Christianity in Science Fiction Films

Two quick thoughts about this article by Benjamin Plotinsky about Christian allegory in science fiction (via Cliff Pickover's Twitter.) One, Plotinsky is mostly talking about science fiction on screen, not science fiction as a genre of literature. I would hardly consider myself a scholar of science fiction cinema, but as a genre, most of its products are either entirely derivative of sci-fi literature, or not derivative at all in that they are merely more or less thoughtful action movies set in the future or using technology in a manner that's particular appropriate to works on the big screen (for bigger explosions, CGI robots, sweeping space vistas, etc., etc.) For that reason, one can hardly consider sci-fi cinmea to be representative of science fiction in particular, let a lone a stand alone genre, so to write an article that talks about both but at the outset fails to distinguish between them is in my opinion a gross error.

Second, while Plotinsky's article is even-handed it's clear he welcomes Christian influences in sci-fi films in general. But the movie he references are hardly evidence that this trend has done anything to improve sci-fi films. The Matrix trilogy was widely panned for it's completely unoriginal deneoument, where the hero Neo sacrifices himself in an Christ-like manner for the good of those he is trying to save. The new Star Wars films also suffer for Christian influence; the reference to Anakin's "virgin birth" is criticized as being illogical and inconsistent with prior explanations of "the force" in earlier films. And while I'm not sure how much this opinion is shared by fans of the show, I believe that the recent incarnation of Battlestar Galactica suffered greatly from its overtly religious overtones, which were frequently ham-handed and over the top.

Without a doubt there's room for Christianity in science fiction. Try reading someone like Gene Wolfe if you don't believe me. And religion in general has been deeply mined by science fiction authors like Frank Herbert. But science fiction filmmakers have, for reasons that I believe are largely related to the medium itself, failed to handle Christianity or religion in general nearly as thoughtfully or convincingly. It would seem to me that sci-fi films are largely in need of a break from ham-handed Christian allegory.

Ricardo Montalban Dies

I know he was in a ton of other films and TV shows, but I will never forget him for two things: his role as Roark in the oddly compelling Fantasy Island that I used to watch as a kid, and his role as Khan in both the original Star Trek series and the fantastic movie Wrath of Khan, where he was-in my opinion at least-one of the most compelling on-screen villains of all time. Really though, I could watch him in just about anything he's ever done.

So Sad

From Topless Robot, a compilation of the various and sundry deaths of Star Trek security personnel (the famous "redshirts"). I counted 37 sad and hilarious deaths.

Hype

You've probably heard the story about the massive panic inspired by Orson Welles' legendary 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds. Professor Michael J. Socolow says it just didn't happen the way everybody thinks it did (via Nick Gillespie at Hit & Run):

The "War of the Worlds" broadcast remains enshrined in collective memory as a vivid illustration of the madness of crowds and the deeply invasive nature of broadcasting. The program seemingly proved that radio could, in the memorable words of Marshall McLuhan, turn "psyche and society into a single echo chamber." The audience's reaction clearly illustrated the perils of modernity. At the time, it cemented a growing suspicion that skillful artists — or incendiary demagogues — could use communications technology to capture the consciousness of the nation. It remains the prime example used by media critics, journalists, and professors to prove the power of the media.

Yet the media are not as powerful as most think, and the real story behind "The War of the Worlds" is a bit more complex. The panic was neither as widespread nor as serious as many have believed at the time or since.

Nobody died of fright or was killed in the panic, nor could any suicides be traced to the broadcast. Hospital emergency-room visits did not spike, nor, surprisingly, did calls to the police outside of a select few jurisdictions. The streets were never flooded with a terrified citizenry. Ben Gross, the radio columnist of the New York Daily News, later remembered a "lack of turmoil in front of CBS" that contrasted notably with the crowded, chaotic scene inside the building. Telephone lines in New York City and a few other cities were jammed, as the primitive infrastructure of the era couldn't handle the load, but it appears that almost all the panic that evening was as ephemeral as the nationwide broadcast itself, and not nearly as widespread. That iconic image of the farmer with a gun, ready to shoot the aliens? It was staged for Life magazine.

Socolow blames a media that fell in love with the story, Welles' own tendencies towards self-aggrandizement, and a really bad telephone survey. Revise your collective memory accordingly.

Weak, Lame and Pointless

Charlie Anders at io9 brings us his all-inclusive list of the "12 Weakest Deaths in Science Fiction History."If you are a sci-fi nerd in the slightest you are already familiar with the controversially meaningless deaths of Boba Fett, Cpl. Hicks from the "Alien" franchise, Cyclops in X-Men 3 (and possibly, The Lone Gunmen.) As I explained to friends in an email, I thought at first that Cyclops perfunctory death at the beginning of X-Men 3 (in a manner that served no possible plot purpose) was the most infuriating and should've been ranked #1, until I remembered that Cyclops (as portrayed in the movies...and the comic books for the most part) was a complete tool, whereas Cpl. Hicks was completely awesome and was killed in a manner that didn't even necessitate him being in Alien 3, the movie he was killed in. 

