Common Sci-Fi tropes that annoy you!

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I thought the point was more that the power /was/ all coming from the same source, and the holodeck and replicators used so much of it that they had to limit crew access to it, not that it was some separate power source that randomly spit out tokens.

I agree with most of the rest, though. Neelix was obnoxious, and the only episode I can remember enjoying was the Year of Hell two parter.

Nope, right from the start all the way to the end they repeatedly state that the power is incompatible. Though one thing that upsets me is that Year of Hell was intended to be a whole season, not a 2 parter. That would have been great.

That's... disappointing, on both counts. And it makes the holodeck rationing, which I always thought was one of the most realistic parts of the show, really silly. I wouldn't want it to be this way (because I'm just not a fan of grimdark fiction) but Year of Hell, minus the reset at the end, was the way you'd think the whole series would have played out, if they'd gone full realism with it. It's crazy how everywhere else the ship could be half destroyed and then back to normal next week, and it's nice to see that being averted for that episode. Would have been awesome as a season.

Also, Voyager had promise, but not as a continuation of TNG so much as TOS. The Voyager was about the size of a Constitution class, and it was meant to be an isolated explorer, not the flagship of the federation fleet that tended to stay close to home. That was also the other direction you'd expect them to have gone with the whole being stranded in the Delta quadrant thing, aside from what we got a glimpse of in Year of Hell, and in that one episode with another stranded Federation ship whose captain... took a different path than Janeway, let's say. Unfortunately it never really did either, or even a very good impression of TNG, which still could have been awesome (I mean, I grew up on TNG probably moreso than TOS, I'm not a TOS purist or anything, it just makes more sense as to what the plan for Voyager was than TNG).

 

[spwatkins]

One thing I've always noticed is that everyone in the future always wears the exact same clothing. If one person is wearing shiny silver pants, *everyone* wears exactly the same pants (sometimes all the women wear shiny silver skirts). Or the crew goes on shore leave to the Pleasure Planet and everyone has exactly the same toga and sandals. Doesn't anyone have a personal sense of style? Aren't there any Goths or Punks or Preppies or whatever?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Humans are special because of their diversity, while all the alien races are monocultures of stereotypes.

Even worse when humans solve alien problems thanks to their diverse nature.

I was so happy when Wrex made fun of that notion in Mass Effect.

Also: humans are the only race with intuitiveness, inventiveness and freedom and are the only race that evolve over time.

That gets on my nerves so badly about Doctor Who in particular. You get the impression that The Doctor absolutely worships humanity, and it's kind of offputting. I'm okay with some line about humans having "great potential" or whatever, but if you're gonna go that route, at least make it so it's something they're striving to achieve and maybe doing more quickly than normal despite starting out behind the other races (hence: potential), not some magical inherent quality that makes them better than everyone else. Even early Star Trek, for all it talked about humanity having solved all of its problems, doesn't make humans out to be above all the other species because of it, it shows them (or at least the core Federation races) as equals.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

In this regard, Mass Effect stands out as a rare example of something that actually realizes the magnitude of the weapons in the universe as it includes bits pointing out that, because of the power of dreadnought guns, planetary battles around an occupied planet gave tremendous advantage to the defenders simply because the attackers didn't want to be responsible for throwing hundreds of multiple kiloton charges on the planet should they miss.

Ironically, they completely forget about Sir Isacc Newton Destroyer of Worlds in Mass Effect 3. If the main gun on an Everest class Dreadnought slings mass driver shells with an explosive force three times that of the Hiroshima Bomb, you'd think they'd be more careful where they aim it.

And then at the end of Mass Effect 3, we see several thousand such ships firing a gigantic volley of such slugs at the Reaper fleet between them an Earth. Just how many of those shots actually hit, and how many missed the Reaper fleet and leveled half a continent on Earth?

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

And then at the end of Mass Effect 3, we see several thousand such ships firing a gigantic volley of such slugs at the Reaper fleet between them an Earth. Just how many of those shots actually hit, and how many missed the Reaper fleet and leveled half a continent on Earth?

