Being Bionic: The World of TV Cyborgs

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