So how exactly did the Earth of Interstellar wind up in such a sorry state? For a film that so methodically explains all of its speculative science, its weird that this is the one thing that was never really touched upon. Its made clear that crops are failing, and that corn is basically the only thing they can now grow, but its never explained why this is happening. The blight cant just refer to the constant dust storms, can it? And what caused all of that dust to start blowing around in the first place? According to the accepted predictions for the future of our planet, things arent due to go as tits up as that until long after humanitys died out. So that implies that something other than the natural evolution of our planet - where, as one character helpfully points out, we were perhaps not supposed to inhabit forever - is the cause of all this. One theory thats been floating around is that the blight is the work of those fifth dimensional beings who come in so handy with getting the human race off of their crumbling planet and out into the cosmos; it was an extreme way of kick-starting our sense of adventure again, and ensuring both the survival and eventual transcendence of our species up amongst the stars. Cheers guys!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
