Ponderings

Tag: science-fiction

  • Scarred Nation

    On the 9th March 1997 the Welsh screenwriter and novelist Terry Nation died. He was remembered with fondness and affection as a stalwart of British television, and the pioneering force behind television classics like “Doctor Who” and “Blake’s 7”. He was a tour de force in British broadcasting for many decades, and his example remains unmatched. He wasn’t just respected by his contemporaries in broadcasting, he was also immensely popular with audiences.

    However it is sad to reflect that imaginative, challenging television does not exist anymore, and it is less likely to be commissioned by a staid and declining art form. He was the heir to science fiction and folk horror innovators like Nigel Kneale. Kneale’s numerous films and programmes were disturbing reflections of a rapidly changing nation.

    He chronicled the difficulties of living in twentieth century Britain, exploring its uneasy relationship with the rest of the globe and vice versa. He observed how tradition jarred with modernity and how superstition conflicted with reason. He had a profound insight into the sensibility of a nation wrestling with the new whilst continuously clinging to the past. He had more of an understanding than the glut of metropolitan commissioners and producers that inhabited the echelons of British broadcasting, as he came from the Isle of Man.

    His output on the small screen exemplified the problems when modern, universalist notions were imposed on well established communities with enduring local traditions. Many will inevitably resist such an imposition, and cling to their old ways as these are more familiar to them. Our ancestors viewed themselves as an integral part of the natural world, as opposed to the modern belief that we are separate from it. There was no attempt to battle with the forces of nature, or to dominate and subdue them. This was simply unthinkable.

    The future was unfamiliar and strange. Such an intangible notion would have seemed an artifice, yet Kneale’s characters stand on the threshold between the past and the future. They are gazing into an abyss. They are standing on the precipice looking down on an open chasm of unfamiliarity, confusion and disorientation. In “Quatermass and the Pit”, an archaeological dig at a defunct Tube station recovers the remains of a Martian spaceship. This one discovery challenges the preconceptions and prejudices surrounding what actually constitutes humanity, and even material reality itself.

    It is later revealed that these Martians interbred with proto-human hominids to maintain their survival on Earth. Clearly alien and human are merely social constructs, and the distinction between them is purely arbitrary. In the final serial of “Quatermass” a new generation of Planet People yearn to escape into another cosmic dimension. Amidst the malcontent, armed street gangs tour the barricaded streets.

    This is Kneale’s bleakest vision of the future. There is no hope left in the shell of this urban wasteland, only the ghosts of a past that no-one remembers. Alien and human are disconnected, and atomised. All that remains is the overwhelming desire for annihilation, and the vain belief that they will ultimately regenerate in another manifestation in a faraway solar system.

    Time travel, and alien beings were a popular combination of subjects for prime time television. It was this interesting juxtaposition of themes that inspired the work of Terry Nation. Nation was originally a comedy writer, but branched out into science fiction when he realised the immense commercial potential. In 1963 he conceived “The Daleks” for the second series of Doctor Who. These were alien creatures created after a nuclear bomb, and who survive purely on the radiation in the atmosphere. They are war like, and in constant battle with their pacifist foes the Thals. The Doctor’s nemesis is Davros, the progenitor of the Daleks.

    Terry Nation continued to contribute to Doctor Who until 1979. He was also commissioned to write “Survivors” in 1975. This was a television series that imagined the last human lives on a planet devastated by a deadly plague. Three years later he was responsible for the science fiction series “Blake’s 7”. This followed a group of criminals and political prisoners escaping from the evil “Terran Federation” on a spaceship of an unknown origin.

    Blakes 7 ended in 1981, and Nation sought new creative opportunities in Los Angeles. He was a scriptwriter for “Macgyver” and “A Fine Romance”. He was also the author of numerous works of fiction. Nation’s creations have left an indelible mark on generations of British people, and they have even shaped our consciousness and our very identity. It is hard to imagine what our psychology would have been like without his stellar work, and we will continue to celebrate him.

  • Worlds Of Mystery

    On the 19th March, 2008 the pioneering English science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died. He was renowned as a singular and unique figure in the canon of scientific literature. His fiction illuminated the almost infinite opportunities of space travel. At the beginning of his literary career, the journey into space was a relatively new innovation. These expeditions into the unknown seemed to have endless possibilities. It was an exciting prospect to venture into uncharted territories, as mankind had a ceaseless desire for exploration.

    Clarke’s interest in other planets began while he was still in his early teens. He grew up on a farm in Somerset, and fortunately for him this gave him an unparalleled view of the skies above him. This inspired his imagination and he became an enthusiastic stargazer. He later joined the Junior Astronomical Association and was a prolific contributor to their in-house magazine “Urania”. He moved to London in 1936 and became a member of the British Interplanetary Society. When the Second World War broke out he joined the RAF and worked as a radar specialist.

    His research proved invaluable to the war effort. He was part of the team that helped to create the early warning radar defence system. He was credited as one of the first inventors of the satellite system. After the war he attended King’s College London to read mathematics and physics. He graduated with a first class degree. He was appointed assistant editor at “Physics Abstracts”, and continued to pursue his interests in space travel, eventually ascending to the position of President at the British Interplanetary Society.

    He continued to write a mixture of scholarly work and fiction. Many of his short stories were published in fanzines and pulp magazines. In 1948, “Startling Stories” published a novella which focused on the last days of planet Earth, a subject which he returned to some years later.

    The real turning point in his writing career arrived in 1950, when he published “Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics”. The publication of this book proved to be immensely lucrative, and allowed him to become a full time writer. He now had the luxury to cultivate his imagination.

    In 1953 a small American publisher called Gnome Press published a revised edition of the 1948 novella “Against the Fall of Night”. It is a stark and chilling vision of the future, as the last human beings living on a dying planet contemplate their fate. The last city, “Diaspar” has fallen into ruin after a devastating war with alien invaders. Once a great and proud civilisation, it has become decadent.

    It rapidly becomes clear that the inhabitants existing on this desolate landscape have forgotten their ancestral roots and are totally dependent upon machines. However the youngest inhabitant, Alvin questions his existence and seeks greater meaning. He decides to delve deeper, and he discovers that there is a parallel civilisation on the other side of the planet called “Lys”. Unlike Diaspar, Lys is attuned to the natural environment.

    Alvin realises that Lys was deliberately hidden along with the true history of Earth and the war with the aliens, chiefly for the purpose of propaganda. The population were psychologically manipulated by myth. He discovers that it was all part of a devious plan to prevent insurrection after the failures repelling the aliens during the cataclysmic war. However, in spite of the differences, both civilisations combine in a collective effort to rebuild.

    Reflecting upon Clarke’s experience in the war, it is easy to see the connection between historical events and the nightmare vision of a decadent human civilisation unfolding. However the hope for a brighter future is embodied within the youthful figure of Alvin, an eternally inquisitive character and symbol of renewal in a rapidly diminishing world.

    Clarke taught us an important lesson. Mankind is on an eternal quest of exploration, and it is a path that seemingly has no end destination. We must remember that our intelligence as a species is not fixed, it is constantly progressing, as long as we stay curious.