What tropes in science fiction annoy you?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I just wrapped up a rewatch of The Six Million Dollar Man and its sister series The Bionic Woman and oh boy that brought back memories. Still fun to watch for the most part.

A couple of things though that really bug me.

Both of them can run really fast, like really fast like 60 mph for a mere human that's fast without super powers. Anyway sure if the bionic legs can do that what about the hip joints, those were not designed by nature to work at those speeds so would their bones be reinforced with some metal or such? The TV show never made it clear if the legs are bionic from the hip joint down or such but they did little computer graphics in the show intro that suggests they start below the hips and that bugs me just a little. I have never read the novel that both shows were originally based on so have no background information either way.

Also the things they do with their bionic arm you'd have to think they did something to the upper part of their skeletons too to reinforce that or much pain would happen. Again I don't think they go into that in much detail in the TV shows, not to mention Steve's eye is a long thing that goes from the his eye socket right to the back of his head.

Yeah, it's not enough to just augment somebody's limbs and call it even. In order to actually USE the enhanced strength and speed that comes with it, a person's endurance and stamina also have to be upgraded. Plus their circulatory and nervous systems would have to be radically altered in order to supply their new limbs.

Did this actually happen with Steve or Jaime? Because if not, they would exhaust themselves in seconds - probably to death - whenever they used their "powers".

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Yeah, it's not enough to just augment somebody's limbs and call it even. In order to actually USE the enhanced strength and speed that comes with it, a person's endurance and stamina also have to be upgraded. Plus their circulatory and nervous systems would have to be radically altered in order to supply their new limbs.

Did this actually happen with Steve or Jaime? Because if not, they would exhaust themselves in seconds - probably to death - whenever they used their "powers".

It's never explicitly said in either TV show whether or not they altered other parts of their bodies or not to cope with the bionics, at least that I remember from my rewatch. In the show's intro they show Steve running at 60mph but his heart rate seems to be only slightly higher then normal. Don't ask me how he can tear light poles out of the ground and not put strain on his shoulder and rib cage or spine I'd imagine those things would be the first to fail.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don’t like the asymmetry of beauty standards.

You constantly see conventionally beautiful women in love with monstrous by human standards alien men. But never the other way around, conventionally attractive human men showing interest in monstrous alien women.

And none out of ten times you see two different alien species together it’s a man humans would not consider attractive with a woman humans would, like Quark always walking around with busty neon haired aliens. Or the idea Jabba would find Leah attractive.

Besides the obvious attempt to cater to the human male audience, it supports the conceit that men are allowed to be shallow but women must make the moral romantic choice and fall in love with the nice but physically attractive man who ‘deserves’ her.

This trope is a small contributor in making teenage boys feel romantically entitled enough to be violent.

 

[stj]

Most tired SF tropes are tired wherever they're used. The child who grows up to be easier to film, as Forbin mentioned. The villain who plans to be captured. The abolition of the Third Law of Motion. Vehicles hanging over a precipice waiting for somebody to be rescued. The hero who has to do bare knuckle fighting in an arena surrounding by a raving mob (aka the audience!)

But for tropes more specific to SF, I think I'd have to give the palm to space war. Babylon 5 barely got away with, even with jump gates pinning the battles down and the superpowerful peoples not really getting material benefits. Everybody else, the stupidity takes a lethal toll.

In a more general sense, not really a trope, but an approach, the idea that a writer is deconstructing wish fulfillment fantasies by scenarios about the wretchedness of the target, is deeply stupid. The very best deconstruction of wish fulfillment is still Wells' The Invisible Man, and he did it by taking reality more seriously. Pretending there's no difference between fantasy and SF serves a commercial self-interest but it's bad writing.

 

[Forbin]

Young And The Resless and The Bold have used this one many times.

Yeah, but SF carries it to extremes, bringing a kid to child-actor-age in the space of an episode or two. In the soaps you're just supposed to assume it was a natural passage of time, but Killjoys brought a rapid-aging being from newborn into his teens in the space of an episode.

 

[JD]

The one that irks me is the cliche of the newborn baby with accelerated growth, so they can skip over 5-10 years of the kid just being taken care of instead of contributiing to the plot. Killjoys, an otherwise reasonably original show, just dropped that one on us this season.

My favorite take on this is still The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire, they had a baby at the end of one season, and then when they came back the next he was several years old without a time jump. In his first scene Will's friend Jazz makes a comment about him being a baby last time, and Will kind of mimes him growing really fast and then makes a face at the camera.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Young And The Resless and The Bold have used this one many times.

Law & Order: SVU has done it as well, with Lt. Benson's son Noah.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Yeah, but SF carries it to extremes, bringing a kid to child-actor-age in the space of an episode or two. In the soaps you're just supposed to assume it was a natural passage of time, but Killjoys brought a rapid-aging being from newborn into his teens in the space of an episode.

Which season was that because I am planning a rewatch?

I don’t like the asymmetry of beauty standards.

You constantly see conventionally beautiful women in love with monstrous by human standards alien men. But never the other way around, conventionally attractive human men showing interest in monstrous alien women.

And none out of ten times you see two different alien species together it’s a man humans would not consider attractive with a woman humans would, like Quark always walking around with busty neon haired aliens. Or the idea Jabba would find Leah attractive.

Besides the obvious attempt to cater to the human male audience, it supports the conceit that men are allowed to be shallow but women must make the moral romantic choice and fall in love with the nice but physically attractive man who ‘deserves’ her.

