SUMMARY
Paranoia permeates much of Science Fiction. Fear of strangers, bent on destruction, coming from within and without, was especially pronounced during the McCarthy era and the early Cold War. The giant ants and replicating pod people were metaphors for atomic radiation and Communism. Horror descends from the stars, slithers from atomic test sites, and crawls from the ocean depths. This undercurrent of fear may hearken back to Science Fiction's roots in the Gothic.
Another sub-division of the paranoia trend is alien visitation and abduction fears, a unique result of several UFO flaps in the 1950's.  This led to such films as "Invaders From Mars" "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers" and "The Thing From Another World", among others. In the films of the 1950's Earth's citizenry fought side-by-side with the military and government officials to rid the planet of the invaders. After the Regan era, however, the government was seen as co-conspirators with the aliens who were up to no good, ala "The X-Files". The ultimate in paranoia, "The Matrix", portrays a world where nothing is real, but an incredible simulation. This seems to reflect a feeling that you can trust no one, and nothing you see...

QUOTES
"How do we account for the current paranormal vogue in the popular media? Perhaps it has something to do with the millennium - in which case it's depressing to realize that the millennium is still three years away. Less portentously, it may be an attempt to cash in on the success of the X-Files. This is fiction, and therefore defensible as pure entertainment.
"A  fair defense you might think. But soap operas, cop series and the like are justly criticized if, week after week, the ram home the same prejudice or bias. Each week the X-Files poses a mystery and offers two rival kinds of explanation, the rational theory and the paranormal theory. And, week after week, the rational explanation loses. But it is only fiction, a bit of fun, why get so hot under the collar?
"Imagine a crime series in which, every week there is a white suspect and a black suspect. And every week, lo and behold, the black one turns out to have done it. Unpardonable, of course. And my point is that you could not defend it by saying: "But it's only fiction, only entertainment.
"Let's not go back to a dark age of superstition and unreason, a world in which every time you lose your keys you suspect poltergeists, demons or alien abduction. There is certainly nothing impossible about alien abduction in UFOs. One day it might happen. But it should be kept as an explanation of last resort."

                                                    -Richard Dawkins, Dimbleby lecture,
                                                      November, 1996   

"The question is why do people want and need to believe all this. The more we know and understand about the natural world, the more people flock to the supernatural. The more we know about astronomy, the more people rush to astrology. As we roll back the frontiers of medicine and cure ever more diseases, more people plunge into homeopathy, reflexology, and a host of other non?scientific treatments, although I've seen little evidence of their healing power.
"But we do need to participate in the rational thought processes that science springs from. It makes no sense to live in an intellectual world constructed by reason, when our beliefs are stuck in the Middle Ages."
                                                                   
                                                                    -Polly Toynbee, Radio Times, 1996



MAIN TEXTS
"Who Goes There?" Campbell
The X-Files - "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" script pdf
"Total Recall" script pdf

RELATED MATERIAL
The Twilight Zone - "To Serve Man" script pdf
"Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" (1956) video/DVD rental


DISCUSSION/ESSAY TOPICS (Please post comments on the related thread on the discussion board)

1. Read and discuss Campbell's "Who Goes There?" How do the two film adaptations compare to the original story?
2. Does the X-Files, with it's repeated false endings and conspiracy over conspiracy, help or hinder your beliefs?
3. Is Conspiracy Theory an entirely Millennial preoccupation?
4. Which is better, the Matrix or the reality?