American Science Fiction TV--Star-Trek, Stargate, and Beyond.American Science Fiction science fiction, literary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story. Although science fiction is a form of fantastic literature, many of the events recounted are within the realm of future possibility, e.g., robots, space travel, interplanetary war, invasions from outer space. Science fiction is generally considered to have had its beginnings in the late 19th cent. TV--Star-Trek, Stargate, and Beyond Jan Johnson-Smith Wesleyan U. Press 215 Long Lane, Middletown, CT 06459 selliott@wesleyan.edu ISBN 0819567388 $22.95 308+vii pp. Johnson-Smith, a lecturer in film and TV at an English university, reaches the conclusion that unlike earlier periods of science fiction, "modern American sf fiction is neither utopian or dystopian...it enforces a critique of the Western mythos whilst renegotiating its finer aspects." This Western mythos centers on the desire for exploration. This desire was seen as far back as the Gilgamesh Gilgamesh (gĭl`gəmĕsh), in Babylonian legend, king of Uruk. He is the hero of the Gilgamesh epic, a work of some 3,000 lines, written on 12 tablets c.2000 B.C. and discovered among the ruins at Nineveh. It tells of the adventures of the warlike and imperious Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu. myth of the ancient Babylonians; and it emerged in American culture especially in Westward expansion and the related romance of the West. It entails a sense of wonder and the hope of encounter with the Sublime--elements undeniably evident in modern TV sci-fi, which are a major reason for their appeal. But imparting this sense of wonder and picturing the Sublime became possible only when TV technology improved from its first days. Only in recent years has TV arrived in an "era where far-seeing 'tele-vision' can finally live up to its name" by making use of "brilliant colors and dynamic motion" to enhance sf narratives. Today's TV science-fiction shows, notably "Star-Trek," are contrasted with earlier ones such as "Twilight Zone twilight zone - [IRC] Notionally, the area of cyberspace where IRC operators live. An op is said to have a "connection to the twilight zone"." creating an atmosphere mainly by suggestion, leaving much to the viewer's imagination. The author identifies a new era in science-fiction TV and analyzes the bases of its themes and popular appeal. |
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