The SciFi "Classics"

John Scalzi, author of "Old Man's War" (which I reviewed here) has a post over the AMC SciFi Scanner blog discussing why many of the "classic" films of the SciFi genre are actually not very good movies. And he's spot-on:

...science fiction films -- like science fiction literature -- value the idea over the idea's delivery system. So if you deliver a 150-foot reptile who is the embodiment of the mid-20th Century fear of nuclear annihilation (like Gojira), or tap into the Baby Boomer terror of the death of its own beautiful youth (a la Logan's Run), you can get away with letting a lot of other stuff slide, like plot, acting and production design.

This is so obviously true that it's painful. It's a problem for sci-fi geeks, many of whom are willing to let slide fundamental problems with a movie as long as the central concept is exciting and interesting (people as food, eh?) Of course the willingness to sacrifice a little form for the sake of idea is no less true of written science fiction as well, but though science fiction books may be dominated by novels barely worth the paper they're written on, the "classics" of written science fiction include works by the likes of Frank Herbert and Gene Wolfe, works that obtain the high rank of "literature" beyond the genre of science fiction. The problem with science fiction movies is the problem of movies in general, that it's far easier to turn out crappy movies than it is to turn out thoughtful and challenging movies, whatever the genre. The peculiarities of science fiction make this an even bigger problem for movies, where lazy screenwriters, producers and directors can simply fit in more monsters, more lasers and more giant spaceships and American audiences will eat it up, just like the eat up all the other tripe that filmmakers turn out to get butts in the theater.

Of course, the situation isn't entirely hopeless. Despite this dynamic thoughtful filmmakers manage to turn out thoughtful films that are undoubtedly science fiction, like "Solaris" or "Blade Runner" or "2001." And some filmmakers manage to make good science fiction movies even if they are filled with monsters, like "Alien" or giant spaceships and lasers, like "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (by far the best Star Trek movie ever, and an all around great movie.) So there's hope, as long as you're willing to wait every few years or so for one of these quality films to sneak into the theater.

Non Sequiter

I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that as a boy, I fell in love with the Elfquest books authored by Wendy and Richard Pini, depicting a brutal alternative pre-historical Earth in which elves are actually descendants of an alien race stranded on Earth in a long-ago accident, are mostly hostile to humans, and are engaged in protracted conflict with the trolls who were once their servants. I can't count how many times I read the first four graphic novels (comprised of the comics originally issued in the late 1970's) but somehow never managed to move beyond those. So I'm quite pleased to read that in celebration of the series 30'th birthday, the Pinis are making every issue of Elfquest ever printed available online for free. In my free time, I plan on indulging in some nostalgia for my boyhood years and catching up on the doings of Cutter and his band of Wolfriders.

Arthur C. Clarke Dies

The world of science fiction has lost its elder statesman:

Clarke had been wheelchair-bound for several years with complications stemming from a youthful bout with polio and had suffered from back trouble recently, said Scott Chase, the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation.

He died early Wednesday -- Tuesday afternoon ET -- at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s, Chase said.

"He had been taken to hospital in what we had hoped was one of the slings and arrows of being 90, but in this case it was his final visit," he said.

In a videotaped 90th birthday message to fans, Clarke said he still hoped to see some sign of intelligent life beyond Earth, more work on alternatives to fossil fuels -- and "closer to home," an end to the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and ethnic Tamil separatists.

Clarke's contributions to the world of science fiction-and the imagination of young boys and girls-is simply unfathomable. He is best known as the writer of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and its sequels, but he is also well known for novels such as "Rendezvous with Rama" and "Childhood's End" (one of my all-time science fiction favorites) and he will be remembered as one of the greatest authors not only of the "Golden Age" of Science Fiction, but of all time. I doubt I'm speaking for us here alone when I say that he will be dearly, dearly missed.

UPDATE: The NY Times has a good portrait of Clarke's life and work here.

For You Nerds

Via Jim Henley, we learn that Tor, the publisher of SciFi/Fantasy books by an array of noteworthy authors (Robert Jordan included) is offering free e-books to those who sign up for a newsletter as part of a promotional effort for their new website. Tor picks the books of course, and it's only for a limited time, but a free book is still a free book, right? And though we don't typically do free advertising for other people, we figure the nerds in our fanbase deserve to hear about an offer like this, and anyway we're just nice like that.