The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés

[trekgeezer]

Check out this site and then let the discussion begin.

The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés

It's amazing how many cliches earned the Star Trek logo. You should also hit the guy's homepage link at the bottom and read some of his other lists.



Post Edited (09-13-05 12:11)

[AndyC]

I've looked at this list before. Funny how many specific examples of each point immediately come to mind.

Of course, many of these cliches are the basis for a lot of classic stories, and many more are just plain fun. Personally, I'm a big fan of the classics. I look at the current obsession in Sf with avoiding cliches, and think that the genre in general is perhaps taking itself too seriously these days. The fun is getting lost.

[raj]

I could never understand the holodeck episodes.  In today's Air Force, if an F-15, e.g., goes down, basically they all get grounded until the investigation can figure out if it was a mechanical or human or weather problem.  Yet in Star Trek, the holodeck goes wacky once a month, endangering the crew and ship, and they don't take the thing offline.
And another plus for Kirk is that his Enterprise didn't need no stinkin' holodeck.

[Mr. Hockstatter]

I think he missed one of the most annoying and over used ones:  the writer who takes his own personal political beliefs and recasts them as some sort of enlightenment being passed on from an advanced alien species to the unwashed human masses.  

A few of my favorites:  the futuristic hand weapons that are vastly inferior to present day hand weapons.    Also the futuristic ship-based weapons that are said to be capable of wiping out continents yet when fired at an unprotected ship do only moderate damage.

Nuclear weapons that always have yields in the dozens of megatons that blow up like they were about 200 - 500 lbs of TNT.  And they cause no damage if you've got shields.  And even if you don't, a 50 megaton warhead detonating against the hull will likely cause a fire of moderate intensity which can be extinguished by opening an airlock, but 5 people may be sucked out into space.

When someone is infected with an alien virus that causes their body to mutate into an alien life form, once a cure is found it only takes a few hours for them to return completely to normal.  This goes for people who age to 120 years old as well.

The hologram that becomes sentient, though of course it's actually the computer projecting the hologram that must have become sentient, which is always ignored because it wouldn't be at all good for the story for the bridge consoles to be sentient.

And of course, radiation never kills anyone but instead mutates them into some weird thing, and toxic waste is far more powerful than any acid, it can dissolve a person in seconds.

[AndyC]

What got me was that the holodeck did amazing things that never really seemed all that important to anyone, or at least didn't impress them in any lasting way. In response to a request from Data, that happened to be worded just right, it CREATED A SENTIENT BEING. You'd think that would be a big deal, maybe give birth to a whole new branch of science, raise troubling ethical questions, but once they got control of the ship back, they stored Moriarty and life went on.

Of course, these were the same people who, upon discovering a Dyson sphere, concocted a plan to make Scotty feel useful, and once he'd rescued them, they left, and life went on.

Picard's crew had a knack for making the most amazing discoveries, being mildly interested, and then promptly forgetting about them.



Post Edited (09-13-05 13:49)

[Derf]

I like movies involving Section II, No. 16, at least sometimes.

Most of these became cliches only because too many movies copied one wildly successful one, such as Aliens or Road Warrior. And most of those copies came from Roger Corman.

As for the stories of evil corporations, that was the mindset of the 80s, so of course it became a cliche in movies; tons of cheap sci-fi movies were done in the 80s. And I liked quite a few of them.

[ulthar]

AndyC wrote:

>
> Picard's crew had a knack for making the most amazing
> discoveries, being mildly interested, and then promptly
> forgetting about them.
>

Can't read the list right now (it's blocked by the ISP apparently), but isn't this comment 'what is wrong' with modern trek in general? (not just TNG)

That simple statement sums up just about every episode of Voyager, with slight modification.  HUGE build-up, much hand-wringing, "oh no, we'll never do this in time," then BAM - quick, easy fix and it's forgotten forever.

You guys remember the early-mid 80's show Tour of Duty?  One of the only TV shows that regularly killed off cast regulars (as is reasonable in a WAR STORY).  Exploring space is dangerous, but, except for a few exceptions (the very first Borg episode in TNG), you don't get the danger from modern era Trek.  You know none of the regulars are going to die, and you know it will have a 'happy' ending.

Maybe Kirk always pulled a solution to some problem out of his butt, but at least the writing/direction built some real suspense with it.

(I'll read the list when it is back up)

[Gerry]

raj wrote:

> And another plus for Kirk is that his Enterprise didn't need no
> stinkin' holodeck.

No, they actually read books for entertainment!  Either on the viewscreen (like in "Space Seed") or actually bound volumes WRATH OF KHAN.

[AndyC]

When Kirk's crew got into a dangerous situation, we knew it was dangerous because some bit player in a red shirt would get burned to a crisp, turned into a cube, thrown down a pit or drained of all his hemoglobin or maybe all his salt. Quite a few of Kirk's crew bought it right in front of us. Maybe they weren't regulars, but we saw it happen, and it added some tension, showed us the danger.

Picard hardly ever suffered any losses, and when it happened, he was often sitting on the bridge, getting a report of it. A ship blows up on the bridge monitor, and somebody grimly announces how many people were aboard. The Borg slice out a chunk of the saucer, and Picard gets a damage report, then somebody grimly announces how many people were on those decks. Kind of lame, when you think about it.

[ulthar]

Picard read a lot, too.  I cannot recall the specific episode names, but I do recall him reading hard bound book(s).

Granted, it was not as prevalent as on TOS.

[AndyC]

Mr. Hockstatter wrote:
> I think he missed one of the most annoying and over used ones:
> the writer who takes his own personal political beliefs and
> recasts them as some sort of enlightenment being passed on from
> an advanced alien species to the unwashed human masses.  

I've noticed that the later work of some golden age writers tends to get very preachy in tone. They become environmentalists or take up some other cause, and their stories begin to carry such messages with all the subtlety of a smack in the head with a cactus.