University of Kentucky UKnowledge American Popular Culture American Studies 5-2-2008 The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader J. P. Telotte Georgia Institute of Technology Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Telotte, J. P., "The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader" (2008). American Popular Culture. 8. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_american_popular_culture/8 THE ESSENTIAL SCIENCE FICTION TELEVISION READER ESSENTIAL READERS IN CONTEMPORARY MEDIA AND CULTURE This series is designed to collect and publish the best scholarly writing on various aspects of television, film, the Internet, and other media of today. Along with providing original insights and explorations of criti- cal themes, the series is intended to provide readers with the best avail- able resources for an in-depth understanding of the fundamental issues in contemporary media and cultural studies. Topics in the series may include, but are not limited to, critical-cultural examinations of cre- ators, content, institutions, and audiences associated with the media industry. Written in a clear and accessible style, books in the series include both single-author works and edited collections. SERIES EDITOR Gary R. Edgerton, Old Dominion University THE ESSENTIAL - - ÊÊ /" /"TELEVISION READER Edited by J. P. Telotte The University Press of Kentucky Copyright © 2008 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com 12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1 Unless otherwise indicated, all images are from the volume editor’s collection. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The essential science fiction television reader / edited by J. P. Telotte. p. cm. — (Essential readers in contemporary media and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8131-2492-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Science fiction television programs—History and criticism. I. Telotte, J. P., 1949- PN1992.8.S35E87 2008 791.45’615—dc22 2007048493 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Introduction: The Trajectory of Science Fiction Television 1 J. P. Telotte PART I. BACKGROUND Lifting Off from the Cultural Pad Lost in Space: Television as Science Fiction Icon 37 J. P. Telotte Shadows on the Cathode Ray Tube: Adapting Print Science Fiction for Television 55 Lisa Yaszek From Big Screen to Small Box: Adapting Science Fiction Film for Television 69 Gerald Duchovnay PART II. THE SHAPE OF THE SHip Narrative Vehicles and Science Fiction Tomorrowland TV: The Space Opera and Early Science Fiction Television 93 Wheeler Winston Dixon Anthology Drama: Mapping The Twilight Zone’s Cultural and Mythological Terrain 111 Rodney Hill Animation, Anime, and the Cultural Logic of Asianization 127 Dennis Redmond PART III. WHAT FUELS THESE FLIGHTS Some Key Concerns of Science Fiction Television “Dreams Teach”: (Im)Possible Worlds in Science Fiction Television 143 Christine Mains Fraking Machines: Desire, Gender, and the (Post)Human Condition in Battlestar Galactica 159 Susan A. George Space Vehicles and Traveling Companions: Rockets and Living Ships 177 Samantha Holloway PART IV. THE BEST SIGHTS “OUT THERE” Key Series The Politics of Star Trek 195 M. Keith Booker Science Fiction Television in the United Kingdom 209 Mark Bould Mainstreaming Marginality: Genre, Hybridity, and Postmodernism in The X-Files 231 Lacy Hodges Babylon 5 : Our First, Best Hope for Mature Science Fiction Television 247 Sherryl Vint Stargate SG-1 and the Quest for the Perfect Science Fiction Premise 267 Stan Beeler The Island’s Greatest Mystery: Is Lost Science Fiction? 283 David Lavery PART V. THE LANDING ZONE Where Does Science Fiction Television Go from Here? TV Time Lords: Fan Cultures, Narrative Complexity, and the Future of Science Fiction Television 301 Charles Tryon Further Reading 315 Selected Videography 321 List of Contributors 337 Index 341 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A great many people contributed to the creation of this book and deserve special mention. Foremost among them are the various colleagues who took it on faith that this project would see the light of day and readily agreed to contribute their time and creative efforts. Gary Edgerton, the series editor, encouraged the project and provided very valuable com- mentary on the finished volume. My chair, Ken Knoespel, was his usual supportive self and provided me the leave time needed to move this vol- ume to completion. And my students at Georgia Tech, especially those who have worked in my classes on science fiction and film and televi- sion, proved an invaluable resource, as always. In this group there are many who deserve to be acknowledged, but let me give special thanks to Betsy Gooch, Rory Gordon, Torey Haas, Kevin Hicks, John Swisshelm, and Brad Tucker. I also want to express my appreciation to those at the University Press of Kentucky who contributed at each stage to the creation and production of this text. Leila Salisbury was encouraging and attentive throughout the process. David Cobb oversaw the editing and produc- tion process and managed to keep the project moving at a refreshingly swift pace. Anna Laura Bennett was easily the most conscientious copy- editor with whom I have worked, and she contributed immeasurably to the volume. Will McKay attended to details that I overlooked. This group worked together to make the creation of this volume one of my most pleasant publishing experiences. INTRODUCTION The Trajectory of Science Fiction Television J. P. Telotte Todd Gitlin has suggested that too often today we “take a media-soaked environment for granted . and can no longer see how remarkable it is” (17). Certainly, that observation has much validity for any discus- sion of television, a media form that twenty years ago Mark Crispin Miller had already described as constituting “the very air we breathe” (8). But the point takes on an added weight when we consider science fiction television (SFTV). For although the genre has been a part of broadcast television practically from the medium’s inception, science fiction was early on often perceived as children’s programming or niche fare, and it has seldom enjoyed a dominant place in regular broadcast schedules. In part, it has suffered the same prejudice that, for many years, attached to science fiction literature, which was seldom seen as an equivalent to “serious” fiction and, in fact, as Edward James has observed, was more often dismissed “as escapism” (3). Yet clearly some- thing has changed. Today, in the major television market area where I live, I could watch on a weekly basis as many as twenty-two science fiction series.1 Since television itself is so pervasive, it may well be diffi- cult for many people to “see how remarkable” this relatively recent pro- fusion of “escapist” fare really is or to register that development as anything more than another lamentable sign of cultural debasement. Certainly, it is still hard for many to recognize that the science fiction series might represent an important voice for an increasingly technolo- gized and science-haunted world. But one symptom of that new pres- ence is the very existence of this book, a volume called into being because of this inescapable shift. And a chief aim of this volume is to help us see this phenomenon, place it in context, and better understand it—in short, to remark on a significant cultural development. 1 J. P. Telotte The remarking that follows focuses largely on the dominant form that science fiction has taken on television, the extended series offered on network or cable broadcast. Working from this focus, my collabora- tors and I provide an introduction to the study of SFTV for general readers, for devoted fans of the various series (many of which, like Star Trek, Doctor Who, and The X-Files, have attracted large cult follow- ings), and for more advanced students of the genre. One guiding prin- ciple for this book is to emphasize the development of an independent identity for the televisual form of the genre, which has moved from weak imitations of cinematic science fiction, particularly that model found in the movie serials, to its own mature productions, which have, in turn, now begun to reenvision—and energize—the genre itself, mak- ing it so remarkable today. That maturation is evidenced by the develop- ment of a network specifically devoted to the genre (the Sci-Fi Channel), the increasing migration of television series titles to the big screen (in addition to vice versa), the creation of various spin-off series, and the development of a complex industry devoted to producing novel, comic book, and online continuations of the more successful series—a devel- opment that recalls the dominant role played by the television western in the 1950s. Indeed, given that mature identity and its attendant influ- ence across various media forms, one might well argue that SFTV is now well positioned to become the most influential mode of a genre that has largely managed to cast off the escapist label and has established itself as one of the key mirrors of the contemporary cultural climate.