Skip to content
Human Is is the sixth episode of Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams, and takes place on Earth 2520AD, or Terra, as it’s known then.
The planet’s not doing terribly well, but still, at least we know Earth will still be around in the year 2525, so that’s Zager and Evans’ question answered.
Their answer is for Silas (Bryan Cranston) and his team to head out and take resources from nearby planet Rexor IV, in order for Terra to survive, although the residents of that one won’t be too chuffed if our lot keep taking stuff, while Silas’ wife, Vera (Essie Davis), thinks they should negotiate for it instead. This leads to tension between them, as if their loveless marriage hadn’t done enough of that already.
However, what goes on is a situation which leaves him a changed man…
There’s elements of a feeling of Sommersby and The Return of Martin Guerre (since the two share the same story), where a man returns from war a changed man, but I won’t say if the outcome is the same – it’s a Philip K Dick story, so anything could happen! There’s also bits of Freejack and, even, Splash, in there. No mermaids, but… well, you’ll see. Mentioning Splash has confused you, hasn’t it.
Silas and Vera’s flat looks like a combination of 1960s ‘concrete block chic’ and Bilbo Baggins’ house, with its round doors, and I also liked their futuristic virtual reality-style treadmill, as well as their cool coffee machine, although it does take up way too much space.
I’ll also add an observation about a weird underground club in a scene that didn’t really seem to go anywhere, but I did like a particular cover of Oasis’ Wonderwall in there, by Cat Power (above), which took a little while to figure out how it fits in with this episode.
Note that there are four episodes remaining in this series, but they’ll all be aired in the New Year.
Human Is is the sixth episode of Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams and airs tomorrow night on Channel 4 at 9pm. Once broadcast, each episode will be on All4, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
However, in the meantime, you can pre-order the Electric Dreams book on Paperback, Kindle and Hardback. The first two are out on September 14th, but the latter isn’t out until December 12th.
Score: 6/10
Director: Francesca Gregorini
Producer: Dan Winch
Screenplay: Jessica Mecklenburg (based on the short story by Philip K Dick)
Music: Cristobal Tapia de Veer
Cast:
Silas: Bryan Cranston
Vera: Essie Davis
General Olin: Liam Cunningham
Interrogator: Khalid Abdalla
Yaro Peterson: Ruth Bradley
Dr El Ganol: William Gaminara
State’s Advocate: Nathalie Armin
Chief Judge: Ronan Vibert
Private Matthews: Jamie Wilkes
Military Official: Marc Danbury
Video Technician: Fode Simbo
Agent Lance: Dean Ashton
Agent Dov: Jessica D’Arcy
Military Spouse: Bern Collaço
Voight Guest Dominatrix: Dilyana Bouklieva
Military Spouse: Gintare Beinoraviciute
Armed guard and security guard: Juke Hardy
Pedestrian: Ralph Abbas
Client Club: Rene Costa
Lance: Dean Ashton
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.