That particular battle took place at point blank range according to the game's own codex as the range between the two fleets was measured in a handful of kilometers when firing started. At those ranges, it is reasonable to assume the fleet dreadnoughts were capable of perfect accuracy against opposing dreadnoughts.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

And then at the end of Mass Effect 3, we see several thousand such ships firing a gigantic volley of such slugs at the Reaper fleet between them an Earth. Just how many of those shots actually hit, and how many missed the Reaper fleet and leveled half a continent on Earth?

That particular battle took place at point blank range according to the game's own codex as the range between the two fleets was measured in a handful of kilometers when firing started. At those ranges, it is reasonable to assume the fleet dreadnoughts were capable of perfect accuracy against opposing dreadnoughts.

And yet we still see dozens of shots flying right past the Reapers. It's right there in the cutscene.

God knows how much damage that did.

Another sci-fi trope that annoys me. Single Species Aliens.

Humans are an interesting bunch, in that we are the last surviving members of our Genus. All other subspecies of humans either died out or were slowly integrated into our own species. There are hundreds of different types of dogs and cats, all belonging to their own genus. Why aren't there multiple subspecies of aliens?

I actually really liked how, in the movie Predators, we saw that there are more than one subspecies of Yautja. There were the traditional Yautja from the earlier films, and a more aggressive subspecies of Super Predator that actively attacked their cousins.

 

[romxxii]

I hate those set in the near future that don't adhere to or properly explain away the lack of contemporary regulations in place that would have prevented their scientific catastrophe from happening. See Rise of the Planet of the Apes for its multiple violations; see Jurassic Park for an example of how it should be done instead.

 

[DrOswald]

The one that bothers me the most is "technology/science is magic."

The problem is not when highly advanced technology can do seemingly impossible things, but when that technology is inconsistent in the seemingly impossible things it can do. Then it stops being technology and becomes magic.

Also, planet of hats is super annoying, but only when taken to extremes. I understand that most often the crew of our sci fi show is going to deal with the dominant aspects of the culture of the worlds they visit. But when it goes from dominance to complete cultural obsession it is a problem. For example, the klingons. They are awesome when handled right, but they are totally stupid most of the time because their culture is so obsessed with warriors. What is wrong with being an administrator? Or a scientist? Or any of a thousand other non combatant jobs that every warmachine needs to be effective? I mean, without file clerks how the hell do klingons pay wages properly?

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

And then at the end of Mass Effect 3, we see several thousand such ships firing a gigantic volley of such slugs at the Reaper fleet between them an Earth. Just how many of those shots actually hit, and how many missed the Reaper fleet and leveled half a continent on Earth?

That particular battle took place at point blank range according to the game's own codex as the range between the two fleets was measured in a handful of kilometers when firing started. At those ranges, it is reasonable to assume the fleet dreadnoughts were capable of perfect accuracy against opposing dreadnoughts.

And yet we still see dozens of shots flying right past the Reapers. It's right there in the cutscene.

The only argument I'd make there is that, given the extraordinary circumstances, perhaps the usual cautions were ignored. And, importantly, I have no way of knowing which rounds were produced by dreadnoughts and which came from cruisers and frigates. One would assume that given the vastly decreased level of ordinance in the smaller vessels they would be less cautious when it came to opening fire.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

And then at the end of Mass Effect 3, we see several thousand such ships firing a gigantic volley of such slugs at the Reaper fleet between them an Earth. Just how many of those shots actually hit, and how many missed the Reaper fleet and leveled half a continent on Earth?

That particular battle took place at point blank range according to the game's own codex as the range between the two fleets was measured in a handful of kilometers when firing started. At those ranges, it is reasonable to assume the fleet dreadnoughts were capable of perfect accuracy against opposing dreadnoughts.

And yet we still see dozens of shots flying right past the Reapers. It's right there in the cutscene.

The only argument I'd make there is that, given the extraordinary circumstances, perhaps the usual cautions were ignored. And, importantly, I have no way of knowing which rounds were produced by dreadnoughts and which came from cruisers and frigates. One would assume that given the vastly decreased level of ordinance in the smaller vessels they would be less cautious when it came to opening fire.

Relatively speaking, that's still the equivalent of dropping hundreds of mis-aimed bunker busters at unsuspecting targets.

