From Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sci-fi blasted off long before 'Trek,' 'Wars'
By DUANE DUDEK
April 30, 2005
Many people associate the words "science fiction" with "Star Wars" and "Star Trek," the two long-running space operas which, coincidentally, conclude within days of each other later this month.
But long before Capt. Kirk or Princess Leia were gleams in the eyes of their respective creators, a children's writer named Louis Slobodkin inspired countless young readers to look skyward using a roadmap to the universe called "The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree."
The 1952 book is about a kid named Eddie who befriends a space traveler named Martin - as in Martian - who landed in his grandmother's orchard and stays for dinner.
Everyone's journey into the future begins as a child, and for some of Slobodkin's early readers, their encounter with his book was formative.
"I can't say (it) set me down any career path," David Taylor, a professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University, wrote in an e-mail. "But it was probably the first science-fiction story . . . that made me think that going into physics would be a lot more fun than working for a living."
"That book started me also," said Barbara Bengels, who has taught courses in science fiction, currently in conjunction with an astronomer and a philosopher, at Hofstra University for the past 30 years.
"It's a kids' version of 'Gulliver's Travels,' " said Bengels.
Slobodkin, a Caldecott Award winner, died in 1975.
While his book is out of print - a used copy goes for $50 on Amazon.com - it is fondly remembered and still recommended. But his story about a friendly alien has less in common with its better known and more menacing Cold War-era counterpart, the 1953 film of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds," than it does with director Steven Spielberg's wistful "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" or awestruck "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
That the science-fiction genre can encompass such contradictory views is a key to its endurance.
Spielberg's aliens have always been benign, playful and approachable entities, and it will be interesting to see him change his tune when they attack earth in his "War of the Worlds" remake.
Spielberg's new film is part of a sci-fi summer invasion, which started Friday with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and includes "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" and "The Fantastic Four."
While sci-fi as a bona fide commercial commodity is a relatively new phenomenon, largely due to filmmaking technologies that have unleashed the imagination, the genre itself is a cultural constant.
"Sci-fi has never not been popular," said Brannon Braga, co-creator of TV's "Star Trek: Enterprise," which airs its last show May 13. "The genre has been around since the dawn of filmmaking. One of the first films ever made was a science-fiction film," he said, referring to George Melies' 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon."
Its evolution, however, is somewhat murky.
Some trace its roots back to Homer's fantastic "The Odyssey." H.G. Wells, author of "The War of the Worlds" and "The Invisible Man," said, "he could not have written without having read" Jonathan Swift, according to Bengels. But science fiction is defined as "the story of people dealing with change," said award-winning writer Greg Bear, author of "Darwin's Radio."
And for the earliest known work with a "self-conscious awareness of scientific change impinging on people's lives," said Bear, "you've got to go back to Mary Shelley. Take a look at the introduction to 'Frankenstein.' She's basically saying, 'I don't want to scare or thrill you. I want you to consider the possibility that this sort of technology could become real.' "
Bear, the winner of two Hugo and five Nebula awards for his writing, is chairman of the advisory board at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, which on Friday will induct writer Philip K. Dick and the filmmakers Ray Harryhausen and Spielberg.
Science fiction has been generally popular "at least since the 1930s," said Bear, and its contributions were not just cultural. The genre "inspired people to become technicians, computer programmers, scientists and astronauts, for that matter. In the software community in Seattle, almost all these people grew up reading science fiction," he said.
The only real definition of science fiction is that most fans know it when they see it.
Sci-fi "is a wide umbrella rather than a single distinctive genre," said Gardner Dozois, editor of "The Year's Best Science Fiction" series. That umbrella is wide enough to cover hard science, fantasy, alternate history, horror and popular fiction.
The 22nd volume of Dozois' anthology is due in July. In each volume, he writes a summation of the past year in science fiction; today, he said, "from a commercial standpoint," the genre is thriving. He said science-fiction authors are getting fatter contracts and more books are being published and are selling better than ever.
"People talk about the golden age of science fiction as if it's in the past," Dozois said. "But I think the golden age is now. People 20 years from now will be marveling how much good stuff came out now."
That umbrella he speaks of inevitably includes "Star Trek" and "Star Wars." And even though purists consider them tangential to the genre they, as much as anything, have helped make science fiction into a household name.
"Star Wars" was "the crowning glory financially for the movement," said Bear. And Dozois said "Star Trek" had "a big impact on the general audience who never read any science fiction or (never) heard of it in some cases" and who "went on to read traditional print science fiction as well."
It is tempting to lump fans of the two into one big nerd herd, but the franchises debuted more than a decade apart. Their appeal is generational and their audiences somewhat exclusive.
"Obviously, both have 'Star' in their title, yet they seem pretty different," said Hutch Parker, president of 20th Century Fox, which is distributing "Revenge of the Sith."
" 'Trek' is a very specific franchise and a much more pure genre label. 'Star Wars' is a movie for generations and for everybody," he said.
Each camp is further fragmented into even smaller camps.
Many lining up for the May 19 premiere of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" were not even born when "Star Wars" first appeared in 1977. Too, fans of the original "Star Trek" series have little patience with or interest in its recent iterations. While each was once the dominant genre franchise in its medium, the culture is now awash in such fare.
Both are perceived as having squandered considerable fan loyalty. Anticipation for this last "Star Wars" prequel - in which young Anakin Skywalker becomes the evil Darth Vader - is being tempered by the fact that the first two prequels were regarded as inferior to the originals.
The first two PG-rated "Star Wars" prequels "felt like they were made for eight- or 10-year-olds," said Joshua Harris, a co-owner of TheForce.net, a fan-based "Star Wars" Web site.
"We grew up," Harris said, "and the films didn't."
Some feel "Star Wars" creator George Lucas sacrificed his story at the altar of digital technology.
"I think the narrative is still strong," said David Koepp, a Pewaukee native who wrote the screenplay for Spielberg's "War of the Worlds." "But I don't know what happened to make it lifeless. It's kind of puzzling. You certainly see the ones and zeros," or digital sequencing, "in a way you never did" before.
You don't have be Charlie Brown - on his back in the grass and wondering what happened to the football he was about to kick - to be skeptical.
Yet fans are cautiously optimistic that the third prequel will be the charm.
Parker, who could not be expected to say otherwise, advises them to "remove the caution." He said "Episode III" marks a return to the "character-based and thematic substance" of the series. "It is visceral and engaging," and "yet satisfies all the obligations promised by the other films."
Harris, of TheForce.net, expects nothing less.
"This is the one that's going to resonate with fans finally," Harris said.
The PG-13 rated "Sith" will "be remembered as the prequel that saved" the franchise and as "the grownup 'Star Wars' movie," Harris said. "A lot of fans are saying, 'How great would this be if this was "Episode I," and we had two more of these coming?' "
Tired 'Stars' burning out
If "Sith" represents the natural evolution of a story as originally imagined by Lucas, "Star Trek: Enterprise" is being drydocked due to a lack of fan interest and creative exhaustion.
