The Science Wars and Stargate SG-1: an exploration of science within science fiction television

Abstract

This thesis is about the representation of science in Western popular culture. More specifically, this thesis examines the presence of themes related to the Science Wars within the science fiction television (SFTV) series Stargate: SG-1 (1997-2007). There are four principal reasons why SG-1 was selected: firstly, its production and broadcast coincide roughly with the period in which the Science Wars took place; secondly, as long-form narrative television fiction, the 10 seasons act as one coherent and integrated story; thirdly, the nature of the series with its focus on cultural interactions, the two cultures, and science provides clear links to the context; and finally, despite being the longest running North American SFTV series, SG-1 has received less academic attention than a series of its popularity and complexity warrants. The thesis argues that representations of science within the series can be more fully understood by examining them in the context of the Science Wars. Analysis of the presence of arguments and ideas related to the Science Wars in SG-1 demonstrates how such complex intellectual exchanges and debates have a place in popular culture and can be understood and illuminated through new articulations. In so doing it hopes to cast light on the role and nature of science in SFTV more generally. The term ‘Science Wars’ is here used to refer to the series of exchanges occurring quite publically in the 1990s and early-2000s between critics of science arguing that scientific knowledge is a cultural construction, and those who challenged such a view (mostly professional scientists) by defending the objectivity and special status of science. The Science Wars offers a context of debate to look at the different images of science in SG-1. As will be shown, the series is not simply reflective of a particular image of science but part of the debate in the sense that it navigates the complex role and position of science in contemporary Western culture and society. Through textual and aesthetic analysis of SG-1, this thesis demonstrates that there are multiple points of overlap between the series and the debates that form the Science Wars. From the concept of truth as culturally constructed, to the two cultures debates, and the integration of science and the military, many significant themes join the series to the context of the Science Wars. Furthermore, the contribution to thinking about these topics and issues made by SG-1 has been analysed in relation to the series’ long-form serial structure. Through the ability to offer episodic narratives that also interrelate to, play off, and sometime subvert other episodes, SG-1 produces complex engagements with questions concerning the status and role of science in contemporary society. Additionally, the SF identity of the series also allows it to represent science overall as something dynamic and changing, something that is integrated into cultural ways of thinking, and that is used to interpret new experiences and phenomena.