Posted in: TV | Tagged: Chen Jin, chinese science fiction, Liu Cixin, TenCent, The Three-Body Problem, Wang Zi Wen

The Three-Body Problem Episode 18 Review: Calling All Spacemen

The Three-Body Problem Episode 18 is about SETI & Science Grandma's part in it, revealing Chen Jin's performance as the soul of the series.

And we're at episode eighteen of The Three-Body Problem, where we delve more into Science Grandma Ye Wen Jie's (Chen Jia) story. How do we know? Because the opening credits sequence and the song always show her and Red Coast base when the show is about her. And she's the most compelling character in the story, even in Liu Cixin's book.

We're back in the 1970s when Young Ye Wen Jie (Wang Zi Wen) gets transferred to work in the Monitoring Department. It's Political Commissar Lei's idea, and Chief Engineer Wang Yei Ning is dead set against it, even storming out of the meeting to lodge a complaint with High Command. Commissar Lei had wanted her here all along because of her paper on solar bodies. This is a promotion that fills her with pride. She tries to take the initiative and suggests ways to innovate the satellite system to spy on enemy bases, but Wang shoots her down.

The Search for Aliens in the Cold War

Finally, a Party official from Command shows up to approve her promotion, and they tell her what Red Coast's mission really is. It's not a weapons or spying station. Red Coast was China's part of the SETI arms race. The West was then investing in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and China believed that the first nation to establish relations with an alien civilization would get the edge in access to more advanced technology. Ye Wen Jie was the one who wrote Red Coast's computer code for recognizing intelligent signals from space. She and Wang redrafted the message of greeting and cooperation to be transmitted to the stars using her code. And they weren't naïve about it either. They changed the frequencies of their transmissions to hide Earth's location in the Milky Way in case any alien species had hostile intent.

Chen Jin is the Melancholy Soul of The Three-Body Problem

At this point, we should mention that Chen Jin, who plays Science Grandma Ye Wen Jie, is the equivalent of China's Helen Mirren. She turns Ye Wen Jie's narration of her earlier life into a lament for a life left behind, full of melancholy, lending context to Wang Zi Wen's performance in the flashbacks as the younger Ye. She's a true believer remembering the Great Project she was in before the government lost interest, turned over the project to civilian oversight at the end of the Cold War, before it was shut down and the base decommissioned, leaving her the last ghost haunting the empty house. Chen and Wang's performances might be the most seamless and convincing portrayal of the same character at different ages in recent memory.

The twist is Wang Miao (Edward Zhang) doesn't know – but we do – that this is a cover story she's feeding to him to slowly bring him on-side to whatever her agenda is. Wang Miao leaves Red Coast with empathy for her as their bond grows, completely unaware she's been manipulating him all along.

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