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Important questions!
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Author:  Diamondeye [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Important questions!
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What other things just bug you in Science Fiction?
Author:  Vindicarre [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
Alien races always seem to be mono-cultural i.e. one language, one religion, one mode of dress...
Author:  Kaffis Mark V [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
Vindicarre wrote:
Alien races always seem to be mono-cultural i.e. one language, one religion, one mode of dress...

Well, if it makes you feel any better, by the time we meet them, Humans always are, too.

Colonized planets are never self-sufficient, and instead have massive import/export economies.
Author:  Elmarnieh [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:39 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hoth is far enough away from its sun that everywhere on the planet is always below 0C.

Thats not hard to do.
Author:  Vindicarre [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Re:
Kaffis Mark V wrote:
Vindicarre wrote:
Alien races always seem to be mono-cultural i.e. one language, one religion, one mode of dress...

Well, if it makes you feel any better, by the time we meet them, Humans always are, too.


Lol, true, so true!
Author:  TheRiov [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:09 pm ]
Post subject: 
I think there are some important trope defying groups worth noting:
Minbari of Babylon 5 have 3 languages
(in fact all of B5 defies nearly all these stereotypes, each race had its own internal political/religious/cultural problems)

Star Wars planets are what irk me.
The Ice Planet (Hoth)
The Desert Planet (Tatoeen)
The Lava Planet (Mustafar)
The Lush Planet (Naboo)
The Forest Moon (Endor)
The City Planet (Coruscant)
The Cloud Planet (Bespin)
The Swamp Planet (Degobah)

sheesh.
Author:  shuyung [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:46 pm ]
Post subject: 
Most of those aren't that irksome, to me. As has been pointed out, it's not difficult for a planet to be entirely ice covered. Nor is a planet entirely a desert really all that troubling. Lava is simply a matter of an extremely active planet. Clouds is just a gas giant. Entirely city is not unreasonable for a planet that is the galactic capital. The others are a little funky.
Author:  Kaffis Mark V [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:53 pm ]
Post subject: 
I can even get behind swamp planet. There's nothing saying that the poles aren't cooler swamp, and the equatorial region isn't warmer swamp.
Author:  Ulfynn [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important questions!
I could see a lava planet given something like:

Quote:
With over 400 active volcanoes, Io is the most geologically active object in the Solar System. This extreme geologic activity is the result of tidal heating from friction generated within Io's interior by Jupiter's varying pull.
.

What I can't see is the surface conditions being such that Humans could survive direct exposure.
Author:  Hopwin [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:28 pm ]
Post subject: 
Uh so... this is a debate?

Here's what irks me about sci-fi. Not enough robots, killer or friendly. Why did we get away from that?

Also not enough doomsday weaponry. You can't tell me there aren't crackpot scientists in the future.

Plus Star Trek: That design seems absolutely retarded for 3 dimensional travel/combat. This is true for most spaceships but in Star Trek they aren't actually moving they are warping space/time by expanding space behind the ship and shrinking it in front. Why build in a fore and aft with phaser banks located in the front on the top and bottom?
Author:  shuyung [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:51 pm ]
Post subject: 
On the subject of Star Trek, there was a very interesting (at least to me) set of blog posts that took a look at the changes that have occurred to the starship Enterprise over the years. You may find it interesting. (Note: it is written very much from a gaming perspective.)
http://whitehall-paraindustries.blogspo ... prise.html
Author:  Diamondeye [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 6:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important questions!
No, this isn't supposed to be a debate; it's just people's opinions about what annoys you. If you find lava planets annoying, more power to you.

Star Trek other than TOS is either Gene Roddenberry's personal wankfest about an egalitarian Federation and a bunch of aliens that engage in different types of barbarism, or it's a shameless capitalization on the popularity of Star Trek.

The spacecraft, in addition to being frequently of such a shape as to make their structural integrity questionable (they even admit this with their silly structural integrity fields) are not designed as warships. This is in keeping with Starfleet's loud insistance that it's not a military organization. ST ships tend to be absurdly lightly armed for their mass compared to other Sci Fi franchises that display roughly comparable technological advancement. Their bridges are exposed on top of the main hull rather than being buried deep in an unbelievably well-armored hull like the Galactica (for example).

That's not to say they have no redeeming features; Phasers seem to be very efficient, destructive weapons and Warp Drive seems to be useful tactically, such as when Chekov uses it to dodge a photon torpedo in ST:V

It's replete with annoyances, however, that are all its own in addition to those so common to Sci Fi in general. A few examples:

1) The weapons in Next Generation that couldn't be allowed to look like... you know, GUNS, so they made a pistol to look like a hand vaccuum
2) Technobabble. Data, Geordi, I'm looking at you. We really didn't need any more detail than "She canna take much more o' this Cap'n!"
3) The whole "Tr3k Sh1PZ ar3 1mmUne t0 LAz0RZ d00D HURHURHUR" brain bug. Really, one quote from Riker does not make the No Limits Fallacy suddenly valid.

