Johnson-Smith, Jan

PERSONAL: Female. Education: Earned a Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—Bournemouth Media School, Bournemouth University, Weymouth House, Talbot Campus, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, England. E-mail—jjosmith@bournemouth.ac.uk.

CAREER: Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, England, senior lecturer.

WRITINGS:

American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate, and Beyond, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 2005.

Contributor to the Journal of American Culture.

SIDELIGHTS: Jan Johnson-Smith teaches film and television theory. Using materials from her doctoral studies, she wrote American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate, and Beyond, which covers twenty years of American science-fiction television since the mid-1980s. The first section of the book provides an academic overview, while the second section analyzes specific shows, including Star Trek, Space: Above and Beyond, Farscape, and Babylon 5. Reviewers generally supported the twenty-year span the author chose for the historical focus of the book. Charlene Brusso's review on the SF Site online, for example, summarized that "Johnson-Smith adroitly analyzes a broad spectrum of SF television, placing each show in a scholarly context as clear and easy to understand as its social context." A Wisconsin Bookwatch critic believed that students of American popular culture, as well as science-fiction fans, will find the book "of immense interest." Denise Dutton, writing for the Greenman Review, concluded that "many interesting points are made," making American Science Fiction TV "a worthwhile read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Extrapolation, summer, 2005, David Moyle, review of American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate, and Beyond, p. 280.

Reviewer's Bookwatch, April, 2005, review of American Science Fiction TV.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, June, 2005, review of American Science Fiction TV.

ONLINE

British Film Institute Web site, http://www.bfi.org.uk/ (March 1, 2006), profile of Jan Johnson-Smith.

Greenman Review, http://www.greenmanreview.com/ (March 1, 2006), Denise Dutton, review of American Science Fiction TV.

SF Site, http://www.sfsite.com/ (March 1, 2006), Charlene Brusso, review of American Science Fiction TV.