Sci-Fi Therapy - What's Your Science Fiction Addiction?
Sci-Fi Can Be Addicting Yet The Obsession Also Proves Incredibly Liberating
Let’s get to it, my awesome Substackers. Let’s burrow down deep to our very planetary core itself. You knew this was coming. It was just a matter of time before I conducted a little healthy therapy session for us all. The time is now. Seize the sci-fi day. And so I politely ask…
Why are you addicted to science fiction?
Oh… Wait. Unfair? Insulted? Is this a formally issued challenge? You’re thinking: How does he make such a sweeping statement? What friggin nerve! Ya don’t know me, buddy!
Yeah, OK. And you just read my Substack for shits and giggles, right?
No worries, Sci-fi Guy reader. It’s perfectly OK. I’m a fellow sci-fi addict and my preoccupation, or even outright obsession, serves me well all these science fiction loving years.
But, of course, it always starts sometime and somewhere, doesn’t it?
My Origin Story
My science fiction addiction started early. At around 4 years old, I first encountered the original series, Star Trek. It astonished me and then some. I remember the first episode and even the scene from it; The Squire of Gothos and the scene which thrilled me was when the dashing, dastardly Trelane danced with the female Yeoman. My little brain could barely process what I watched, but I knew it had to be something truly special. I knew I’d keep watching more, and I happily participated in many more Enterprise landing parties full of Starfleet sanctioned sorties.
Years later, Trek had such a creative impact on me, I ended up writing episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. What could ever top that? I had to patiently wait awhile for something equally awe inspiring.
After seeking out new life and new civilizations, I got caught up in the glorious lunar lunacy of Space: 1999. Starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, this expensively produced British TV show is often forgotten in sci-fi circles, but one has to only sample a few episodes to realize and appreciate its unique power. Its lavish sets and model work alone will keep you coming back to keep up with the always full moon rising adventures of the Moonbase Alpha residents.
Once again, I clearly recall the scene which shook me down to my curious childhood foundation. The alien shape shifter, Maya (Catherine Schell), had morphed herself into a Japanese sword master - one skilled in the graceful, though thoroughly brutal art of Kendo. She wallops the poor bloke with a few well placed thrusts, all the while screaming in traditional Kendo shouts, then says to her romantic partner in the show, Tony, “I hit him with my stick.” It completely hooked me thereafter, and I’m also convinced it also promoted a keen interested in martial arts within me as well.
After properly feasting on these prime cuts of beefy sci-fi meat, I was introduced to the wonderous world between “both shadow and substance, of things and ideas….”
Yes, I soon crossed over into the world of creator/writer Rod Serling and his incomparable, The Twilight Zone. That’s when the science fiction addiction really took hold and would never let go. The creepy, bizarre Zone took sci-fi, fantasy and even horror to new levels of wonder and socially infused speculation. It was, and still is, as they say, the shit.
Not only were TZ stories and scripts so compelling, and thankfully, still are, but the show’s distinctive look and cinematography of this landmark production still impress. Serling is on record saying his show strove to produce short, feature film quality stories. And that he did. In at least technical, presentation ways, TZ is the captivating film noir of television, and no amount of rebooting - no matter how inspired - can ever really capture nor replace Serling’s masterpiece.
Perhaps not as eerie as Zone, and certainly not as liberal or freewheeling in its far more hardcore exploration of sci-fi, The Outer Limits was my second go to mind bending favorite. Created by visionary Leslie Stevens, and written by Joseph Stefano - who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho - The Outer Limits became so loved and identified with the weird and unnatural, that many people still to this day confuse OL plots with TZ storylines.
It’s certainly not a bad thing to be confused with such a respected show and could even be welcome, but Outer Limits specialized in pure sci-fi. If there was any horror - and many stories scared the literal crap outta you - it was realized through science fiction and not fantasy.
About the same time TZ cast me into its shadowy universe, and as I travelled beyond the Outer Limits by watching them both in syndicated reruns, a show premiered about a NASA astronaut - one who’d suffered a catastrophic accident, and he was barely alive, but gentlemen, they would rebuild him….
The Six Million Dollar Man and its excellent spin-off The Bionic Woman, not only reinforced my science fiction addiction, but led me down new paths of high octane action and genre adventure. Though the base concept of both shows center on cyborgs - humans whose body parts are replaced by technological implants called bionics - they’re also keen little exercises in spy craft. Long before we saw the high stakes spy stuff of 24 or Alias, Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) mixed it up with believable international espionage by battling traitorous fellow agents, aliens, corporate raiders, fembots, time travellers and even Bigfoot (Andre The Giant) himself.
Battlestar, Buck & Beyond
I was one of the lucky ones to catch Battlestar Galactica in the movie theaters - in ear splitting Sensurround. Not sure what that really meant, but my ears still throb to those thunderous Viper engine fighters blasting off from the Galactica. Creator Glen Larsen’s epic space adventure may have been perceived as a Star Wars rip-off, but there’s a real unique charm to the series if you just actually watch it and not be lazy and listen to the negative naysayers.
Larsen’s next show after BSG was cancelled saw Gil Gerard ham it up with his randy, raunchy droid, Twiki (Mel Blanc), in the 25th century. Buck Rogers In The 25 Century only ran two seasons, yet there’s still a real loyal fan base which never abandoned the show. It’s a credit to both Larsen and Gerard who both gave us sci-fi lovers something to admire and talk about years later.
Sorry, Buck, but I must confess something. My favorite character wasn’t you. I loved the enigmatic Hawk played by the great actor Thom Christopher. I so much wanted to see a Hawk spin-off, and guess what? I still do! His character development and Christopher’s phenomenal acting is one of the reasons season two didn’t end up being entirely disappointing. Fans of Buck know what I speak of - since after a pretty wonderful season one, for whatever executive or network compulsion, Buck transformed into a kind of Kirk or Riker serving aboard a new exploratory vessel out there trekking for new lifeforms. Hawk became the main call to watch really, but even he couldn’t salvage it for yet another star spanning season.
So, I’m betting my origin story may be quite familiar or even similar to yours - give or take the specific shows. Perhaps you’ve noticed I didn’t include the juggernaut that is Star Wars. Of course, the star crash from George Lucas was a nuke like bomb blast to my sci-fi maturation, but so much has been said about it already, I’d devote a full piece on it alone just to properly capture the full impact. Also both Marvel and DC Comics definitely contributed to my delinquency as a sci-fi minor, but again, that’s best left for another focused post to yap on about Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk.
Where does your science fiction addiction go from here, and where does it end? Well, you hope it never ends, right? You yearn to discover new sci-fi till there’s no end to your pursuit. It’s our black hole - there’s no escaping the almost supernatural kind of power which sci-fi exerts over our imaginations. And once we enter into that exhilarating space, there’s simply no telling when or where it will take us…..