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Throughout the long running BBC series Doctor Who, the Doctor has
rarely been alone, traveling with both female and male
"companions." The companion is essential to Doctor Who because he
or she is a stand-in for the audience, providing information about
the Doctor's ongoing adventures. With the casting of a female actor
in the role of the Doctor in 2018, one criticism of the series was
finally resolved. After the shift in gender identity, the role of
the Doctor and the companion also shifted--or has it? The continued
focus on romantic relations between the TARDIS occupants has led to
complaints from both male and female fans, reiterating and
reinforcing myriad criticisms about the portrayal of the female
companions. Essays in this book consider how gender is presented in
Doctor Who and how certain female companions have been able to
break out of the gendered roles usually assigned to them through
the classic and new series.
Stories of time travel have been part of science fiction since H.
G. Wells sent his nameless hero hurtling into Earth's distant
future in The Time Machine. Time travel enables the storyteller to
depict alternate realities, bring fictional characters face to face
with historical figures, and depict moral and ethical dilemmas in
which millions of lives (or the world as we know it) are at stake.
From Doctor Who and Quantum Leap to the multiple incarnations of
Star Trek, time travel has been a staple of science fiction
television for more than fifty years. Time-Travel Television: The
Past from the Present, the Future from the Past surveys the whole
range of time travel stories on the small screen. The essays in
this collection explore time travel series both familiar (Babylon
5, Stargate SG-1) and forgotten (The Time Tunnel, Voyagers!), as
well as time-travel themed episodes and arcs in series where it is
not central, such as Red Dwarf, Lost, and Heroes. Contributors to
this volume consider some of the classic themes of time-travel
stories: the promise (and peril) of "fixing" the past, the chance
to experience (and choose) possible futures, and the potential for
small changes to have great effects. Exploring time travel as a
teaching tool, as a vehicle for moral lessons, and as a background
for high adventure, this book offers new perspectives on many
familiar programs and the first serious study of several unjustly
neglected ones. Time-Travel Television is essential reading for
science fiction scholars and fans, and for anyone interested in the
many ways that television brings the fantastic into viewers' living
rooms.
First appearing in Marvel Comics in the 1960s, Natasha Romanoff,
a.k.a. Black Widow, was introduced to movie audiences in Iron Man 2
(2010). Her character has grown in popularity with subsequent
Marvel films, and fans have been vocal about wanting to see Black
Widow in a titular role. Romanoff has potent appeal: a strong
female character who is not defined by her looks or her romantic
relationships, with the skill set of a veteran spyfirst for the
KGB, then for S.H.I.E.L.D. This collection of new essays is the
first to examine Black Widow and her development, from Cold War era
comics to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With diverse contributions from scholars in English literature,
psychology, and film and television studies, this collection of
essays contextualizes Fringe as a postmodern investigation into
what makes us human, and as an examination of how technology
invariably transforms our humanity. The essays provide a
provocative meditation on how a stellar example of science fiction
television comments on the state of personal identity in a 21st
century society dependent on technology that both enlivens and
threatens the individual. In compiling this collection, the editors
sought material as multifaceted as the series itself, devoting
sections to specific areas of interest explored by both the writers
of Fringe and the writers of the essays: humanity, duality, genre,
and viewership. Taken together, the section headings serve as a map
to the many thematic readings the editors and contributors apply to
Fringe.
Though it lasted barely more than a season, Dollhouse continues to
intrigue viewers as one of Joss Whedon's most provocative forays
into series television. The program centered on men and women who
have their memories and personalities repeatedly wiped and replaced
with new ones by a shadowy corporation dedicated to fulfilling the
whims of the rich. This chilling scenario was used to tell stories
about big issues-power and resistance, freedom and servitude, class
and gender-while always returning to its central themes of identity
and individuality. In Joss Whedon's Dollhouse: Confounding Purpose,
Confusing Identity, Sherry Ginn, Alyson Buckman, and Heather M.
Porter have brought together fourteen diverse essays that showcase
the series' complex vision of the future. Contributors probe deeply
into the fictional universe of the show by considering the motives
of the wealthy clients and asking what love means when
personalities are continually remade. Other essays consider the
show's relations to politics, philosophy, psychology, and
representations of race and gender on screen.Several essays explore
the show's complex relationship to transhumanism: considering the
dark potential for dehumanization and abuse that lurks beneath the
promise of turning bodies into temporary vessels for immortal,
downloadable personalities. Though a short-lived series, Dollhouse
has been hailed as one of television's most thoughtful explorations
of classic science-fiction themes. The first serious treatment of
this landmark show, Joss Whedon's Dollhouse will be of interest to
science-fiction scholars and Whedon fans alike.
