[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.10,0:00:18.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Hi. I'm Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.45,0:00:20.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and this is Frame By Frame.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:20.12,0:00:27.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Science fiction films first came about in the beginning of cinema with George Milies' "Trip to the Moon,"
Dialogue: 0,0:00:27.66,0:00:35.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but they've come in sporadic waves of interest. I'm thinking, for example of "Things to Come,"
Dialogue: 0,0:00:35.18,0:00:39.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the fantastic British film. Also Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" in 1927.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.74,0:00:45.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But a vogue for science fiction didn't really hit till the 1950s in America,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:45.95,0:00:52.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with things like "When Worlds Collide," "The Thing," which was one of the first great science fiction films.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:52.55,0:00:56.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"The Day the Earth Stood Still," "Earth vs.the Flying Saucers,"
Dialogue: 0,0:00:56.49,0:01:00.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And science fiction reflected a kind of Cold War paranoia.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:00.96,0:01:05.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The other thing about science fiction is that it's tied curiously to the Western.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:05.77,0:01:11.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As the westerns sort of became moribund, and now people don't make too many westerns these days,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.77,0:01:17.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,science fiction became "the final frontier." As manifest destiny was more or less explored,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:17.35,0:01:21.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,now space became the new frontier that had to be explored.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:21.35,0:01:28.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And this, of course, lead to the success of the "Star Trek" series and "Star Wars."
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.76,0:01:32.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And of course, the dystopian science fiction films like "Alien."
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.46,0:01:39.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, here that we are in the 21st century, science fiction has become an absolute generic staple.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.27,0:01:41.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Science fiction films are more popular than ever.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.97,0:01:46.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think they offer a sense of escape. They offer a sense of wonder.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:46.12,0:01:50.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They offer a sense of exploring something beyond what we know.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.88,0:01:56.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The world has become very small now. We're in touch with everyone around the world, whether we like to or not.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.65,0:02:02.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And science fiction offers us a sense that there's frontier out there that we don't know...
Dialogue: 0,0:02:02.35,0:02:04.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's civilizations out there that we don't know,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.62,0:02:07.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and science fiction offers us a way to escape,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:07.26,0:02:11.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but also it's a commentary on the smallness of our world right now,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.16,0:02:15.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and also it projects into the future the possibilities of what can happen,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:15.37,0:02:22.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in terms of both good, or in terms of bad... basically a dystopian future like "Blade Runner,"
Dialogue: 0,0:02:22.11,0:02:24.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in which the future does not work.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:24.24,0:02:28.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So science fiction projects our fear and our hopes on the cinema screen.