Science fictional doubles: Technologization of the doppelgänger and sinister science in serial science fiction TV

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on iterations of the double in science fiction television (SFTV) of the 2010s and in particular how four recent series attest to both the increasing technologization of the doppelgänger and concomitant representations of science and scientists as tending towards the sinister. Each of the shows analysed here – Fringe (2008–13), Continuum (2012–15), Äkta människor (Real Humans) (2012–14) and Orphan Black (2014–17) – feature, to varying degrees, doubles of human characters that owe their fictional existence to formative scientific/technological breakthroughs. I will discuss how this recourse to science – including quantum physics, time travel, robotics and genetics – serves to technologize and thus reconfigure the double, while at the same time (re)producing powerful representations of science and scientists that tap into broader cultural memes. These include the archetypal mad scientist, corporatized and militarized science, science driven by utilitarianism and science in service to sinister conspiracy.