Common Sci-Fi tropes that annoy you!

[Thaluikhain]

Settings where humans are surrounded by aliens who have clearly superior biology (ie space elfs, space orcs,etc) that outmatch humans, YET humans are still able to go toe to toe with them because of the human spirit/unbelievable luck. Star trek is the WORST of the offenders in this regard. Humans have no stand out features in any way that gives them a leg up on anyone in any situation beyond said luck/spirit. In the marvel/DC universes that luck also includes the fact that we have more superheros than any other freaking planet.
This same issue can be leveled at fantasy setting. Humans are some how the most populous race despite being featureless.

Argh, yes. Nobody seems to want to give humanity advantages.

In the real world, hunters wear bright orange, because most mammals don't see it as bright orange...you can be camouflaged to your prey, but clearly visible to your fellow humans (at least the ones who aren't colour blind).

Likewise, for many years, daleks famously couldn't climb stairs, which would apply to lots of aliens. Nobody seems to take this into account when building their bases.

 

[Saulkar]

And Animorphs, while not the highest quality fiction, had some pretty interesting aliens too.

RARGH!!! I am sitting within arms reach of all but one of the books and now feel overwhelmingly compelled to reread them all for the first time in 4 years!

OT: Yeah, I have to agree with the overt prevalence of too-human'ish aliens. It was once a budget constraint then an aesthetic design choice but now with the vast array of science fiction media in circulation it feels more lazy or creatively stagnant than anything else.

 

[alj]

*One character does techno-bable with a fellow scientist/geek.
Along comes the techno-idiot in the group (like Jack from Stargate) crying out "Durr! Explain what you were talking about in English so I won't feel left out!". At least Star Trek is reasonable with it, most of the time.

Jack is not as stupid as he makes out (don't get me wrong he is no scientist but he is quite intelligent), its one of the running gags of the series at least that's what i see.

Main thing that gets on my wick is the misuse of sciency and computery sounding words, fine i can accept something like say mass effect drives or transporters but at least use words that at least partly relate to what your taking about.

 

[Thaluikhain]

*One character does techno-bable with a fellow scientist/geek.
Along comes the techno-idiot in the group (like Jack from Stargate) crying out "Durr! Explain what you were talking about in English so I won't feel left out!". At least Star Trek is reasonable with it, most of the time.

Jack is not as stupid as he makes out (don't get me wrong he is no scientist but he is quite intelligent), its one of the running gags of the series at least that's what i see.

He wasn't original thick (he's a fairly senior officer in the US special forces), but he got flanderised from being "not a scientist" to "not veyr smart" later on, which was annoying.

 

[Meight08]

I hate techno babble when it's used as magic. If you use Techno babble atleast keep it consistent and set basic rules what your magic technology can and can't do.

The stargates for example have set rules about what they can and can't do.

1: It's one way
2: A gate can have either an outgoing or an incoming wormhole not both.
3: After 36 minutes it shuts down IMMEDIATELY, unless hooked up to a sufficient power source.
4: It only transports the entire object, so if you stick your hand in it will wait untill your entire body is through the gate. Unless 36 minutes pass and whatever is in the gate's buffer gets "Deleted"

 

[Patathatapon]

This is going to sound really stupid for a Sci-Fi, but here goes.

When they go beyond a reasonable suspension of disbelief. Problem with that is it's subjective. But for me, it's when they put way too much insane things in it, to a point that I just can't buy it.

The new Doctor Who is a Sci-Fi that does that for me (I'll be dead before I post this). So the doctor is basically an alien Jesus... Oookkaaayyy, fine, whatever. Also he has a time machine that goes everywhere in milliseconds.... so we're denouncing any laws of physics too? Do you have an explanation for that? No? sigh. Also theirs aliens in this galax- ok I'm gunna have to stop you there. If so, where the hell were they, and why haven't we seen them? and don't tell me they're "Hiding the Truth" from us, those aliens go in public places and mass murder people for little rhyme or reason. Also, the one time they do acknowledge it, the press says it's fake, despite the fact that ANYONE near big ben that day SAW WHAT HAPPENED! In face, how do you explain that otherwise? Why would big ben be destroyed? A kid threw a rock at it?

I'm gunna stop there because I could go on for hours. Basically, to me, a good Sci-Fi is one that at least gives a somewhat decent explanation. You need to support the suspension of disbelief, not try to see how much you can get away with until we just say fuck it.

P.S. I'm aware that some of this stuff is somewhat explained, like Big Ben getting destroyed, "They didn't want to believe the truth". That still doesn't explain a lot...

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Aliens being very human in appearance. It's perhaps not as prevalent now as it was a few decades ago although even now most aliens are at least humanoid shaped. I just feel like there should be a lot more evolutionary diversity. Not mentioning any names but slapping a couple of pointy ears on someone's head makes for a pretty underwhelming alien (nothing against a particular character, just the idea in general). Mass Effect gave us a few cool ones (rachni, elcor, hanar) but there are still plenty of human shaped races. And Animorphs, while not the highest quality fiction, had some pretty interesting aliens too.

I think Mass effect actually opened the door to some interesting themes with the Drell/Hanar interaction.

