With Promethusout and breaking Box Office records, it’s worth looking at the sci-fi genre.
Sci-Fi or science fiction in its fullest form is a movie, game and comic book genre. Sci-Fi refers to invented content, normally set in the future, featuring futuristic technology and science. It has everything to do with plausible science e.g. space travel and funnily enough science theory including aliens, killer robots and space theory.
Sci-fi is considered by many to be the ‘geeky’ genre, as it deals with aliens, robots, space, mutants, teleportation, ray guns, time travel and worm holes, dragons, elves, zombies. All this can be considered intellectual, but also rather geeky, as it strays outside the understanding of a typical, plausible solid action or romantic comedy film.
Sci-fi has been called nerdy, geeky, futuristic cowboys and medieval. But the best thing about sci-fi is that it contains all these and more.
Sci-fi is a genre that stands on its own, but it encompasses all the other genres that we know and love; including romance, action, comedy, thriller, horror and adventure. The stories can take place on or off our world, and have whatever story line they choose. However because they take place outside our world this brings in the adventure element and also the thriller element because we get scared and excited for them. No story would be complete without a romance and jokes to calm the air, in intense alien attacks. All this is true when looking at Supernatural, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Lord of the Rings. They all have the other genres packed in with them because the highs and lows are more intense, because the nature of the situation is more intense.
The thing about sci-fi is that the forth wall is taken out. The reality that all the other genres have is gone; this leaves us with fantasy and sci-fi. We are able, with this genre, to move between all the others and continue with the science fiction idea because the forth wall of reality is taken out. If reality does not exist that leaves us with an infinite number of possibilities. Aliens, robots, supernatural, medieval, all becomes possible and plausible, because we the audience are entering something that is not solid; thus our minds are open to any and all possibilities. You could throw anything at a sci-fi audience and they will eat it up and enjoy it because they don’t have to worry about things being realistic and making sense in the world as we know it.
This is true when looking at the origin of sci-fi. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein has been re-imagined time and time again, and though a heart breaking metaphor about her miscarriages and giving birth, who would really believe a story about a man stitching pieces of human flesh together to create a monster? We accept this story is fiction, made up, and that way we are able to think it plausible that someone can do this.
This is the same with War of the Worlds. The havoc this caused in reality, looking back, was hilarious. Orson Wells used reality and then took away the reality in the story, to bring in the alien invasion. People believed Orson Wells because he is a human speaking to us in the manner of a presenter on the radio. The reality and trust we have for radio announces and their news was immense. There was no internet or TV to back up the information, so the play on real reality with a fictional story was brilliant.
The believability as well of Orson Wells’ story has been used many times in history, with people playing hoaxes of alien landings. People are so quick to believe these stories, because deep inside, the fiction of it is something we all want. It makes the world less solid, less real, that something fictional can be part of our world. This makes the world seem smaller and bigger, ironically, smaller than an alien would come here from millions of miles away and we are not the only ones out there, but bigger that it would choose us out of all the planets and galaxies in the universe.
All the fantasy and fiction makes our world less of what it is. We can bend the reality of our world a bit, which makes it less harsh. In turn we are less real, our lives are less solid and the world around us can be compromised. This is good as we get sick of our world being so solid and unchangeable; so sci-fi fantasy lets us leave our world to drift in to a new one, letting us for a brief time be away from ourselves.
This is the same reason why people love magic tricks so much. Magic is an illusion and through it, it can break the reality that we know. Whether it is gravity, scientifically or mind based, the fact that magicians break the wall of reality in the illusion and perform things not physically possible, makes the world less solid and we love it because of that!
In turn to this sci-fi fans are so dedicated because the reality is taken out. They are transported to Hobbiton, Alderaan, Vulcan, places that are beyond our world. We love it so much because it is not part of our world; it is not the solid walls and tables that we see. It is somewhere else, somewhere far away and movies, games, comic books, TV series all transport us to this special place; where we can forget about the reality that we live in and be a part of someone else’s world for a while.
Reality and the breakdown of them are very important in sci-fi. The use of humans firstly is something that is interesting. The reason why we love sci-fi so much is because there are humans. We as humans instantly have a connection to the humans on the screen and we instantly, as a human, give our emotions and sympathies to them. We then get to know the characters and make a judgement call on them, but we instantly have an attraction to them because they are human and we want them to survive and prevail for the right of all of us.
This works in Star Wars because there are strange looking aliens, thus we root for Han, Luke and Leia because they are human. We do not root for Darth Vader, though he is a human, we do not see his skin, his eyes his hands. Masking himself in black gives off the instant idea of wrong and hate and darkness, but also he looks less human, with his unearthly heavy breathing and black exterior, that at first we do not care for him.
The Jedi’s are also something that we connect with. They are humans, two eyes, two ears, a mouth, normal height and weight, but they posses sort of supernatural powers, also known as ‘the force’. This makes us LOVE them, as they are like us but have something that we would love; thus our affection for the Jedi and their pursuit of justice is something we get behind.
This is true in Star Trek as well; James T Kirk is what we expect in a male human captain, strong, funny and emotional. The move to make Spock half man half human was brilliant. If Spock was all Vulcan he would get on our nerves, as an uptight know it all, but his human, emotional side makes him an even better character than Kirk. He is human so he is one of us, but he is an alien, so he is superior. Spock also invites us in to his world and this makes it better. The wall of reality is broken, and we get a new world, something to be explored. This proves genius as exploring a different country and culture is amazing, but exploring an alien race is even better, because we can get away from our world for a bit; but from the comfort of our home, so we enjoy the exploration more. Spock being half alien half human, means that Vulcan is somewhat our home as well, as we are human same as him.
In Supernatural we have a lot of bad demons, spirits, vampires, werewolves out there. But Sam and Dean are human so we root for them. Even with Sam being a bit different, he is still human; so we cheer and cry for and with them the whole time. Their dynamic as brothers is flawless and we wouldn’t want anyone else.
This is similar in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy and her friends are human, and even though Willow ventures in to witchcraft and Angel is a vampire, their appearance is human, and after getting to know their personality we love them all.
It seems being envious of these characters is something that is not mentioned. The devotion to these characters is amazing, with Jedi being a certified religion, Hobbiton and actual place and Supernatural being voted back time and time again, quite intensely.
Especially with the recent craze of superhero movies, sci-fi is more main stream now, with people really eating up these movies. They present a world, like ours, but with more interesting things going on; thus the similarity of humans and city makes it seem like our world, but not, we are safe but we still get a kick from these movies.
This brings in the idea of place. With most space movies we are taken out of world, which is good because we can get away from it for a while. Earth is always apparent in these space movies, it is base, home, something very precious to us that we can never forget about. The relationship with home in shows such as Up and Battlestar Galactica is immense, it really is human identity.
With shows like Supernatural it takes place in America and uses very real information, so we feel close to the events and characters.
With the most recent one being Game of Thrones, being compared to England. With Newcastle being Winterfell and Kings Landing as London, we feel like we can relate to how the characters are and act and do because it is so close to our reality.
As well with The Walking Dead it takes places in our reality and we relate closely to it and the characters because it seems real, and theyre really showing us to act in this situation.
There are conventions, comics, movies, books, games, trading cards, memorabilia all devoted to this genre. Overall the sci-fi genre represents something that consumes us completely. It consumes all other genres, it consumes our time, our imagination, our world and leaves us uplifted by the broken reality that feeds us things we can only imagine.
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