The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader

Abstract

While there is a significant critical literature on science fiction in cinema, on the small screen it has been less well served by academia. Accounts of television science fiction – with a few notable exceptions1 – have tended to be the preserve of fans and enthusiasts, whose work is characterized by passion if not necessarily by scholarly rigour. Given the scarcity of work in this field, any new study is to be welcomed; but the most impressive feature of The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader is not merely that it plugs a gap but that it does so in an informed, enlightening and, for the most part, highly engaging manner. Editor J.P. Telotte has a good track record with two previous monographs on science fiction cinema,2 and his contributors represent a broad range of multidisciplinary specialisms, including literature, cultural studies, feminist theory, and film and media studies. Thirteen of the sixteen contributors hold posts at North American universities and this is reflected in the contents of the volume, focused largely on US television. This is understandable enough – US series such as Star Trek (1966–69), The X Files (1993–2002), Battlestar Galactica (2004–09) and Lost (2004– ) have become part of an international television landscape through export and global syndication – though it would have been useful to include more non-US examples for comparison. The exceptions are chapters on Japanese anime television by Dennis Redmond, and the history of British science fiction television by Mark Bould, which both offer broad-brush surveys. This is a minor criticism, however, and at least British science fiction television has been served by its own anthology.3