Teen Futures: Discourses of Alienation, the Social and Technology in Australian Science-Fiction Television Series

Abstract

Prior to the present volume, there has been little attempt to theorise the concept of 'teen' television. What might we mean by the 'teen' in teen television studies? Research such as that of Angela McRobbie on print culture locates its definition in the way in which texts address and are implicated in the construction of teen subcultures.¹ Alternative definitions might include texts which: are at least partially coded for teen audiences; represent youth subcultures; define problems of teen identity; use actors who are embodied teenagers; and/or meet 'teen' needs according to developmental social models (the parallel here would be 'young adult fiction' in the publishing market). These questions are crucial to my analysis. Most of the science-fiction drama series produced in Australia since the mid-1960s have been coded for younger audiences, with an emphasis within the industry on their additional potential to be sold as 'family' viewing. Since the inception of the Children's Television Standards in the mid-1980s, it has been important for commercial broadcasters to meet a quota of designated 'C' certificate (children's) drama. The Children's Television Standards define 'children' as young people up to the age of fourteen:² most 'C' certificate drama, therefore is bound by regulation to 'meet the needs' of viewers in the upper childhood to early teenage years. The Film Australia productions I discuss in this chapter (Escape from Jupiter, The Girl from Tomorrow and Tomorrow's End), as well as such series as Jonathan Schiff's Ocean Girl, are all classified by the Australian Broadcasting Authority as 'C' drama. What then is their claim to be considered 'teen' television?