ABSTRACT

While film and television seem to be closely allied screen media, our feature films and television series have seldom been successfully adapted across those screens. In fact, rather than functioning as portals, those allied media often seem, quite literally, screens that filter out something that made the source work so popular in its original form. Differences in budget, running times, cast, viewing habits, screen size and shape all come into play, and this volume’s aim is to track a number of popular texts in the course of their adaptive journeys across the screens in order to sketch the workings of that cross-media adaptation. For its specific examples, the volume draws on a single genre—science fiction—not only because it is one of the most popular today in either film or television, but also because it is arguably the most self-conscious of contemporary genres, and thus one that most obviously frames the terms of these technological adaptations. The essays included here mine that reflexive character, in both highly successful and in failed efforts at cross-media adaption, to help us understand what film and television achieve in screening science fiction, and to reveal some of the key issues involved in all of our efforts to navigate the various screens that have become part of contemporary culture.

part I|49 pages

Cross-Screen Dynamics

chapter 1|17 pages

Domesticating Space

Science Fiction Serials Come Home

part II|48 pages

Case Studies

chapter 4|14 pages

Finding Sanctuary

Adapting Logan's Run to Television

chapter 6|15 pages

She's Just a Girl

A Cyborg Passes in The Sarah Conner Chronicles

part III|42 pages

Case Studies

chapter 8|12 pages

“I Want to Believe the Truth Is Out There”

The X-Files and the Impossibility of Knowing

part IV|49 pages

Issues in Science Fiction Adaptation

chapter 10|21 pages

Doctor Who: Adaptations and Flows

chapter 11|12 pages

Déjà Vu All Over Again?

Cowboy Bebop's Transformation to the Big Screen