Joel Samberg ponders the grim futures depicted in sci-fi films

We all get the blues from time to time. (Being color blind, I often get the purples instead – but the effect is the same.) I get them because there’s a lot to worry about: the resilience of my nest egg, the outlook for the country, whether or not more than eight people will buy my next book…

To battle such pessimism, experts tell us to avoid focusing on the past and instead live in the present, perhaps even think optimistically about the future.

But when you’re a TV and motion picture nut like me, that doesn’t always work, because dozens of shows and movies have us believing that the future is full of nasty aliens, vicious robots, corrupt cities and evolutionary transformations.

The future is a fascinating topic. I’d even consider writing a book it if not for the fact that only eight people will read it.

Why is the future so scary? Here are a few examples from TV and the movies.

The premise of the 1965-1968 CBS show “Lost in Space” is that Earth is severely overpopulated, and the Robinson family is sent to check out a new home. But thanks to the nefarious Dr. Smith, they end up in one treacherous situation after another on planets that make Earth seem like Disney World.

On the 1968-1970 ABC series “Land of the Giants,” a spaceship that was supposed to circle our own planet somehow ends up on another one where everyone is 70-feet tall. I have a hard-enough time talking to my friend Bob, who’s only six foot one.

In the 1988 film “Alien Nation,” visitors called the Newcomers, from another galaxy, come to Earth, some of whom create a nasty clandestine underworld. I’d rather find sweet little E.T. in my shed than a malicious Newcomer.

In 1981’s “Escape from New York,” Manhattan is a walled-off maximum security prison where the president of the United States is held captive. Even if he escaped, there was no option for him to walk to safety through the Lincoln Tunnel (although some parts of New Jersey are no better than a maximum security prison).

“Blade Runner,” from 1982, tells us that vicious robots will wreak havoc on their human creators. We already have a taste of that with virtual phone assistants.
Finally, 1989’s “Back to the Future, Part II” presents a crime-ridden Hill Valley where technology is both abundant and abundantly boring. We already have a taste of that, too, with cable news.

So is pessimism a foregone conclusion?

You’ll be pleased to know that the answer is a resounding No! Why? Because everything depicted in those TV shows and movies were already supposed to have happened-and didn’t!

Believe it or not, “Lost in Space” takes place in 1997, and “Land of the Giants” in 1983. “Alien Nation” takes place in 1991, and “Escape from New York” in 1997. “Blade Runner” is set in 2019 and “Back to the Future, Part II” in 2015.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the 1975-1977 British TV show “Space 1999,” in which an explosion sends our moon into deep space, takes place when Bill Clinton was president, and that the creepy computer HAL and the weird star baby in 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” were set in the time when George W. Bush inhabited the Oval Office.

So instead of concentrating on movies and TV, I’ll just focus on hope-hope that everything about our planet improves so much that I’ll never again have to sing the purples.

Joel lives in Avon, when he’s not lost in space. Reach him at [email protected].