Problems I have with the Sci Fi genre (perticularly Spacefaring ones)

[Rastrelly]

Sometimes there are things in the Sci Fi genre, especially the Spacefaring ones, that just makes ticks me off to no end. I will highlight 2 of the most egregious ones.

1. Why do they make "Very Human" looking Aliens? Star Trek is extremely guilty of this, I mean yes they did apply good make up like the Klingons and the Vulcans ears is enough to distinguish them but they are still just Human aliens. And then they make these aliens:

That is an non human alien, I mean just put some bumps in their nose and some markings on the side of their heads and BOOM alien. The Turians and the Prawns and the Salarians are more alien than this.


2.They never treat Planets like Planets, I mean in Planets tend to be I don't know FREAKIN HUGE!!! With Continants upon Continants. And the also applies to criticism with Aliens, apperently only one Alien Race ruled by one culture rules the entire planet, with no other Alien factions and cultures.

Just looking at our own Earth and Human history that is not the case.

Three statements:
1) Read sci-fi, not watch it.
2) You seriously think extremely limited budgets of live-action sci-fi series would allow to make aliens actually alien? It's require eithe extremely complex puppets (Jabba), or extremely well-crafted cgi, which is still rather expensive as well. As soon as you move to animation, half your problems suddenly disappear.
3) Star Trek actually has in-universe explanation for human aliens.

Also, to add up:
usually spacefaring races tend to be unified at one point. In aforementioned Star Trek Vulkans had lots of wars before unification, and obviously there were different states and factions. Quite possibly in a 1000 of years Earth will lack cultural diversity as well.

 

[Thaluikhain]

2) You seriously think extremely limited budgets of live-action sci-fi series would allow to make aliens actually alien? It's require eithe extremely complex puppets (Jabba), or extremely well-crafted cgi, which is still rather expensive as well. As soon as you move to animation, half your problems suddenly disappear.

Doctor Who managed this, mind. Sure, they had lots of human aliens, but lots of inhuman ones as well. Often, yeah, you can see it's a guy in a suit, but they put some effort on beyond facepaint.

 

[Laughing Man]

That is an non human alien, I mean just put some bumps in their nose and some markings on the side of their heads and BOOM alien. The Turians and the Prawns and the Salarians are more alien than this.

Money, a human with a few make up effects is far cheaper to produce (and quicker) than a CGI freaky Alien, Trek only really started with CGI Aliens towards the mid point of Voyager, Voyager was also the first full CGI ship so by this stage it was getting cheaper to produce more convincing CGI, so Voyager got the huge Macro Virus aliens and then species 1472. End of the day it's the same reason why transporters where used in the early series over shuttle craft, cheaper to produce and replicate in a weekly TV show

2.They never treat Planets like Planets, I mean in Planets tend to be I don't know FREAKIN HUGE!!! With Continants upon Continants. And the also applies to criticism with Aliens, apperently only one Alien Race ruled by one culture rules the entire planet, with no other Alien factions and cultures.

Although it may seem stupid the reasons behind this are actually quite simple, the prime directive forbids interference with races that haven't achieved Warp, the theory sets that a species that has achieved Warp will probably have encountered or be far enough along to be aware that their is more to the Universe than just their little planet. However Stargate tackled this with the residents of Johnas Quinn's home world of Langra, three distinct cultures who end up actually having a war with each other, they have so much in fighting amongst themselves that Jake O'neil throws them out of negotiations and tells them to solve their problems themselves.... in fact looking back on it the Gate franchise tackled multi cultural differences quite a lot on the worlds they visited.

Just looking at our own Earth and Human history that is not the case.

 

[Redryhno]

Also why wouldn't aliens have similar weapons? Similar physicality, similar states of technological advancement, why wouldn't they have basic designs and shapes?

There's been an impressive variety of different looking weapons created by humans on Earth, mind.

And since gunpowder became the preferred method of killing one another, exactly how different have those weapons been between cultures?

 

[WolfThomas]

Two counter examples that I though were very good. In the Wildcard series they have Aliens called Takisians who are genetically identical to humans, except their nobility (they're a feudal race) are telepathic. It's reasoned that earth might be a lost colony of theirs. But then every other alien is vastly different to humans. From sentient brood swarms of eels piloting robot suits to chubby walrus like creatures. Because of virus that create mutant humans (like suckier x-men) a walrus-like man manages to infiltrate earth society claiming to be a mutant human (a joker in their terms).

A counter example of the second point is in the Fitz and Floyt book "Jinx on a Terran inheritance", they have a planet called Blackguard. With two population centers on opposite sides, one is a hedonistic luxury resort for space billionaires to hunt slaves and the other is a rather libertarian collection of city compounds and tribal warfare, where due to lax rules a number of outlaws and secret organisations hide out.

Neither side has any contact with the other or knows much about what's going on. People might take ships from a space sport to another planet, but most people don't care about what's going on on the other side of the planet.