Benedict Cumberbatch's Forgotten Sci-Fi Series Is More Relevant Now Than Ever

Beyond bargaining with Dormammu as Doctor Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or leveling Laketown as Smaug the dragon in Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" trilogy, actor Benedict Cumberbatch is perhaps best known for solving crimes alongside Martin Freeman as the eponymous world-class sleuth in the 2010 BBC mystery drama "Sherlock." Fans caught under the spell of his blockbuster roles throughout the 2010s and 2020s may not realize Cumberbatch once starred in a sci-fi drama series as thrilling as it was prophetic. It may not be as popular or acclaimed as his later work, but this forgotten five-episode miniseries feels timely, and modern audiences might resonate with it more than ever.

"The Last Enemy" stars Cumberbatch as Stephen Ezard (no, not Strange), a mathematical prodigy looking to uncover the true circumstances surrounding his brother's death in a dystopian Great Britain. The series premiered on BBC One in October 2008 and ran until November that same year. It was released in the US as part of the PBS anthology series "Masterpiece Contemporary." It also stars Anamaria Marinca, Max Beesely, and Robert Carlyle.

The miniseries is notably set in a time when Great Britain has become a surveillance state. Modern viewers may recognize elements throughout as eerie precursors to aspects of our modern reality, from databases containing mass loads of UK citizens' information to the pervasive security tactics used to gather data. Thus, just as movies like Steven Soderbergh's pandemic thriller "Contagion" struck a chord with audiences during the COVID-19 global shutdown, "The Last Enemy" could hit home with viewers living in a bleak technological age.

Though less narratively relevant in 2008 than it is now, "The Last Enemy" still seems to have landed with fans both when it first hit television screens and today. It holds a 70% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes' Popcorn Meter, an average 7/10 on IMDb, and 3.3/5 on the movie discovery app Letterboxd.

Variety reviewer Brian Lowry lauded the miniseries as a borderline masterpiece, saying: "The British excel when it comes to paranoid TV thrillers, and 'Masterpiece: Contemporary' five-parter 'The Last Enemy' is no exception," he said. The show's overt paranoia seems justified, given that it foresaw a distant reality that today's viewers are grappling with, in a style reminiscent of George Orwell's "1984". We may be far from living in a security state, but we still live in an era where our data is highly exposed and commodified by both governments and large corporations, and several common mistakes could cost us even more. That is why media like "The Last Enemy" is a harrowing reminder of where we are now as a society, and where we could end up if we don't protect our data and advocate for real change.