Painted Men and Salt Monsters: the Alien Body in 50S and 60S
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Painted Men and Salt Monsters: The Alien Bod y in 50s and 60s American Science F iction Television Lincoln Gerag hty (1) If, a s w e ha ve seen, it is often claimed tha t television is awa sh with g rap hic ima g es of the b od y, American television science fiction was virtually fascinated w ith the fig ure of the a lien during the la te 1950s a nd 1960s, where it routinely focused on the b od y – both a lien and human – as imag es of difference. F rom monstrous aliens a nd muta ted huma ns to evil cyb orgs a nd pa inted men, the b od y b ecame a spa ce in w hich to exa mine a nd neg otia te id ea s concerning ra ce, nationhood a nd g end er. Series such a s The Tw ilight Zone (1959- 1964), The Outer Limits (1963- 1965), a nd Sta r Trek ( 1966- 1969) exa mined sp ecific constructions of d ifference through their episodic forma t and consistent use of the ‘a lien’ a s a n instrument of na rra tive storytelling. (2) This chap ter focuses on the d evelop ment of the human a nd alien bodies a s d ep icted in the science fiction television series of the 1950s and 1960s. As such it ta kes a chronolog ica l app roa ch, exa mining the chang ing rep resenta tions of the b od y a s they w ere conceived and addressed throug hout the major and influentia l series of the time. As I will a rg ue in the first pa rt of this essa y, the fig ure of the alien w a s a pred ominantly cinematic cha ra cter in the 1950s. It wa s a ma insta y of the B movie sf/horror film tha t wa s often p resented in sta rk contra st to the human, and so challeng ed existing d efinitions of norma lity. Often this is read a s simply p resenting the a lien as irred eemably Other, w ith flying sa ucers, hid eous alien b lobs, and muta nt monsters op era ting to confirm American society a s the rig htful ma sters of the ga la xy. How ever, a s Ma rk Ja ncovich ha s p ointed out, ma ny of these aliens a lso challeng ed the status quo in other wa ys, a nd op era ted to question established d efinitions of normality. In many films of this p eriod, the threa tening alien a ctua lly focused fea rs and anxiety ab out develop ments within America n society, while others p resented the alien a s a p ersecuted figure opp ressed b y intolerance. It w as this la ter trend tha t wa s d evelop ed in Rod Serling’s The Tw ilight Zone, a television series tha t did not d epict humanity a s sup erior to the alien other, but instea d turned its gaz e on humanity to challeng e d efinitions of normality in C old Wa r America. As a result, the overtly alien b od y was la rg ely a bsent from w ha t wa s g enerally a ‘cereb ra l show’ tha t focused on the huma n mind ra ther tha n the a lien bod y ( Sta rk 1997: 86- 87). (3) It wa s only in the 1960s tha t television sta rted to disp la y a fa scina tion w ith the sp ecta cle of the alien b od y. The Outer Limits revelled in creating outrag eously g ha stly mutants, a liens a nd monsters, a lthoug h even here these alien others w ere often p resented sympathetica lly d esp ite their visua l d ifferences, and w ere often presented a s a friend or b enevolent help er in rela tion to the huma n protag onist who wa s often p resented a s ignorant or violent. These stories w ere frequently confined to the Ea rth and often used imag es of difference to highlig ht huma n p rejudice and intolerance. D ifferences betw een the huma n and the a lien bod y enabled an investiga tion of America’s C old Wa r politics. While television wa s becoming America ’s ‘“wind ow on the world”, va rious events quite literally b rought home to us that threa tening “thing s” from the outsid e could rea ch us w ith ea se throug h this very sa me porta l’ (W orla nd 1996: 112) . As the a lien beca me all the more g ruesome a nd macabre tow ards the end of the series, ep isod es relativiz ed America n d efinitions of norma lity, a nd presented humanity a s one, insignifica nt sp ecies a mong others in the Universe ra ther tha n the epitome of normality, the central standa rd against w hich all alien sp ecies and cultures could b e judg ed . (4) After The Outer Limits, science fiction television a nd its human cha ra cters d epa rted from Ea rth’s confines in Sta r Trek, which continued to use ma ke-up a nd sp ecial effects in its d ep iction of the alien bod y, b ut also chang ed the mea ning of the encounter b etw een the human a nd a lien. Althoug h many stories continued to p resent first contact w ith the alien a s one tha t rela tiviz ed definitions of normality, it a lso started to p la ce huma ns ba ck at the centre of the Universe, a s the a rb iters of right and wrong, and the standa rd against which a ll aliens would b e jud g ed. Sta r Trek used the alien b od y as a mirror ima g e; a hid eous and often evil d opp elg ang er that p la yed up huma n fra ilties b ut a lso confirmed ma stery. In Sta r Trek’s Utop ia n future, humanity ha s overcome its p rob lems a nd could move out into the Universe w ith p ositive a ffirma tion. As a result, while this p resented humanity a s ha ving freed itself of ea rlier social p roblems it a lso meant tha t these p rob lems w ere then p rojected onto the alien a s tha t w hich was in need of correction b y the intervention of b enign huma n ag ency. In many w ays, while the show clea rly disp la yed a fairly ra dica l political agenda in a ra ng e of a rea s, pa rticula rly ra ce, it a lso ra n the risk of reinforcing America n foreig n policy a t the time. Film and its Outer Limits (5) M ark Ja ncovich ( 1996: 15) points out that most critics of the 1950s inva sion na rra tives see them a s b eing inextricab ly linked to Cold Wa r id eolog y, so that the a lien wa s cod e for the imminent C ommunist threa t. American films of the d ecad e, this critica l orthodoxy cla ims, demonised b oth the Soviet Union a nd any resistance to the sta tus q uo, ensuring tha t the institutions and a uthorities of the country w ere protected from the so- called red mena ce tha t wa s sp reading the nation. By p ulling tog ether America ns w ere given tw o choices, either support America or b e seen a s a Communist sympa thiser. The result of this distinction mea nt that there wa s a clea r line b etw een right a nd wrong , America a nd the a lien other ( see Lucanio 1987; Tud or 1989 and Biskind 2000). How ever, a s Ja ncovich contend s, American culture wa s itself g oing throug h an ‘id entity’ crisis, so tha t the threa t p osed b y the Communist a s ‘a lien’ wa s often little more tha n a cod e for develop ments within America n society. If the alien often presented a hord e of mindless conformity that threa tened to overwhelm America , the so- ca lled sub urban d rea m wa s itself often a ccused of b eing threat to ind ivid ua l id entity. The imag e of the mid dle class ma le wa s one of uniformity: they commuted to work en ma sse dressed in their g rey flannel suits, and returned home to their id ealised, yet a ll too simila r, mod ern sub urban homes. The technolog ica l ad vancement of consumer culture tha t had p romised so much wa s instead stifling Americans’ own self- worth: It ha s often b een p ointed out tha t the q ualities tha t id entify the aliens with the Soviet Union is their la ck of feelings a nd the absence of individual chara cteristics… how ever… it wa s common in the 1950s for America ns to claim tha t the effects of scientific- technica l rationa lity up on their ow n society w a s p roducing the sa me features within America itself (J ancovich 1996: 26).