Chapter 11: Mediating the Future: Women Political Leaders in Science Fiction Television

Science fiction narratives have long been considered the domain of boys and men. From the earliest days of science fiction television in the United States, with Captain Video, Tom Corbett—Space Cadet, and Space Patrol, the protagonists were heroic White males. Leading or recurring female characters seemed nonexistent or relegated to the Amazonian set-dressing of nonhuman women, as seen in Flash Gordon, or the ubiquitous damsels in distress saved by the hero: too bland and passive to be remembered as individuals. Accordingly, our collective knowledge of women in science fiction narratives suffers from our consideration of science fiction as a predominantly male genre. Yet, as Melzer (2006) points out, science fiction is a space where “we seem to reimagine gender relations most radically” (p. 1).