Five things sci-fi needs to stop doing

Zoombie · May 29, 2009

http://www.cracked.com/article_17392_6-sci-fi-movie-conventions-that-need-die.html

Can anyone think of things to add to this list?

Also, I just realized...
The article says SIX

SIX not five!

I suck ._.

alleycat · May 29, 2009

The list of SF cliches gets passed around from time to time and is always good for a laugh.

Here's one: http://www.cthreepo.com/cliche/

ChunkyC · May 29, 2009

ONE?! Looks like about a thousand clichés in there, alley.

dgiharris · May 29, 2009

Yes,

It is my personal pet peeve that Star Trek hasn't learned the value of seatbelts.

Unfortunately, the only show that didn't follow those rules was...

<sob>

Firefly

Damn you FOX!!! Damn you to HELL!!!!

INterestingly enough, I believe there is a huge opportunity here, I will call it the Firefly Opportunity. That is, we fan are starving for something new and real. That is why I loved Firefly. It felt 'real'. Goddamn it Zoombie. You made me remember Firefly. Now I must rage and plot the destruction of FOX yet again.

<sigh>

<grabs pitchfork and The Alchemist's Handbook>

Mel....

dgiharris · May 29, 2009

Just for the hell of it, thought I'd start the ball going on cliche's that annoy me.

I always find it ANNOYING how an alien would think that a human female is pretty and or find her desirable.

Or, if there is some type of 'Alien falls in love with human' story, they always transform into humans in order to have the relationship. What about an alien saying, "You know what Susan, since WE love each other, how bout we transform you into my lifeform. You will love having 6 eyes and 12 appendages. Besides, being an air breather is so tacky, murky sludge, ahhh that's the stuff."

Mel...

dclary · May 29, 2009

dgiharris said:
Just for the hell of it, thought I'd start the ball going on cliche's that annoy me.

I always find it ANNOYING how an alien would think that a human female is pretty and or find her desirable.

Or, if there is some type of 'Alien falls in love with human' story, they always transform into humans in order to have the relationship. What about an alien saying, "You know what Susan, since WE love each other, how bout we transform you into my lifeform. You will love having 6 eyes and 12 appendages. Besides, being an air breather is so tacky, murky sludge, ahhh that's the stuff."

Mel...

I haven't seen this cliche before.

In fact, I can only think of interspecial relationships where both sides maintain their original species.

Galaxy Quest
Howard the Duck
Star Trek

Zoombie · May 29, 2009

Hive Minds Are Evil.

Thanks, Borg, but a voluntary collective could be very peaceful and very nice! Also, what if we think metal in our chicks is sexy! Just cuase they have implants, dosn't mean they're not huggable.

Who would design cybernetics to look gross anyway?

dgiharris · May 29, 2009

dclary said:
I haven't seen this cliche before.

In fact, I can only think of interspecial relationships where both sides maintain their original species.

Galaxy Quest
Howard the Duck
Star Trek

Oh, sorry,

I come from a parallel Earth in which that cliche is so over used.

hmmm.... I think a lot of sci-fi shorts use it like Outer Limits and Twilight Zone. And B-rate sci-fi movies. There was one in which female aliens came to Earth to get impregnated by males.

Starman sorta used it.

hmmm... maybe not as big a deal as I thought. Guess I should stop smoking crack huh?

Mel...

Zoombie · May 29, 2009

IF anything, we need more hot female chicks coming to earth for hot earthikan loving...

ChunkyC · May 29, 2009

dclary said:
I haven't seen this cliche before.

In fact, I can only think of interspecial relationships where both sides maintain their original species.

Galaxy Quest
Howard the Duck
Star Trek

Actually, though she did remain in her alien form, wazzerface on Galaxy Quest used a widget to appear human. So this one could go either way.

(waits for Zoombie to say something about going either way

)

Zoombie · May 29, 2009

shawkins · May 29, 2009

This is more a problem in fantasy than in SF, but I question the utility of metal and/or leather bikinis, particularly as worn by women who get into a lot of fights.

