The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
PETER: THE HUMAN CYBORG
Channel 4, 9.00pm
Most people diagnosed with motor neurone disease die within three years. Dr Peter ScottMorgan, who describes himself as a scientistauthor-rebel, was in 2017 given just two years to live. But his fascination with Doctor Who and Star Trek, and a determination to beat his own body, set him on a path to boldly go where no man has gone before – to become the world’s first full cyborg.
This startling film tells Scott-Morgan’s story as cameras follow him for two years as he begins a transition not so much based on medical science but engineering. “Medicine has not been able to cure me but technology has helped me to live,” he explains. In an attempt to capture as much of his old self as possible before he becomes fully paralysed, Scott-Morgan uses his own skills to develop a lifelike avatar of his own face. The biggest challenge, however, is to clone his voice. “You’re not a scientist, you’re a very naughty boy,” jokes his husband, Francis, as the team press on with applying pioneering techniques involving a communication system wired directly into Scott-Morgan’s brain.
It’s a remarkable if unnerving account of what it means to be human and what technology can really achieve. Rachel Ward
am Over the Hedge (2006) Animated comedy with the voice of Bruce Willis (S)
(2017) Animated adventure, featuring the voice of Kate Winslet See Films of the week, p20 (S)
Teen Wolf (1985) Comedy starring Michael J Fox (S)
Chasing Mavericks (2012) Fact-based drama starring Jonny Weston and Gerard Butler (S) Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) Comedy starring Ben Stiller (AD) (S)
Den of Thieves (2018) The Los Angeles county sheriffs’ department hunts a gang of criminals plotting an audacious bank heist. Crime drama starring Gerard Butler (AD) (S)
- 1.35am Stratton (2017) Thriller starring Dominic Cooper (S)