SCIENCE fiction has boldly gone further than even the story tellers of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome could have ever imagined.
Yet, even so,whether it is beings with superior powers, strange monsters or gods doing dastardly deeds, the basic ninety nine ways of telling a story remain the same.
Even the film, Star Ship Troopers, uses the plot lines that fans of Jane Austin would be familiar with.
Take Mansfield Park, like Starship Troopers. Both are critiques on the social values of the day and how the characters in both stories adjust and grow up in the changing circumstances. In both we are seeing how an outside threat is likely to end the privaleged life of the characters, e.g. the coming of the industrial revolution and the end of earth itself. In both we have a strong female heroin, who grows from a timid girl to a fully confident woman, who saves the day.
Despite the protests from the literati, Science Fiction is literature we should be proud of. In fact, the likes of Shakespeare would be impressed by how their basic plot lines have been developed into often very sophisticated stories, where often several story
lines are interwoven by the writers to keep the active interest of the reader/viewer or listener.
Take Romeo and Juliet, itself a reworking of The
Brothers, by Roman dramatist Terence. The tale has been used in the original series of Star Trek, with Captain Kirk in the Romeo role and in a recent
episode of Star Gate with Amanda Tapping in her Lt. Samantha Carter role playing Juliet.
Such reworking has brought much more depth to the character involved, than Shakespeare ever achieved.
As to the themes used in today’s science fiction, in many ways they are the same as in ancient times, but perhaps with a new twist. There are the usual politics and personalities, as in many a recent film including the latest Super Man and X Men films, with love and sex, most notably portrayed by Jane Fonda in Barbarella. While Star Gate’s underlying themes are a mix of mythology of ancient times with the clash of the struggle, mankind has undergone with religion. In fact, the latest series is in many ways a reflection of today’s trouble in the real world.
Just as our heroes in Star Gate fight the religious fanaticism of the Ori, the West in the real world has to tackle the extremism of the Middle East.
The similarities between the real world and the virtual world do not end there. Just as in America and Saudi Arabia its rulers use religion to control its citizens. In Star Gate an alien race called the Goa’uld pretend to be gods and use religion to lead their subject races.
An interesting development is the growing importance of the villain in science fiction; instead of the simplistic characterization portrayed in Shakespeare’s Shylock, we see more rounded characters. Take Baal a Goa’uld, the ‘baddy’ in Star Gate played by Cliff Simon. Here we see a person with real feelings, highly intelligent, often having the best lines, facing the issues anyone who seeks to rule the galaxy would face. It certainly is a change
from the whimpering we see in Jane Austin’s Mr. D’Arcy character.
As for the heroes in these stories, we are at last seeing more rounded people, not dull, almost god like, beings. Take Superman in his latest film, where
we see that even a super hero has his problems, including his loves and hates. It is nice to see that our heroes are less than perfect.
The Star Trek Voyager series is a modern version of Odysseus and his quest with his crew to return
home, but in today’s stories we see more of the interplay between characters than we did in the ancient tales, where our heroes were more a collection of tourists on a cruise of the Greek islands. Instead we get more vibrant personalities with their own feelings, more a mix of hard playing
adventurous mercenaries all out for adventure, sex and money, rather than the so called sensibilities of Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibilities.
For those actors who resist the temptations of Science Fiction, they risk being stuck in a very unrewarding career, while for those prepared to take
the plunge, Science Fiction is an amazingly lucrative way to expand their repertoire. Take Patrick Stewart; before he stared in Star Trek as Captain Pickard, he was an unknown, but today he is a star able to demand top dollar and be choosy which roles he wishes to take. In fact the same can be said for the original Star Trek team. Take Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy who played a highly intelligent, moral, logical and scientific alien who could convey more meaning in a raise of his eyebrow than Johnny Depp can do in his
latest Pirate movie.
One suspects that the primary reason science fiction is so popular is its pro-science, optimistic ‘can do’ format, rather than the self absorbing pessimism present in much of traditional literature today.
BY NICHOLAS NEWMAN, EDITOR OXFORDPROSPECT.CO.UK