Liminal Identity in Contemporary American Television Science Fiction
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Liminal Identity in Contemporary American Television Science Fiction Rhys Owain Thomas Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Film, Television and Media Studies University of East Anglia August 2014 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Rhys Owain Thomas Student Number 4566211 Film (Research) R1W62012 Abstract This thesis examines the foregrounding of a particular type of liminal human protagonist in contemporary American television Science Fiction. These protagonists, which I have termed the ‘unliving,’ exist in-between the realms of life and death, simultaneously both alive and dead whilst occupying an indistinct middle- ground. I examine how the liminal nature of these protagonists has been used as a means of exploring various aspects of personal identity during the early years of the twenty-first century. Developing anthropologist Victor Witter Turner’s work, in which he argued for the universal occurrence of liminality in cultural, political, economic and social contexts, I argue that the use of liminal protagonists in American television Science Fiction constitutes a demonstrable trend. Although they are to be found in ever-increasing numbers in (and outside) the genre, their growing presence and significance have yet to be properly discerned, studied and appreciated. I analyse the use of these unliving protagonists in four key texts: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (The Halcyon Company/Warner Bros. Television, 2008-2009), Battlestar Galactica (Universal/Sci-Fi TV, 2004-2009), Caprica (Universal/Sci-Fi TV, 2010-2011) and Dollhouse (Boston Diva Productions/20th Century Fox, 2009-2010). Textual analyses of serial television are often dismissed as outmoded and irrelevant to the study of television. Part of the aim of this thesis is to repudiate this widespread assumption. Therefore, my methodology involves the use of close narrative analysis to interrogate my chosen texts, situating my findings within broader sociocultural contexts. Utilising this methodological approach reveals how these texts engage with contemporary concerns and anxieties regarding illness, religion, trauma, and gender. Ultimately, this thesis presents an intervention within ongoing discourses regarding the relationship between these subjects and personal identity in 21st century America. 2 Rhys Owain Thomas Student Number 4566211 Film (Research) R1W62012 Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 Acknowledgments 4 Introduction 5 Chapter One: Locating Liminality and Defining the Indefinable: Liminal Bodies in the Twenty-First Century (and Beyond) 44 Chapter Two: New Liminality, New Language, New Life: Terminal Illness, Subjunctivity, and the Lacanian Imperative of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 78 Chapter Three: Prophets, Angels and Messiahs in Space: Battlestar Galactica and New Generic Frontiers 114 Chapter Four: Grievous Living and Immortal Avatars: Trauma and Posthumanism in Caprica 151 Chapter Five: “What You Don’t Know Won’t Hurt You”: Action Chicks and Agency Inside and Outside the Dollhouse 174 Conclusion: Liminality and the Subjunctive Society 202 Bibliography 214 Teleography/Videography 229 Filmography 239 Web Series 241 3 Rhys Owain Thomas Student Number 4566211 Film (Research) R1W62012 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the University of East Anglia for the training and support extended to me during my period of study. In particular, I would like to thank Dr Christine Cornea for her guidance and unwavering enthusiasm for this project over the years. Thanks to my fellow TAMSONH-ers for their friendship and their good humour. Special thanks to Sophie Halliday, my ‘aca-wife’ for being my partner in crime more times than I care to mention. To the Scoobs, many thanks for the continual camaraderie (“Merry Christmas, everyone!”). To Jenni Pearson, who had my back when times were tough, and for risking my being an axe murderer to watch Dark Angel with me. I am indebted to Dr Matthew Conner making sure Chapters Two and Four aren’t ‘ropey.’ To Roger Wilson, thank you for believing in me and for your continued support over the years. I really couldn’t have done it without you. Finally, this thesis is dedicated to my Mother and to the memory of my Father. Not even the Welsh have words to convey my gratitude for all they have done for me, but “cariad mawr am byth” comes close. 