Kevin Robinson Net Place

This is datd since the subject of the article was how to ressurect British Science ficton which has since happened.

THE QUATERMASS RESURRECTION

What ever happened to British Science fiction television?

By

Kevin Robinson

Most people over a certain age probably remember what, for the sake of argument, could be called the golden age of British science fiction television. I write 'for the sake of argument' because it is debatable that there ever was a true British science fiction genre. Many writers and academics have happily discussed American examples of the genre, in a seemingly endless array of publications, but the many British examples rarely get a mention.

However, the memories of the balloon like 'Rover' in the Prisoner, time travelling elemental avatars in Sapphire and Steel, huge machines in the Tripods and the ever ambitious Daleks, persist in the memory of many of us and regularly replay on cable TV.

One common factor in all these examples is that they are all just that - memories. British science fiction, until recently, appeared to be a thing of the past. A recent interview with Nigel Kneale in scriptwriter magazine set me thinking about this disappearance.

Where did the British science fiction show go? What caused its demise? Can it ever be resurrected? Questions that would tax even the good Professor Quatermass himself.

Quatermass and friends.

Before we look at the death and potential resurrection of British sci-Fi shows, we need to establish if this is truly a clear genre. What codes put the 'Britishness' into British science fiction?

At the risk of stating the obvious, the location is a good starting point. The British location is more than simply setting a script in the highlands of Scotland or the urban zoo of inner London. Location, in this instance at least, is more a case of where the scene is not shot rather than the supposed verisimilitude, or lack there of, in the text. There is a polish to U.S. based shows that is not present in the British show. When you consider the many terrible struggles with rubberised villains in Dr Who it is clear that the location is supposedly some distant planet. What we see however is usually a chalk pit just outside Bedford. The suspension of disbelief holds the power here, lording it around like Davros over his pepper pot army. Yet, in some way, this leads to immediacy, a realism created through dirtiness, that is not present in U.S. produced shows. Whatever this Britishness of location is, it is clearly part of the essential nature of the British Science Fiction series. Even in the recent, high gloss, re-imagining of Doctor Who the ships are no more than deep space articulated lorries dragging cargo around the universe. So fixed is this idea that it even transfers to films such as Alien, where we are presented with a rather greasy, working class, spaceship. Ridley Scott could be reflecting his early work directing on television. Compare this to the chrome and bright white light of the US show mis-en-scene and the difference is clear.

British Sci-fi is not shiny; it is grubby and down to earth. Yes, I appreciate this is mainly due to financial restrictions, but the fact remains, regardless of the reasons.

A further, possibly more dominant, code is more in the script structure than the visual presentation. British Science Fiction is often closer to the narrative roots of the fantastic. Many Science Fiction shows operate by setting characters on the edge of, or in, the fairy tale dark forest. Whether this forest is the deep space of Blake's 7 or the time corridors of Sapphire and Steel, it seems to be part of a common theme in the science fiction genre. In British Sci-Fi this 'monsters in the woods' principle seems more evident. In effect, the writing conventions are closer to the fairy tale than the U.S. counterpart. With the occasional exceptions, such as the X-files, this seems to be peculiarly British. Of course, this is also a principle of the horror genre. Maybe that is why we all spent so much of youth hiding behind the sofa.

The third main code is something all scriptwriters will generally agree on - Good scripts come from good characters. In the case of British Sci-Fi, there are a series of clear archetypes which go to construct the character set. Of course, these are generalisations, but it is the prominence of these archetypes that makes then relevant. Some examples are:-