MacGYVER YOUR ENTHUSIASM (10)
By:
February 3, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating favorite TV shows from the Eighties (1984–1993). Series edited by Josh Glenn.
CHOCKY | 1984
Written by John Wyndham, popular for The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned), the English six-part TV drama Chocky dips into the trend of ‘psychic children in trouble’ that characterised some of our favorite ’70s and ’80s children’s sci-fi TV and movies. But with a striking synth theme (sampled from Red Kite’s 1982 album Astral Sounds) and a disturbingly computer graphics intro, Chocky is darker than its more puritanical American peers like Escape from Witch Mountain and Firestarter. Wyndham flirts openly with schizophrenic tendencies in his protagonist. Is the young boy, Matthew, truly receiving information from an advanced alien intelligence… or is he simply a savant with multiple personality disorder?
Margaret Atwood cited Wyndham as a major influence on The Handmaid’s Tale, particularly his book The Chrysalids, and social issues are forefront in Chocky, particularly gender roles. Initially, Chocky is introduced as an imaginary friend — another boy for Matthew to play with. This image is consolidated, then later upended. Chocky is in fact sexless and quite confused by the concept of gender — which it considers ‘silly.’ When confronted by his father and asked to assign a gender to Chocky, Matthew decides, after three episodes or so, that Chocky is now no longer another boy. He now begins to refer to it as a ‘she.’
Matthew’s mother is painted as a stalwart oppressive presence of society — along with his younger sister, who also has an imaginary friend albeit a conflated, ‘actually imaginary’ friend. When asked whether Matthew’s mother would like a genius for a child, she becomes alarmed, insisting she prefer someone ‘normal.’ She begins looking for ways to cure her son of his association. When a psychiatrist is brought in, hopefully to relegate Chocky to the imaginary dump, he does an about-turn and validates Chocky’s existence, declaring the being, not only real, but intellectually progressive. Throughout, Matthew’s father maintains an open mind that, by today’s rather closed-minded conservative standard, would be frowned upon. By encouraging the association, Wyndham posits an altogether different alien invasion tale.
Symbolically, Chocky seems to embody aspects of a positive human archetype — embodying an eagerness to learn, cohabit symbiotically, question standards and above all — evolve. But Chocky’s traits are viewed superstitiously. There is an Englishness to the lip service paid to the status quo: Why not leave well alone? Why should humanity move beyond its ‘obsession with the wheel’ and evolve?
MacGYVER YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Michael Grasso on MAX HEADROOM | Heather Quinlan on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 | Mark Kingwell on CHINA BEACH | Judith Zissman on SANTA BARBARA | Adelina Vaca on TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES | Deborah Wassertzug on MOONLIGHTING | Josh Glenn on VOLTRON | Adam McGovern on A VERY BRITISH COUP | Alex Brook Lynn on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION | Nikhil Singh on CHOCKY | Sara Ryan on REMINGTON STEELE | Vanessa Berry on THE YOUNG ONES | Dan Reines on GET A LIFE | Susannah Breslin on PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE | Marc Weidenbaum on LIQUID TELEVISION | Elina Shatkin on PERFECT STRANGERS | Lynn Peril on THE SIMPSONS | David Smay on THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MOLLY DODD | Annie Nocenti on THE SINGING DETECTIVE | Tom Nealon on MIAMI VICE | Anthony Miller on ST. ELSEWHERE | Gordon Dahlquist on BLACKADDER | Peggy Nelson on SEINFELD | Nicholas Rombes on TWIN PEAKS | Ramona Lyons on ÆON FLUX
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