Things that are getting tiresome to see in scifi (whichever medium)

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I liked the WOPR of Wargames and the Star Trek M5 computers. Their lighting effects were awesome.
 
A good computer must have blinking lights.
I also like a good voice; perhaps HAL was the best.
 
Gordianus said:
A good computer must have blinking lights.
I also like a good voice; perhaps HAL was the best.
I like how Kubrick didn't go with blinking lights here.
 
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Paul Colby said:
The PDP-8 I used to collect photon counting data had a bunch to display registers.
That is actually kinda cool. The 1960s computers look good. It is just science fiction set in the future that still use blinking lights is kinda cheesy. Now, a supercomputer with a large screen on the shorter side of the rack displaying computing stats and CPU graphs would look cool.
 
Paul Colby said:
Or the advanced civilization they stumble upon can't imagine taking the risks or making the personal sacrifices needed to make such a voyage, even with their current technology.
China was like that. They sent a huge convoy to Africa in 1408 but when they came back such travel was made illegal.

Japan isolated themselves for 250 years.
 
Tiresome to see? Long long ago I got fed up with ray guns, space ships, and star empires in endless war. It's old fashioned. 17th century.

I read history instead because it shows more "imagination." It isn't constrained by plausibility.

I sympathize with SF authors though. Come up with something too imaginative and it won't sell. Stick with cliches. Music, same.
 
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sbrothy said:
"Something located in the constellation X."

You people have any pet peeves in this genre?

DaveC426913 said:
This always comes down to the audience and story telling.
You and I know that a constellation is only meaningful from Earth, and that it does not define radial distance.

But, in terms of story-telling, how much time should they spend on accuracy, as opposed to keeping the story moving? Is radial distance necessary for the plot?

That one annoys me a bit too - since in sci-fi there's necessarily a lot of inaccuracy and suspension of disbelief, it's an easy one to get right/accurate. It was done well and was useful as a plot point (as opposed to throw-away technobabble) in Project Hail Marry, where the characters tell each other where they are from with pop-up 3D models.

And I also liked how Men in Black goes the other way to leverage the inaccuracy of the trope itself with "the galaxy in Orion's belt."
 
One problem glossed over in Star Trek is warp speed. Youtube video showed examples of warp speed and how long it took to clear orbits and then the solar system and you begin to see the problem.

Thats not even considering the relativistic effects of aging as they travel from planet to planet where generations could come and go before they return.
 
jedishrfu said:
One problem glossed over in Star Trek is warp speed. Youtube video showed examples of warp speed and how long it took to clear orbits and then the solar system and you begin to see the problem.
I dont see how its a problem.
They often take just a few hours or less to clear the solar system going at a leisurely warp two.
jedishrfu said:
Thats not even considering the relativistic effects of aging as they travel from planet to planet where generations could come and go before they return.
Pretty sure warp bubble physics ( including Alcubierre drive) is immune to relativistic time dilation.
 
One trope is space battles being like naval battles in WW2. Star Trek is like battle in the Atlantic with cloaked enemy ship lurking around like U-Boats. Star Wars is like carrier battles of the Pacific, with one little space ship blowing up the huge death star with a single hit, like Richard Halsey Best did with the Akagi.
 
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AlexB23 said:
Well, maybe aliens as being portrayed as far superior to humans. Would be nice if some sci-fi took place on an alien world that has yet to make FTL travel work and have similar tech to us. Maybe they have electric supersonic airliners, some AI, and photonic computers, but they could have the same struggles as humans do. Only drawback is that the aliens would not be able to contact humans, unless they live close to Earth or future humans visit them.

TLDR: Movies and books need to stop making aliens look like the bad guys or saviors or humanity.
Fred Hamilton’s books have a little of it all. The “dead returnimg from limbo”-part is pretty silly but it works in context and adds a good deal of humor to the epic story.

EDIT: Blessed by an Angel.
 
sbrothy said:
You people have any pet peeves in this genre?

When the writing/script ties itself in knots trying to create a reality-based explanation for fanciful technology.

Current offender: "Dark Matter". Could not force myself to watch past episode 4.
 
Andy Resnick said:
When the writing/script ties itself in knots trying to create a reality-based explanation for fanciful technology.

Current offender: "Dark Matter". Could not force myself to watch past episode 4.
Strange? All my Hilbert spaces look like a corridor lined with doorways leading to death.
 
Reverse the polarity!

My gripe is basically when the thing is a technobabble answer that just means ''okay try something else now that we just made up'' with zero pre-explanation or logic behind it.

EDIT: Oh! Oh! And cables. In extremely futuristic settings. At that point we should've invented wireless already. I get they look tech-y, and they can be more reliable (in this day and age) but surely we would've perfected some other means of invisible transfer in this futuristic, hypothetical world.
 
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Rodney182 said:
Reverse the polarity!

My gripe is basically when the thing is a technobabble answer that just means ''okay try something else now that we just made up'' with zero pre-explanation or logic behind it.

EDIT: Oh! Oh! And cables. In extremely futuristic settings. At that point we should've invented wireless already. I get they look tech-y, and they can be more reliable (in this day and age) but surely we would've perfected some other means of invisible transfer in this futuristic, hypothetical world.
Yeah, that one is the worst trope in science fiction.
 
