Science Fiction Television
SFTV’s History - Introduction
1950s SFTV
• Anthology Series
– Less standardization for narrative, but themed
• Space Opera
– Simplistic characters, big plots, big adventure
• Films Serial
– Mini-Series/Movie of the Week
Towards the ‘60s• FIRST:
– SFTV was self-conscious: advertisers, society standing, attracting juvenile audiences
• 1955 & AFTER:– Direct address for adult
audience news worthy– Tackled issues such as race,
gender, and class
Pioneers:
• Shot on film (MGM studio resources)
• Drew from established talent pool
• Imbedded adult anxieties: Cold War, Space Race, Media and Technological overloads
Anthology1959
• Space Adventure (usually with negative outlook)• Dystopian Futures & Alien Societies • Alien Encounters and Invasions (rarely peaceful)• Time and Dimensional Travel• Gadgets, Inventions, and Innovations• Alternate realities
Pioneers:
• Finding New Land, New Home, New Hope
• Exploration and Adventure• Promises:
– Redemption of Humanity– Hope for Future– Technology as Beneficial NOT
dangerous– Promise that Humans are not Alone ALLIES!
Space Opera
1966
• Space Adventure – aids and heroes
• Dystopian Futures – human Saviors
• Utopian Futures – humans usually are still better at one
thing
• Alien Societies – teachers, symbols, reminders
• Alien Encounters and Invasions – usually ending peacefully
• Time and Dimensional Travel• Gadgets, Inventions, and Innovations
– hardly destructive, rather HELPFUL
• Alternate realities
SFTV’s First Golden Age…
Utilizing inspiration from these pioneers, and the
multitude of stories told in adaptations of films and
novels seen as Mini-Series on the small screen Sci-Fi TV kept interrogating the
human condition.1963
1965
…offspring
Technological Threat
Ordinary People –Extraordinary Circumstances
Alien Invasion
Comedy
Buddy - Cop Drama
Exploring Possibilities:- Supernatural- Fantasy- Conspiracy Thriller- Horror- Crime Drama- Comedy
Secrets and Concealment - 1993
PIONEERS: Paranoia Sci-Fi
Paranoid Investigations of “Reality”• Adventures set in realistic present day
settings • Preventing Feared Dystopian Futures
– Needs Human Saviors
• Events that are categorized as STRANGE in realistic environment
• Time and Dimensional Travel – sometimes through memories only
• Gadgets, Inventions, and Innovations – often destructive and causal in
foreshadowed destruction
• Alternate Realities, Universes
Much of Science Fiction today…
• Free and often inconsistent genre mixing
• Exploring and Experimenting with Narrative Boundaries
– Chronologies, cause and effects chains, linearity, character consistency, in-world creation
• Sense of wonder and previous classical forms of sci-fi are persistent
• Interrogations of Human Nature, History, and Future Trajectories of Humanity Remain Central to the Genre