The Herald in Scotland pretty much said what we were all thinking this weekend, announcing the inauguration of Donald Trump like a four-year episode of The Twilight Zone.
TV writer Damien Love framed the future president’s election, inauguration, and impending presidency as what it truly is: a surreal experience that should be fictional, but isn’t. It definitely seems like the more we think about the past few months, the more bizarre they seem, but nothing’s outside the realm of possibility in alternate reality science fiction. Hell, there’s a Black Mirror episode about a literal cartoon character who runs for office, convinces his followers to riot, and then forms a police state.
Pictures of the TV listing made rounds on Twitter, including a share by nerdy hero and equal rights advocate George Takei. Here it is in full:
After a long absence, The Twilight Zone returns with one of the most ambitious, expensive and controversial productions in broadcast history. Sci-fi writers have dabbled often with alternative history stories – among the most common is the “What If The Nazis Had Won The Second World War” setting – but this huge interactive virtual reality project, which will unfold on TV, in the press, and on Twitter over the next four years, sets out to build an ongoing alternative present. The story begins in a nightmarish version of 2017 in which huge sections of the US electorate have somehow been duped into voting to make Donald Trump president. It sounds far-fetched, and it is, but as it goes on it becomes more and more chillingly plausible. Today’s feature-length opener concentrates on the gaudy inauguration of President Trump, and the stirrings of protest and despair surrounding the ceremony, while pundits speculate gravely on what lies ahead. It’s a flawed piece, but a disturbing glimpse of the horrors we could stumble into, if we’re not careful.
Well, when you put it that way, it does sound kind of like the fifth dimension.