Actually that “tylium” stuff in Battlestar Galactica behaved suspiciously like aviation fuel (yeah, starships will run on a highly flammable liquid fuel).
[hijack for clarification]
The blasters from Star Wars are NOT pure energy weapons. They’re gas particles (Tibanna Gas) in a small energy cloud. That’s why they travel under the speed of light and are visible/bright.
[/hijack for clarification]
Here’s a couple that I’ve just thought of. There’s either no mention of illegal drugs other than things like Romulan Ale (ie alcohol based), or they’re some kind of horrible, psychotic inducing speed-like drug (ala Outland) there also seems to be no outer space version of Amsterdam, where everybody goes to sample those things that are illegal elsewhere. You would think that at some point in the future we would develop either a rational method of dealing with drugs (i.e. decriminalization of some kind)or that it’d still be a major problem. Yet, the mention is rare. Also, in 90% or more science fiction movies TV shows, etc. there are lights INSIDE the space helmets the characters wear! This, of course, means that the person inside CAN’T see out! Finally, humans are almost ALWAYS the holders of the highest techonology, ideals or both. We’re rarely, if ever, the vilest, most poorest creatures in the universe! What’s up with that? Also, and this is really strange, there’s no comparions between our sexual organs (other than breasts) in anything I’ve seen other than Alien Nation. You’d think that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE would be concerned about who had the biggest male member.
One sci-fi that I found kinda believable ('cept for the Dredge) is Titan A.E. People are all still greedy and ambitious, and humans are far from the most influential race in the galaxy.
Oh, and it has Goun.
To actually contribute–earth always still exists. If we continue at our current trend for another two thousand years, it may not be able to take that much punishment.
BZZZZ! Wrong! They’re always black, or female, or a black female, to show how ‘advanced’ we’ve become. Look at that! It’s a new age! A black woman is in charge! This is craziness!
–Tim
I got hold of a few “FLASH GORDON” episodes on videotape-why is it that a technologically advanced civilization (like on “MONGO”) still equips its soldiers with swords and spears?
Why many of them wear roman-style armor?
Other posters have noted the (apparent_) reversion of these future societies (to political systems of the past)-so why would there be kings, emperors, etc.?
Finally, why do aliens monstrosiyies travel HUNDREDS of light-years, in order to colonize our crummy little planet? They could probably terraform Mars with less effort that exterminating us all!
Of course, this means that that audience can see in, so we can tell who’s who.
Again, I must cite the excellent Babylon Five. Centauri males genitalia consist of one-meter long prehensile tentacles, six of them. As Londo Molari said “We can spend hours working our way up to the good part!”
Because the studio had left over costumes from “Ben Hur”.
Of course Earth will still exist (unless the Sun explodes or something). There just might not be anyone living on it.
Of course it does. Although the new cliche is that thanks to CGI, the explosion throws off a ring some kind of hot plasma or something (Like the Death Star exploding in the new remastered Star Wars).
What the hell is that anyway? First of all, the shock wave from an explosion goes in every direction, not in a Saturn-like ring along the equator. Second of all, that wave front is only visible in the atmosphere because it kicks up dust and debris. Any insight into this one?
Yes, and unlike sea going vessels (of which the largest Aircraft Carriers and Supertankers can be 1/4 a mile long), space vessels don’t have things like gravity or drag to limit their size. Still a cliche though, since EVERY ship in sci-fi is at least 1/2 a mile long and usually much much larger.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by 71-Hour Achmed *
And as far as failure modes, who says they don’t know? Any enormous system is going to have some critical components that, if blown up, will cause it to fail horribly. I don’t recall any special failure modes on Imperial Star Destroyers.
