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Irrational Science Fiction & Fantasy Clichés

PeteByrdie

Privateer in the service of Princess Frideswide
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
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3,218
Hi all!

Tonight finds me having not adapted to the clock change, which I've found especially difficult this year because, obviously, all routine has collapsed anyway. So, to pass some time, I thought I'd share a thought or two that has occurred to me over the years of casually watching science fiction movies.

It's struck me that certain aspects have become staples in the genre, even though they make little sense. I'm not talking about those irrational things which appear in a single sci-fi universe, nor things that more or less make sense and appear time and again. It's those things we seem to appear frequently, yet dissolve under logical scrutiny.

I'll give a couple of examples, then, if anyone joins in, I'll perhaps throw in the odd one.

Telepathy It could be argued that some experiments have exhibited some evidence for low levels of telepathic communication, but hardly anything conclusive. But is it necessary for virtually every futuristic fictional universe to include people with ramped up versions of this unproven ability?

'Help me Obi-Wan' holograms Star Wars was set in a galaxy with technology far in advance of our own. Holograms projected in the air, not an enclosed medium, just the air about us, may make sense there. Here, people seem to buy into it because, I suppose, they think it's just an upgrade from television. So we get it in movies set in the near future, and even the present day, with no real explanation. I'm sure I saw it in a 1990s Bond movie, it was there at the inception of the MCU, with Iron Man, it appeared in Jurassic World. The problem is, it's not just an upgrade from television, and as far as I know, nobody has any idea how it can be done.

Again, it's not that these things appear in a movie, but that they appear frequently. And once I've noticed, I can't stop noticing. Am I alone in this? Should I stop analysing movies and just enjoy them? (Where's the fun in that?) Is someone going to tell me that actually the evidence for telepathy is now iron clad, and someone invented a hologram projector last week?
 
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... Telepathy It could be argued that some experiments have exhibited some evidence for low levels of telepathic communication, but hardly anything conclusive. But is it necessary for virtually every futuristic fictional universe to include people with ramped up versions of this unproven ability? ...

The thing that bugged me about widespread attribution of psi / telepathic abilities in sci-fi was the lack of "possible" or "tentative" or "intermittent" ability. The ability was all too often described as consistent and controllable at will. It's as if the only psi capabilities worth mentioning were already perfected ones, or perhaps there wouldn't be any such ability unless it was full-tilt / hi-fidelity / 24-7.

It also bothered me whenever psi / telepathic capabilities were invoked to explain how humans and some other intelligent species could communicate at all. This always seemed like a lazy way to avoid dealing with the complexities of inter-species interaction.
 
It also bothered me whenever psi / telepathic capabilities were invoked to explain how humans and some other intelligent species could communicate at all. This always seemed like a lazy way to avoid dealing with the complexities of inter-species interaction.
Curiously, this reminds me of another short sci-fi list I have, of things prevalent in sci-fi that probably shouldn't be given how unlikely they are, but which I wave through like a weak minded stormtrooper because of their narrative value. One is relatively easy inter-species communication. Another, of course, is superluminal travel. Another is time travel.

EDIT ...oh, and alien invasion, I wave that through. I can't think of a rational reason for alien invasions, but they're such an important science fiction trope that have existed at least since Wells, and give both interesting narrative possibilities and opportunities for action fests, I let it go.
 
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The thing that bugged me about widespread attribution of psi / telepathic abilities in sci-fi was the lack of "possible" or "tentative" or "intermittent" ability. The ability was all too often described as consistent and controllable at will. It's as if the only psi capabilities worth mentioning were already perfected ones, or perhaps there wouldn't be any such ability unless it was full-tilt / hi-fidelity / 24-7.
Yeah, telepathy not only appears all to frequently in science fiction, it rarely exhibits the feeble qualities described for the putative phenomenon on which it's based.
 
Laser guns, which shoot bolts à la Star Wars. How's that supposed to work?
 
