Science Fiction – a term invented by Luxemburgish born Hugo Gernsback in the 1920s, by the way – is not only about aliens or space travel. The best fiction about science speculates about the impact of scientific advances on human society by asking: what if?
Genetic Manipulation: Orphan Black – Netflix
Sarah Manning, a down-on-her-luck drug-addict con artist is waiting in an underground station, when she observes a woman that could be her twin put down her bag, shoes and jacket and jump in front of an oncoming train.
Her first instinct is to steal the dead woman’s things and assume her identity. Going to the stranger’s house in order to clean it out, she discovers that Beth Childs was a policewoman on suspension for shooting someone.
Her plans to steal all the money from Beth’s bank account and disappear are put on hold when she discovers that Beth was investigating other “twins”, identical clones like herself and Sarah before her death.
When “Orphan Black” started broadcasting in 2013, it became an instant fan favorite, thanks to Tatiana Maslany’s brilliant portrayal of up to 10 different women, all clones from the same DNA.
A combination of thriller, mystery and action show, with comedy elements, “Orphan Black” isn’t only about nature vs nurture, but also about what happens when scientists play God and big corporations make money with copyrights to a human life.
The five seasons of “Orphan Black” are available on Netflix.
