Before she’s whisked off to London in the 22nd century, Scott knew that fans would want to know what exactly happens when she connects to this immersive technology. Scott found that note especially helpful when he was writing the scene in which Flynne puts on the high-tech virtual reality headset for the first time. But it was one he was willing to take thanks to a piece of advice his producers, Nolan and Joy, gave him early in the writing process: “Keep it simple, it’s easier to convey and it’s always enough.” In other words, the viewer’s imagination is more than capable of filling in the blanks-so why not let them? However, he knows asking a reader to figure it out on their own is a risk viewers who haven’t read Gibson’s novel might feel so out of the loop that they just turn the show off. “I allowed for a certain degree of confusion and trusted that other people involved in the elaborate production would speak up if anything was incomprehensible,” Scott says. The opening episodes of The Peripheral lack the usual exposition dumps that are common in highbrow sci-fi.

Patience is key when watching the series as well. “He doesn’t define these words or concepts because the people don’t need them to be defined.” In other words, this is their world, and we’re the ones visiting, so Gibson asks that you kindly keep up. “His treatment of sci-fi is very naturalistic,” says Smith, who got his start as a novelist. But Gibson’s respect for the reader’s intelligence is what the screenwriter loves most about him. “I have a friend who says that Gibson’s attitude toward the reader is ‘hold your own f-cking hand,’” Smith says jokingly. “He obviously knows so much and observes people interacting with tech, but he’s not the guy you think.” Gibson is a sci-fi writer who is more interested in the way humans choose to interact with technology rather than using the technology itself. “I would expect him to have a hologram of himself,” Scott says. The twisty sci-fi noir looks at a future in which reality and virtual reality are one in the same, but, in real life, the now 74-year-old Gibson is actually quite averse to technology. With help from her brother Burton (Jack Reynor), she embarks on a dangerous journey to save the world from a menacing force that is out to destroy humanity. After witnessing a murder while playing a mysterious virtual reality game set in London in the 22nd century, she realizes everything she’s been experiencing while wearing the VR headset is real. The Peripheral follows Flynne Fisher (played by Chloë Grace Moretz), a struggling gamer-for-hire who lives in the rural American South of the not-so-distant future.

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