Reboot, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, and the early ‘90s fear of the internet

In 1994, my parents made me change schools, which came with all the typical challenges — and, from my sixth grade perspective, just two benefits.

One was the freedom to speak with classmates without fear of being pulled out. Teachers and staff from my former school brought me to chapel for long discussions about whether The Gathering is MagicPogs and Exosquad They were enough Christian. I felt at least that I could make new friends because of our mutual enthusiasm for the TV shows that were launched that year. RebootAnd Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.

The second was my new school’s computer lab: 35 Mac PowerPCs monitor-to-monitor in a double horseshoe formation inside an enclosed section of the library. The computer lab was more than my father had brought home. My friends and I were able to create Kid Pix art together, discuss networking with the technie, and enjoy constant and reliable internet access.

Retrospectively, it was obvious how connected these two parts of my new school really were.

Reboot

I was attracted to this place partly because of my love for it. RebootAnd Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad is how they depict computers and networks as living ecosystems — as places where beings live, like in 1982’s TronA notable representation of the digital universe was the renowned. The fact that the two programs were produced in the same calendar year is perhaps an indication of the growing importance of digital technology in our culture. Both share a vision of the internet and computers that differs from each other. Tron.

However Tron’s opening and closing shots — in which computer-generated lines and dots evocative of circuit boards resolve into city streets and skyscrapers — suggest parallels between programs and users, the actual digital world of the movie is fantastical. You can see more of the same in its canyons, floating oceans, or impossible towers. An unending storyOur world is more affected by them than ours. This strangeness is in service of the film’s technological enthusiasm: its reassurance that evils like the Master Control Program cannot stop an amazing world from manifesting through the union of users and programs. We should be excited that the future is the innovation promised by Flynn’s chaotic and empowering creativity, it tells us, and not Dillinger’s colonization of the digital frontier.

RebootThe show takes place in a computer system called Mainframe. But while Bob, the show’s protagonist, comes from the Supercomputer — a networked location referred to with the awe and envy typically reserved for major metropolises — Mainframe is positively suburban in comparison: full of skyscrapers and highways that suggest city amenities, but with the urban subtracted through extensive terraced greenery that seems intentionally integrated to give the impression of space and population sparsity. While Tron’s programs engage in barely recognizable activities — perhaps the most familiar being the mortal-combat jai alai — Reboot’s characters occupy themselves with appropriately suburban pursuits: fixing classic cars, attending school, or running a diner. It is important to view the show’s setting as not unusual, but as something that can be compared to our world. And that, in turn, makes the show readable as a reflection of our world’s values.

There are three threats to Mainframe’s quotidian. Megabyte, a super-strong, clever virus that can be manipulated to infect Mainframe’s quotidian, is the first. Megabyte’s articulate British accent and calm demeanor defy animalistic potential. When viewers first see inside Megabyte’s lair, he leads a fleet of color-coordinated floating armored vehicles and an army of Mainframers he’s infected, a military force that easily rivals its Mainframe counterpart, the Central Police Unit, with its police cars and Chips-style uniforms. Megabyte loses his control and Megabyte is an instinctual animal. Megabyte runs on all fours and uses roars to replace speech. Megabyte can also cut through defenses using sharp claws. Megabyte pursues his desires with single-mindedness, which is both an asset and a liability, as it allows him to manipulate and does not contain his intelligence.

Megabyte’s sister, Hexadecimal, is the second threat. As a chaotic creature whose face shifts without transition between various versions of the white comedy and tragedy masks in line with her emotions, she is the raw power and capriciousness to Megabyte’s manpower and planning. Although she can fly and teleport and produce overwhelming energy beams and can even fly, her motivations are more ambiguous and out-of-control. Her fickleness is a manifestation of her energy, which would cause her to explode without her masks.

Third danger for Mainframe is the user. These games manifest themselves as huge flickering purple cubes which descend from the heavens to take over sectors of Mainframe. Fun to look at copyright-skirting copies of Mortal Kombat And Mad Max on screen, but one of Bob’s primary functions is to serve as an NPC in games because they threaten ecological disaster. A sector becomes ruined when the user wins; it’s buildings are razed, and its inhabitants become wormlike beings of uncertain sentience.

All of these dangers warn against the misuse and exploitation digital power. You could consider this the status quo that villains are allowed to enjoy in a superhero show: The virus seeks too much. But RebootIt goes above and beyond this archetype, comparing virality to excessiveness. A virus can be so potent that it is impossible to control. To do otherwise would be to endanger your life. The digital power Flynn possesses is therefore not comparable to that of a fantasy hero. Tron; Instead, it inherently threatens a ruling order that may be dull but still works. Conversely, Reboot The importance of moderation means enjoying the everyday and not worrying too much. The user — and therefore the audience — is best when providing modest updates and even the occasional game for the sake of variety, but is warned that playing too many games can hurt others.

