"The Game" is based on both classical and modern references. The effects of the game in question –addiction, oblivion of mission, carelessness of duties– recall Homer's Odyssey, IX, 84-105, it is, the debarkation of Ulysses' men at Lotophagia, the country of the Lotus- eaters, where Ithaca's crewmen are kindly invited by the locals to taste the powerfully alienating lotus. The way in which the game gets more and more Enterprise's crew-people hooked vividly reminds the expansion of the soul-empty impostors in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (Don Siegel 1956, with several remakes) all over and around the apparently peaceful town of Santa Mira. From this point on spoilers would start to appear. Oh, and kisses for Ashly Judd.
