ABSTRACT
SCIENCE FICTION (SF) IS A HUGELY POPULAR genre of contemporary Western culture, spanning the different media forms of literature, film and television. Science fiction is a separately classified section in many bookshops and libraries; film companies promote science fiction films as block-busters and are rewarded with big profits; and Sky TV has a channel dedicated to the genre. On terrestrial TV, The X-Files was moved from BBC2 to BBC1 for the second series in recognition, by the corporation, of its unexpected audience reach, and over Christmas 1998 episodes of three different Star Trek series were shown on UK television (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine). The popularity of these two series led to big screen productions and, for Star Trek, these have also now run to series proportions with the ninth film Star Trek: Insurrection released in December 1998. In addition, fan culture focused on science fiction is expanding exponentially, with enthusiasts engaged in the appropriation of texts and characters in different ways, producing and circulating fanzines, exchanging ideas and stories across the Internet, organizing and participating in conventions (Jenkins, 1992; Jenkins and Tulloch, 1995). According to Jenkins (1992), the majority of those involved in the active and committed culture of fandom are women and the general contemporary audience of readers and spectators of science fiction certainly includes as many women as men, in spite of the genre's traditional associations with masculinity through its characteristic futuristic projections of militaristic technology, representing “warring, intergalactic nations competing with toys-for-boys”.