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A.T. said:
I think this is specific to writing for the screen, and mosty motivated by production costs. The other cheap alternative is pure-energy-aliens represented by some light effects.
The film "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", have some pretty original aliens in its cold open. It's a pretty obvious copy of the comic "Linda and Valentin" and I haven't seen all of it because I bump into the "Planet in Constallation X" trope.

Try searching tvtropes.org for "Constallations as Locations"

(I'm on this weird public computer where I can't copy/paste.)
 
Rodney182 said:
[...]

EDIT: Oh! Oh! And cables. In extremely futuristic settings. At that point we should've invented wireless already. I get they look tech-y, and they can be more reliable (in this day and age) but surely we would've perfected some other means of invisible transfer in this futuristic, hypothetical world.
... or ar least fiberoptics. Although who's to say that the cables you see aren't exactly that? :woot:
 
sbrothy said:
Try searching tvtropes.org
This is a cruel, cruel thing to do to someone. Send them down that rabbit hole, to have them emerge only once they are emaciated and dehydrated. :oldbiggrin:
 
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DaveC426913 said:
This is a cruel, cruel thing to do to someone. Send them down that rabbit hole, to have them emerge only once they are emaciated and dehydrated. :oldbiggrin:
Indeed. It’s like sending someone on an intentional wikiwalk they’ll come back being an expert in train gears or sniper ammunition. Only, I agree, tvtropes is worse. :smile:
 
AlexB23 said:
That is true. But maybe they lack one tech that they struggle with. And also, it would be cool to see a genre of sci-fi where aliens never contact humans, but the story is set on how the aliens go about their lives or solve crises. For instance, humans have mostly solved the ozone hole by the 2000s. What if aliens did not solve their ozone hole issue, cos their fertilizers and cars emit NOx? They would probably need to wear UV suits and have covered sidewalks. Cars would maybe be driveless and drop people off at their locations. Most activity would happen during the twilight. So, ET may have solved CO2 emissions, but they struggle with NOx.

Another thing: Imagine the alien version of WWII was fought with cloud seeding. That would be an interesting take on ethics of weather control.

In simple terms, sci-fi could explore ethical dilemmas by using isolated alien civilizations with similar tech to ours to push the plot forward.
Hah. I get @symbolipoint ’s reaction. That was quite a mental jump.
 
A.T. said:
Not showing the aliens is also a clever move to make a movie timeless, regardless of how the idea of an alien changes.
Those stories just feel…. incomplete or unsatisfactory….

IMHO
 
DaveC426913 said:
:crosses sbrothy off list of potential reviewers of my current book-in-progress:
I’m sure I can make an exception. The last (steampoint) thing I read was a disappointment though. :smile:

I guess it boils down to whether the story is captivating or not. I’m sure yours will be. 😄
 
Something that has always annoyed me is the way weapons are handled in movies. Specifically noone ever changes magasines and weapons are cocked at the last moment and often multiple times. If a magasine in a semiautomatic pistol is changed for once the weapon is almost always cocked even though, as I understand this type of weapon, it should be instantly ready once the magasine is put in.


I was therefore positively surprised when, in the 1995 cartoon “Ghost in the Shell”, an antagonist empties an Uzi in seconds and in slowmotion changes the magasizne, do it again, and on the next time he doesnt empty it but actually takes the mag out checking how many cartridges are left – then empties in an instant.


The 2007 movie version is perhaps not so rigorous but it\s beautiful photography and SFX. Matrix has nothing on it. In my opinion only Bladerunner 2047 comes close.

EDIT: Although I dont know if an Uzi is cocked between mag shifts... I wasnt brought up with guns like an American. :smile:

EDIT2: a/an Uzi?
 
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DaveC426913 said:
This always comes down to the audience and story telling.
You and I know that a constellation is only meaningful from Earth, and that it does not define radial distance.

But, in terms of story-telling, how much time should they spend on accuracy, as opposed to keeping the story moving? Is radial distance necessary for the plot?

Before you answer that: let me suggest an experiment: find a doctor-friend or healthcare friend and watch a medical or forensics show on TV with them. Did you notice that, when they swabbed the petri dish for bacteria, they only swabbed one, and not a dozen, for repeatability? No?

Did you notice, in "The Pit", they don't even wear face masks. Like, ever?

Well your medical friend did, and it's killing him.

In CSI, Gil Grissom is God's gift to forensic science, and yet:
- it took him a half an episode to identify a Siamese fighting fish
- he described someone falling off a building as: "well, terminal velocity is 9.8 metres per second, so he should have landed ... there." (Damn near threw the remote at the TV for that one...)


Movies and shows are written for the broader audience, and technical accuracy eats up screen time better left for plot. (books are better for accuracy).

It's just something you have to accept - just one more layer of suspension of disbelief - when watching anything techncal.
Speaking of CSI, or police procedurals generally, when searching for faces or fingerprints not actually printing each one to the screen would increase search speed absurdly. I know why its done in movies though. We need to see whats going on. And yeah, mainframe text magically changing. I\ve never seen a mainframe interface change text if it wasnt part of the actual program. That goes without saying though.

EDIT: And yeah, magical picture "zoom and enhance". :smile:
 
sbrothy said:
EDIT: And yeah, magical picture "zoom and enhance". :smile:
1794589518020.webp
 
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