91É«ÇéƬ

Director Choi Hang-yong

Netflix

IF YOU live in Europe, this seems an appropriate time to watch . With even rainy nations touched by what may be the continent’s worst drought in 500 years, it is easier than ever to imagine an arid future for Earth.

This South Korean sci-fi thriller debuted on Netflix in December last year to little fanfare, but its acolytes have spread the word and it is now a word-of-mouth hit.

It is set at a time when most of Earth’s oceans have dried up, water is strictly rationed along class lines and pets are euthanised as an unnecessary drain on resources.

This desiccated Earth haunts Song Ji-an (played by Bae Doona), a former astrobiologist who is grieving for her sister. Five years earlier, she was one of 117 people who died at Balhae Station, a South Korean research unit on the moon.

In a bid to learn what happened to her, Ji-an joins an elite team on a mission to retrieve a mysterious sample from the abandoned facility. What they discover is terrifying beyond comprehension.

First, a disclaimer: if you are a stickler for accuracy, The Silent Sea isn’t for you. The physics bears almost no resemblance to the actual conditions of our moon. This isn’t For All Mankind, a show where the perils of space exploration are rendered with queasy realism – this is horror.

That said, after a slow set-up, The Silent Sea gradually weaves together elements of sci-fi and mystery to create something truly intriguing. Arriving at the station, Ji-an and the crew quickly realise that the dangerous radiation levels they were warned about, supposedly a consequence of the incident five years ago, aren’t present. The facility is full of the bodies of people whose deaths make no sense, and the sample they are seeking turns out to be far more dangerous than they had anticipated. What’s more, they realise they aren’t alone.

Fans of Alien and the 1972 Solaris will recognise the DNA in the twin threats faced by Ji-an and her colleagues. The series exploits the fact that space is a perfect setting for horror – after all, exploring our solar system has forced us to redefine our notions of what is possible and what is ethical. At the intersection of these uncharted waters lies the potential for great suffering. Here be dragons.

Removed from Earth, existing on the fringes of the known, Ji-an and the crew face something that bends their rules of reality. And as the team members are picked off one by one, internecine struggles between the survivors threaten the mission’s success.

A few of The Silent Sea‘s twists are over-telegraphed and under-explored, such as the exact nature of the involvement of a shadowy, resource-stealing corporation. But these are minor cavils compared with the show’s assets, from its bleak, uncanny tone to its highly talented cast, which includes Squid Game scene-stealer Gong Yoo as mission leader Han Yoon-jae.

From the wise-cracking doctor Hong Ga-young to the sinister co-pilot Lee Gi-su, each one of what looked like a band of stock characters is beautifully realised by the end of the eight-part series.

At its peak, The Silent Sea is far more engaging than many of Netflix’s sci-fi offerings. While its fate is in limbo, with no word on a second season, the series works as a self-contained, bingeable story.

And for those living in nations that have been struck by drought, the show is a timely reminder that our treatment of Earth could drive us to far darker places in search of restitution.