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Impossible Planet is the second episode in Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams and is set far into the future when far more is known about the universe than in our present day, opening with Brian Norton (Free Fire‘s Jack Reynor), a fed up interplanetary tour guide, taking people around various star systems – the futuristic equivalent of a dead-end job.
However, he and his colleague, Ed (Doctor Strange‘s Benedict Wong) – who spends his breaks at work watching porn, think they’ve hit the jackpot when they meet Irma (Geraldine Chaplin), a lady who’s several hundred years old, who wants to visit Earth… and she has a lot of cash to spend. Trouble is, Earth no longer exists as it was destroyed, some time ago… and she has a curveball to throw at them.
Since Norton has applied for a promotion, which will impress his girlfriend, Barbara (Georgina Campbell), the addition of a stack of extra loot will make her all the more happy. However, you can never know what Irma’s robot butler is planning to do next…
Compared to last week’s opener, this is a neat low-key episode with a small cast, the story getting a bit weird at times and has a Tales of the Unexpected feel, the more it goes on.
My only big gripe was the with the conclusion. I won’t reveal it, obviously, but you know when you’re expecting more from an ending for a film or a TV drama, or for something else to happen and then… it just *ends*? That.
Impossible Planet is the second episode of Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams and airs on Sunday on Channel 4 at 9pm, with further episodes following weekly. 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: 7/10
Director: David Farr
Producer: Lynn Horsford and Rupert Ryle-Hodges
Screenplay: David Farr (based on the short story by Philip K Dick)
Music: Olafur Arnalds
Cast:
Brian Norton: Jack Reynor
Ed Andrews: Benedict Wong
Irma Louise Gordon: Geraldine Chaplin
Barbara: Georgina Campbell
Linus Primo: Justin Butcher
Young Irma: Annes Elwy
RB29: Malik Ibheis
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.