[QUOTE]
Most complicated systems have redundant backups (especially the systems that can blow up the ship!) Besides, I remember a fighter crashing into the bridge of the super star destroyer and sending it careening out of control into the Death Star. No auxillary bridge? No one in the engine room can reverse engines? And why was it pointed at the Death Star in the first place?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by 71-Hour Achmed *
Sure, like the Boeing X-36 project and the Hunter UAV. We’re working on that now. Also robotic tanks, hostage-negotiation robots. . . . The main reason they’re leaving the human in the loop on these (radio-controlled models, government-style) is just because we don’t have software that is smart enough to take over those functions.
[QUOTE]
I’m not talking about R2D2 robots or unmanned probes. I’m talking about how tanks and APCs in the future are rediculously large and walk instead of rolling on treads (think the AT-ATs in Empire Strikes Back or the giant manned robots from the MechWarrior games). What possible reason does an army have for making a walking robot 60 feet tall? So it can be seen for 20 miles and catch fire from every weapon on the battlefield?
Why is Klingon the only language other than English used in the Star Trek universe?
[QUOTE]
Like Mars, Venus, Luna, or Jupiter, you mean? Earth is probably a pretty rare planet. Colonies aren’t going to be able to count on finding anything similar. They might make it to that stage after a few thousand years of terraforming. . . .
[QUOTE]
I don’t think we have enough info to say Earth is rare.
When they come across a derelict ship adrift in space for years (Centuries? Eons?), the ship wil still have a warm, breathable atmosphere and gravity.
I guess life-support is one of those perfect, self-sustaining low maintainence technologies.
I guess you didn’t see Miles O’Brien marry Keiko Ishikawa on Star Trek: TNG and then go live on Deep Space Nine and have two children, Molly and Kirayoshi.
Then there’s the marriage of Tom Paris to B’Elanna Torres on ST: Voyager.
(Of course, the idea that Klingons and humans can breed is ridiculous.)
Wanna know why they don’t have toilets on Federation Starships? Cause they just BEAM OUT the waste from their bowels and bladders!
(1…2…3…EEEWWWW!)
Also, the Federation will only travel to the past to repair damage to history, or to ensure history will not be tampered with to begin with.
BUT…
Lets say, in the present, a Captain is at a major moment in history, and someone from the future comes back and tells him to preserve the timeline by taking a certain course of action. Then another individual from a DIFFERENT possible future tells him to make a different decision, to protect HIS history.
WHICH Future is correct?
What MUST he do?
EENY MEENY MINEY MOE???
That would be a cool Star Trek episode.
Women may be in positions of authority, but they have to wear long white outfits and they don’t get to fly the X-wings.
In many 1950’s and 60’s era SF novels, Earth is often referred to by the “romanticized” (or is it romanized?) name of “Terra”.
With the notable exception of E.E.“Doc” Smith’s LENSMAN novels, where he insists on referring to the Earth as “Tellus of Sol”.
I did see both of those. The point is, after, what, centuries of this United Earth thing, the first Asian looking kid with the name Molly O’Brien happens on the Enterprise? How come the only ethnically “mixed” people are born during the show’s run? None of the existing characters ever are, nor are the bit parts, the red shirts and such. You’d think that Earth’s society would be a bit more mixed up generally. Look at Molly’s parents. Miles O’Brien, with appropriate accent. Keiko Ishikawa, definitely all Japanese. I mean, sure, it can happen, but even right now in the US, with a couple of hundred years of history, even with the prejudice we all know exists between all sorts of ethnic groups, there’s alot of line blurring. It usually only takes a generation or two.
I dated a guy in college with the last name Duffy. He looked like he’d just arrived from Sicily. And if you asked his father, he’d tell you his family came from Germany. And look at Tiger Woods. He’s gotten media attention, but he’s hardly the only American with a complicated ethnic background. People like that ought to make up the majority in the Federation, not just one or two babies when writers decide that the token Irishman ought to marry the token Japanese.
Wonko the Sane said (a long time ago, maybe no one remembers):
>4. Nobody has a southern accent.
>5. Everyone has good teeth and is attractive (or is a hideous mutant in a post-apocalypse world).
