The Canadian/German TV series Lexx broke away from the “non-human wants to learn to be more human” cliche. Don’t take this as a recommendation, though; Lexx is by far the most loathsome TV program I’ve ever seen. So I naturally watched it regularly for more than a season when I was in college. I believe it actually hit Absolute Zero in one episode. Anyway, the character in question was a kind of space zombie/supersoldier who usually had to save the day after the other characters screwed things up yet again. Then he’d just go back into his storage freezer, but not before tossing off a line about how “The dead don’t love/fear/eat/enter the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.” He’d once been a human (or humanoid alien), but even after his memories of his life were restored he didn’t want to return to it.
TMLexxI:
Kai (sp?) was an artificially animated corpse. He had died in a futile attempt to resist the evil Divine Order, and as a further punishment/ example his body was reengineered to serve as an assassin for the order. Millennia later, the memories that had been purged from his brain were accidently reloaded into him, turning him into something that wasn’t quite human and not quite a robot. He considered his artificial life repugnant, and wanted only to finally truly die; but he felt it his duty to babysit his companions aboard the Lexx.
It’s been established in the Star Trek universe that a replicator only works at the molecular level, so it can only create uncomplicated, non-living matter. Transporters work at the quantum level, and as such they can only create duplicates of what they’re transporting in an accident. (They are laced with a mysterious substance called Berman-Braga-ium, which prevents these accidents from being deliberately re-created.)
Which is, really why the writing in Trek sucks. The paint themselves into a corner in an obscene amount of episodes, and then find their way out with, “Wait, it turned out we were standing on an escape hatch the entire time!”.
Besides, why do replicators work on one level while transporters work on another?
Here’s a hint…No Good Reason.
-Joe, wants to replicate his own Nicole Kidman
In defense of “Measure of a Man”, it was mentioned that quasievilscientistdude would eventually be able to make more Datas. Replicating Data WOULD NOT solve any problems. Because if Data has rights, all of his replicants do too. And does Data have the RIGHT not to be duplicated? The problem wasn’t so much making more Datas, it was what QESD wanted to do with them (treat them as disposable).
Brian
I don’t think there’s a good sound technological reason, but I think it’s not unreasonable for them to place limitations on those technologies.
If replicators could replicate ANYTHING then 90% of all plots could immediately be resolved via replication.
It’s similar to the way that they so often encounter planets with atmospheres whose high ion concentrations (or whatever) prevent beaming and communicating. On such planets, plots are possible that are not otherwise possible.
Not that Trek wasn’t lazy as hell in its writing a lot of time time, but I don’t think its fair to condemn it for having technology with limitations which seem arbitrary to us, but which promote better stories. (And in its heyday, Trek did have some excellent stories.)
Yeah, that heyday was a long time ago.
Really, it’s the crappy writing combined with the godlike technology (oh, sorry, it doesn’t work on Tuesdays when Uranus is in flux) that makes me dislike Trek so.
Mostly because, when you say ‘Science Fiction’, your average schlub is more likely to think Star Trek than anything else.
So, really, it hurts the whole genre, IMO.
-Joe
IANASO (Starfleet Officer :D)
Low level replicators (like for food) should require less energy than ones for heavy cargo or for people transporters. That’s why, it seems, food replicators are everywhere and there are only a dozen or so people transporters.
I don’t know about this: It’s also not uncommon in fantasy for a character to lose a single finger (Sauron and Frodo in LotR, Morden in the Chronicles of Prydain), or a whole hand (Beren in the Silmarillion, Ash in Evil Dead II), and I’m pretty sure there are three-finger losses I’m just not remembering.
As will three TIE fighters flying in a trench together … .
In Ricardo Pinto’s The Chosen, there are dudes who deliberately cut off some of their fingers. They also blind themselves and cut out their own tongues, if I remember correctly.
shudder Incredible book, but ooky.
Well, to be fair, three Rebel fighters flying in a trench together don’t do too much better… 
-Joe
“Causality? Well, OK, you know, one event causes another, OK, but sometimes, you just gotta say, the laws of time and space? Who gives a smeg!”
A long time ago, circa 1991 or so, a friend of mine and I were discussing potential movies base on our favorite fantasy novels. After debating King’s Dark Tower books, he suddenly mentioned that the same actor they find to play Roland Deschain can also play Thomas Covenant. I agreed, not really being aware of the fact that you don’t have to find an actual eight-fingered actor to play either role, and that suitable makeup and prostheics would be a bit more humane. Many years later, when reading the Subtle Knife, I imediately made the connection when Will - also the main male character - lost his last two fingers. The fact that the writer was willing to do such a thing to a twelve-year-old boy means that it was a very significant event.
These are all important books, written by well-respected, literate writers (at least for their genre). Perhaps the fact that they all decided to maim their heroes in exactly the same way is just a coincidence, but I can’t be sure.
Which stories would these be, exactly?
Fan of Zepplins
Yep. A cargo helicopter with a light board…and two UH-1’s.
I’m not really sure if that series counts, because there is so much maiming going on, past and present:
[spoiler]Sandor Clegane starts out with a nasty burn scar, and picks up another one.
Timmet, son of Timmet (which my wife says isn’t a very fearsome name) put out his own eye to prove his strength. Other members of his clan inflict other injuries on themselves for the same reason.
Donal Noye lost an arm.
Qorin Halfhand lost, er, half his right hand (three fingers and part of the base of the hand).
Dagmer Cleftjaw had his face split open. Some say it was his whole head, and he squeezed it back together and continued fighting. In any case he has a really disgusting scar.
Tyrion Lannister lost part of his nose and has a purple slashing scar to go with it.
Benjen Stark got shoved off a tower and was paralyzed from the waist down.
[/spoiler]
There’s plenty more where that came from, too.
What about the old “I’m not afraid of you! You can’t hurt me!” schtick (sometimes “I don’t believe in you! You don’t exist!”), which inevitably causes the otherwise omnipotent evil being to writhe in torment as he is banished from reality? I’m a real big fan of that one.
I think all motion picture and television based Sci/Fi has been diversified over the past ten years , probably back to the original trek , with Uhura (who wanted to quit, but was talked out of it by MLK) as a bridge officer.
Gays on the other hand , are the final frontier. Its not a theme I have noticed in print , with the exception maybe of lesbians , it was done in a subtle way on Babylon five , in two separate episodes , with Ivanova and Talia Winters sharing a bed , and with Franklyn and Marcus having to share a passage to mars , as a married couple.
Declan
Um, you wouldn’t mind clueing in a fellow nerd as to just what episode that is, would you? And by any chance is Delenn involved, too? I ask purely in the interest of science fiction trivia, mind you.
As for the “You can’t hurt me, you don’t exist” bit, I’d say that by far the more common motif is for the unreal villain to proceed to hurt the doubter anyway.