4 Rhys Owain Thomas Student Number 4566211 Film (Research) R1W62012 Introduction “Are you alive? Prove it.” These are the first words spoken in the opening scene of Battlestar Galactica (2003, 2004-2009). A commercial hit and a critical triumph,1 the initial two-part mini- series spawned a regular weekly serial which lasted five years, during which time the programme’s narrative engaged with various themes ranging from the intensely personal to the mythically epic, tackling several different provocative and controversial sociopolitical issues along the way. The challenge presented by this first line of dialogue, however, was to prove emblematic for the entirety of the programme’s tenure on television, as well as for its subsequent spin-offs – TV movies Razor (2007) and The Plan (2009), television show Caprica (2010), and web series The Resistance (2006), Face of the Enemy (2008) and Blood and Chrome (2012). The words are directed towards a human male (an unnamed ‘Armistice Officer’ portrayed by Ryan Robbins) and uttered by what appears to be a human female but is actually an artificial intelligence (AI) from a species known as the Cylons. This Cylon (Tricia Helfer) is so advanced that, where one might expect to find microchips, diodes and a metal endoskeleton underneath the fleshy exterior (such as that found beneath the skin of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s titular antagonist/hero in the Terminator franchise), there is, in their stead, muscle and bone.2 After asking her question, the Cylon leans in and passionately kisses the dumbfounded Officer. Their encounter occurs on a remote station, purpose-built for an armistice meeting between humans and Cylons which occurs once a year, ever since the cessation of a war between the two species. However, the Cylons have, until now, chosen not to attend these summits and this is the first known meeting between the two species since the end of the war, 40 years previously. Prior to the 1 See Chapter Three for a broader overview of Battlestar Galactica’s success. 2 The Cylons are gradually revealed to consist of various Cylon ‘races’ – including human-like AIs, a range of more traditionally recognisable machine-like robots, and what are referred to by the human- like AIs as ‘hybrids’ (who are more ‘cyborgian’ than the AIs in that they are clearly bio-mechanical beings). 5 Rhys Owain Thomas Student Number 4566211 Film (Research) R1W62012 arrival of the Cylons, the Armistice Officer is seen rifling through intelligence documents. These include schematics of how Cylons looked at their last encounter – bulky, archaic robots. The Armistice Officer finds the sudden and unexpected appearance of this new, sophisticated and sexually alluring ‘model’ so perplexing that he is literally rendered both speechless and physically uncommunicative. Whereas he appears impassive, even inanimate, the Cylon is articulate, full of vitality and vibrancy. Their respective demeanours effectively confound our expectations to such an extent that the viewer is confronted with the stark realisation that the apparently simple question “are you alive?” is, in effect, exceptionally complex, and any potential answer is problematical – and potentially nonsensical. The objective and incontrovertible truth of whether someone (or something) is “alive” has unexpectedly become subjective, variable supposition. This pivotal scene exemplifies how, when the supposedly solid and unyielding barriers demarcating what is ‘living’ and what is not appear to destabilise, diminish and dissolve, the previously imperceptible space in-between becomes visible and distinct. This interstitial realm is the province of the liminal and it is at the heart of this thesis. The conception of the liminal and of ‘liminality’ as it appears within this thesis reflects my understanding - and development - of the work of Victor Turner (1967; 1969; 1974; 1982; 1985; 1986), refined to suit the focus of my own research. Originally coined by Arnold van Gennep (1960) to describe the second stage of a tripartite paradigm in his seminal study of cultural rites of passage (parts one and three being the pre- and post-liminal, respectively), Turner argued for the universal occurrence of the ‘liminal’ period in wider cultural, political, economic and social contexts, as well as within cultural texts. Whereas Turner employed the concept of liminality to explore a broad range of social exclusions, my working definition has a stricter focus – specifically, the state of existing within a boundary realm between life and death, straddling both extremities but never entirely belonging to either. Although I use the terms in their more general sense when delineating correlations between the liminal characters of my chosen texts and associable sociocultural discourses, ‘liminal’ and ‘liminality’ will typically refer to the indeterminate condition and intermediate positioning of these characters – a state of existence I refer