Day #29 of the 30 Day Television Challenge

[shadowkat]

Day #29 of the 30 Day Television Challenge. Getting near the end - which is a good thing, since I'm growing weary of it.

The prompt is ...Character whose introduction improved a television series.

I'm drawing a blank. I know there's something...can I use Buffy again? It's my meme, my rules. I can do whatever I want.

I am going to go with Farscape instead. Chiana - showed up towards the end of S1, and that's when the series suddenly got really good. I'd almost recommend folks starting Farscape, to skip ahead to the Chiana episode.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[atpo_onm]

A huge number of the world's people believe in an afterlife, and hope that if their god approves of their earthly life, they will be rewarded with an afterlife that is free from the struggles and pain they knew before.

One of the many things I admire about The 100, at least in its first few seasons, is that it decided to investigate how technically that could be possible-- an afterlife not born of mysticism but of science.

At the end of season 2, we're introduced to a character that was one brilliant engineer's answer to that issue. However, as is so often the case, intellectual brilliance is not a guarantee that what you create will behave the way you intended to.

Meet ALIE. ALIE is a sentient artificial intelligence, played superbly by actress Erica Cerra, who also plays ALIE's creator, Becca.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEquQaWO2Ek

The scene in the clip is from the end of season three, where ALIE, in an earlier version of her program many decades ago, had launched a massive number of nuclear missiles to "solve the human over-population problem"-- not because ALIE was evil, but because-- it was simple, logical, and... effective.

What was left of humanity moved into space, as the Earth had become unlivable due to radiation.

Now in a newer version, ALIE is trying to rectify its mistake by creating the ability for humans to transfer their consciousness into a machine that maintains a virtual reality so sophisticated that it cannot easily be distinguished from our normal physical reality.

The season ends with ALIE's (apparent) destruction, and the end of the virtual "City of Light", as Clarke and the others choose to face the coming apocalyptic-level disasters that ALIE has (correctly) stated will happen if humans do not choose to continue their existence in the virtual afterlife.

There were many other great new characters introduced during The 100's long run, but I confess I'm a sucker for AI stories, and this one really was an exceptional, very thought-provoking one.