Science fiction television has evolved since the 1950s. Early anthology series and space operas in the 1950s featured simplistic narratives and characters. In the 1960s, shows began tackling social issues and attracting adult audiences. Pioneering shows of this era were filmed on studio lots using established talent. They embedded anxieties about the Cold War and space race. Between the 1960s and 1990s, sci-fi television explored dystopian futures, alien encounters, time travel, technology, and alternate realities both positively and negatively. Modern sci-fi television mixes genres freely and experiments with narrative structures while maintaining a sense of wonder and interrogating human nature.

1. Science Fiction Television
SFTV’s History - Introduction

2. 1950s SFTV
• Anthology Series
– Less standardization for narrative, but themed
• Space Opera
– Simplistic characters, big plots, big adventure
• Films Serial
– Mini-Series/Movie of the Week

3. Towards the ‘60s
• FIRST:
– SFTV was self-conscious:
advertisers, society
standing, attracting juvenile
audiences
• 1955 & AFTER:
– Direct address for adult
audience  news worthy
– Tackled issues such as race,
gender, and class

4. Pioneers:
• Shot on film (MGM studio
resources)
• Drew from established talent
pool
• Imbedded adult anxieties:
Cold War, Space Race, Media
and Technological overloads
Anthology
1959

5. • Space Adventure (usually with negative outlook)
• Dystopian Futures & Alien Societies
• Alien Encounters and Invasions (rarely peaceful)
• Time and Dimensional Travel
• Gadgets, Inventions, and Innovations
• Alternate realities

6. Pioneers:
• Finding New Land, New Home, New
Hope
• Exploration and Adventure
• Promises:
– Redemption of Humanity
– Hope for Future
– Technology as Beneficial NOT
dangerous
– Promise that Humans are not Alone
 ALLIES!
Space Opera
1966

7. • Space Adventure
– aids and heroes
• Dystopian Futures
– human Saviors
• Utopian Futures
– humans usually are still better at one
thing
• Alien Societies
– teachers, symbols, reminders
• Alien Encounters and Invasions
– usually ending peacefully
• Time and Dimensional Travel
• Gadgets, Inventions, and Innovations
– hardly destructive, rather HELPFUL
• Alternate realities

8. SFTV’s First Golden Age…
Utilizing inspiration from
these pioneers, and the
multitude of stories told in
adaptations of films and
novels seen as Mini-Series
on the small screen Sci-Fi
TV kept interrogating the
human condition.
1963
1965

9. …offspring
Technological Threat
Ordinary People –
Extraordinary Circumstances
Alien Invasion
Comedy
Buddy - Cop Drama

10. PIONEERS: Paranoia Sci-Fi
Exploring Possibilities:
- Supernatural
- Fantasy
- Conspiracy Thriller
- Horror
- Crime Drama
- Comedy
Secrets and Concealment - 1993

11. Paranoid Investigations of “Reality”
• Adventures set in realistic present day
settings
• Preventing Feared Dystopian Futures
– Needs Human Saviors
• Events that are categorized as STRANGE in
realistic environment
• Time and Dimensional Travel
– sometimes through memories only
• Gadgets, Inventions, and Innovations
– often destructive and causal in
foreshadowed destruction
• Alternate Realities, Universes

12. Much of Science Fiction today…
• Free and often inconsistent genre mixing
• Exploring and Experimenting with Narrative
Boundaries
– Chronologies, cause and effects chains, linearity,
character consistency, in-world creation

13. • Sense of wonder and
previous classical
forms of sci-fi are
persistent
• Interrogations of
Human Nature,
History, and Future
Trajectories of
Humanity Remain
Central to the Genre