When Netflix premiered the main trailer for it’s upcoming fourth season of the anthology techno-horror series Black Mirror, one episode really stuck out. “U.S.S. Callister” looks like an intentionally kitschy parody of Star Trek: The Original Series, as it’s set on a spaceship in a future populated by people rocking bright, primary colors and hairdos straight out of the ‘60s. This being Black Mirror, though, there has to be a darker twist. On Tuesday, Netflix released the full trailer for the episode, and there… really isn’t any indication of a dark turn.
Somehow, that just makes things more unsettling.
The trailer follows How I Met Your Mother star Cristin Milioti as a new recruit on the U.S.S. Callister, a Space Fleet ship captained by Jesse Plemons, known for playing that Nazi you wanted to punch in the face in Breaking Bad. There’s some cheesy dialogue, bright colors, and happy music, but it all feels… off. Especially how much everyone seems to revere the captain.
Black Mirror’s creator Charlie Brooker said the episode is about “tyranny and abuse of power,” so chances are Plemons isn’t playing a great guy.
“‘U.S.S. Callister’ is a space opera,” producer Annabel Jones explained. “The challenges of trying to create that world, and obviously getting to play with the genre, opened a whole new opportunity. But I think we’ve put a clever spin on it.”
Jones continues:
It’s a romp – it’s big and ambitious with lots of CG. It’s an absolute visual feast and really high octane. There are obviously more unsettling, poignant and slightly more melancholic moments, but at the same time, it is a romp. It’s such a treat for a filmmaker to be making a film this epic.
So, that appears to be confirmation that “U.S.S. Callister will be a hoot to watch, but it will also probably fuck you up in the way that the best Black Mirror episodes tend to do.
Black Mirror Season 4 is expected to premiere sometime in 2018, assuming Netflix isn’t planning some sort of surprise December release.