This trope is a small contributor in making teenage boys feel romantically entitled enough to be violent.

Yeah we never see human guys fall for an alien woman that doesn't look like some kind of model with alien makeup. But Galaxy Quest did break that mold with Fred falling for Laliari even she she looked alien with her tentacles and all, but yet that wasn't taken seriously it was done as a sight gag. I felt kind of cheated watching that scene because I knew it was done as a sight gag.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Seems every fictional universe has a town or planet modeled off feudal Japan with castles large banners and people in armor and ceremonial clothes, with swords and all the other trappings. In the case of space shows whole planets modeled like this.

Or Imperial Rome, Native American or Gangster Society, for that matter. No matter how far into the reaches of the galaxy these shows end up, they somehow always end up mirroring an aspect of Earth's culture that is very specific, and yet we happen upon them for the first time.

 

[flandry84]

I hate those cheap looking genre shows,all set in Canada(apparently).Big conspiracy shows with by the numbers casting,by the numbers plotting etc.
Thankfully few of them last more than one season.

 

[stj]

How could I forget? Space Nazis were a stretch in Star Trek, when the Nazis were a fresh memory.and they were at least supposed to be an import from Earth.

 

[Garak]

Time travel bugs the shit out of me

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Yeah, it's not enough to just augment somebody's limbs and call it even. In order to actually USE the enhanced strength and speed that comes with it, a person's endurance and stamina also have to be upgraded. Plus their circulatory and nervous systems would have to be radically altered in order to supply their new limbs.

Did this actually happen with Steve or Jaime? Because if not, they would exhaust themselves in seconds - probably to death - whenever they used their "powers".

Years ago, I read the novel Cyborg by Marin Caidin (sp) on which The Six Million Dollar Man was based on, and if I'm remembering correctly, Steve Austin's entire skeletal structure was reinforced to handle his bionic limbs.
1/2 his skull was replaced by a metal plate, his bionic eye was just a miniaturized camera which he could pop out and take photos, and the middle finger on his artificial limb was fitted with a poison needle/dart which he could inject or shoot someone with.
He could run faster, but not 60 mph, and his arm could lift more than the average person, but wasn't nearly as flexible and the 'skin' covering his bionic limbs looked more like flesh colored rubber than what was seen on TV.
I might be mis-remembering, but I also think some sort of flexible mesh was inserted around his rib cage to replace lost/damaged ribs.
The explanation given was that his lungs could therefore greatly expand and increase oxygenation to his circulatory system

 

[Timewalker]

I hate those cheap looking genre shows,all set in Canada(apparently).

Is there something wrong with them being shot in Canada? We're a microcosm of most of the climate and terrain types on the planet. About the only obvious ones you won't find here are the tropics and the Sahara, and there are semi-arid regions in British Columbia.

 

[USS Firefly]

If the story is good I don't care for sets or FX.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Years ago, I read the novel Cyborg by Marin Caidin (sp) on which The Six Million Dollar Man was based on, and if I'm remembering correctly, Steve Austin's entire skeletal structure was reinforced to handle his bionic limbs.
1/2 his skull was replaced by a metal plate, his bionic eye was just a miniaturized camera which he could pop out and take photos, and the middle finger on his artificial limb was fitted with a poison needle/dart which he could inject or shoot someone with.
He could run faster, but not 60 mph, and his arm could lift more than the average person, but wasn't nearly as flexible and the 'skin' covering his bionic limbs looked more like flesh colored rubber than what was seen on TV.
I might be mis-remembering, but I also think some sort of flexible mesh was inserted around his rib cage to replace lost/damaged ribs.
The explanation given was that his lungs could therefore greatly expand and increase oxygenation to his circulatory system

Thanks for that. I've never read Cyborg but was going off what was presented on TV.

There were 3 pilot episodes to TSMDM and I think in one of those Steve did have the dart gun in his finger.

When the series was given the go ahead they changed almost all of that.

 

[flandry84]

Is there something wrong with them being shot in Canada? We're a microcosm of most of the climate and terrain types on the planet. About the only obvious ones you won't find here are the tropics and the Sahara, and there are semi-arid regions in British Columbia.

Absolutely nothing wrong with Canada friend.Just the opposite in fact.

 

[Forbin]

Which season was that because I am planning a rewatch?
.

Second half of the season that just ended, season 4. That's why it's fresh in my mind, it literally happened just a few weeks ago.

 

[RPOW0614]

Great thread!
1. The magic child (Anakin and others)
2. The villain monologing (this is universal of all movies)
3. The anyone can fly a spaceship thing (all shows and movies)
4. ANY count down timer (Stop, just please stop)
5. Time travel, done badly. Done well, it is great.
6. Planet Canada (Stargate made fun of this a few times)
7. The monolithic culture thing. People are diverse, why not aliens?
8. Always the same gravity in the universe (Andromeda covered this. But it was Andromeda.)
9. Love Star Trek but the universal translator picking up a language within seconds.
10. The "race to save X's life" and just barely making it back in time.
11. The insane astronaut tries to kill everyone. (Interstellar)
12. The "To live you must kill this one innocent person" thing.

I'm sure there are more but these are my favorite pet peeves.

 

[flandry84]

There is a massive alien conspiracy afoot but only a small group of people know about it and can stop it.
Enough already.