The mega-budget new
Netflix series 3 Body Problem , from the creators of
Game of Thrones , opens with a young girl watching in horror as her father is executed before a baying mob – echoing the fate suffered by noble Ned Stark in season one of Thrones . Later on, there are gory surprises , grand betrayals, and the chilling revelation that an all-conquering enemy is marching against humanity from the cold depths of space. Something very wintry is coming. Yet for all those superficial similarities, David Benioff and DB Weiss’s latest small-screen epic differs from Game of Thrones in one significant way: it is not a grand fantasy romp. There are no dragons, knights, or jokes about the indignities of medieval latrines. 3 Body Problem sits firmly in the hard science fiction genre: its heroes (played by a cast including Eiza González and John Bradley) are clever scientists discussing algorithms and advanced mathematics. Here is that rare binge-watch where it helps to have a working knowledge of Planck’s constant . Benioff and Weiss remade the television landscape with Game of Thrones , their steamy riff on George RR Martin’s (still unfinished) A Song of Ice and
fire books. In its wake came a deluge of copycat loin-girding TV fantasy: The Shannara Chronicles , The Witcher , Shadow and Bone , and The Wheel of Time . With 3 Body Problem , however, they are no longer leading from the front. Adapted from the novels by Liu Cixin about a tricky first contact between humanity and
aliens, this brainy show is part of a wider trend in entertainment towards cerebral science fiction. Whether it is Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 2 – based on the Frank Herbert bestseller – wriggling to the top of the
box office (grossing half a billion dollars and counting) or season two of Foundation winning raves for
Apple TV+, highbrow sci-fi has come roaring back, much like the giant sandworm Timothée Chalamet larks about with at the end of the Dune: Part 2 . But wait – what about
Star Wars ? That’s been around for years. Indeed, we’ve never had so much of George Lucas’s Galaxy Far, Far Away. A new trilogy of films centring on Daisy Ridley’s Rey is in the works; The Mandalorian ’s Baby Yoda has become one of the great pop culture icons of our times . Even if you don’t know a lightsaber from a Lexus, you know Baby Yoda. Actually, Star Wars is the spiritual opposite of these hefty new sci-fi franchises. It is shallow and aimed largely at children. You could watch The Mandalorian with your brain semi-unplugged. 3 Body Problem and Dune: Part 2 , by contrast, demand full attention. You don’t have to take notes, but it might help. “The world has become much more accepting of science fictional conceits and concepts,” says John Joseph Addams, editor of the esteemed science fiction magazine Lightspeed . “I see the shift toward the revival of cerebral science fiction as a direct result of that; now that studios have seen, consistently, that a lot of money can be made on science fiction, there are more that are willing to now take a risk making complex and cerebral films or shows, rather than lighter or more action-oriented ones.” Addams points out that science fiction and fantasy have historically accounted for many of cinema’s highest-grossing movies. What’s changed is that state-of-the-art special effects have become cheaper and more accessible. Just a few years ago, a 3 Body Problem series would have been doomed to fail. It has a cast of thousands and a storyline that unfolds across centuries. Not even the reported $160m Netflix is lavishing on the adaptation would have sufficed. “The recent resurgence of deeper themes is possibly a combination of cheap and effective CGI , allowing film-makers to fully articulate written ideas, the plethora of platforms, which mean more competition for material and the increase in available budgets,” says Dev Agarwal, chair of the
British Science Fiction Association and editor of its in-house journal, Vector . “The absence of these factors had previously constricted what source material could be realised”. Sci-fi – from HG Wells to JG Ballard – has always grappled with the big anxieties of the time. And has there ever been a more anxious time than today? Dune warns against the dangers of charismatic demagogues. In 3 Body Problem and Foundation , humanity confronts an existential threat from a nearby star system. “[Science fiction] that deals with the future really reflects the concerns of the times it’s written in,” says Dev Agarwal. “We are increasingly in an era of social, environmental and economic crises and people turn to fiction as entertainment and distraction. But we also turn to it to help digest our current concerns, which creates the demand to explore deeper issues.” Then there is the fact that Dune is simply more satisfying at an intellectual level than Star Wars . Both feature spectacular battles and stunning futurescapes. The difference is that Dune brims with ideas about religion and spirituality, how societies are governed and the temptations of power. Star Wars , by contrast, has descended into an empty carnival of fan service – with the exception of Tony Gilroy’s Andor , a studious spin-off that exists in an entirely different slipstream to Disney’s interstellar cash cow. “Science fiction offers a number of different things including the wow factor: strange, wonderfully exotic worlds,” says science fiction author Chris Beckett. He describes the genre as “a kind of laboratory for thought experiments about the interaction between human beings and new technology, or human beings and new aspects of the universe”. He theorises that the big appeal of science fiction has long been due to the “wow” component. But might we finally be burned out on empty spectacle – whether that be the latest Marvel dud or another cynical Star Wars spin-off? Hence the excitement around Dune , 3 Body Problem , and Foundation , Apple’s thrilling tilt at the cult Isaac Asimov novels about a group of scientists who vow to save humanity from the imminent downfall of civilisation. Read Next Society of the
SNOW director on finding humanity in cannibalism “I’m guessing that the advent of CGI led to an outpouring of films with the wow factor, and we all lapped them up for a while,” Beckett says. “But that kind of thrill does wear off quite quickly, and I’m guessing that initial thrill is passing and we’re starting to be bored by films that simply deliver a spectacle. We’re no longer impressed by fireworks displays of special effects. So perhaps that’s why we want more from a science fiction movie than just a spectacle. We need more of that thought experiment thing as well, if [science fiction] movies are going to continue to engage us.” Will the hard science fiction rocket run out of fuel? In the short term that seems unlikely. A third Dune movie is expected to be green-lit. Apple is adapting William Gibson’s grungy 1985 virtual reality classic Neuromancer . However, trends come and go, says Donna Scott, editor of the Best British Science Fiction series of anthologies. She feels audiences – and studios – will eventually move on from crunchy sci-fi. “This is utterly cyclical,” she says. “The books that are being devoured right now, which will doubtless be plundered by film and TV in the next few years, are fluffy, light, escapist romantasy stories, such as those written by Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J Maas. We last saw something similar about a decade and a half ago, when there seemed to be a proliferation of glittering vampire romance. It will all come back round again.” 3 Body Problem is streaming on Netflix