ETA: Note that "question the utility of" is NOT the same as "object to."

White-Tean · May 30, 2009

shawkins said:
This is more a problem in fantasy than in SF, but I question the utility of metal and/or leather bikinis, particularly as worn by women who get into a lot of fights.

ETA: Note that "question the utility of" is NOT the same as "object to."

Oh gosh, bikini armour... how does that make sense?
I mean, I'm not a wuss, I'm the type of girl that will start ranting at a 550kg plus horse that tries to run me over until it's running backwards, but darn it all I'd sure as flying duckery want to have more armour than the guys. No way I'd want to be gutted just to show off my rack and abs.

RickN · May 30, 2009

White-Tean said:
Oh gosh, bikini armour... how does that make sense?
I mean, I'm not a wuss, I'm the type of girl that will start ranting at a 550kg plus horse that tries to run me over until it's running backwards, but darn it all I'd sure as flying duckery want to have more armour than the guys. No way I'd want to be gutted just to show off my rack and abs.

Yeah, but it's a guy that heads up the Planetary Uniform Design Board.

And men are pigs. Maybe futuristic, sci-fi space-traveling pigs, but pigs nonetheless.

ChunkyC · May 30, 2009

RickN said:
Yeah, but it's a guy that heads up the Planetary Uniform Design Board.

And men are pigs. Maybe futuristic, sci-fi space-traveling pigs, but pigs nonetheless.

Maybe that's what the armour is meant to protect them from, in which case it would make perfect sense.

See? You can rationalize just about anything in sci-fi and fantasy.

maestrowork · May 30, 2009

M-Class planets are a dime a dozen and they're all in livable conditions, with the same gravity, climate conditions and rate of rotation (length of day/week/year) as Earth.

They all speak English without any kind of translators.

And if the aliens are advanced enough to do intergalactic travel, they wouldn't look like lizards with a pea brain.

S.C. Denton · Jun 8, 2009

I agree with much of what's been said about these time honored (cliched) traditions, but since I thought this was going to be a rant about the Sci-Fi channel I intend to do that, and perhaps more.

What they need to stop doing is making these horrible made for TV movies. Either that or take the budget that they have for 2-5 yrs worth of films and actually make one good one that they could show periodically. And I don't know who they put in charge of the CGI department there but I'd take that person out back and put them out of their misery.

It looks like a none too bright twelve year old designed them on his computer at school in his spare time. And CGI is another thing that has pretty much killed the Creature Feature. This attitude of 'Oh don't worry just stare at the Green Screen and I promise you we'll slap together one helluva scary monster' has got to change. I'm speaking mostly about horror/sci-fi here but the same could be said of many movies.

The art of creating physically tangible effects is going the way of the dinosaur and it's sad to see. Not only did it make for better acting, but the visuals were much more believable. These days even five years olds can spot bad CGI.

And if we as the viewing public don't become more vocal on these issues then it's only going to get worse. Does anyone feel me?

Kurtz · Jun 8, 2009

You could just stop writing awful books and making awful films. The last true sci fi film that you walked out of feeling smarter than you did when you walked in was Primer.

None of the stuff on the list was true SF. Star Wars isn't SF, Star Trek isn't SF, Firefly isn't SF. It's all fantasy, they're fairy tales. Real science fiction is Solaris, Stalker, Sunshine, Gattaca, A Scanner Darkly and Ghost in the Shell. I've heard good things about Moon as well.

S.C. Denton · Jun 8, 2009

I'm not a Trekker (isn't that PC these days, lol) but Star Trek is definitely science fiction. Since at its core science fiction is about speculation and this show and its string of movies have always speculated what the future might hold for our race I'd say that it definitely falls into that category.

Consider this: Star Trek is admittedly the reason many of today's scientists went into the profession in the first place. And many of the outlandish technologies of the show are considered actual possiblities by thinkers greater than you or I could ever hope to be. And a few are even actualities.