 

[Floppertje]

snip

Relatively speaking, that's still the equivalent of dropping hundreds of mis-aimed bunker busters at unsuspecting targets.

Can we just assume they stuck to the rule of cool? yeah, it's a little weird, but in the whole ending... thing..., that wasn't really something that bothered me. Kind of a shame how that nice bit of universe building in the second game bit them in the ass there.

 

[Floppertje]

The one that bothers me the most is "technology/science is magic."

The problem is not when highly advanced technology can do seemingly impossible things, but when that technology is inconsistent in the seemingly impossible things it can do. Then it stops being technology and becomes magic.

Also, planet of hats is super annoying, but only when taken to extremes. I understand that most often the crew of our sci fi show is going to deal with the dominant aspects of the culture of the worlds they visit. But when it goes from dominance to complete cultural obsession it is a problem. For example, the klingons. They are awesome when handled right, but they are totally stupid most of the time because their culture is so obsessed with warriors. What is wrong with being an administrator? Or a scientist? Or any of a thousand other non combatant jobs that every warmachine needs to be effective? I mean, without file clerks how the hell do klingons pay wages properly?

Yeah, this. Alien races are pretty much portrayed as being one character cloned ad nauseum. They're portrayed as having one or two qualities they do better than humans and everything else about them sucks. Guess what? If your entire society is 'a warrior', you'd never even get to the part where you invent guns, let alone space travel...
Same goes for planets. Pick one tiny bit of an ecosystem found on earth and BOOM! instant planet. Jungle planet, snow planet, desert planet, city planet. never mind that these planets would need ecosystems of their own and that they have poles too that would mean they have different climate zones... nope, one ecosystem per planet and they'll just have to make do.

 

[Drake Barrow]

Evil AI. Sentient machines automatically going evil, or being so stupidly single-minded that they have no sense of scale when it comes to self-preservation, is sloppy and dumb. The default assumption is that machines will emphasize the worst of us, when I feel that an intelligent machine can emphasize the best and brightest of humanity. If you're into light-to-mid-grade military SF, read some Bolo novels for an example of this. Bolos are not mindless killers, despite being made for warfare, and they don't go Frankenstein without extraordinary circumstances (being actively hijacked by an enemy, or extreme damage that affects their brain). Almost Human, the series currently airing, has a synthetic character who's more human than a lot of the humans on the show. It's possible to have good AIs and still have a !@#$% awesome story out of it, but instead we get the same old "ROBOT BAD HUMAN GOOD!!!" trash.

/endrant

 

[Zontar]

Evil AI. Sentient machines automatically going evil, or being so stupidly single-minded that they have no sense of scale when it comes to self-preservation, is sloppy and dumb. The default assumption is that machines will emphasize the worst of us, when I feel that an intelligent machine can emphasize the best and brightest of humanity. If you're into light-to-mid-grade military SF, read some Bolo novels for an example of this. Bolos are not mindless killers, despite being made for warfare, and they don't go Frankenstein without extraordinary circumstances (being actively hijacked by an enemy, or extreme damage that affects their brain). Almost Human, the series currently airing, has a synthetic character who's more human than a lot of the humans on the show. It's possible to have good AIs and still have a !@#$% awesome story out of it, but instead we get the same old "ROBOT BAD HUMAN GOOD!!!" trash.

/endrant

I think this might be popular because of the fact that so many people have a fear of machines in some form, coupled with the fact that a highly overrated movie did it well not by having the machine be evil, but having an illogical confusion in its orders (2001). Given the ridiculous amount of regulations surrounding AIs that are already in place, no true AI will probably be made, either intentionally or otherwise, without being friendly towards humans.

 

[DkLnBr]

snip

This one also bugged me to some extent, though it's been getting solved in more recent years. I still want to design and experience tech that isn't designed with the human body in mind, however. While a lot of aliens are losing their resemblance to humanity, I've yet to see spaceships that are designed exclusively for the ergonomic comfort of a large Crab-like race or something.

