The Borg
are Cenobites!
Or,
An Eventful Trek to the Forbidden Lost Horizon
Subject: EVENT HORIZON: Underappreciated Gem o' Finely Crafted Horror
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies, alt.horror
Date: 1998/08/11
In article <6qnd8a$pud@dfw-ixnews10.ix.netcom.com>,
Doug Tricarico <trike@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>EVENT HORIZON [..] orders of magnitude worse than ARMAGEDDON
I beg to differ with
you, sir!
EVENT HORIZON can be considered a quite decent, atmospheric treatment of the idea that "subspace" (a la Warp Drive) is the dark world of the Cenobites and the God Leviathan (i.e., "Hellraiser".) The gravity drive is, effectively, a mechanized puzzle box. Within this framework, one might wonder how many times throughout human history this gateway was opened, both by those knowing what lay on the other side, and by those such as the unfortunate Dr. Weir who did not.
The only things that really bugged me about this film were the ideas that the ship was "alive"; how easily the lady doctor (already aware of the hallucinatory phenomena on the ship) was fooled by the image of her kid; not fully understanding what happened to "baby bear" in the airlock; and pondering the unaddressed issue of whether the "lifeboat" portion of the ship was Infected With Evil and what the consequences might be.
There is a Star Trek short story called Intersection Point (in Star Trek: The New Voyages) which involves the ensnaring of the Enterprise against an interdimensional rift, during which it collides with something On The Other Side. A crucial component of the Enterprise is lost into the rift through a hole in its hull. A crewman who is sent after it loses contact, and is pulled back with his mind permanently wiped. Spock goes in, and almost ends up the same way -- he survives by shutting out his senses. One might wonder whether this other place might be where the Event Horizon drifted for 7 years. Perhaps the Event Horizon affair is a dark, unmentioned portion of Star Trek history (isn't everything?) and the newer Warp Drive uses a principle by which different, saner paths are taken between points in space.
Taking this hagiographic excursion even further, consider the similarities between those tortured creatures, The Borg, and the Cenobites from the "Hellraiser" films. I propose to you (and some here may recognize this proposal) that the Borg are themselves Cenobites! Consider the omnipresent mutilation, the cube motif. Surely The Borg are descended from a technological race who opened the gateway in the manner of EVENT HORIZON and were not able to close it again. The Borg are the result of an eternally open gateway between the world of Leviathan and our own! Truly Hell on Earth (as it were.)
Thusly good people, do I present my case that EVENT HORIZON is a fine, decent and somewhat unappreciated bit o' dark horror SF.
-- EVENT HORIZON can be considered a quite decent, atmospheric treatment of the idea that "subspace" (a la Warp Drive) is the dark world of the Cenobites and the God Leviathan (i.e., "Hellraiser".) The gravity drive is, effectively, a mechanized puzzle box. Within this framework, one might wonder how many times throughout human history this gateway was opened, both by those knowing what lay on the other side, and by those such as the unfortunate Dr. Weir who did not.
The only things that really bugged me about this film were the ideas that the ship was "alive"; how easily the lady doctor (already aware of the hallucinatory phenomena on the ship) was fooled by the image of her kid; not fully understanding what happened to "baby bear" in the airlock; and pondering the unaddressed issue of whether the "lifeboat" portion of the ship was Infected With Evil and what the consequences might be.
There is a Star Trek short story called Intersection Point (in Star Trek: The New Voyages) which involves the ensnaring of the Enterprise against an interdimensional rift, during which it collides with something On The Other Side. A crucial component of the Enterprise is lost into the rift through a hole in its hull. A crewman who is sent after it loses contact, and is pulled back with his mind permanently wiped. Spock goes in, and almost ends up the same way -- he survives by shutting out his senses. One might wonder whether this other place might be where the Event Horizon drifted for 7 years. Perhaps the Event Horizon affair is a dark, unmentioned portion of Star Trek history (isn't everything?) and the newer Warp Drive uses a principle by which different, saner paths are taken between points in space.
Taking this hagiographic excursion even further, consider the similarities between those tortured creatures, The Borg, and the Cenobites from the "Hellraiser" films. I propose to you (and some here may recognize this proposal) that the Borg are themselves Cenobites! Consider the omnipresent mutilation, the cube motif. Surely The Borg are descended from a technological race who opened the gateway in the manner of EVENT HORIZON and were not able to close it again. The Borg are the result of an eternally open gateway between the world of Leviathan and our own! Truly Hell on Earth (as it were.)
Thusly good people, do I present my case that EVENT HORIZON is a fine, decent and somewhat unappreciated bit o' dark horror SF.
Malcolm L. Carlock
<malc@voicenet.com>
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