Postcolonialism in Science Fiction: Comparing Firefly and Star Trek

Science fiction is a facet of contemporary media that actively works to reflect and critique upon society, so it is unsurprising that colonial allegories can be found within it. Space westerns in particular are prone to such narratives, as they relocate the frontier to outer space and thus retell stories of forced settlement, assimilation and constructions of empire. Television series Firefly and it’s filmic companion Serenity, have been compared to Star Trek in their appraisals of colonisation by Brown, who stipulates that the key is the relationship between the central characters and the governing body of each diegesis. In Firefly/Serenity (F/S), Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew exist outside of the dominant political regime, whereas in Star Trek the officers of the Enterprise are working within the Federation. Brown’s comments can easily be transposed onto the works of Barry Barclay- she is effectively providing examples of the camera on the shore (F/S) and the camera on the boat (Star Trek). These fourth cinema terms refer to perspectives that identify with the indigenous and the settler respectively, and as a result F/S offers a more complex, fractured view of the colonial empire. In Star Trek- space is treating like terra nullius to be ‘discovered’ whereas Brown suggests F/S constructs a more nomadic space- a postcolonial land wandered by those marginalised in society- the diaspora.

Other science fiction such as Avatar and District 9 can also be compared in relation to colonial narratives- with both progressive and regressive readings possible. Each text reflects on the dangerous of forced settlement or re-settlement of indigenous people, and encourage the viewer to identify with indigenous perspectives through filmic style (documentary style footage and addressing the camera directly) and formats (3D technologies in cinema). This is through the vehicle of a (white) protagonist, who eventually joins the marginalised community, and becomes an honourary ‘native’. Yet the inevitability of transformation from human to alien/other has drawn critique, as it seems to suggest the two cultures are mutually exclusive, and hybridity fundamentally unstable or unattainable (Veracini). Yet the films do not stop at this dismissal of mixed race heritage- they continue to send clearer messages of miscegenation- treating interracial relationships as explicit (sex scene cut from Avatar prior to release) or as scandalous (used in District 9 as explanation for the main characters transformation into alien).  Furthermore, the protagonists of each film refuse to associate with the alien Others unless they are of an elite rank (e.g. Neytiri or Christopher Johnston)- reducing the rest to stereotypical (noble) savages. In addition to this, the film treats their indigenous (the aliens) as something to be conquered rather than beings of value- locating the texts as distinctively settler colonial. Those who inhabit the worlds of Pandora, and refugee camp district 9 are not to be cilivised, or used to progress the colonial reach (for example, manning alien weaponary, or mining unobtanium), but rather eradicted (Veracini).

Avatar and District 9 seem to share the colonial nostalgia previously identified in Star Trek- revealed not through repeated reconstructions of first contact, but rather in reiterations of the settler desire to ‘go native’ and become indigenous (Veracini). This is linked with the exoticism fundamental to Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, which proposes ‘Eastern’ cultures are romanticised, mythologised and eroticised by the western gaze. Such viewpoints give rise to western fantasies of obtaining the beauty, mystery and connection to nature seemingly held naturally by members of the East- in essence: outperforming the other at their own tasks. Examples in Avatar and District 9 involve the capture and control of mythic beast Toruk, and the successful raid of the MNU, respectively. Firefly and Serenity discuss the impact of colonialism in the least problematic way out of the texts examined thus far- precisely because they locate their narration outside of the dominant discourse.

Sources:

Barclay, Barry. "Celebrating fourth cinema." Illusions 35 (2003): 7-11.

Brown, Rebecca M. "Orientalism in Firefly and Serenity." Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies 7.1 (2008).

Firefly: The Complete Series. Joss Whedon. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc., 2014. DVD.

Renan, Ernst. "1990. What is a nation." Nation and Narration. London: Routledge (1882): 8-22.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage (1978).

Serenity. Dir. Joss Whedon. By Joss Whedon. Prod. Barry Mendel. Universal