>6. No need for money seems somewhat common.
This is why I like Fifth Element – the evil CEO has a corny southern accent, and for some reason which is unexplained in the movie, everybody except for the genetically engineered “perfect being” has freckles, pockmarks, moles, scars, or lots of zits on their skin. It’s probably all from skin cancer due to pollution and the ozone hole.
>1. Lots of silver clothing.
Okay, there’s lots of the traditional outrageous sci-fi clothing in Fifth Element, but it’s all somewhat satirical. Check out the chest windows on the McDonald’s bunnies’ outfits… whoa! Seems like sexism isn’t going to diminish in the next 300 years, or maybe feminism has just been replaced with “grrl power” a la Britney Spears…!
Men treating women as sex objects; class gaps between the poor and the superrich; men and women obsessed with money, sex, and style; people playing with technological toys that are too big for them… Looks like Luc Besson’s future is a lot like the present day, only more so!
Some of you have been getting your Star Trek wrong. If you are going to poke holes in it, which is satisfying I know, you have to do it right.
Klingon is not the only alien language you can hear spoken, just the most common. This is probably because they were the first bad guys, and, well, Klingons are cool. You can occasionally hear Romulan, Vulcan, Ferengi, Bajoran, Cardassian, and your random alien-of-the-week language.
The waste products on a Federation ship are not beamed out into space. They are recycled by the replicators. Before you get all grossed out, consider that the same thing happens in the real world. Next time you drive by a farm and smell those huge piles of cow shit being composted into fertilizer, just think of your next meal. I’d rather have a replicator to reorganize all those molecules for me.
If you want to make fun of Star Trek the right way, watch Voyager. The crew has a habit of forgetting their previous brilliant solution to a problem upon encountering it again. And then there’s my favorite “Airponics” bay, where I suppose they grow plants in… nothing? Borg nanites attached to the roots? Who the hell knows?
But… but… our moon is named Moon… why? Because it’s OUR MOON! Nobody else’s moon is cool enough to be called THE Moon!
Like when somebody’s cool enough, you don’t call him “man”… you call him “Da Man”!
[continuing hijack]
Tibanna Gas is just one component to create the blaster bolt. The bolts themselves aren’t composed of tibanna.
[/continuing hijack]
Star Wars? “Spice”? Glitterstim? Drugs, man, drugs… they make the user believe that they’re telepathic (and, supposedly, they work).
Oh yeah. The Millenium Falcon was half a mile long…
Couple o’ points…
- You forgot the huge, prolonged battle that was going on LONG before the A-wing crashed into the SSD… 2. Of course there was an auxillary bridge. They just didn’t get it up and running in time. Usually, in space, there’s not a moon-sized space station to crash into… 3. It wasn’t pointed at the Death Star. It had to drift DOWN so that it COULD hit the Death Star.
[Nerd Hat ON]
Sheesh, man, watch the movies…
[Nerd Hat OFF]
But where are the TOILETS, man? Or do they just shove a big hose up your ass to suck the shit into the replicator system?!? No WONDER all you Trekkies are cranky all the time!! 
But human men almost never think that Reticulan Slug Monster women are good looking
Also:
Rocket ships will huge flares coming out of the back when they are set off in a vacuum (one for you physicists there)
And all space ships can perform U-turns in the space of a few yards.
Ray guns will have a recoil
If an asteroid is plummeting towards your planet, then you will always wait until the last possible moment to blow it to pieces, despite the fact that it would be hell of a lot easier to give it a tiny nudge in the far reaches of space.
And if said asteroid explodes 10 miles above your planets surface, it will do so in a harmless fashion, and not cause a devatating nuclear winter type event
And the presidents daughter will always be young, nubile, single and an innocent virgin (and will usually dressed in a shiny bikini)
And is it just me or is the Star Trek Fedaration the same bunch of guys as the Federation in Blake’s Seven? Just told from a differnt point of view.