DARK MATTER – Season 3 Episode 10 – SPOILERS

Victor gives The Android (née Suki) three glimpses into her forgotten past. She sees Two take over the Raza by killing Shrike and Jasper. She also learns that it was Ryo who first introduced her to chocolate (pudding), and sees Five (then Emily Kilburn) introduce a nanovirus (most likely a virus that reprograms nanites) into her system on the instructions of Two (then Portia Lin). The purpose of the nanovirus was to activate all of The Android’s “hidden subroutines”. Portia tells Emily that the activation of these subroutines means a lot to her. How did they become deactivated, and how did they change Suki?

The Android’s appearance mirrors that of her creator, Dr. Irena Shaw. Two and Irena were once a couple, and when Shaw developed an inoperable brain tumor, The Android was created as a new and more durable body for her, but Shaw did not think it right to use an android body in that way, and so she was put in stasis until a cure for her condition could be found. Two was Rebecca at the time, and has forgotten the relationship entirely.

For me, this episode brought to mind old issues with Star Trek. Will Riker’s aversion to being cloned, and Data’s continual attempts to be more human are two things that have always bothered me. In one scene, The Android addresses (with the help of Six) physical duplication and whether it conflicts with individuality, and in a later scene, she has a commendably un-Data-like conversation with Five.

The Android is freaked out when she learns the story of her origin, and Six attempts to reassure her.

SIX: “You seemed pretty keen on checking out that facility at first. Before Dr. Shaw.”
ANDROID: “I don’t know how to put it into words. Her existence somehow diminishes me.”
SIX: “No, it doesn’t.”
ANDROID: “I’m a lesser version of someone else. A diluted, imperfect facsimile.”
SIX: “You’re wrong. Being imperfect isn’t a bad thing.”

Six goes on to explain to her that what she is labeling as imperfections are really the unique variations that make up a separate and distinct individual.

In the STTNG episode Up the Long Ladder (Season 2 Episode 18), Commander Riker reacts to a request that he donate cells from his body for the purpose of cloning. “One William Riker is unique,” he responds. “perhaps even special. But a hundred of him, a thousand of him, diminishes me in ways I can’t even imagine.”

Riker objects to being copied, and The Android initially objects to being a copy. But Six‘s reasoning should apply in both cases. Riker’s reaction never made sense to me. It was disturbing that the entire crew of the Enterprise agreed with him, and declined to donate cells.

Later, when Five walks in on The Android as she is practicing her smile, there is this exchange:

FIVE: “What are you doing?”
ANDROID: “I’m practicing at being human.”
FIVE: “Why?”
ANDROID: “To see what all the fuss is about.”
FIVE: “If you really want to seem more human, I could always fix the upgrade.”
ANDROID: “The upgrade is a mask. It isn’t me.”

The Android doesn’t want to be human. She wants to understand what people think is so great about it.

Virtual Sarah gets an android body. It seems that Dr. Shaw has no general objection to human minds in android bodies. She only objects to putting herself in one. During the process, the GA attacks the Sanctuary, so the androids and Dr. Shaw must flee and complete Sarah’s transition elsewhere. Sarah has left the Raza, and now in the company of Victor and his friends.

In The Android’s second flashback, after the chocolate pudding, Portia enters and tells Ryo that Dwarf Star Technologies has a manufacturing facility on Nova-17. “If we want to save our hunting grounds,”, she says, “we’re going to have to do it ourselves.” She further explains that attacking the facility could prevent a full scale invasion. Invasion of what by whom?

The best scene is near the end of the episode when Three (Anthony Lemke) apologizes to The Android (Zoie Palmer) for his anti-Android attitudes. Android tries whiskey for the first time, quickly goes back to hot chocolate, and tells Three that he speaks his mind without thought of consequence and that’s something they have in common. Then she flashes him that smile she’s been practicing. Three’s newfound enlightenment seems genuine, but one wonders if his antidroidism (?) will return once he finds out Victor’s true nature.

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NOTES

Willa Milner (Anya) also sings. Her album Criminals and Dreamers, and her latest single, Lovefool, are available on iTunes. Her music is described as “dark electro pop”, and can also be streamed on Spotify and Pandora.

Zoie Palmer described her experience playing both Dr. Shaw and The Android. “…there’s a scene in there where I’m playing Dr. Shaw and there’s nobody else in the room with me, but I’m talking to five people,” Palmer told Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies. “What they do is they put a little thing in your ear where you hear the lines, and you have to remember where each actor is standing so that when they deliver the line you turn to where they would be standing. It was really challenging and it was really bizarre and out-of-body for an actor to not have the other actor in front of you, but to hear their lines.”

Roger Cross (Six) will be Brother Freeman in the comedy HEADSHOP, a “magical urban tale” about Dr. Latrice Monroe (Nicole Ari Parker), a psychologist from San Francisco who decides to end a romance with her longtime psychiatrist boyfriend/business partner. She moves on with her life by opening her own private practice in an Oakland neighborhood that is very resistant to employing her services. As her new neighbors slowly open up, they inadvertently teach her the true meaning of community. Written and directed by Kim Bass, HEADSHOP is currently filming in Santa Clarita, California.