E220: American Science Fiction

Office: 439 Shilling, Phone: 424-5096, Email: moconner@mail.millikin.edu

Cultural, Social Philosophical Issues and Major Themes to be considered:

Sci-Fi and the Western/Frontier theme - Sci-Fi as the American Frontier

• all the Star Trek series (famous quote: "To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before")
• all the Babylon 5 series
• Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series
• Heinlein, Have Spacesuit Will Travel
• LeGuin's "Nine Lives"
• Brin's The Postman
• Outland (1981 movie)

Absolute power corrupting absolutely

• Outer Limits: "The Man with the Power"
• Star Trek TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
• LeGuin, Lathe of Heaven

Fear and Hatred of the Other/Outsider/communists - Alien Invasions!

• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 movie)
• Star Trek TOS: "The Devil in the Dark"
• Aliens movies (1979, 1986, 1992, 1997)
• The War of the Worlds (1953 movie)
• Sturgeon's "Occam's Scalpel"
• Card, Ender's Game

Children-Youth and Futuristic Wars

• Card, Ender's Game
• Card, Ender's Shadow

War, Conflict, Struggle - Darwinian natural selection?

• Star Trek TOS: "Errand of Mercy" (1967)-Klingons vs. Federation
• Card's Ender's Game
• Star Trek Voyager: "Prey"
• Star Wars movies (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999)
• Star Trek TOS "The Doomsday Machine"
• Star Trek TOS: "Balance of Terror" -Kirk vs. Romulans
• H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (1960 movie)
• H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1953 movie)
• Alien movies
• Haldeman's The Forever War

Cyberpunk-merging mind, plugging into the "net" and internet

• Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic"
• The Matrix (1999 movie)
• Tron (1982 movie)
• Gibson's Neuromancer
• Stephenson's Snowcrash
• Stephenson's The Diamond Age

The Struggle between Good and Evil (or Order and Chaos)

• all Star Wars movies
• many Star Trek episodes
• Babylon 5 series

Fear of technology: Cyborgs, Robots, Super-computers

• Aldiss, "Super Toys Last All Summer Long"
• AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001 movie)
• Asimov's "The Life and Times of Multivac"
• Asimov's "The Last Question"
• Star Trek episodes dealing with The Borg
• X-Men: the Movie (2000 movie)
• X-Men Comics
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (HAL computer) (1968 movie)

Fear of effects of Nuclear Radiation/Atomic Bomb

• Godzilla (1956 movie) and about a dozen other movies by director Honda
• Them! (1954 movie)
• The Cyclops (1957 movie)
• The Deadly Mantis (1957 movie)
• The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957 movie)
• On the Beach (1959 movie)
• The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961 movie)

Biology, genetics, cloning, biological manipulation

• LeGuin's "Nine Lives"
• Simak's "Desertion"
• Shelley's Frankenstein
• Gattaca (1997 movie)
• The Andromeda Strain (1971 movie)

Alternate Histories/Alternate Realities or Planes of Existence

• Star Trek TOS: "Mirror Mirror"
• Star Trek Voyager: "Waking Moments" (dreams)
• Dick's The Man in the High Castle

Future Governments and Politics

• Asimov's "The Life and Times of Mulitvac"
• Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
• Ing's "Down and Out on Ellfive Prime"

Feminism, Gender and Sexuality

• LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness
• LeGuin, "Nine Lives"
• Willis, "Even the Queen"
• Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
• Aliens (1986 movie)

Racial Identity, Slavery and Humanity

• Star Trek TOS: "Let that be your Last Battlefield" (what is race?)
• Star Trek TNG: "Measure of the Man" (AI - andriod - is Data man or possession?)
• Star Trek Voyager: "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" (AI - holograph)
• Brin's Uplift series (dolphins, apes with intellegence)
• Pohl's "The Day the Martians Came"

The Environment and Environmental Issues

• Star Trek IV (1986 movie): The Journey Home
• David Brin's Earth
• Brin, Uplift Series
• Schenck's "Send Me a Kiss by Wire"

Sci-Fi and Religion/Mythology or Religion versus Science/Evolution

• Star Trek TOS: "Who Mourns for Adonais?"--/Greek or Eden myth, Humankind must struggle, "shaggy god story"
• Star Trek TOS: "This Side of Paradise"
• Clarke's "The Star" a shaggy god story
• Asimov's "The Last Question"
• Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz
• Asimov's "The Life and Times of Mulitvac" (Eden imagery/computer as god)
• All Star Wars movies (mythology)

Utopias and Dystopias and Post-Apocalyptic Futures

• Heinlein's "It's Great to be Back"
• Wells' The Time Machine
• Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
• Logan's Run (1976 movie)
• LeGuin's Lathe of Heaven
• Asimov's "The Life and Times of Multivac"
• Mad Max movies
• Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz
• Terminator movies
• LeGuin, Lathe of Heaven

Time Travel/Time Paradoxes--

• famous quote: "Temporal mechanics--I hate temporal mechanics."--Chief O'Brian from Deep Space Nine
• Poul Anderson's "Kyrie"
• Kuttner and Moore's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"
• Benford's "Relativistic Effects"
• Star Trek TOS: "City on the Edge of Forever"
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996 movie)
• H.G. Wells The Time Machine
• Star Trek TNG: "Cause and Effect"
• Star Trek TNG: "Time's Arrow"
• Haldeman's The Forever War
• Twelve Monkeys (1995 movie)

Doomsday Machines (Mutually Assured Destruction)

famous sci-fi quote: "Klattu, barada nikto."

• Dr. Strangelove (1964 movie)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 movie) (Gort, the robot policeman)
• Star Trek TOS: "The Doomsday Machine"
• Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979 movie)
• War Games (1983 movie)
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991 movie)
• Colossus: The Forbin Project (1971 movie)

First Contact (with alien races) - related to historical imperialism, Western assimilation/attacks on indiginous peoples, whole issue of the "Prime Directive"
See my lecture on this subject

• Dickson, "Dolphin's Way
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 movie) (Gort, the robot policeman)
• many Star Trek, "Prime Directive" discussions
• Star Trek, First Contact (1996 movie)
• Card, Ender's Game
• Star Trek Enterprise: "Dear Doctor" (2002)

Other Theme Listings

• Essay on Sci Fi Themes
• Themes
• Sci Fi and RELIGION
• Sci Fi Themes
• SF Research GuideNY Public Library