Star Wars - The Rise of Cyberpunk - Extra Sci Fi

what oh we're already starting this season of extra sci-fi is brought to you by curiosity stream use the invite code extra credits at the link below to check out all their videos free for 30-days Star Wars changed science-fiction forever never mind that it's science fantasy never mind that it has its roots more in myth and fairy tale than anything remotely scientific the effect it had on science fiction was indelible and profound now today we won't be trying to analyze Star Wars a new hope because there's plenty of people out there who've already done that incredibly well instead we're going to be talking about its place in the history of science fiction because weirdly without Star Wars there's no cyberpunk but we'll be getting to that in a bit because right now I bet some of you out there are asking will if they're talking about film and television now why are they talking about star wars and not say 2001 or Star Trek and you'd be absolutely right both of those works deserve to be discussed as both of them had a profound impact on science fiction but neither had the immediate world shattering impact of Star Wars because unlike either of those works Star Wars changed how the world perceived science fiction overnight so let's talk about how it did so it started by reaching back first to the old Flash Gordon serials then further back to Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series and there it found something sci-fi had lost pure Wonder the excitement and adventure of unknown places Big Ideas social commentary even science wasn't the point the point was the limitless possibility in all of us for an audience that was living mostly work at a 1970s lives this idea that we might be anything that we might be the chosen one that we might have superpowers and even if we didn't this idea that given the right circumstances even the worst of us might become a hero was incredibly compelling it was escape rather than an introspection it was both exactly what science fiction needed and perhaps the most destructive thing to ever happen to sci-fi because almost overnight it wiped out the new already in decline since the beginning of the decade Star Wars was the final nail in that coffin editors were far less interested in limited audience literary works about abstract philosophy and playing with the narrative form than they were in finding books that would say tat audience who hungered for more Luke Skywalker and in doing so it also showed the world that science fiction was big business all of the sudden sci-fi novels were getting greenlit left and right TV shows and films that would have never seen the light of day just a few years before were being given huge budgets mass media finally got rolling on sci-fi this of course led to the explosion of science fiction films in the late 70s and early 80s alien et Tron Blade Runner and the thing just to name a few all either directly or indirectly Oh their existence to the wild success of Star Wars and these films in turn inspired a new generation of science fiction writers and got even more large publishers to dabble in putting out sci-fi but these publishers just wanted space opera after space opera they had learned a lesson from Lucas because when George Lucas spoke about making Star Wars he would talk about one of the things that drove how he developed it thx 1138 thx 1138 was his first feature film and it was a dark dystopian film more in the vein of 1984 meant Star Wars and it bombed so then Lucas decided that this was because it was too dark that people were looking for an escape they were looking for an unambiguously happy ending there could be struggle and loss but at the end of the day it had to seem like the good guys were winning so he ended up with a ton of feel-good adventure sci-fi but as always the case with science fiction there was a generation of authors coming up in this period who desired to push back they wanted to take sci-fi out of space and put it firmly back on earth they wanted to put the grime and the dirt back in it they wanted to restore it to a fundamentally imperfect and in perfectible world they would be called cyberpunks led by figures like Bruce Sterling and William Gibson they would bring together the ideals of the new wave with the readability and accessibility of post Star Wars sci-fi and in doing so they would give written science fiction a much-needed shot in the arm by the time Neuromancer was published the world had had seven years of Star Wars now it was time for a change even the sales numbers of some of these space adventures said it and so without laser swords and space Wizards science fiction may never have become part of the pop culture and may never have become embedded in the mass psyche in the way it so clearly has now Star Wars paved the way for the domination of superhero films and set us up for a world where even after you adjust for inflation four of the top ten grossing films of all time our post Star Wars sci-fi and while some may argue that it introduced a more vapid form of sci-fi to pop culture not because Star Wars itself was more vapid but simply because many of the knockoffs that followed it were I'd argue that it taught science fiction authors a difficult but necessary lesson that the world was ready to listen to their ideas but only if they wrote for their audience rather than themselves only if they were more invested in making a readable work and showing how clever they were with their literary chops and with that we're in the modern age we've gone from the 1800s to the 1980s we've seen weird worlds and exact science and we've seen science fiction evolve from pulp magazines to major blockbusters and taken a few cool detours along the way now we're in an era that's too close to present to really determine which works will have a lasting impact on the genre and therefore we're going to be wrapping up this series for a while and while we may come back in the future to discuss things like Neuromancer in something like a yeah oh no extra literature baby for now farewell science fiction friends it's been a wild ride and remember extra sci-fi will be with you always thanks again to curiosity stream for sponsoring this season of extra sci-fi created by John Hendricks the founder of the Discovery Channel curiosity stream is the world's first streaming service dedicated to the lifelong quest to learn explore and understand and you know actually something is a New Yorker I've been wanting to understand is how the heck cities are going to function with all of the problems humanity faces in the future but after a quick search on curiosity stream I found the series cities of tomorrow that covered both the potential changes and solutions in future urban living what up vertical farming I didn't even think of that so if you're looking to grow your knowledge in topics spanning science nature history and technology subscriptions start at just $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year but if you head to curiosity stream coms slash extra credits and use the invite code extra credits you can future-proof your decision and get your first month free [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Extra Credits

Views: 168,726

Keywords: star wars, Science fiction, sci-fi, extra sci-fi, extra credits scifi, james portnow, matt kroll, david hueso, cyberpunk, extra credits, star wars analysis, film analysis

Id: 1R1w2aj9Wzg

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Preda]

nice episode but it feels a bit galaxy brained to stop the series here where there is so much to say about "contemporary" directions that sci fi has taken. The focus on personal/character stories in the superhero stuff or the variety of POC/LGBTQA voices in the last 10 years is two more episodes off the top of my head

[u/[deleted]]

I'm going around everywhere now, just venting about how seriously they blueballed me with 2001 and Roadside Picnic