Out of the Unknown: The Midas Plague is set in a future Britain, a future Britain where due to mass robotic automation & a surplus of goods means the lower class have to consume as much as possible, a man named Morrey Anderson (Graham Stark) has no time to do anything other than consume, to drive various cars, to eat & drink vast amounts & wear out countless items of furniture & he is not happy about it. If you defy the Government & refuse to consume then you go to prison or die, Morrey is not allowed to work because robots do everything & robots also act as servants at home, a technical engineer Morrey develops a satisfaction circuit which allows robots to feel human emotions & Morrey fits one inside his servant Henry (Anthony Dawes) to help out with his never ending task of consumerism, Morrey then discovers that the robots themselves control society in order that they will always be needed but growing public unrest threatens the regime...
The twelfth & final episode from season one of the British produced sci-fi drama television series Out of the Unknown this was directed by Peter Sasdy & is easily the most comical & light hearted episode of the first season, while most of the episodes relied on solid drama to tell a relevant story The Midas Plague presents us with a really bizarre vision of the future that I just couldn't get my head around. Adapted by Troy Kennedy-Martin based on a story by Hugo award winning author Frederik Pohl there are one or two cute ideas here, the sight of seeing people deliberately move around in chairs in order to wear them out, the idea that they have to drive at least a hundred miles in several different cars or the idea that a burglar now breaks into a house & actually leave new items there rather than take anything because the poor are so desperate to get rid of their rations which they are forced to 'consume' or the cool sounding idea that the poor are only allowed to work a day a week (I could definitely go for that). The Midas Plague is an ambitious black comedy warning of mass consumerism, over production & the social message about the sinister motives behind it. At sixty minutes long The Midas Plague doesn't have that much to say, it verges on just plain ridiculous at times with drunk robots & comic court cases & because I just couldn't take any of it seriously the social commentary is lost & diluted somewhat while an ending in which Morrey looks at & talks directly into the camera ends things on a surreal note.
Originally broadcast a few days before Christmas during December 1965 like a lot of Out of the Unknown this has dated badly, while the stories are usually solid here the dated & sometimes unintentionally funny production design & effects just makes the whole thing even sillier & harder to take any serious message from. The robots look terrible, I'm sorry but they do. The acting is alright, I can't say I recognised anyone though or that anyone stood out as one suspects no-one involved was taking it too seriously.
The Midas Plague is a strange & silly way to end the first season of Out of the Unknown, while the series may not appeal to modern audiences I thought the majority of the stories were strong & the production team did a decent job on what must have been a low budget with a few episodes rising above normality & emerging as rather good & surprisingly relevant even when watched today in 2010.
The twelfth & final episode from season one of the British produced sci-fi drama television series Out of the Unknown this was directed by Peter Sasdy & is easily the most comical & light hearted episode of the first season, while most of the episodes relied on solid drama to tell a relevant story The Midas Plague presents us with a really bizarre vision of the future that I just couldn't get my head around. Adapted by Troy Kennedy-Martin based on a story by Hugo award winning author Frederik Pohl there are one or two cute ideas here, the sight of seeing people deliberately move around in chairs in order to wear them out, the idea that they have to drive at least a hundred miles in several different cars or the idea that a burglar now breaks into a house & actually leave new items there rather than take anything because the poor are so desperate to get rid of their rations which they are forced to 'consume' or the cool sounding idea that the poor are only allowed to work a day a week (I could definitely go for that). The Midas Plague is an ambitious black comedy warning of mass consumerism, over production & the social message about the sinister motives behind it. At sixty minutes long The Midas Plague doesn't have that much to say, it verges on just plain ridiculous at times with drunk robots & comic court cases & because I just couldn't take any of it seriously the social commentary is lost & diluted somewhat while an ending in which Morrey looks at & talks directly into the camera ends things on a surreal note.
Originally broadcast a few days before Christmas during December 1965 like a lot of Out of the Unknown this has dated badly, while the stories are usually solid here the dated & sometimes unintentionally funny production design & effects just makes the whole thing even sillier & harder to take any serious message from. The robots look terrible, I'm sorry but they do. The acting is alright, I can't say I recognised anyone though or that anyone stood out as one suspects no-one involved was taking it too seriously.
The Midas Plague is a strange & silly way to end the first season of Out of the Unknown, while the series may not appeal to modern audiences I thought the majority of the stories were strong & the production team did a decent job on what must have been a low budget with a few episodes rising above normality & emerging as rather good & surprisingly relevant even when watched today in 2010.