What tropes in science fiction annoy you?

[Gingerbread Demon]

What tropes annoy you in science fiction and fantasy?

OK one I have noticed is Japan town? Japan planet?

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.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

It does? I can't even think of one of the top of my head. Western planets, on the other hand...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Gloomy, rainy British Columbia planet seems quite common on TV sci-fi thanks to production in and around Vancouver. As for Japan planet, I can only really think of Dark Matter - the people on that planet were mostly Japanese colonists I assume - although the reversion to something akin to Edo-era feudalism wasn't really explained. It did allow for lots of Bushido-style honour ethics, swordplay, and palace intrigue. There was also a Shogun section on Westworld but that was a deliberate human construction for "entertainment".

The more general trope that annoys me is monoculture planet - one race, one government, one language, one belief system etc. per planet. Later Star Trek series tried to get away from this by portraying a degree of internal diversity for Klingons, Vulcans, and Andorians but the effort did seem a bit "tacked-on" at times.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

It does? I can't even think of one of the top of my head. Western planets, on the other hand...

Gloomy, rainy British Columbia planet seems quite common on TV sci-fi thanks to production in and around Vancouver. As for Japan planet, I can only really think of Dark Matter - the people on that planet were mostly Japanese colonists I assume - although the reversion to something akin to Edo-era feudalism wasn't really explained. It did allow for lots of Bushido-style honour ethics, swordplay, and palace intrigue. There was also a Shogun section on Westworld but that was a deliberate human construction for "entertainment".

Yeah Dark Matter was what I was referencing but I meant that kind of thing in general being overused. Japan Planet also appeared in one of the DC animated movies for Green Lantern. But you get the idea.

Western planet seems to be the more common one.

 

[Greg Cox]

I'll cop to doing Japan Planet in at least one STAR TREK novel.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Visit the Delos Resort and get both!!!!!

 

[2takesfrakes]

When the bad guy has The Ultimate Weapon that will destroy all life as we know it. There's been too much of this in the STAR TREK movies, in particular ...

 

[Greg Cox]

Visit the Delos Resort and get both!!!!!

And Medieval Times and Ancient Rome to boot!

 

[Nerys Myk]

And Medieval Times and Ancient Rome to boot!

What could go wrong?

 

[Greg Cox]

Or worngggggggg . . ...

 

[Ridcully]

Flashbacks to an earlier age, or changing between timelines all the time and then meet up at a certain point...
Bad intrigue based upon convoluted plot triggers for the sake of it....twisting it so bad that it is just a sorry excuse for not being clever enough to actually writing something....interesting.
Whiney angsty drama bad guys/women that gives them the excuses to go rampant on everything.

Mindless monsters that just wants carnage for the sake of carnage, maybe painting it up to be their way of multiply...
Overly powerful beings that are so way out there.....oh gods it is so tired.
All in all unimganinative stuff just gets to me.....have fun mix it up, go bonkers....be witty and sharp....not lazy and recycle everything again....reboots of this and that....and wayyyyy tooo manyyyy prequeeeelllllls!
Haha sod it!

 

[Butters]

Robots breaking their programming and becoming conscious.

Much as I love Kryton, and number Johnny Five, the majority of them just make me cringe. I mean it’s not like I don’t get what AI and Centennial Man we’re trying to say, they’re just, ewe.

Then there is the EMH, I’ll rant by the fire to any one who’ll listen till the sun comes up, and then some.


And time travel stories where the past is changed, the past already happened. BTTF excepted.

 

[Romulan_spy]

When the bad guy has The Ultimate Weapon that will destroy all life as we know it. There's been too much of this in the STAR TREK movies, in particular ...

And the ultimate weapon always require time to warm-up before activating, that gives the heroes just enough time to defuse it.

 

[Velocity]

Used to be that a woman couldn't run very far without falling down especially when being chased by a big BEM. That one always used to bug me a LOT! That, and women in old sf movies used to faint a lot. (Had to make it easier for a shambling monster to be able to catch the woman and carry her limp body around, I guess)

 

[2takesfrakes]

And the ultimate weapon always require time to warm-up before activating, that gives the heroes just enough time to defuse it.

That's what's so great about TWoK, isn't it? They let the Ultimate Weapon do its worst and have all of these interesting results, like Spock dying, a world coming together where there was nothing before and all that ... it was very clever how they used that trope. Unfortunately, the trope and the cleverness say "adieu" aftewards in this franchise, despite the trope being overused. It's not handled as cornily as it was in the 60's and 80's and all that, which is good because less corn, but bad because the charm that used to exist in it in the olden days is non-existent.

 

[Vger23]

Artificial intelligence decides to destroy mankind / people.

 

[kirk55555]

There are many, but one that I've been thinking about:

When a show does time travel to a bad alternate future that you know is going to get reversed at the end of the episode/season. It is never compelling, and is always a waste of time. The only exception is shows directly made to make this work from their very premise (like Doctor Who), and only do it for a single episode or a specific story like Days of Future Past.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I hate robots rebelling and trying to kill everyone, seems like a design flaw. Although in Westworld, it was intentional and not just the robots getting tired of humans.

It's why I really love Moon. It plays with those tropes, but Gerty was programmed to help Sam and that's what it does.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'll cop to doing Japan Planet in at least one STAR TREK novel.

Yeah but Star Trek novels are good

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

And the ultimate weapon always require time to warm-up before activating, that gives the heroes just enough time to defuse it.

Oh come on the ultimate weapon needs to charge. I mean having it ready to go at full charge would just be too logical