This ethos becomes urgent when the show introduces the internet, or the “web,” portrayed as a Lovecraftian version of outer space that most cannot even survive contact with without special shielding. When a “web creature” stores Mainframers in cocoons to harvest them for energy to grow, its ability to open a portal to the web is considered so dangerous that the Guardian Council follows its standard procedure for such cases: bombing the afflicted system to protect the local network. Bob ends this threat, at the cost of an open portal for the internet. The connection lacks the excitement and hopefulness of space exploration science fiction. Portal appears as a mass writhing tentacles. This portends an invasion of dark, tooth-filled squids. This newness, which led to so much excitement via the internet, is now reframed as the novelty of terror, something that requires restraint and not indulgence.

Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad

Superhuman Samurai Syber-SquadThis is far more simple than the other shows. RebootEmulous of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers — which successfully debuted the previous year — but with a main cast and setting that better resembles Saved by the Bell The opening summary of each episode is the same for every episode.

Kilokahn is a computer hacker! Malcolm Frink helps him create megavirus monsters that attack electronic systems. Meanwhile, a freak accident turns Sam Collins into Servo! He joins forces with his friends to drive their Samurai attack vehicles. The Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad is formed when they join forces!

Megaviruses and the SSSS battle it out in a digital world that echoes Tokyo, just like in Power Rangers, SSSS’s fight scenes come from a Japanese tokusatsu show, the genre from which we get kaiju/giant robot combat. Like? Reboot, SSSS takes place in a suburb; every episode opens with either a shot of Sam’s two-story single-family home where the SSSS hangs out, or the exterior of North Valley High School, which they all attend.

Image: Tsuburaya Productions

Computer technology is embedded in our daily lives because it’s so common to reference it. Compaqs, a sponsor of the show, is used by the SSSS to mix its rock music CDs. Internet and network technology are used to supplement schoolwork and class scheduling. Computers are so mundane that when Sam — who shows no preexisting martial arts training — defeats a monster in the computer world for the first time, he demonstrates no shock at the revelation of this new reality. Instead, his immediate reaction is dread, and the desire to keep his digital adventures a secret because, as he says, “I don’t want people to think I’m a computer geek! […] I don’t want Jennifer ever knowing about this; she’ll never go out with me!”

However, this integration can make our world horribly vulnerable. The entire reason Malcolm Frink — playing hard into the brooding artist stereotype — allies with “evil Kilokahn” is because he witnesses Sam trick his crush into providing her phone number. While bemoaning Sam’s eventual call to “his” girl from his dark room — again, stereotypically illuminated only by twin computer monitors — Kilokahn (whose gravitas is enhanced by Tim Curry’s voice work) offers to help Malcolm in exchange for a steady supply of drawn monsters to turn into megaviruses. In the first episode, Kilokahn fulfills Malcolm’s wish — to interrupt Sam’s phone call — with a megavirus that our networked world allows to disrupt global communications. This sets up the show’s formula: Malcolm has some local grievance he wants resolved by manipulating computer records or functions, and the resulting virus ends up threatening all of humanity. Like Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, RebootThe digital revolution and network technologies are perfectly usable, provided that users do not engage in immoderate acts that will inevitably cause harm to everyone.

One moment at a time

These videos are a glimpse of an era as distant from the end the Cold War as is the mass market release of 56k modems and the file-sharing revolution. That was when computer technology became less about explosive achievements and more about homeostasis. It moved us away from Cold War competition to a paradigm that is closer to the values of one superpower. Reboot’s Bob doesn’t proactively seek to eliminate Megabyte or Hexadecimal; viruses could be a part of Mainframe so long as they moderate their desires to fit into its social rhythm. Sam, his Syber-Squad colleagues actively resist the idea of using their digital power for any other purpose than fighting megaviruses. These shows show that even though things look good, it’s better to keep computer usage to a minimum to supplement daily life and to avoid taking unintended or significant actions.

However, it is not the only thing. RebootIt was clear that even though games appear to be harmless, the negative effects can have devastating consequences. This is why these shows portray expertise as the hero trait that will counter ignorance/innocence. Bob is not more powerful than Megabyte or Hexadecimal; he’s the show’s hero by virtue of his knowledge of games and his adaptability. The SSSS is utterly dependent on its computer-expert teammate who takes the time to understand Sam’s new capabilities and run the Compaq computers that send him, armaments, and other squad members into the digital realm.

The values of the two programs were perfectly captured in the computer lab’s heyday. Although the lab was a great alternative to classwork and could have been fun, it came with restrictions. It was restricted by the restrictions on what computers could be used and programs they were allowed to access. Although we all felt the restrictions and were unable to access certain programs or websites, we had confidence in the abilities of the lab staff who assured us our digital interactions were safe. Better to have a landscape — both digital and actual — that is managed than one untamed with slow connections, disconnections, and the unfamiliar.

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