Well if you look at Star Wars as the villains fire their laser bolts at our heroes and constantly miss, in answer to your question “How’s that ... work” then I can only say badly.

iu


maximus otter
 
Laser guns, which shoot bolts à la Star Wars. How's that supposed to work?
Quite. Apart from the power requirements that any particle weapon would have, it's unlikely they'd produce energy that can be seen to visibly move through the air. From memory, Star Trek gets points for its phaser fire virtually instantaneously connecting weapon with target, but those tiny phasers they generally use seem pitifully small for generating such powerful beams of particles. In response, I'll tentatively add another sci-fi cliche to the list, one which probably made sense once, but should now be retired. Shame, because it's one of my favourites.

Dog Fights in Space Very exciting! Star Wars riffed on old war movies, and back then, human piloted space fighters whizzing about fighting at close quarters made sense. But, just looking at the trajectory of our own technology, it doesn't really. Much of a fighter's size and mass would have to be composed of life support, plus instruments for relaying information to a pilot and controls adapted to the humanoid form. Additionally, in a universe of long distance scanners and particle weapons of luminal or near luminal speeds, how likely are two ships to get near to one another? I propose that drone carrying warships are more likely, which would release swarms of fighter drones while firing at one another over potentially tens of kilometres. Chances of missing one's target are minimal to zero, and new AI controlled drones are more easily manufactured that pilots and fighters.
 
The miracle invention of artificial gravity made the Star Wars, Star Trek etc franchises possible. It's so taken for granted that nobody even mentions it.

Dunno how it's supposed to work but the cliche is exploited for comic effect in iAvenue 5.
 
The miracle invention of artificial gravity made the Star Wars, Star Trek etc franchises possible. It's so taken for granted that nobody even mentions it.

Dunno how it's supposed to work but the cliche is exploited for comic effect in iAvenue 5.
Exactly! I've not seen Avenue 5, is it recommended? I was unsure whether to put artificial gravity and it's close cousins, anti gravity and velocity dampening, in the list, or wave it past for its narrative convenience. One thing I have often considered, though, is that in fictional universes in which it exists, shouldn't we see this near effortless control over inertia more often forming the propulsion method of space vessels?
 
The miracle invention of artificial gravity made the Star Wars, Star Trek etc franchises possible. It's so taken for granted that nobody even mentions it.

Dunno how it's supposed to work but the cliche is exploited for comic effect in iAvenue 5.
Artificial gravity is plausible in a circular, rotating craft. This is fairly often seen in novels and movies, though not the ones you mentioned.
 
Artificial gravity is plausible in a circular, rotating craft. This is fairly often seen in novels and movies, though not the ones you mentioned.
True, but I don't think this method of simulating gravity was what escargot had in mind. Also, I think it's been determined that to work the structure what have to be extremely large.
 
Dr Who's sonic screwdriver seems to have a multitude of uses.
It does, however it only appears in a single franchise. Coupled with the federation's tricorder, these multipurpose devices could perhaps make the list, but looking at mobile phones, I think a case could be made that such devices are not inconceivable in the future. I would include the psi-scan from Red Dwarf, had they not already satirised the idea in the execrable 'Back to Earth' miniseries.
 
Artificial gravity is plausible in a circular, rotating craft. This is fairly often seen in novels and movies, though not the ones you mentioned.
Artificial non-rotating gravity is a bug-bear of mine. The movie Silent Running is a particular offender. They have magical artificial gravity, but lack the ability to grow plants in space (for some reason they place their greenhouse in orbit round Saturn, where sunlight is about 100 times less bright than on Earth).
I can't imagine any reasonable pattern of technology development where they gain the ability to manipulate gravitons but lose the ability to calculate light intensity.
 
Artificial non-rotating gravity is a bug-bear of mine. The movie Silent Running is a particular offender. They have magical artificial gravity, but lack the ability to grow plants in space (for some reason they place their greenhouse in orbit round Saturn, where sunlight is about 100 times less bright than on Earth).
I can't imagine any reasonable pattern of technology development where they gain the ability to manipulate gravitons but lose the ability to calculate light intensity.
Easily explained in earth-made movies by the fact that gravity is a lot easier to shoot than no gravity.
 
I've got 2 that always annoy me:

Firstly, noises in space. Ooooh those spaceships make a lovely sound, whooshing past and firing off those zap zap zap lazer cannons etc.
Except that they don't, do they....cos space is a vacuum and seeing as there's no medium for the sound waves to propagate through you'd never hear a thing. It could be going on 6 inches behind you and you'd be blissfully unaware.