Reversing a common science fiction cliche, Farscape follows the
adventures of the human astronaut John Crichton after he is shot
through a wormhole into another part of the universe. Here Crichton
is the only human being, going from being a member of the most
intelligent species on our planet to being frequently considered
mentally deficient by the beings he encounters in his new
environment. Crichton befriends a group of beings from various
species attempting to escape from imprisonment aboard a living
spaceship. The series, which broke many of the so-called ""rules""
of science fiction, follows Crichton's attempts to survive in
worlds that are often hostile to him and his friends. Their
adventures centre on each being's attempt to find a way home. The
essays in this volume explore themes running throughout the series,
such as good and evil, love and sex, and what it means to be a
hero, as well as the various characters populating the series,
including the villains and even the ship itself.
This book is a collection of new essays, with the general objective
of filling a gap in the literature about sex and science fiction.
Although some work has been published, none of it is recent. The
essays herein explore the myriad ways in which authors writing in
the genre, regardless of format (e.g., print, film, television,
etc.), envision very different beings expressing this most
fundamental of human behaviors. ""Science fiction"" can be
translated into ""real unreality."" More than a genre like fantasy,
which creates entirely new realms of possibility, science fiction
constructs its possibilities from what is real, from what is,
indeed, possible, or conceivably so. This collection, then, looks
to understand and explore the ""unreal reality,"" to note ways in
which our culture's continually changing and evolving mores of sex
and sexuality are reflected in, dissected by, and deconstructed
through the genre of science fiction.
Ever since the premiere of the small-screen incarnation of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer in 1997, the television worlds of Joss
Whedon--which have grown to include Angel, Firefly, and
Dollhouse--have acquired a cult following of dedicated fans and
inspired curious scholars. The quest for power and control over
humans and other animals is a constant theme running throughout all
four series. This study explores the myriad natural and
supernatural methods Whedon's characters use to achieve power and
control over unsuspecting friends and foes, including witchcraft
and other paranormal means, love, aggression, and scientific
devices such as psychosurgery and psychopharmacology. A catalog of
characters and a complete list of episodes for each series
completes this valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship
on television's ""Whedonverse.
In Our Space, Our Place: Women in the Worlds of Science Fiction
Television, author Sherry Ginn explores the portrayals of female
characters in popular Sci Fi television programs. The programs
examined include The X-Files, Babylon 5, Farscape, Gene
Roddenberry's Andromeda, and all five Star Treks. The major female
characters on each program are discussed with respect to their
quest to establish a sense of identity within their particular
universe, as depicted on their series. By using current
psychological and feminist theories, Ginn skillfully evaluates each
character in terms that best exemplify the search for meaning and
identity in women's lives.
Throughout the long-running BBC series Doctor Who, the Doctor has
rarely been alone-his companions are essential. Male or female,
human or alien, young or old, the dozens of companions who have
travelled with him over the past 50 years have served as
sympathetic proxies for the audience. Through their adventures the
companions are perfected, facing danger and thus discovering their
strengths and weaknesses. Yet they all pay a price, losing their
innocence and sometimes their lives. This collection of new essays
examines the role of the companion as an intermediate between
viewers and the Doctor. The contributors discuss who travels with
the Doctor and why, how they interact, how the companions influence
the narrative and how their journeys change them.
The end of the world may be upon us, but it certainly is taking its
sweet time playing out. The walkers on The Walking Dead have been
"walking" for nearly a decade. There are now dozens of apocalyptic
television shows and we use the "end times" to describe everything
from domestic politics and international conflict, to the weather
and our views of the future. This collection of new essays asks
what it means to live in a world inundated with representations of
the apocalypse. Focusing on such series as The Walking Dead, The
Strain, Battlestar Galactica, Doomsday Preppers, Westworld, The
Handmaid's Tale, they explore how the serialization of the end of
the world allows for a closer examination of the disintegration of
humanity--while it happens. Do these shows prepare us for what is
to come? Do they spur us to action? Might they even be causing the
apocalypse?
Joss Whedon has created plethora of TV series, movies, comics and
one sing-along-blog, all of which focus on societal problems in the
metaphorical guise of monsters-of-the-week and over-arching
big-bads. We examine structural violence through interdimensional
law firm Wolfram & Hart's legal representation of evil. We
explore the limits of consent through the Rossum Corporation's
coercion and manipulation. We rehearse the struggle to find
meaningful freedom from the crew of Serenity. This study traces a
theme of anarchist theory through the multiple strings of the
Whedonverse-all of his works show how ordinary heroes can unite for
the love of humanity to save the world from hierarchy and
paternalism.
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