The TV Series That Predicted Social Media
In today’s crowded television landscape, few shows have carved out a space as distinctive as Black Mirror, Netflix’s sci-fi anthology that explores the dark side of modern life and technological progress. But while the series feels unique in tone and style, it is far from the first of its kind. Its roots stretch back to a classic British sci-fi series that quietly celebrated its 60th anniversary this year.
That series is Out of the Unknown, broadcast on the BBC from 1965 to 1971 and re-released on DVD in 2014 by the British Film Institute. It was a cultural rarity. At a time when most sci-fi shows offered escapism, such as Doctor Who or the marionette adventures created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, Out of the Unknown aimed higher. It explored adult themes like war, politics and the consequences of technology, adapting stories from major authors such as John Wyndham, Ray Bradbury and JG Ballard.
Like all great science fiction, the series used imagined futures to comment on the fears and tensions of its own era.
A show that foresaw today’s digital anxieties
One of its most striking episodes, an adaptation of EM Forster’s The Machine Stops, looks astonishingly like a prophecy of the internet age. In it, society lives isolated in individual rooms, communicating only through screens, relying on a vast automated system for everything. The parallels to social media, virtual communication and digital dependence are unmistakable.
Another episode, based on Isaac Asimov’s The Dead Past, features a device that allows users to replay any moment in time. What begins as a scientific breakthrough quickly becomes a warning about constant surveillance, voyeurism and the addictive nature of digital media.
These themes often reappear in Black Mirror, though its creator, Charlie Brooker, admits he has never seen Out of the Unknown. Speaking to the BBC, he said his influences were The Twilight Zone, Tales of the Unexpected and other surreal BBC dramas. Yet the connection is undeniable: both series interrogate the future by dissecting the present.
A groundbreaking approach to sci-fi
Out of the Unknown was created by producer Irene Shubik, who wanted to show that sci-fi could be serious television rather than children’s fantasy. The series attracted major acting talent and even featured future Alien and Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, who worked on set design for one episode.
Its early stories were heavily shaped by the Cold War atmosphere of the 1960s. Episodes explored nuclear anxiety, paranoia about infiltration and the fear of a world destroyed by political miscalculation. Others examined technology’s influence on everyday life, predicting debates that still dominate today.
Why the anthology format mattered
Because each episode was self-contained, the series could tackle bold ideas without stretching them into long story arcs. Brooker values the same freedom for Black Mirror, saying that some concepts simply cannot sustain multiple seasons but work perfectly as intense, compact stories.
For audiences, the anthology format offers variety. If one episode does not resonate, the next will likely take them into a completely different world.
A legacy that still echoes
Although the anthology format is less common today, Black Mirror has revived its prestige. And with renewed interest in classic BBC anthologies like Play for Today, the format may be returning.
Sixty years later, both series share something powerful. They imagine futures that have not yet arrived, while revealing uncomfortable truths about the world we already live in. As both Out of the Unknown and Black Mirror suggest, the future is often nothing more than the present seen more clearly.
