Keeping Science Fiction A Secret
Many shows that I watch a lot of other people, outside of the science fiction/fantasy community do not. Or they didn’t. It used to be that when describing Buffy, Angel, Dead Like Me, Firefly or any other mess of television shows that I had been interested in at the time would take a while to explain with some dumbfounded looks on the person I would be explaining them to. And I’m finding I have to do this less and less in regards to television, comics, movies- science fiction is no longer reserved for the moldy basements and shelves with copius amounts of “action figures”. That attractive women drinking the chai latte in Starbucks. She probably watches Firefly. And Heroes was not just reserved for X-Men junkies. However, there are a lot of people who would like to keep it otherwise.
The other day I came across the Facebook screenshot you’ll see below and how this woman outright said she did not want Doctor Who, an already extrordinarily popular science fiction show, to gain anymore popularity. She liked having her weird and obscure interests and wanted to keep it that way, despite the fact that a television show not having good ratings is the closest to a death sentence it can get before it actually gets axed. And she isn’t alone.
There are a lot of people out there who find their identities through teleivision, after all what it is we watch and enjoy is part of what makes us each different. What this meant for science fiction aficionados and fantasy lovers in previous years was being a social outcasts. After all, there was a time where admitting you like Dungeons and Dragons or Star Trek got you a wedgie, your milk spilled and a good old fashioned locker stuffing. There is this inherent tie between science fiction and social outxasts, because for so long, that is where the genre remained. Now that society is embracing geek culture and “obscure interests” it is melding from being soemthing reserved for a particualr set group of people to being enjoyed by everyone. Which in turn, makes certain fans and audience members feel slighted because what made them different, what helped them to identify with this subculture is now being paraded around and talked about at the water cooler like any other show. It is taking away the specialty they once felt, the tie in with other like-minded individuals. By having science fiction become more mainstream, by having these televisions shows and films be liked by everyone, it is disintegrating these peoples entire social groups.
Of course, there is the less sociologist approach and the simple fact that a lot of science fiction television and a lot of fantasy is just better written then more mainstream television, so in the case of these groups of people that want to keep a particualr show in the dark, it is because, like hipsters they want to feel superior over anyone else. They know this show because they ahve good taste, they recognize brilliant writing, they could do simple math without a calculator. This genre is not for the philistines and barbarians on the football field, but the quiet intellectuals spending their days in basements on the internet. And that is selfish.
Every writer creates something, molds characters and shapes story arcs with the intention of saying something. For Doctor Who its about exploration, testing your limits, friendship. Buffy was all about equal rights and feminism, and how tiny blonde women could kick some serious ass. The X-Files focused on how it was that you should not complacently just accept things or flat out believe. Every writer has something to say, and by keeping their shows obscure for your own sake, for your own pleasure is of course selfish and the very opposite of what they are trying to do. (*Hipsters*)
All good teleivsion writers are trying to say something with the show they have created, and in particualr science fiction and fantasy leave themselves open to a lot more creative elements to do this, which helps to make them a lot better. There is a reason why there are about ten different variations of the same cop set up. There is however, so far, only one Firefly. One Doctor Who, one Lost, and other titles.They speak to a aprticualr set of people who in a genuine attemp sometimes don’t want it to be liked by too many people. Other times, they jsut want to seem better than everyone else. And those ones are assholes.
Science fiction should not be kept secret, nothing great should. If a show is good, tell the world. The writers deserve it. You trying to be the mysterious stranger with your obscure interests do not.
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