I’d like to weigh in, briefly, on your comment/question about the genre of science fiction tv shows. I don’t pretend to know much at all, however, when I think about some of the real groundbreaking sci-fi tv shows (namely Star Trek) I can’t help but think that it’s a vastly important facet of science fiction as a whole. Someone mentioned in class the other day about the foreshadowing of technology-to-come. The show prophesied the invention of the mobile telephone was it? That makes me think also of 2001: a space odyssey. I know it’s not a tv show; however it did some technology prediction as well. We see the first hint of video conferencing in this film. So sci-fi tv shows and movies have a history of presenting their audience with technologies they have never even dreamed of but one day will utilize on a daily basis.
I’d also like to throw out a question. Where do we place the tv show Lost? Can we call that science fiction? There is certainly some weird supernatural/spiritual stuff going on there; but there’s definitely a theme of science/scientists (Dharma Initiative) sort of messing around in areas they shouldn’t really be messing around in. Oh, and there’s time travel. If we can call this sci-fi (and I think we can), then I’d like to argue again that science fiction television shows are an integral, irreplaceable part of science fiction on the whole. I believe Lost will live in the memory as one of the most engaging, challenging, touching, thrilling, chilling, thought-provoking shows perhaps ever to be produced.