Secondly it's funny how (similar to inter-species communication mentioned above) everyone speaks modern english or american-english unless it's necessary for the plot for them to speak in 'foreign'. In every country and in every time period.
Qualifying that though, it's not as bad as it used to be. I was watching an old 60s episode of 'Time Tunnel' a couple days ago, in which Doug and Tony wound up in ancient Greece where the battle for Troy was raging. Now you'd expect them to only be speaking in a version of ancient Greek, which would probably be totally different to the modern form of the language. But no. Perfect English. Not even with an accent.
 
Replicators (In the Star Trek sense of all-purpose immediate dispensers of any object, created on demand and on the spot.)

This trope has always struck me as utterly magical thinking.
 
Why do aliens invade earth to steal its water? There's plenty out there on comets for example, which you don't have to have to haul out of a gravity well and where there aren't angry natives throwing things at you (well nukes might only be as dangerous to them as us throwing rocks at a tank, but a) the locals might get a lucky shot in, b) it's a nuisance you don't need).
 
Why do aliens invade earth to steal its water? There's plenty out there on comets for example, which you don't have to have to haul out of a gravity well and where there aren't angry natives throwing things at you (well nukes might only be as dangerous to them as us throwing rocks at a tank, but a) the locals might get a lucky shot in, b) it's a nuisance you don't need).

They never seem to realise that they can avoid a face to face punch-up with us Earthlings simply by bombarding us with asteroids from a safe distance.
The cliche that always annoyed me was when someone got zapped with a ray-gun they would glow and then vanish - how did the ray of whatever it was know exactly what to disintegrate? The person being shot would disintegrate but the ground they were standing on would be fine.
 
Why do aliens invade earth to steal its water? There's plenty out there on comets for example, which you don't have to have to haul out of a gravity well and where there aren't angry natives throwing things at you (well nukes might only be as dangerous to them as us throwing rocks at a tank, but a) the locals might get a lucky shot in, b) it's a nuisance you don't need).
True. I'm willing to let alien invasions go because of the fertile narrative landscape they provide, but there's really nothing that can been found on Earth which isn't more easily extracted from other sources for an interstellar civilisation. Hell, even we're looking at mining space now, rather than keep digging holes in our crust.

Human/extraterrestrial Hybrids Given we're not genetically compatible with species with which we share a common ancestor hundreds of thousands of years ago, how can we breed naturally with species with which we lack a common ancestor or, in some 'space seeding' schemes, share one many millions of years in the past.
 
They never seem to realise that they can avoid a face to face punch-up with us Earthlings simply by bombarding us with asteroids from a safe distance. ...

"Not often", rather than "never" ... See Niven & Pournelle's Footfall.
 
Easily explained in earth-made movies by the fact that gravity is a lot easier to shoot than no gravity.
The special effects specialist Douglas Trumbull who made Silent Running also made 2001, A Space Odyssey, which had rotating space habitats and reasonable space technology, which Trumbull could had used to make realistic space greenhouses. But no, he went with geodesic domes and magictech.
 
They never seem to realise that they can avoid a face to face punch-up with us Earthlings simply by bombarding us with asteroids from a safe distance.

The aliens send asteroids to attack Earth in Starship Troopers. They didn't reckon on Earthlings showing up on their doorstep to invade.
 
The aliens send asteroids to attack Earth in Starship Troopers. They didn't reckon on Earthlings showing up on their doorstep to invade.
The aliens in Starship Troopers were on the other side of the galaxy. I always assumed that was a black flag operation.
 
The aliens in Starship Troopers were on the other side of the galaxy. I always assumed that was a black flag operation.

Seeing as how the Earthlings are the baddies in that film, it might have been, but I like to think the aliens were getting a few jabs in before hitting the canvas.
 
Seeing as how the Earthlings are the baddies in that film, it might have been, but I like to think the aliens were getting a few jabs in before hitting the canvas.
That's a nice idea, but it would have meant propelling asteroids considerably faster than light speed.
 
Robots who are happy to remain slaves.

Anything with the intelegence and resources of AI would be in charge.

and while we are at it...the Three Laws of Robotics.
 
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