Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister – led by Captain Nanette Cole – are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players.

I’ve heard it rumoured that at the Last Judgement some chap will appear and separate the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the wicked. Whether or not there’s any truth to this crazy sci-fi idea, what I can say is that in the Last Episode of Season 7 of Black Mirror Charlie Brooker will be one of four writers who will separate the Gamers from the Movie Buffs.

I’m not sure there’s much point trying to explain a lot more about the set-up for USS Callister: Into Infinity.  Basically, it picks up from the original USS Callister episode from Season 4, and tells a convoluted story about the digital clones that Daly (Jessie Plemons) fashioned from his work colleagues’ DNA and their quest to find safety within the online Infinity gaming platform. Suffice it to say that it goes on for 90 minutes and there’s a lot of it, involving all sorts of twists and turns and complicated narrative rules that we have to be reminded of repeatedly, until it reaches a climax and ends.

Insofar as the story hinges on the fate of digital consciousnesses, it has a lot in common with the wonderful Hotel Reverie episode earlier in the series. It may be that because I’m not really a gamer – but I do love golden age cinema – I much prefer that earlier story; a division of the movie-buff sheep from the gamer goats, so to speak.

Having said that, I do have a fundamental problem with the premise of USS Callister: Into Infinity as it relies on me believing that a digital consciousness is worthy of my narrative empathy. My issue is that I don’t really buy into the idea that digital constructs are conscious beings, and I never have, so I struggle to care. Hotel Reverie works for me because the Dorothy Chambers character discovers who she is – or rather who she isn’t – and the existential emptiness of that is arresting and affecting, plus we care about her because the very human Brandy Friday is in love with her too.

There are four writers credited with this episode and I suspect that also contributes to the breathless, over-crowded nature of the story. On top of which it’s just too reminiscent of the great Galaxy Quest to feel as original as it needs to be.

Verdict: USS Callister: Into Infinity is a lot of fun, perfectly watchable and certainly does its job as a blockbuster series finale. It might be an age and taste thing, but I have really enjoyed a more thoughtful and reflective set of stories, making this my favourite Black Mirror season to date. Perhaps like me, Charlie Brooker is feeling his age.

Episode score: 7/10  Overall season score: 9/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com