And while Star Wars and Firefly may be much more fantastical than your average science fiction I still think that is precisely what they are. Hell, the film techniques used in Star Wars would've been called science fiction 25 years beforehand.

Lhun · Jun 8, 2009

S.C. Denton said:
I'm not a Trekker (isn't that PC these days, lol) but Star Trek is definitely science fiction. Since at it's core science fiction is about speculation and this show and it's string of movies have always speculated what the future might hold for our race I'd say that it definitely falls into that category.

StarTrek is SF. Pretty bad SF, but it fits the structure. It's also classical adventure (think Jack London) or at least most episodes of most series are.

And while Star Wars and Firefly may be much more fantastical than your average science fiction I still think that is precisely what they are. Hell, the film techniques used in Star Wars would've been called science fiction 25 years beforehand.

Nope. StarWars isn't SF, it's not speculative in the least. StarWars is basically a fantasy fairy tale, and Firefly is a western. Laser guns are not what determines wether something is SF, and neither are spaceships.
Heck, StarWars even managed to include robots, and still did so without getting even close to SF by making them simply shiny brass humans.

ChunkyC · Jun 8, 2009

Star Trek may not be Blade Runner, but it definitely is science fiction. It is a story about a possible future that can be extrapolated from the world as it was when it was written.

Star Wars, on the other hand, has a foot planted firmly in the fantasy genre. I would call it a sci-fi/fantasy crossover because it has many elements from both. It's not pure science fiction, but neither is it pure fantasy like The Lord of the Rings.

BenPanced · Jun 8, 2009

dgiharris said:
Just for the hell of it, thought I'd start the ball going on cliche's that annoy me.

I always find it ANNOYING how an alien would think that a human female is pretty and or find her desirable.

Or, if there is some type of 'Alien falls in love with human' story, they always transform into humans in order to have the relationship. What about an alien saying, "You know what Susan, since WE love each other, how bout we transform you into my lifeform. You will love having 6 eyes and 12 appendages. Besides, being an air breather is so tacky, murky sludge, ahhh that's the stuff."

Mel...

dclary said:
I haven't seen this cliche before.

In fact, I can only think of interspecial relationships where both sides maintain their original species.

Galaxy Quest
Howard the Duck
Star Trek

dgiharris said:
Oh, sorry,

I come from a parallel Earth in which that cliche is so over used.

hmmm.... I think a lot of sci-fi shorts use it like Outer Limits and Twilight Zone. And B-rate sci-fi movies. There was one in which female aliens came to Earth to get impregnated by males.

Starman sorta used it.

hmmm... maybe not as big a deal as I thought. Guess I should stop smoking crack huh?

Mel...

Loooooooong history of this: Creature from the Black Lagoon, This Island Earth, and of course Mars Needs Women, just to name three. It's not the standard "I'm smart and I'm resourceful and I'll just SHOW these...MEN I can take care of myself!", so she wanders away from the camp only to stumble on the alien pods just to get captured. The women are targeted by the alien/monster.

Kurtz · Jun 8, 2009

The best summary of Star Wars that I have read was: 'Religious extremists destroy government installation, leaving thousands dead'. The rebels are essentially Al Qaeda.

Sarpedon · Jun 8, 2009

except that the rebels don't go around blowing up planets to 'keep the local systems in line.'

benbradley · Jun 8, 2009

This is why I don't "watch sci-fi." I read SF.

Five things sci-fi needs to stop doing

Dragon of the Multiverse

Still around

It's hard being green

Disgruntled Scientist

Disgruntled Scientist

Unabashed Mercenary

Dragon of the Multiverse

Disgruntled Scientist

Dragon of the Multiverse

It's hard being green

Dragon of the Multiverse

Ahhh. Sweet.

Illustration Student

It's hard being green

Fear the Death Ray

Fix up, look sharp.

New kid, be gentle!

It's hard being green

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

Fix up, look sharp.

It's a doggy dog world