I wasn't going to post (everything was either already posted, or not worth saying), but then I read your post and I have to agree with you. Like how in Mass Effect the guns all seem to be designed for humans, so when a large, bulky krogan holds an assault rifle it looks like its awkward for him to hold (like he's playing with a childrens toy). Or Kit Fisto from starwars (this guy [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kit_Fisto]) With a light sabre designed for humans, and all the fast movements of a combat, you would think that he would accidentally cut off his tentacle hair

 

[Dastardly]

My personal peeve is, in a world like the Star Wars universe, this is intended to be an entire galaxy... and yet sameness abounds.

Everyone uses the same slang across the whole galaxy -- no one just says "Crap," no no, it's "Poo-doo." You say something-something gundark, and everyone automatically knows what animal you mean, despite coming from planets that don't have them. Or rancors -- aren't those supposed to be, like, crazy rare? But everyone references them.

And for thousands of years, there have been the same, like, four ship makers? And all of their ships have the same basic look for millenia?

Despite the whole "one biome per planet" problem, the entire galaxy has the same greyish, bland flavor throughout.

 

[Dastardly]

double somehow -- code of conduct notification, maybe?

 

[Adept Mechanicus]

Technobabble. Either provide a plausible scientific explanation for how your shit works, or go all out Space Fantasy. Don't just throw a bunch of bullshit sciency words together. You'll just confuse the people who don't understand it, and you'll piss off the people who do, who will know how full of shit you are.

 

[6_Qubed]

Alien races that by all rights should've died out long before they could reach the intergalactic political theatre. My best example, or at least the one stuck most prominently in my craw, comes from Mass Effect. But no, it's not the Krogan, it's the Asari. Because the whole reason the Asari bone animals* was because the more pure-blooded an Asari bloodline, the more likely it was for Bottom Mommy to spawn a power-mad sex-vampire who will at first available opportunity enter into a life which mingles one-night stands and serial killing in the worst way, how on Earth** has this entire species not fucked itself to death in the 50k+ years since the Protheans disappeared, let alone the countless years before?! I mean, say what you will about the Krogans, but at least for all their violence and murder they had the common decency to breed in litters.




*(I've heard human-alien relations phrased in terms of bestiality before and it is difficult to imagine that the Asari wouldn't have given the idea some thought at some point, what with being essentially eons-older lesbian space drow with more raw time on their hands to reach such conclusions)

** (or Thessia, whatever)

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

Melee combat in the future.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a huge Warhammer 40K fan (which has probably the most egregious use of this) but I always found it bizarre that we have these futuristic settings where firearms and weaponry are supposed to be vastly superior and more advanced than modern day firearms, yet melee is used MORE often in combat than it is now. Riddick, StarCraft, WH40K are all pretty bad abusers of this.

I wouldn't mind it so much if they provided a reason for why, but the only one that really gave a good explanation was the "Dune" books, in which pretty much everyone had personal shielding that stops fast-moving objects (ie. bullets, arrows, etc.) but doesn't stop slower moving objects, so Soldiers are forced to fight with swords and knives.

Even in 40 thousand years the best way to clear people from a building or strong point is close assault with specialized weapons after they have been suppressed by heavy fire. The main difference in 40k and why I think it works is that all assault units have a better chance of getting up close to someone for some reason or another. A Space Marine is in power armour and equipped with a jump-pack which means hes got a high chance of getting into close combat, where he is more effective against lots of enemies who are defending themselves with their rifle buts or improvised weapons. Your super-duper rifle is no use when a superhuman giant who moves really fast and is in full armour is in your face and beating your head in.

Also melee combat is ingrained in a lot of cultures of the xenos races, apart from the Tau. For tyranids its cheaper biomass wise to create a blade of bone then a functioning bio-rifle. Eldar have the Aspects. Dark Eldar are cruel and like to see people suffer up close. Orks are orks. Necrons I'm really not sure on however. Their melee weapons are symbols of office and status i guess.

Thats how I justify it anyway.

Anywho, in actual response to the thread I've never been a fan of 'united' galaxy in the future. I thinks its unrealistic to assume we'll just get on with everyone or join what is essentially the space EU. More than likely we'd be threatened with force and made into a protectorate state as it were of our alien overlords.