American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate and BeyondFrom "The Next Generation" and "The X-Files", to "Farscape" and "Enterprise", sci-fi television series in the US have multiplied since the 1980s. Jan Johnson-Smith shows how, in line with national political upheavals, this vibrant and perplexing genre set about expanding the myth of the Western frontier into deep space. She looks at the "sense of wonder" or sublime that infuses much Frontier art and science fiction, and traces a possible historical precedent to the genre in the fabulous and heroic journeys of the Classical epic. She discusses narrative styles and their influences, from the overarching narrative of "Babylon 5" to the episodic formula of "The Outer Limits", considers how experimental series such as "Twin Peaks" challenge conventional structures, and how and why sci-fi television has adopted new technologies. She also explores the juxtaposition of arcane language and technological jargon in modern American sci-fi television, revealing the extraordinarily alien, yet curiously familiar arena it creates. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... past twenty years in television there has been a general shift away from dim nondescript backgrounds and wordy expositional scripts to idealised locations and carefully designed composites of iconic images. The new, sharply defined mise ...
... past twenty years in television there has been a general shift away from dim nondescript backgrounds and wordy expositional scripts to idealised locations and carefully designed composites of iconic images. The new, sharply defined mise ...
Page 10
... past and present for inspiration, but also to look backwards with a desire to rewrite the past – not unlike the Western. There is a clear fascination with those staples of sf: time travel, wormholes and parallel universes, subjects that ...
... past and present for inspiration, but also to look backwards with a desire to rewrite the past – not unlike the Western. There is a clear fascination with those staples of sf: time travel, wormholes and parallel universes, subjects that ...
Page 18
... past, present and future. Just as a self-reflexive text must refer by default to its conservative ancestry, so the most conservative text must also contain the capacity for self-reflexivity and ironic critique: the capacity is only ...
... past, present and future. Just as a self-reflexive text must refer by default to its conservative ancestry, so the most conservative text must also contain the capacity for self-reflexivity and ironic critique: the capacity is only ...
Page 23
... past of something yet to come.'36 Consequently, sf defamiliarises our lives and with them the sf lives we read about, and reflects them back to us in an extravagant, extrapolated fashion. For Larry McCaffrey, in a 1990 collection of ...
... past of something yet to come.'36 Consequently, sf defamiliarises our lives and with them the sf lives we read about, and reflects them back to us in an extravagant, extrapolated fashion. For Larry McCaffrey, in a 1990 collection of ...
Page 25
... past in search of dinosaurs. One traveller accidentally slips from the safe path and treads on a butterfly, inexorably altering the pattern of evolution on the planet and thus the very future to which he must return. Both stories ...
... past in search of dinosaurs. One traveller accidentally slips from the safe path and treads on a butterfly, inexorably altering the pattern of evolution on the planet and thus the very future to which he must return. Both stories ...
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Common terms and phrases
action actually alien allows American ancient appears articulated associated audience Babylon become called Centauri challenge characters comes command concept concerns consider context continuity create crew cultural Dark Deep Space Delenn demonstrates diegesis Earth effect Enterprise epic episode equally established example existence experience exploration film final forces frontier future genre human idea identified ideology images individual issues John language later light lives London Maquis McQueen means military Minbari narrative nature Nine occurs offers original parallel past perhaps planet political potential present Press problem programmes question races reality reference remarkable says science fiction season sense Shadows Sheridan ship shows Sinclair Star Trek Stargate station story Sublime suggests television tells texts turn universe Vietnam visual Voyager Western whilst wormhole