Beginning with the debut of the original television series in the Fall of 1966, the Star Trek franchise has proven itself remarkably adept at correctly anticipating technological devices of the present, from the flip-phone to solid-state storage media to voice computer interface to pattern replicators (3D printers) to Blue Tooth. Francois Truffaut’s film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, also from 1966, likewise predicted television that was flat-screen, interactive, and reality-based. But social media platforms were strikingly absent from both and from other pioneering works of science fiction film and television of the time. This paper examines possible reasons for the lapse, including the rapidness of the evolution of social media in the 21st century and the need for screen narratives to emphasize conventional, rather than digital, interactions.
About the presenterBruce Drushel
Bruce Drushel is Professor and Chair of the Department of Media, Journalism, & Film at Miami University. He serves on the Endowment Board of PCA and chairs its Gay, Lesbian & Queer Studies area. He is editor of Fan Phenomenon: Star Trek, co-editor of Sontag and Beyond: New Perspectives on the Camp Aesthetic, Ethics of Emerging Media, and Queer Identities/Political Realities and is co-editor of the journal Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture.