# Futuristic Sci-Fi movie stereotypes! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 13, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304 "2001-02-13T15:23:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![FEotU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@FEotU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FEotU)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/161 "2001-04-17T05:18:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE Bo Diddly \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Discovering a naturally-occurring chemical element not on the Periodic Table. (What the hell is dilithium supposed to be, anyway? Or Tibanna gas?) > > I assume that dilithium, just by virtue of it’s name, is “two lithium atoms bonded together”. Hardly a “new element”. > > As for Tibanna Gas… that’s not an “element”. That’s a chemical compound made up of several different elements. Like water, plastic, and American culture. > > Sheesh, learn the difference between “elements” and “compounds” before you criticize someone else’s usage of the same! 😃 \*\* According to one of the ST books, dilithium crystals look like ordinairy quartz crystals but part of their structure exists “in the 4th dimension”. Don’t know if this info appeared in any of the TV episodes, so it might not be part of the ST Bible. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/162 "2001-04-17T08:29:59Z")
Jab, your first comment referred to the periodic table and how there are no gaps. If you KNEW that Tibanna gas and Dilithium aren’t supposed to be “elements”, why’d you bring this up? And your last sentence is painfully obvious… “We don’t know.” If we DID know, we’d have the elements, and thusly we’d have warp travel or blaster rifles. :rolleyes: A poor question, yours. Sturmhauke… > [@](#): > > Starfleet usually fails to see the value of spacesuits in protecting against, well, space. There WAS that one Voyager episode where Be’lanna (or is it Bel’anna? Damn apostraphes…) and Tom had to teleport off their shuttle in spacesuits, and the time they found the Demon-class planet. But in both those instances, the 'suits were simply plot-gimmicks… like everything else in Star Trek. Tuckerfan… > [@](#): > > In _no episode or movie_ do we actually _see_ anything that clearly defines how the Federation works! But in no episode or movie do we actually see anything that contradicts the descriptions of the Federation’s inner workings taken from the sourcebooks or secondary material. The basic conclusion is that the Federation is either successfully Communist (somehow… don’t ask me how they trade with other civilizations if they don’t have any money), or a voluntary Dictatorship (where everyone is controlled, but they don’t care, sort of like the Eloi). ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/163 "2001-04-17T09:00:18Z")
> [@](#): > > If we DID know, we’d have the elements My original post was much longer (God bless you, editing!), and I originally referred to “Tibanna gas” and “Dilithium” as “plot elements”. I felt it was too preachy, so I scratched that, but the word “elements” remained. Apologies for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/164 "2001-04-17T18:04:20Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by SPOOFE Bo Diddly \* > \*\* > The basic conclusion is that the Federation is either successfully Communist (somehow… don’t ask me how they trade with other civilizations if they don’t have any money)_\* They want for little, replicators and other technologies reproduce or mine etc almost anything they need. As for trade they barter at times, one episode of STTNG features Riker trading 2 grams of biomedical gel for something the Enterprise needed. Possibly in the same episode though Riker demands something off Quark because he owed Riker a certain amount of gold pressed latinum, I presume the Federation cannot replicate Latinum or else the means to devalue the Ferengi currency would be an invaluable weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/165 "2001-04-17T18:09:48Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by SPOOFE Bo Diddly \* > \*\* > The basic conclusion is that the Federation is either successfully Communist (somehow… don’t ask me how they trade with other civilizations if they don’t have any money)_\* They want for little, replicators and other technologies reproduce or mine etc almost anything they need. As for trade they barter at times, one episode of STTNG features Riker trading 2 grams of biomedical gel for something the Enterprise needed. Possibly in the same episode though Riker demands something off Quark because he owed Riker a certain amount of gold pressed latinum, I presume the Federation cannot replicate Latinum or else the means to devalue the Ferengi currency would be an invaluable weapon. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/166 "2001-04-17T18:45:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lestrange \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Until the 80s and 90s, with notable exceptions, there seemed to be very little ethnic diversity in the future. Everybody was as white as Roger Whitaker. > > And then, when they do diversify, all of these citizens of this peacefully united Earth, where ethnic discrimination is a thing of the past, each and every one of them has a surname to match their ethnicity. Someone named Mr. Singh never has blond hair and an Irish brogue, for instance. Sulu was all Aisan and Chekov was all Russian. > > In the future, we will eschew racial and ethnic prejudice, but no one will marry or reproduce outside their ethnicity (as defined by 20th century categories). Or probably their religion, either. \*\* _cough_ Dr. Daystrom _cough_ ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/167 "2001-04-17T21:55:00Z")
Gnggh :mad: the curse of the double post. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/168 "2001-08-17T08:12:39Z")
Characters with names of widely differing ethnicities, i.e. Aki Ross in the Final Fantasy movie. I know it makes some sense that in the future there may be more names like this, but it seems every story with a futuristic setting HAS to have at least one character whose name stands out like this. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2001, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304/169 "2001-08-17T08:23:58Z")
I’m sorry Lestrange, I didn’t see that you had already covered the exact same thing I posted about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-sci-fi-movie-stereotypes/54304.md?page=8)