That aside, I've been noticing a small little thing about science fiction films and television that's been creeping up on me for a while. It's seems to me that lot of the iconic characters that make up science fiction on television and film (with of course, exceptions that prove the rule) seem to be deeply rooted in Shakespeare in terms of story elements and Shakespearean actors.
Those pure in heart see me making a visual argument of Shakespeare in science fiction. Those of perverted minds see a reason why I should burn in hell.
Now, perhaps this statement can be said about all genres of cinema and television. After all, how many times can we have a rehashed Romeo and Juliet plot turned into a film (apparentally, the story goes that during the Hatfield-McCoy family vendettas, two individuals from opposing sides led a forbidden relationship, proving once and for all that the Old West was actually a product of the Hallmark channel)?
The aspects of storytelling that Shakespeare had (or stole depending on your theory) is extremely pivotal as a part of western storytelling and it even crossed over to Asia in the works of Kurosawa. So maybe it can be said that all works of cinema and television need Shakespearean elements.
However, if you take a look at the main staples of science fiction, you will find that Shakespeare's presence is felt everywhere. Three of the four Star Trek captains (the exception being Kate Mulgrew thus proving the rule) were Shakespearean actors. Patrick Stewart, Jean Luc Picard if you will, played a part in Dune as well as the role of Professor Xavier in the X-Men trilogy. Stewart acted alongside Ian McKellan (also Shakespearean) who played a pivotal role as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was actually a franchise that the Trekkies wanted Spock to play with back in the 60s-70s.
McKellan acted in Lord of the Rings alongside Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee was a Shakespearean actor who worked with Peter Cushing (who bleeds Shakespeare) in the infamous Hammer Films productions of the 60s and 70s. Both Cushing and Lee would both play prominent roles in the Star Wars films as iconic villains.
The talents that a Shakespearean actor can provide to a science fiction role can be an essential when dealing with an esoteric material that is science fiction. In some respects, the dialogue of science fiction often operates on the realm of Shakespeare, where an actor must be very successful at conveying emotion to help the modern day audiences understand what is going on.
The olde English that occupies most of Shakespeare becomes replaced with technobabble and the names of bizarre inpronounceable worlds and alien races, and conveying information through emotion may be hard for some of hack actors that occupy space in Hollywood.
No, I didn't use photoshop for this
Another aspect to consider is the role that genre film plays in Shakespeare's home, England. In Orson Scott Card's book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Card describes the history of science fiction in its early stages. Card describes the categorization of the genre saying that while early American science fiction was seen as inferior to say, the works of Mark Twain, British publishers did not make any distinctions in regards to seeing science fiction as inferior.
The works of H.G. Wells were seen as equivalent in quality to the non sci-fi based works at the time. Even acclaimed authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote novels such as "The Lost World" (however, Doyle was often mocked for his belief in fairies that later turned out to be a hoax) and many plays were based around the works of Dracula and Frankenstein which were popular at the time.
The British need for science fiction and fantasy was essential to the political climate England was experiencing in the pre WWI era where thoughts of war and invasion run rampant. Alternative history and invasion literature where England fights fictitious battles and wars with neighboring empires played on the fears on the community at large.
The same concepts were played to an extent in H.G. Wells's "War of the Worlds" and similar allegories of invasion in fear were repeated in America at the height of the Cold War with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and stories of Atomic Monsters and UFOs attacking Washington.
Perhaps the impact that Shakespeare has on science fiction has less to do with Shakespeare and more due to with England. Today the practice of British writers taking what we Yanks see as "inferior genres" and making them worthwile is experienced in the writings of Alan Moore and Mark Millar.
But Superman and the Max Fleischer cartoons that followed were our idea, so points for us.
Besides, Shakespeare himself was a genre writer. The story of a gifted individual that falls to corruption on the promise of supernatural power is the story of Macbeth (which Orson Welles would later give a Voodoo flavor to) but it's also the story of the Star Wars prequels and the rise of Anakin Skywalker and many politicians who thought they were God.
Then again, I doubt that Shakespeare would churn out a couple sequels for a buck, but he stole his best stuff from the Greeks so you can never know.
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