Apple TV+
Friends and colleagues spent years trying to get me to read The Murderbot Diaries, a sci-fi series by Martha Wells about a cyborg security unit that gains free will. I resisted. They pitched it to me as quirky, which raised my hackles, or as comfort reading, which sent them skyrocketing. Not my sort of thing, I thought snootily.
But once Apple TV+ said that it would be adapting All Systems Red, the first instalment, I knew I had to give it a read. It was a mixed experience: the snarky humour wasn鈥檛 for me and the human characters blurred together, but there was something compelling there, if I could let go of my hauteur 鈥� and the new TV series is exactly where I found it.
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Murderbot (as it named itself) just wants to be left alone. As a SecUnit owned by the Company, it must do what its human clients ask 鈥� except that it has hacked its governor module and can now disobey. Murderbot has continued to perform its duties to avoid discovery and hasn鈥檛 achieved much with its freedom, unless you count watching thousands of hours of television 鈥� which I most certainly do.
The latest humans to hire Murderbot (played by Alexander Skarsgaring;rd, but we will get to that) are scientists hoping to survey a little-explored planet. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) and her crew hail from the Preservation Alliance, a free-loving polity outside the hyper-capitalist Corporation Rim. Unlike Murderbot鈥檚 former clients, who barked orders or maimed it for fun, they ask how it is feeling and are uncomfortable with its lack of free will. Murderbot, in turn, is uncomfortable with their discomfort.
Murderbot hasn't achieved much with its freedom, unless you count watching hours of TV 鈥� which I do
Disaster is certain to strike such an amiable bunch of spacefaring hippies. Soon enough, Murderbot is forced to protect the team from an enormous insectoid alien, acting a little too human in the process and raising the suspicions of Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). When a neighbouring survey mission goes dark, Murderbot is drawn into a perilous rescue attempt that could blow its cover.
Initially, I wasn鈥檛 sold on the TV version of this story, either. I would have much rather been watching The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, the bombastic space opera Murderbot follows religiously. Quickly, though, I realised that the series had struck an excellent balance, faithfully adapting All Systems Red while layering in elements from later in the Diaries.
Most of the new details flesh out Mensah and her crew, such as a subplot that sees couple Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) and Arada (Tattiawna Jones) add a third, Ratthi (Akshay Khanna), to their relationship. For me, the new additions mostly round out the world in ways I found missing from the book, while maintaining its breezy pace.
The cast of Murderbot is also great, particularly Dumezweni and Dastmalchian 鈥� but, for some, Skarsg氓rd is the elephant in the room. Murderbot has no gender and is consistently referred to as 鈥渋t鈥�, allowing readers licence, and many imagined someone very unlike the clearly masculine-looking actor in the TV series.
To those fans worried about this casting, do keep an open mind. Skarsg氓rd is a brilliant comic actor who wrenched far more laughs from me than the novella achieved.
I have reluctantly come to appreciate the series and its surprisingly poignant story. It turns out Murderbot is my sort of thing, after all.
Bethan also recommends鈥�
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This is another novella I was hesitant to read because of its cosy reputation, but the world of Dex, a tea-serving monk, and the robot they meet in the wilderness is beautifully written. It warmed my cold, cold heart.
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In this charming romance, Alma (Maren Eggert), a scientist, must live alongside Tom (Dan Stevens), a robot who has been designed to be her perfect match.
Bethan Ackerley is a subeditor at New Scientist. She loves sci-fi, sitcoms and anything spooky. Follow her聽on聽X @鈥宨nkerley
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