Both parties are friendly and want to do good, the Hanar are the only race willing and able to accept the entire drell population into their cities and the drell seemingly are happy to integrate into Hanar society.

However their entire planet is geared against Drell biology, leading to a wasting sickness in most citizens. Its better than death but its a pretty horrible clash.

They live as a bipedal race on a planet built for gloating gas sack aliens. The culture and society must have had to change radically to accept such irregular citizens. I think thats interesting.

I mean diplomacy is hard enough to establish between humans. If two aliens cannot share the same environment without major assistance i imagine it makes any sort of integration far harder. I particularly liked what they did with the Volus. They can never leave their suits. That must be a godawful existance, it would definitely encourage isolationism. Yet volus personality focus's on trade and cooperation and diplomacy despite their biology making this rather difficult.

Theres some interesting cultural conflicts at play that i found pretty interesting. Having key biological differences isnt usually brought up in sci fi, mostly the disagreement is because one alien is just a huge asshole or we are huge assholes and thus diplomacy fails or whatver. Its rarely because interaction or co habitation is mind numblingly difficult to achieve.

 

[Fredvdp]

Anthropomorphic aliens. It really irks me is writer that thinks there's other intelligent lifeforms on the galaxy that look like us but with some added prosthetics. To think there could be literally anything out there, even a race of spacefaring spider clowns, it seems just like a lack of creativity on the writers part.

Mass Effect is exempt though. They would've needed entire new skeletons for the models and the first Mass Effect didn't have the time or money to make a bunch of skeletons from scratch.

Lack of resources is the likely cause of this trope, and it's not just Mass Effect, but Star Trek and other scifi as well. I'm currently watching reruns of Star Trek TNG, more specifically the first season, and each episode the aliens are either white people, black people, or ferengi.

 

[kogane]

Every female alien needs to look human enough (read: BREASTS) so that they are attractive to dudes.

 

[Grach]

Anthropomorphic aliens. It really irks me is writer that thinks there's other intelligent lifeforms on the galaxy that look like us but with some added prosthetics. To think there could be literally anything out there, even a race of spacefaring spider clowns, it seems just like a lack of creativity on the writers part.

Mass Effect is exempt though. They would've needed entire new skeletons for the models and the first Mass Effect didn't have the time or money to make a bunch of skeletons from scratch.

Lack of resources is the likely cause of this trope, and it's not just Mass Effect, but Star Trek and other scifi as well. I'm currently watching reruns of Star Trek TNG, more specifically the first season, and each episode the aliens are either white people, black people, or ferengi.

I understand that.

Avatar, though, has NO excuse.

 

[mizi]

The chosen one is always a dude.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Sometimes I get annoyed when there are laser weapons, but the exact nature of them changes depending on the situation. Sometimes they're incredibly accurate, sometimes they travel at the speed of light, other times they might as well be bullets because they exhibit none of the traits of a laser. It's not even really that I don't like lasers that aren't laser-like, but I don't like it when they can't decide.

Also, getting a little tired of strategists who are so clever they can predict the future. That just doesn't fucking happen. In Code Geass for example, Lelouche is generally just a really clever guy, but at one point, he predicts the exact course of a conversation and tapes his responses, timed perfectly. In contrast, I watched Mobile Suit Gundam 00, and the strategists there were done really well, visibly at the limits of their intellect all the time. You never felt like they were just completely in control or were doing things no human could possibly do.

Also technobabble, especially in Doctor Who, which really doesn't even try. I like my media to at least have some concrete idea of how things work, not just do whatever it wants and go "Oh, the time streams are out of sync and the chronological polarity was switched when they merged" or some shit.

 

[Trunkage]

Deflector Arrays (I think they are) from any Star Trek. Apparently they can shoot, provide thrust, communicate very long distances, stop hacking, stop any electrical being, stop any normal being, a battery charger, be used as a transporter and probably pay your taxes. All from changing its polarity. What are these god like devices and why are they just the ship. You may need to add some replicators and a med bay and that's about it. Half the problems to issues in Star Trek are cured by these things.

Universe resetting. Most of TNG and a lot of Voyager was like this. It didn't matter what happened, everything reset for the next episode. Yes Voyager does the occasion needs resupply or traverse dangerous area eps but that's about it. Which leads to..

What Ifs. Whether its from time travel or multidimensions they are pointless unless they affect the actual characters somehow. Its just writers getting their rocks off "killing" the main cast without any permanent affect to the series. Even heavily serialised shows like BSG had this. Why did Starbuck come back? Her return and the rest of that season was weighed down from her having to interact with the crew and prove her importance. Killing off duplicate main cast members doesn't increase the threat to the actual main cast, in fact it decreases it. You absolutely know there will be no consequences. Take Year of Hell from Voyager. Nothing happened for 2 eps! Stop wasting my time. I can sort of accept There But The Grace of God from Stargate because it affected the storyline (and my fav from the series is Windows of Opportunity even though the first 20 mins is ridiculously boring - in fact some of the most boring in the history of Stargate including the ep with the white mushrooms and the naked guys)

 

[IBlackKiteI]

When it comes to other species the whole idea of Hats always bugs me. An sentient, intelligent species who has gone through the ages, spread across worlds and existed for thousands of years are a single nation of practically the same person? Sure, it must be damn hard to write a convincingly diverse alien race, but I feel they might as well not be there if they can be totally encapsulated in a single sentence. It just feels bizarre when you have a bunch of apparently free thinking unique species, the race itself having one or a couple distinguishing traits (say, Proud Warrior Race, Tech Worshipers) and the members of that race all coming right under that banner. Might be more feasible to use a faction to showcase an entire people with the same traits than a whole species.

