leeper@ahuta.UUCP (leeper) (02/11/85)
OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK
A short story and teleplay review by Mark R. Leeper
OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK is a PBS "American Playhouse" story that
has plot elements and a title in common with a story by John Varley.
Loosely speaking, it is based on that story, but when I speak that loosely,
my jaw drops off. In fact, the play and the short story might almost bear
no stronger connection than being two adventures set in the same universe.
The story and the play both deal with a character named Fingal whose
consciousness has been surgically moved to an animal as a sort of amusement
park ride. Unfortunately, when it comes time to transfer his mind back to
his body, the body has been misplaced. His mind is instead placed into a
computer where it creates its own reality. Arguably the reality in the play
must be somewhat altered from the story in order to fill 90 minutes.
The "American Playhouse" version has given the story a Bradbury twist
by making Fingal a cinema fan in an age when cinema is forbidden. Fingal's
fixation on CASABLANCA crops up in odd ways in the computer. To add further
excitement, there is sort of an illogical subplot of a villain trying to
kill Fingal. The villain is the chairman of the company that performs the
mind transplants. In spite of his already knowing that if harm comes to
Fingal the corporation will go bankrupt, he still feels he has to kill
Fingal for some never clearly explained reason.
The play is a cut below the quality and humor of the story, but each
has a good-natured humor of its own. Rate the story a low +2 and the play a
low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. Oh, and you can add this play to WAR GAMES,
SUPERMAN III, and a host of other recent dramatic works of science fiction
that completely misunderstand computer security.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!ahuta!leeper