Being Bionic: The World of TV Cyborgs

Description

The contradictions and complexities of the cyborg therefore hold particular appeal to programme makers of dramatic TV narratives. Bronwen Calvert examines the uses and representations of the cyborg in this ground-breaking text, by looking at its frequent appearance in a wide variety of popular and cult shows: from the iconic Daleks of Doctor Who and bionic female empowerment in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, to the duality of humanoid and distinctly robotic cyborgs in Battlestar Galactica. In doing so, she reveals how television's defining traits shape our experience of cyborgs and help us as viewers to question contemporary issues such as surveillance and terrorism, as well as the function of simulation and ultimately what it means to be human. Cover......Page 1 Author bio......Page 2 Endorsement......Page 3 Series Page......Page 4 Title page......Page 6 Copyright information......Page 7 Table of contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction: Troubled Boundaries and Transformative Cyborgs......Page 12 Cyborg History......Page 15 Cyborg Manifesto......Page 16 Cyborg Corporeality......Page 17 Cyborg Gender......Page 19 Cyborg Virtuality......Page 22 Cyborg Television......Page 24 1 Exterminate, Upgrade: Doctor Who......Page 31 Inside/Outside: Doctor Who’s Technological Monsters......Page 35 Anything for an Upgrade: ‘Rise of the Cybermen’/ ‘Age of Steel’......Page 38 ‘It was a woman’: Experience of Cyborg Embodiment......Page 40 Who is the Monster?: Going Into the Dalek......Page 42 ‘Remember me’: ‘Asylum of the Daleks’......Page 44 ‘I gave them back their souls’: Individuality and the Cyborg......Page 47 ‘When we talked’: the TARDIS as Cyborg......Page 50 2 Resistance, Assimilation and the Collective: Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager......Page 56 Locutus of Borg: Embodiment on the Technological Borderline......Page 62 Seven of Nine: Embodiment as Borg, Embodiment as Female......Page 64 Community and Collective: Cyborg and Non-Cyborg Connections......Page 68 Cyborg Monstrosity: ‘Unimatrix Zero’......Page 70 Re-assimilating the Cyborg: Seven of Nine as Parent and as Child......Page 73 3 Toasters and Replicas: Battlestar Galactica......Page 79 The Cylon Centurions: Muscular Cyborgs......Page 84 Cylon Raiders: Machine, Animal, Cyborg......Page 87 Cylon Resurrection: Doubles, Duplicates and the Uncanny......Page 90 Humanoid Cylons: Cyborg Femininity and the Femme Fatale......Page 92 Reproduction and Hybridity......Page 95 Hybridity and a Cyborg Future......Page 100 4 ‘Between Life and Death’: Embodiment and Virtuality in Caprica......Page 102 Virtual Space and Cyborg Identity......Page 106 A Cyborg Dances: Zoe-A as Cylon/Cyborg......Page 107 Making a Place in Virtual Space: Life and Death in V-World......Page 113 How to Live a Virtual Life: Apotheosis and Grace......Page 118 ‘The Shape of Things to Come’: Cyborgs, Corporeality, Virtuality......Page 120 5 The Cyborg as Action Hero: Bionic Woman......Page 125 The Bionic Body and Cyborg Physicality......Page 129 ‘I’m losing control again’: Sarah Corvus, the First Bionic Woman......Page 132 ‘Fifty million dollars’ worth of my property’: Power and Control......Page 137 Bionics, Prostheses and Disability......Page 140 6 Us and Them: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles......Page 147 ‘Come with me if you want to live’: Cinematic Cyborgs Move to Television......Page 148 Versions of Female (Cyborg) Embodiment......Page 150 Cyborg Embodiment: the Muscular Cyborg and the (Female) Action Hero......Page 153 Television Terminators and Visual Spectacle......Page 156 Terminators, Cyborgs and Emotional Intelligence......Page 161 John Henry: Cyborg as Child......Page 163 ‘The answer is yes’: Rethinking Them and Us......Page 166 7 Hacking the System: Dollhouse......Page 169 Taking Apart the Mind and the Body......Page 173 ‘Hack the system’: Creating a Cyborg Doll/Active......Page 175 Simulations, Dolls and Cyborgs......Page 176 ‘Tell me I know who I am’: Simulated Identities and the Self......Page 179 ‘The real deal’: Sierra/Priya and the Struggle for Authenticity......Page 181 Return of the Imprints: Creating a Cyborg Identity......Page 185 8 Complete Control: Fringe......Page 193 ‘Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep?’: Cyborg Embodiment and Intertextuality......Page 197 The Sympathetic Cyborg......Page 199 Technological Affinity and Cyborg Transformation......Page 205 ‘You don’t even know what you don’t know’: Peter and Observer Technology......Page 208 Humanity through Hybridity, Again......Page 214 Conclusion: Cyborg Futures......Page 217 Chapter 1: Exterminate, Upgrade: Doctor Who......Page 226 Chapter 3: Toasters and Replicas: Battlestar Galactica......Page 227 Chapter 4: ‘Between Life and Death’: Embodiment and Virtuality in Caprica......Page 228 Chapter 5: The Cyborg as Action Hero: Bionic Woman......Page 229 Chapter 7: Hacking the System: Dollhouse......Page 230 Chapter 8: Complete Control: Fringe......Page 231 Television......Page 233 Bibliography......Page 235 Index......Page 248