From Doctor Who to Red Dwarf, Thunderbirds to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, some of the most memorable and cherished British television has been in the area of science fiction.This pioneering book, by leading writers in TV history and science fiction, offers for the first time a detailed national survey of this most well-loved of TV genres and provides in-depth reassessments of these shows, as well as others including Threads, Sapphire and Steel, Invasion: Earth and The Last Train. The volume argues that British science fiction television, too often in the past critically derided for the quality of its special effects compared to American equivalents such as Star Trek--deserves to be taken seriously as a legitimate object of cultural analysis, both in terms of its ambition and ideas and its value in illuminating wider aspects of recent social and cultural history. The book also features a contribution from an acclaimed biographer of the late Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as well as an exclusive published interview with Thunderbirds creator and producer Gerry Anderson.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'British SF TV is often dismissed "as laughably cheap" in comparison with big-budget series such as Star Trek. This excellent volume sets the record straight.' - The Guardian
About the Author
John R. Cook is Senior Lecturer in Mass Media at Glasgow Caledonian University and the author of Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen (1995; 1998).
Peter Wright is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Film Studies at Edge Hill College of Higher Education and the author of Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader (2003).
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An interesting look at the subject,
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This review is from: British Science Fiction Television: A Hitchhiker's Guide (Popular TV Genres) (Paperback)
Directed at academic audiences, this collection looks at British science fictional television at key points in its history as presented in representative productions. The collection opens with an overview provided by the editors. Complete contents are as follows:1 John R. Cook and Peter Wright--'Futures past' : an introduction to and brief survey of British science fiction television 2 James Chapman--QUARTERMASS and the origins of British television sf 3 Nicholas J. Cull---Tardis at the OK Corral : DOCTOR WHO and the USA 4 Sue Short--Countering the counterculture : The PRISONER and the 1960s 5 John R. Cook--The age of Aquarius : utopia and anti-utopia in late 1960s' and early 1970s' British science fiction television 6 Nicholas J. Cull--The man who make THUNDERBIRDS: an interview with Gerry Anderson 7 Andy Sawyer--Everyday life in the post-catastrophe future : Terry Nation's SURVIVORS 8 David Seed--TV docudrama and the nuclear subject : THE WAR GAME, THE DAY AFTER and THREADS 9 Una McCormack--Resist the host : BLAKE'S 7--a very British future 10 Peter Wright--Echoes of discontent : conservative politics and SAPPHIRE AND STEEL 11 M. J. Simpson--Counterpointing the surrealism of the underlying metaphor in THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 12 Elyce Rae Helford--'OK, homeboys, let's posse!' : masculine anxiety, gender, race and class in RED DWARF 13 Catriona Miller--British apocalypses now - or then? : THE UNIVITED, INVASION: EARTH and THE LAST TRAIN 14 Further reading
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
As this volume hopes to illustrate in abundance, British science fiction (or sf) television is a fascinating, if under-researched, area of media and cultural criticism. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nuclear subject, science fiction television, homo superiors, tomorrow people, radio serial Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Number Six, Red Dwarf, United States, Douglas Adams, Assignment One, Terry Nation, The War Game, Gerry Anderson, The Uninvited, New York, The Day After, Nigel Kneale, World War, Cold War, Rudolph Cartier, Series Seven, Series Two, Assignment Three, Peter Watkins, Star One, The Quatermass Experiment, Assignment Five, Assignment Six, Episode Two, Johnny Jack New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
As this volume hopes to illustrate in abundance, British science fiction (or sf) television is a fascinating, if under-researched, area of media and cultural criticism. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nuclear subject, science fiction television, homo superiors, tomorrow people, radio serial Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Number Six, Red Dwarf, United States, Douglas Adams, Assignment One, Terry Nation, The War Game, Gerry Anderson, The Uninvited, New York, The Day After, Nigel Kneale, World War, Cold War, Rudolph Cartier, Series Seven, Series Two, Assignment Three, Peter Watkins, Star One, The Quatermass Experiment, Assignment Five, Assignment Six, Episode Two, Johnny Jack New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- Sapphire and Steel by Peter J. Hammond on 8 pages
- Doctor Who (Bfi TV Classics) by Kim Newman on 8 pages
- Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor on 4 pages
- Captain Scarlet: Indestructible No. 1 (Captain Scarlet albums) by Gerry Anderson on 4 pages
- Science Fiction (The New Critical Idiom) by Adam Roberts on 4 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
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