ABSTRACT
Chapter One, “Aliens: science fiction and otherworldly religion,” looks at television science fiction since the original Star Trek and the role it has played in imagining the future of human religion and, at the same time, how it has cast a critical eye on current practices and beliefs. The chapter then looks specifically at three shows—Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and Doctor Who—and argues that they challenge dominant narratives of inevitable secularization, and explore ideas of digital scriptures, posthuman souls, and scenarios of divine absence. From the monotheistic Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, to the religious atheism and bleakness of Firefly, to Doctor Who’s redrawing of the borders between science, religion, and magic, each of these shows offers open-ended and ultimately religious spaces for fans to rethink their own received ideas and inherited beliefs.
