Tired Sci-Fi Tropes That Must Be Retired!
POSTED BY: cljohnston108
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 16:47
VIEWED: 10267
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Another issue that they brought up that I think would open the door to a lot of storytelling possibilities is the whole population issue. How in a ship or a fleet that has tens of thousands of people on board, that we only focus on seven people and how they apparently run the ship.
TREK is guilty of this, but also BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to a bigger degree. Very rarely do we actually get glimpses into civilian life on the Galactica fleet. If season 4 is their last season, and they have to have filler eps in between the mythology eps, I'd like to see them do an ep with none of the normal cast members that focuses primarily on just some normal person and their day to day life on one of the ships and the daily drama inherit in it.
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"Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"
"No."
"Have you ever fired ONE gun whilst jumping through the air?"
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Quote:I wouldn't blame the writers and producers for that though. If they do what you suggest, people won't stop bitching about how the show has gone downhill - just look at the general response to the filler episodes this season, episodes that were pretty good and weren't even centred on unknown characters.
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
...but also BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to a bigger degree. Very rarely do we actually get glimpses into civilian life on the Galactica fleet. If season 4 is their last season, and they have to have filler eps in between the mythology eps, I'd like to see them do an ep with none of the normal cast members that focuses primarily on just some normal person and their day to day life on one of the ships and the daily drama inherit in it.
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
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Then maybe it should be a new show altogether.
There should be a sci-fi show that takes place in a huge ship or a space station that focuses primarily on the civilian people that have live on the ship. You wouldn't see anyone from a military or political point of view. Basically, no one that's involved with the running of the ship or fleet.
It would focus on the guy that has to catch a shuttle from one ship to another to get to work, the kid born on the ship getting his first job, the custodians that keep the ship clean and running. Basically, anyone you don't see on GALACTICA or TREK. It would be sort of your regular domestic drama set in outer space.
I'm sure some of you guys can name a half dozen shows that deal with this, but I'm saying that this would focus primarily on the civvies. No Captains, or Ensigns or XO's or Commanders. Just everyday people.
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"Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"
"No."
"Have you ever fired ONE gun whilst jumping through the air?"
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Well, I agree, but what you describe sounds a bit like Firefly. A show like that lasts around half a season. 
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
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Yeah, but that only focuses on nine people in a very enclosed environment. I'm talking about a ship the size of Galactica, or the space station in DEEP SPACE NINE. A huge ship that hold hundreds, if not thousands of people. You know the extras you see when someone from Galactica goes to Cloud Nine or one of the civilian ships. Those are the people. The people whose job isn't to fly ships or repair them or do medical or ambassadorial work. I'm talking about the pencil pushers and manual laborers and bartenders of the fleet. The people that you only see on sci-fi shows as extras, even on FIREFLY.
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"Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"
"No."
"Have you ever fired ONE gun whilst jumping through the air?"
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I guess as long as they make it compelling enough (from a dramatic pov), the creators could count on at least the two of us to be watching. But a show like that won't ever be made, because if it's a drama centred on ordinary people in a sci-fi setting, the studios will decide that the sci-fi setting is unnecessary and expensive fluff and will get rid of it, so that we'll end up with ordinary people in an ordinary setting, which sounds like something that'll be lucky to make it past the pilot.
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
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Quote:
Originally posted by Khyron:
if it's a drama centred on ordinary people in a sci-fi setting, the studios will decide that the sci-fi setting is unnecessary and expensive fluff and will get rid of it, so that we'll end up with ordinary people in an ordinary setting, which sounds like something that'll be lucky to make it past the pilot.
Nah - that sounds way too like a sensible decision.
There's too much "everyday life of ordinary folk" on TV already - most of the main channels in the UK have their perpetually-running 4-day-a-week kitchen sink soaps already and, guess what, they have to throw in so many gangsters, murders, kidnappings, fires, jumbo jets crashing into villages (I kid you not) that the pretence of represening "normal people" is a joke.
If you want "everyday life drama" just go outside and talk to people. I want a bit of escapism on TV thank you very much, not "Neigbours" on a space station.
Shows (and not just SF ones) focus on the military, cops, hospitals, lawyers etc. because it is a good pretext to have something interesting happen every week.
Its true that shows like BSG, Firefly and the new Dr Who have widened their appeal by upping the human drama element - but they still need to focus on people in "exciting" roles.
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Quote:
Originally posted by ImNotHere:
No Klingon Woyyer worth his prune-juice would use a WMD - it would not be honourable and deprive them of the glory of battle. Its the races that talk about peace and security tht you've gotta watch :-)
Point there. I suppose it's a bit like tribes in places like Papua New Guinea. One village might be at war with the neighbouring village and they still fight with bows and arrows rather than nipping off to the nearest port, buying some black market AK47s and finishing off the enemy for good.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Khyron:
Time travel is full of these sort of paradoxes, so if one doesn't believe physics when it says time travel is impossible, at least submit to logic and the fact that the universe hates paradoxes. But I digress...
Somebody left a fascinating reply about paradoxes...
Quote:
Anonymous said...
A theoretical physicist, I'm blanking on his name, worked out the mathematics of time travel and came up with something different, and supposedly proved it right. The basic idea is that there is only one timeline, period, and everything will stay consistent even with time travel.
Imagine a pool table, with a little wormhole. The billiard ball going through the wormhole will go back a few seconds in time, come back on a path that intersects its path to the wormhole.
Now roll the ball through, at such a speed that it will come out the wormhole, and knock itself off course, so it never enters the wormhole in the first place. Paradox!
What this guy proved is that the ball will come out of the wormhole slightly off course, and strike its earlier self a glancing blow that allows the earlier ball to go through the wormhole after all.
And why did the ball come out of the wormhole off course? Because, before entering the wormhole, it was struck a glancing blow...
1:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cruithne3753:Quote:
Originally posted by FlyVote:Quote:
Originally posted by Cruithne3753:
Warlike races that have managed to survive to develop space travel without nuking themselves as soon as they've worked out how to bang bits of plutonium together.
Most likely us.
Races more warlike than us, particularly those that begin with a "K".
(I usually realise the oversights in my posts the moment I hit the Post button and edit them straight away, but Life on Mars had just started)
Read Larry Niven's story "The Warriors," about mankind's first contact with the Kzinti.
Two crewmembers are talking: One worries that the other vessel might be hostile, and the other is unfamiliar with the word, because a spacefaring race would have to have abolished war first.
The Earth vessel has no weapons, so they end up focusing their fusion drive at the Kzinti ship!
(I really need to re-read all my Niven!)
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