‘Black Mirror’: “USS Callister” Has Multiple Star Wars Easter Eggs

Fans have pegged “USS Callister” as Black Mirror‘s Star Trek homage. They’re not wrong, but Star Trek isn’t the only sci-fi franchised referenced in the episode.

Director Toby Haynes lists several Star Wars references as well.

“There are also three Star Wars references,” he says. “I don’t know when I’m going to do sci-fi again, so I try to put everything in there. One of the references is when Cristin wakes up in the medical bay, the way the lights came on was a reference to Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One trailer — the shot that never made the movie, when Felicity [Jones] is standing up and the lights come on in sequence. That was an eight-page scene that we had to shoot in a day.

“Then, the tube which Jimmi goes into when he reactivates the engines of the spaceship, I wanted that to look like the tubes of the Bespin in Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back, the tubes that Luke Skywalker falls down inspired that.

And there is one line when Daly has just turned Michaela into an alien where he says, ‘Take that thing to the brig.’ That’s the same line they say about Chewbacca when they are on the Death Star in A New Hope. So there are the three Star Wars references, along with the endless Star Trek ones.”

“USS Callister” is an episode that is about themes much larger than any particular fandom. It makes sense then that the episode reaches out to more than fandom with its references.

Still, the Star Trek influence runs deep, as Haynes explains.

“I’m probably a bigger Star Trek fan than [writer/producer Charlie Brooker] is,” he says. “As a kid, I was a super-geek for all things sci-fi on TV, particularly Doctor Who. I knew the original ’60s Star Trek show very well. I was such a fan that I’m kind of reverential about it, so I was happy to play fast and loose with this version. I knew stuff that Charlie didn’t know, which is why we put Michaela Coel in a red outfit. Michaela had to be in a red outfit because she’s the first of the crew to get killed. On Star Trek, the guy in red always gets nailed. [Daly is also wearing red on the ship.]”

Haynes is hoping that fans will see more of the USS Callister crew in the future.

Black Mirror Season Four is now streaming on Netflix.