Humans - Tonight (Sun) @ 9pm on Ch 4

[Valsoldknickers]

OK, after freaking the bejaysus out of me with the weird trailer / advert I am intrigued and looking forward to giving this programme a viewing.

(I will have to record and watch later as I will be watching Messrs Strange and Norrell.)

Anyone else looking forward to it and hoping it lives up to the hype?

I've missed all Asimov references!!

Did anyone notice how much the synth police assistant who was told to 'stick it up your bollocks' looked like Oti? Could he have been played by the same actor?

www.channel4.com/programmes/humans/on-demand/56459-005

30 minutes in???

Yes I thought that too looked like they were style A ie blonde tall quietly spoken. I'm loving it. The Lab guy didn't kill the captured synth did he?!

I reckon the lab guy is the other one in the photo that Niska mentioned to George and yeah he probably swapped Fred's body on the table.

I don't think Laura is a synth but I think she might have synthy connections. The only photo she has of Tom is when they are children. Did he ever grow up? She 'lost her parents' at an early age'. In this episode we learnt that Leo was meant to have died when he was young. I don't think Leo is Tom but something is not quite right....

Laura or Joe (I think) said that Anita is Asimov three laws safe, so can't harm anyone or words to that effect.

The scene when Professor Hobb is supposed to kill the synth and hides the fact that he didn't is straight out of I Robot.

Niska is reading The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler and mentions the book to Dr Millican. This book is referenced in I Robot the film, so sort of Asimov.

There have been others, but I can't remember them off hand.

The police woman is very intriguing. Not a normal synth, but not one of the gang of 4 either. How many more like her are there?

DS Drummond is going to have one hell of a shock soon.

I know one thing, the male police detective is not going to be very impressed when he discovers his female detective partner is a synth; he will not be amused.

Elle I was just thinking why other synths do not recognise synthetic policewoman.

Right before the lab guy is supposed to kill Fred, we saw the scene where Niska asked George "Who is this guy? Was he involved in our creation?"
The way these two scenes are presented makes it obvious that Fred has been hidden and the synth destroyed is a different one.

That guy chasing the synths has a hidden agenda (so it seems).

Also the detective seems to have her own agenda, althought at this point I'm not sure what they are.

All very intriguing!

I read the Asimov stories like 30 yrs ago. The series constantly screams Asimov at me in ways I can't name, I guess it's the personalities and line of logic that the synths follow when speaking or actions, it's all I Robot stuff. Asimov wrote all his stories to see if his 3 rules really would achieve what they should, and that's where his crisp vision of how they would defer to and interact with people came from.

The near-perfect-human-appearances and 'apps' for other purposes, comes from Philip K. Dick not Asimov, I reckon. Asimov's robots couldn't pass in appearance IIRC.

could the woman police detective be a hybrid/cyborg, like Leo?

I never get how synths or AI could take over the world. They can't make fuel out of food that we eat and find everywhere, for a start, or even sunshine and air. They need electricity networks. It's not clear how long they can continue without being recharged. They aren't truly self-healing or self-replicating, either.

firesidechat ah yes, I spotted the dead synth and I Robot and clocked the Ghost in the Machine book, but forgot that was in the film I Robot.

Maybe synthetc police woman has a chip that sends out a false heartbeat, pulse, heat ray or whatever which confuses the synths. If they can make a walking, talking, eating, drinking synth, they can food a synt, (they being the creator of the synths).

Anyone read Mortal Gods www.goodreads.com/book/show/2271892.Mortal_Gods it is pretty brilliant!

Well Yeoldtrout re *
I never get how synths or AI could take over the world. They can't make fuel out of food that we eat and find everywhere, for a start, or even sunshine and air. They need electricity networks. It's not clear how long they can continue without being recharged. They aren't truly self-healing or self-replicating, either.* I guess that is what the matrix explores.

could the woman police detective be a hybrid/cyborg, like Leo?

Good point YeOldTrout, I hadn't thought of that. Does Leo eat? I can't remember now.

I'm not sure I can quite get my head around the idea of a hybrid! I am not sure how that works. In I Robot the main character has a robotic arm but he is still human. I am not sure there is the suggestion Leo is in any not human in his head, e.g. when the synths 'sleep' they sit up with eyes shut kind of powering down, we have not seen Leo do that.

Leo bleeds red blood and isn't extra strength strong like the synths. He doesn't recharge like the proper synths, he lies down to sleep, and didn't he have tears in eyes & sniff his nose in grief when he couldn't get Mia back? Leo-the-boy was discharged from hospital in a vegetative state, and Since Leo has David's DNA...
But Leo was 'recharged' with electricity when he was badly injured & seemed to recover very strongly.

Plot hole driving me batty: the synths say "Why don't you share?" only sometimes to our special synths (when convenient to the scriptwriters!). Seems like it would be easy to spot the emotional-synths by using the non-emotional synths to look for non-sharers.

After being a bit shocked by the synth Max and his bulging green eyes, i am now finding him rather attractive! He seems like a really nice synth.

Do we know who Tom is, did I miss it?

Yeoldtrout if the synth over run us I vote for you simply because of.... Seems like it would be easy to spot the emotional-synths by using the non-emotional synths to look for non-sharers.

I thought Tom was an old flame that Laura's husband was jealous of.

Marking place. Have only watched as far as

SPOILER??

husband shagging Anita, so haven't read the full thread.

The actors playing the synths are putting in amazing performances. It must be very physically exacting but they're all really convincing.

Loving William Hurt!

I can guess who Tom is!

What's your guess Italian?

Leo said Mia had retreated further inside Anita's programming - anyone else think that happened as a coping mechanism when Joe basically raped her? Matty will obviously find a way to bring her back & will join their little group to help liberate all synths.

Perhaps the detective gets away with it because no-one's asked a synth to do something for her. I think the nurse-synth only got confused when George asked her to bring tea.

Good idea about the scientist bloke being the one in the picture Niska was looking at. George didn't say exactly why he & David had fallen out, just that it was a falling out similar to the one he'd had with David. Maybe they were initially working together to make synths sentient but had different ideas about how to do it & now the scientist wants to figure out how David managed it. He's clearly not destroyed Fred, that scene was way too I, Robot. Can't they get their own plotlines?!

We've not found out who Tom is yet, all we know is that Laura has a photo of herself & Tom as small children & freaked out when Anita asked her about it, Joe overheard & assumed Tom is someone that Laura knows now that she doesn't want him to know about, i.e. an affair. I said it up-thread but my theory is that again like I, Robot there was an accident & a synth was involved, possibly saved Laura but not Tom, & that's why she hated them to start with.

Have they said anything more about how Leo "died", other than accidental drowning? I'm wondering if Laura & Tom were in the car/minibus too.

Thanks Gnu :)