Also the idea of humanity (also other species) being completely united under one government, or at least one where they all share the same religion, cultural elements, standard of living, appearance etc. Humans have always been divided into many, many groups, why should the future be different? Especially considering the sheer vastness of space.

 

[Thaluikhain]

When it comes to other species the whole idea of Hats always bugs me. An sentient, intelligent species who has gone through the ages, spread across worlds and existed for thousands of years are a single nation of practically the same person? Sure, it must be damn hard to write a convincingly diverse alien race, but I feel they might as well not be there if they can be totally encapsulated in a single sentence. It just feels bizarre when you have a bunch of apparently free thinking unique species, the race itself having one or a couple distinguishing traits (say, Proud Warrior Race, Tech Worshipers) and the members of that race all coming right under that banner. Might be more feasible to use a faction to showcase an entire people with the same traits than a whole species.

Also the idea of humanity (also other species) being completely united under one government, or at least one where they all share the same religion, cultural elements, standard of living, appearance etc. Humans have always been divided into many, many groups, why should the future be different? Especially considering the sheer vastness of space.

Yes...especially Proud Warrior Races...if everyone is a warrior, who makes the weapons, grows the food, programs the computers, or does anything other than fight, without which you can't have any sort of military.

 

[erbkaiser]

1) Every planet has one people, one language, one government, and usually only one climate. If a "race" does have a separatist group, these will be clearly members of a different species.
2) Everyone speaks English except for maybe some convenient made-up swear words that skip the "universal translator"
3) There is sound in space; lasers make sound
4) Nobody thinks in 3D. If two starships meet, they are perfectly oriented towards each other as if they are ships sailing on the ocean, you virtually never see a ship encountering another at an angle outside of the very rare space battle scene. Starships don't even act like submarines, they act like surface vessels.
5) Every species can fuck every other species and get fertile offspring.

As for 1: even if they do have separate peoples in one "race", those will be clearly marked for the viewer's sake. The original Star Trek did this right, with Vulcans and Romulans -- the same species -- looking exactly the same, only to ruin it from TNG onwards where Romulans evolved a nose ridge because all TNG-era Star Trek aliens must have some kind of bumps on the skull. And with the last pre-reboot movie we got to see the Romulan subgroup Remans... which judging by their prothesis are an apparently completely different species from the Romulans.

 

[szaleniec1000]

Sci-fi has a lot of small inconsistencies that bother me, most of which has to do with culture.
In Star Trek DS9, both Dax characters often act completely human and make some cultural references that someone who hadn't lived on Earth wouldn't say.

Speaking of cultural references, here's another: everyone in the 24th or whatever century is a huge geek for 20th/21st century history and popular culture and references it at every opportunity.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Sci-fi has a lot of small inconsistencies that bother me, most of which has to do with culture.
In Star Trek DS9, both Dax characters often act completely human and make some cultural references that someone who hadn't lived on Earth wouldn't say.

Speaking of cultural references, here's another: everyone in the 24th or whatever century is a huge geek for 20th/21st century history and popular culture and references it at every opportunity.

Oh yeah...and when they travel back in time, it's almost always to "now".

 

[Nosferatu2]

Sci-fi has a lot of small inconsistencies that bother me, most of which has to do with culture.
In Star Trek DS9, both Dax characters often act completely human and make some cultural references that someone who hadn't lived on Earth wouldn't say.

Speaking of cultural references, here's another: everyone in the 24th or whatever century is a huge geek for 20th/21st century history and popular culture and references it at every opportunity.

Wasn't the pilot form Voyager like that? I mean he had a "thing" for like the 19th-20th century.

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.

Well psychopathic personality disorder is a thing in humans, but it's not going to spreed though the whole race. They call the thing rare. And it's said to be a huge social stigma as well. So in answer to your question likely the same reason psychopathic's haven't wiped out the whole human race.(or if we really want to go down that whole "inbreeding" route then all of Idaho.)

I mean there is some stupid stuff in Mass Effect to be sure. (I'm looking at you Species 37) But I don't get the disbelief in that one.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Sci-fi has a lot of small inconsistencies that bother me, most of which has to do with culture.
In Star Trek DS9, both Dax characters often act completely human and make some cultural references that someone who hadn't lived on Earth wouldn't say.

Speaking of cultural references, here's another: everyone in the 24th or whatever century is a huge geek for 20th/21st century history and popular culture and references it at every opportunity.

Wasn't the pilot form Voyager like that? I mean he had a "thing" for like the 19th-20th century.

Yup...well, 20th century, originally later stuff, but went back to B&W movies later on.