could have hoped for in this world.
This
episode does disturb me. We humans are, fundamentally, just another
life form. How much could a few chemical affect our behavior? Do we
really have any choice when it comes to our instincts? The idea that
the violence is closely linked to the sexual instinct makes it all
the more hard-hitting, because we can all relate to the struggle to
resist our sexual urges, let alone resist them while an alien race is
effectively drugging you. While I haven't read the original story,
the idea seems quite timeless.
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