Are there truly any unique science fiction ideas left?

[Cepstrum]

I don't think there's any truly original ideas, no, but I do think it's possible to get something original and unique out of an established idea. I wouldn't say we've completely run out of those just yet.

I'd have to disagree. There is an essentially unlimited/infinite number of ways to arrange a script to make it unique/original. I'm no good at writing, but I can easily come up with a unique story. It might just be boring.

For example:

A alien race of human-sized, highly intelligent gerbils visits Earth from another galaxy. At first the world is shocked. But the gerbils are friendly, say there are no alien threats, and offer to completely overhaul every nations' infrastructure to be suitable for efficient electric cars, which they also provide. They then say goodbye and leave. Everything returns to normal on Earth, and people soon stop talking about the alien gerbils.

But in reality, the gerbils never left. They hid themselves several hundred meters under Zimbabwe. After 50 years, they secretely establish a tunnel to Poland, where they secretly install puppet leaders of Poland and Lithuania. Their goal? To restore the medieval Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. They give advanced arms and supplement these two nations' troops with special powers (unknown to the soldiers). They then procede to reestablish the Commonwealth by force.

Then they unmask themselves, announce that their plan succeeded, and leave Earth only to be destroyed in take-off by Mark Twain, who traveled to the 40th century and brought back with him the technology to destroy the gerbils.


Now I'm pretty sure that's unique. Of course, it's also stupid. But of course it's possible to create unique/original sci-fi stories.

 

[Finn]

^Not completely unique. An alien race comes and secretly intrafrilate humanity while pretending to help? I can think of a few like that.

 

[Sector 7]

^Not completely unique. An alien race comes and secretly intrafrilate humanity while pretending to help? I can think of a few like that.

V comes to mind immediately.

 

[MikeS]

Wasn't it the Great Bird himself that said "Of course there are more stories out there, the galaxy is a big place."?

I detect a lack of imagination here.

 

[Cepstrum]

^Not completely unique. An alien race comes and secretly intrafrilate humanity while pretending to help? I can think of a few like that.

V comes to mind immediately.

No, it's unique. There's no such thing as being only somewhat unique. Things are either unique or not. There's no in-between.

And how many times have aliens come to resurrect the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? I don't think that's been tried. And that's why it's unique. But it's dumb, too.

These aliens weren't evil. They just wanted to recreate a by-gone Earth kingdom.

You might call it somewhat derivative, but of course it's strictly unique. You could make another unique story out of it by changing a few details. Make them restore the old, pre-German Baltic Prussians. And have a clone of Charles Martel arrive with an army of laser-sword wielding Saracens to do battle.

I guess I'm arguing mathematic, semantic definitions of uniqueness. In that sense, there is virtually an unlimited number of ways to combine syntactically correct phrases to make up a sci-fi story.


But if the point is actually, "are there many compelling, untried sci-fi themes that have been both unexplored and would make for commercially viable products", then the answer is different, and rather subjective.

 

[Nardpuncher]

All sci-fi ideas you could think of have been done, whether in books, TV, or especially in the short story area.
But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Just don't be the kind of nitpicky fan that whines too much when they recognize a plot point or theme from something else.

 

[22 Stars]

One could argue there are only a handful of 'stories' and everything else is just a riff on those... While that may be true to an extent, that certainly doesn't mean we should stop telling stories, it's part of the human condition! I agree with MikeS here, don't let things that have come before quash your imagination!

 

[Destructor]

All sci-fi ideas you could think of have been done.

They were saying that 100 years ago.

 

[Cepstrum]

All sci-fi ideas you could think of have been done.

They were saying that 100 years ago.

I agree.

I don't believe all possible stories have been done. Even if they have as of 2010 (which I don't believe), as science progresses over the next decade or two we will have technology we hadn't thought of before. These alone could be catalysts for new stories. Jurassic Park wasn't possible before the concepts of DNA and cloning became well-known. I don't think there were many (or any) "cloning" based stories 75 years ago. Even wormholes etc are relatively new concepts. And don't forget about the transistor then Internet revolutions. Sci-fi didn't anticipate incorporating those. Look at TOS. It was based on 1960s' notions of the future. There were no touch screen interfaces, no retinal scans, no references to many things that *exist today* (eg, nanotechnology and its benefits and hazards).

Who knows what will be around the corner?

 

[Destructor]

Although it is, by definition, unprovable, I firmly believe that there is a great deal about the universe that we know nothing about, and that many of our deeply rooted assumptions about science as it currently stands may be flawed or missing crucial pieces of understanding. As our knowledge grows, so will science fiction. We will never run out of music, or stories, because the culture is always changing.

 

[Sector 7]

^Not completely unique. An alien race comes and secretly intrafrilate humanity while pretending to help? I can think of a few like that.

V comes to mind immediately.

No, it's unique.

V is NOT unique. Perhaps you have never heard of The Invaders (a 1960s television series), The Outer Limits (both series) or The Twilight Zone... all of which addressed these concepts long before V came along. V told a good tale, but it was hardly unique by your own definition.

Thousands of years ago, the author of Ecclesiastes (1:9-11) lamented, as have some in this thread:

The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it has been already of old time, which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

New technology and science will eventually be discovered which will in turn give birth to new stories. All of those stories, however, will still contain a protagonist, an antagonist and conflict. All stories must have this in order to tell their tale.

 

[Myasishchev]

I don't think there's any truly original ideas, no, but I do think it's possible to get something original and unique out of an established idea. I wouldn't say we've completely run out of those just yet.

I'd have to disagree. There is an essentially unlimited/infinite number of ways to arrange a script to make it unique/original. I'm no good at writing, but I can easily come up with a unique story. It might just be boring.

For example:

A alien race of human-sized, highly intelligent gerbils visits Earth from another galaxy. At first the world is shocked. But the gerbils are friendly, say there are no alien threats, and offer to completely overhaul every nations' infrastructure to be suitable for efficient electric cars, which they also provide. They then say goodbye and leave. Everything returns to normal on Earth, and people soon stop talking about the alien gerbils.

But in reality, the gerbils never left. They hid themselves several hundred meters under Zimbabwe. After 50 years, they secretely establish a tunnel to Poland, where they secretly install puppet leaders of Poland and Lithuania. Their goal? To restore the medieval Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. They give advanced arms and supplement these two nations' troops with special powers (unknown to the soldiers). They then procede to reestablish the Commonwealth by force.

Then they unmask themselves, announce that their plan succeeded, and leave Earth only to be destroyed in take-off by Mark Twain, who traveled to the 40th century and brought back with him the technology to destroy the gerbils.


Now I'm pretty sure that's unique. Of course, it's also stupid. But of course it's possible to create unique/original sci-fi stories.

Not really all that different in kind than all those "aliens help the Nazis" stories.

Damn, you've basically recapitulated the plot to Mark Millar's Ultimates 1. Except replace P-L with Germany, gerbils with the Chitauri, and Mark Twain with Thor.

 

[Arpy]

Yes there are. It's hubris to think otherwise. And it gets a Star Trek series canceled in the fourth season.

 

[Nightdiamond]

I think so, or hope so- creativity is a remarkable skill-just when you think a concept can go no further, someone, somehow always comes up with something innovating.


You have Star trek, Lost In Space, Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Galactica, B.5- All different ways of looking at the space age...

I think Trek made too many trips to the well, which has slowed it down, but eventually one day in the future they may strike gold again...

 

[Gary7]

They are out there... but much fewer than there used to be. A lot of basic ideas have been used up, regurgitated, and overdone to the point of banality. But while we exist, the possibilities are nearly limitless.