THE UNINTENDED PRO-NATALISM OF "RAISED BY WOLVES"

by Bernard Brightson

It’s been a year since I watched the sci-fi TV series Raised by Wolves, but it still lingers in my mind. When reading about the series or watching the trailer, it’s hard to fathom why it should linger on, even with Ridley Scott being associated with it. 

The protagonists are two humanoid androids (named 'Mother' and 'Father') who are sent to settle a new planet with six human embryos representing a cross selection of Earth’s races. They are sent by militant atheists from Earth because they are losing their war against the religious Mithraics. 

Yes, the basic premise here is that some human embryos are sent far across Space to settle a new world in order to save atheism by perpetuating atheist humankind. Sounds pretty far-fetched and even ludicrous, so why bother with Raised by Wolves at all? 

Buried in the plot lines something more profound seems to be lurking.

After they reach their new atheist homeworld, nothing goes right. After the android 'Mother' successfully carries to term the six human embryos, all but one die within a few years. Leaving the settlement with one human boy and two androids, this effectively means that the settlement has failed. After spending years alone, the settlement encounters Mithraic refugees from earth.

The androids are conflicted since the Mithraics are practicing unreason and not reason (which is atheism, of course). The androids are in a bit of a bind, as they view them as the enemies of atheism, but can’t repopulate atheistic mankind with just one boy. 'Mother,' who is revealed to be a deadly war android, resolves the situation on her own by launching an attack on the Mithraics and kidnapping five of their children. 

The two androids can now recommence their mission of raising six atheist children, but the five Mithraic children as well as the atheist boy have been shocked by the violence of the android. They are also forbidden from practising 'unreason' and praying. The five kidnapped children have never trusted the androids, but now the original atheist boy also loses his trust in the androids after seeing Mother’s dark side, finding more in common with his fellow human children. 'Mother' shows more and more signs of malfunctioning, and the future of the android-led atheistic settlement starts to seem increasingly untenable. It is almost as if the writers are arriving at conclusions that they did not wish to arrive at. 

Of the several themes found in Raised by Wolves, I was particularly struck by its pro-natalism. The theme still lingers in my mind. On its own terms, the atheist settlement failed before they met the religious refugees from earth. The Mithraics, for their part, have their own internal conflict going on. Their chief issue is whether or not to save the kidnapped children. In the end, and at great risk to themselves, they put a premium on saving their children. Where most TV series put children as supporting characters or characters facing trivial challenges, Raised by Wolves puts children front and center, both in terms of theme and characters. 

In common for both groups is the concern that they are losing human bodies to conflicts, diseases, accidents, and just from the natural elements on the planet. The direction the story takes (human wastage) stands in direct contrast to the motivations of the characters (human salvation). 

Raised by Wolves, on the face of it, doesn’t distinguish itself from any other Hollywood sci-fi. It has the box-ticking multiracial cast, weird hair styles, odd family structures, and supernatural phenomena that is often cringe. But, despite all that, my takeaway is that this is a TV series that emphasises the importance, over everything else, of establishing a human society able to sustain itself with progeny.