Science Fiction — A Human Wave musing

What is common about all the popular science fiction television series?

Okay, I don’t have enough background to really make a conclusion about anything with “all” in it on a topic like this.  But I will make conclusions based on the experience that I have. The common theme is Human Wave. The viewing of the potential in humans despite their negatives. And the looking for the positive out there among the stars, even while being wary of the negatives.

We are watching the Stargate SG-1 series. For anyone who remembers the movie, it started with very dark scenes, but ended with a sense of redemption. The SG-1 series took a lighter view, but also we find out that the gate goes many other places, many other opportunities.

Again, our envisioning of what is out there, what it is like, and how we might interact with it is what unites series like SG-1, Star Wars movies, the Star Trek series, etc.

In the cast and crew featurette on the disk, one of the production crew said “Science Fiction is metaphorical, a way to study ourselves.” Which is one good way to see it. The question is what type of metaphors does it choose? Which ones are the popular ones?

Star Trek might not have been very scientific, but it held on through the years because it continually reincarnated itself with that positive wave of the future. I haven’t seen enough of the new reboot to know how much it really keeps to that, but it will only succeed if it holds to that same theme. For the population ultimately doesn’t care about the science, just about the the metaphor, the hope. Hope is what gets the ratings.