I could go on and on, but invariably someone gets butt-hurt about Trek.

One more though, since I forgot...

They take children aboard their war..err.. exploratory ships.
Author:  Taamar [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:17 pm ]
Post subject: 
While there are a variety of physical types among the males of science fiction, all human females are slender and boosomy, usually with flowing hair. And all characters are male unless there's a compelling reason for them not to be. Apparently the future is a huge sausage fest, yet the women haven't yet figured out that the ratio means they can stop shaving their armits and STILL get laid anytime they want.
Author:  Micheal [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
Taamar - Weber's Honor Harrington series has a fairly equitable distribution of genders in most roles. If you haven't read them you might enjoy them.

My peeves seem to be nit picky, characters that are supposed to be brilliant who can't see the obvious things slapping them in face kind of stuff.
Author:  TheRiov [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
Old Man's War isn't quite 50/50 but does a decent job.
Author:  Kaffis Mark V [ Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
To be fair, though, the variety isn't that great among the males. You get some buff guys who rip their shirts all the time, and some trim and fit guys who at least don't overhang their belts. Not a lot of flabby science fiction characters (unless we're casting grotesque aliens).

Aging cast members in TOS cinema notwithstanding.
Author:  Diamondeye [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Important questions!
I should point out that most science fiction involves either the military, the police, or explorers of some sort and therefore it makes a great deal of sense for both males and females to slender or buffed up, since such occupations logically call for physical fitness.

The real annoyances for me in this regard is that A) people in those occupations tend to be hyper-professional or utterly incompetant, which is in itself a weird dichotomy, but even those with little professional dedication are in good shape and B) you don't usually see skinny men, and even more rarely, muscular women. Vasquez from "Aliens" stands out as an exception.

Michael makes a good recommendation regarding the Honorverse novels. These are a huge improvement over a lot of Sci Fi writing in a number of respects, most notably that space combat takes place at realistic ranges, typically millions of kilometers rather than the WWII-air-combat ranges of most cinematic sci fi, which usually describe extreme ranges but never actually show it.

From the standpoint of female characters, it actually has them in reasonable proportions, and even better they aren't portrayed as either "better than the males just to show the author isn't sexist" or "constantly turning everything into GIRL POWER RARRR!!!" for the same reason. We also don't see the bizarre situation that occurs in some sci fi/fantasy where women are on an equal footing with men for practical purposes but the men (or at least some of them) still maintain the ignorant redneck attitude towards women without anything in the setting to explain why they still socialize this way other than the need to have some reason for the females to be engaging in a sex-based competition. Robert Jordan, I'm looking at you.

Honor herself can be a bit of a Mary Sue at times but she's really not that bad. The later novels get a little ridiculous with the ever-improving missile-spam technology without a proportional effort to improve anti-missile defenses (Weber seems to almost be wanking off to his own weapons) but at least it has the justification of being a more-or-less sudden technological leap. One does wonder, though, why neither side ever tries to raid the other's missile production facilities or missile collier ships (which are mentioned at least once) or why the sheer volume of missiles needed isn't a crippling expense.
Author:  Hopwin [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:30 am ]
Post subject: 
Oh yes, you just nailed my biggest pet-peeve in all of literature. Fricking Robert Jordan, someone needs to lock that man in a cave with no access to the outside world.
Author:  Müs [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re:
Hopwin wrote:
Oh yes, you just nailed my biggest pet-peeve in all of literature. Fricking Robert Jordan, someone needs to lock that man in a cave with no access to the outside world.


Well... he's currently locked in a little box with no access to the outside world...
Author:  Vindicarre [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:34 am ]
Post subject: 
D'oh!
Author:  Hopwin [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Re:
Müs wrote:
Hopwin wrote:
Oh yes, you just nailed my biggest pet-peeve in all of literature. Fricking Robert Jordan, someone needs to lock that man in a cave with no access to the outside world.


Well... he's currently locked in a little box with no access to the outside world...

Crap, I forgot. Very insensitive. Can we lock up his books?
Author:  shuyung [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:50 am ]
Post subject: 
We could dig him up and beat him with the shovel.
Author:  Arathain Kelvar [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:49 pm ]
Post subject: 
First contact with an alien race will be a friggin science probe. Why is it never a science probe?
Author:  damaged [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
Arathain Kelvar wrote:
First contact with an alien race will be a friggin science probe. Why is it never a science probe?


Because, for some reason, alien science probes are rectally oriented?
Author:  Diamondeye [ Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
Arathain Kelvar wrote:
First contact with an alien race will be a friggin science probe. Why is it never a science probe?

ST: TMP was a science probe.

Bringing up another peeve with Star Trek: The preponderance of aliens that are absurdly powerful compared to other Alpha Quadrant races, frequently with magic "I win" powers, but which are outwitted by starship captains as a matter of course.
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