One of These Ashes Is Not Like the Other

    “Be Right Back” leaves the viewer feeling an eerie and all around disturbed impression of technology and its relationship to death. It begs the question, what truly is human consciousness in relation to the human person. In the episode, the main character, Martha, is faced with a dilemma that mostly stems from the grief over her dead partner, Ash. It begins with a simple instant message, and then contact quickly spirals out of control as Martha becomes desperate for more communication with a truer version of Ash. At the most bizarre height of Martha’s desperation, Ash has been reincarnated as a synthetic human, armed with all of human Ash’s past electronic behaviors and habits.

This episode draws strong connections to the Uncanny Valley theory and the similarities are shown through Martha’s actions and responses to “Ash 2.” In the beginning, Martha is disgusted by the idea of speaking to a robot impersonating Ash. It is not until she finds out that she is pregnant that she feels forced to talk to it. From the first conversation, Martha is enthralled by the idea of being able to communicate with the father of her child; it gives her closure. As she speaks more to robot Ash, it convinces her to allow it call her, using all past videos of Ash to imitate his voice. The obsession increases and she is drawn to Ash 2 more than ever when finally she literally hits a breaking point. After she drops her phone, she a mental break and Ash 2 is able to persuade her to buy a synthetic being to “load” Ash onto; to allow for him to not be so fragile. This is point at which things start to change in terms of Martha’s attitude towards Ash 2. She begs the phone Ash to not hang up and “leave her alone with it.” She is amazed by Ash 2’s life-like body and how much he looks like Ash 1. It is after these events that she begins to realize how little Ash 2 is like Ash 1. Ash 2 lacks the emotions and the authentic reactions of Ash 1. He does not argue with her as Ash 1 would have and he lacks the slight imperfections of Ash 1 as well. Martha is repulsed by the almost real-ness of Ash 2. She begins searching for the parts of him that are too perfect and un-humanlike. I think she is slightly disgusted with herself to have sunk so low, to be seduced by her grief in this way.

“Be Right Back” illustrates the Uncanny Valley in a way that is much more tangible. It shows what could actually happen in the future, and it does not appear desirable.