Discovery and the form of Victorian periodicals

Tattersdill, W. (2020) Discovery and the form of Victorian periodicals. In: Mittermeier, S. and Spychala, M. (eds.) Fighting for the Future: Essays on Star Trek: Discovery. Liverpool University Press, pp. 145-164. ISBN 9781800341326 (doi: 10.3828/liverpool/9781789621761.003.0009)

Abstract

In its move to a streaming service and, with it, a less episodic structure, Discovery breaks new narrative ground for the Star Trek franchise – a wholesale move into the serial format. In a marked departure from The Next Generation (somewhat prefigured by the later years of Deep Space Nine), virtually no episode of Discovery functions independently of its fellows; watching the show out of order would not only be confusing, but actively ruinous to an assumed viewing experience built around slow accretions of narrative, long arcs of character development, and carefully placed disruptions of the status quo. The adoption of this format pairs intriguingly with the decision to release episodes weekly, which contrasts with the increasingly fashionable Netflix model of dropping an entire series at once. This decision also brings Star Trek’s storytelling into contact with some far older forms of science fiction, and this chapter seeks to understand Discovery’s serialisation by comparing it to that of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, Charles Dickens’s Bleak House and H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Additional Information: Print ISBN: 9781789621761.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Tattersdill, Dr Will
• Authors: Tattersdill, W.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Journal Name: Fighting for the Future
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• ISBN: 9781800341326

Related URLs

• University of Glasgow Library Catalogue