# Old scifi tropes that have fallen out of use **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115 "2012-02-27T04:05:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/61 "2012-02-28T17:23:34Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > The military leadership coucil, consisting of many command officers wearing full dress uniforms complete with a chest full of medals, all arguing, all making dire predictions… > > …and all smoking cigarettes like mad. How is that a sci-fi trope? That was just people smoking in a movie in an era in which people smoked all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/62 "2012-02-28T17:37:48Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Waterlogged and swampy Venus. Used by S.M. Stirling as recently as 2006. Although he was intentionally using it as a retro-theme. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/63 "2012-02-28T18:36:04Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > And then there’s Planet X, the planet in Earth’s orbit but on the opposite side of the Sun from us at all times. I don’t think you hear about that one anymore either. The Gor novels were the last major SF series to use it … Gor was a counter-Earth, which is the term for what you’re describing. The whole problem with that trope is that it was out of date before it was invented … Kepler preceded science fiction, and Kepler of course developed the laws of planetary motion that allow us to predict the orbits of celestial bodies, and if there were a counter-Earth, even if unseen it would make itself evident through its effect on the orbits of Venus and Mars. Norman also used an outdated trope in the form of birds that could carry human passengers, called tarns, a lot like the giant eagles in “Lord of the Rings.” Now Gor supposedly had a slightly lower gravity than Earth’s but only slightly, so the same rules of aerodynamics that make such things impossible on Earth make them impossible on Gor as well. (Not to mention that Gor says that there are passenger tarns that can carry six or eight humans at a time). In fact I’d say Norman’s stuff is much more akin to fantasy than SF, he had no real interest in the scientific backdrop to his stories, just wanted to use the fantastical setting of planetary romances for his allegory about human nature. And as mentioned upthread, “Another Earth” is a very recent movie that involves a counter-Earth. Frankly, I think many filmmakers are butt-ignorant people who do not read much, and any SF trope can and will be revived at any time just because they don’t know any better. This 10-20 year lag is ridiculous … filmmakers, with a few exceptions, are just not all that au courant with SF tropes. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/64 "2012-02-28T20:52:32Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Over-population as a plot device seems to have run its course. It was big back in the seventies after the Club of Rome book. But the most recent works I can think of that used it were George R.R. Martin’s _Tuf Voyaging_ in 1986 and David Brin’s _Earth_ in 1990. Overpopulation is mentioned in 2009’s [Pandorum](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1188729/). ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/65 "2012-02-28T21:01:40Z")
Giant Insects: Starship Troopers? Syfy channel also has “moster of the week” shows. 2007’s [Ice Spiders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Spiders). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/66 "2012-02-28T23:53:49Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Computers with [big displays of pointlessly flashing lights](http://movieclassics.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/deskset.jpg). The last one was probably [WOPR](http://www.zaalabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/WOPR-SideView.jpg) and people commented even then how silly it looked. > > Rockets that looked like missiles. Anybody know where I can get a virus-free screensaver of this effect? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/67 "2012-02-29T00:24:30Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > During the cold war, the fictional future was going to be shitty because of war. Now the fictional future will be shitty because of pollution and a population too lazy to recycle. In the future, the fictional future will be shitty because there’s too many fat people, at least according to Hollywood. I say this as an obese person myself. _Wall-E_ depicts a future where the earth is uninhabitable due to pollution, too much trash, etc., and all humans live in spaceships…and are fat. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/68 "2012-02-29T01:25:03Z")
Another forgotten trope: Ray Guns! I remember a perfect example from an anthology of “Before the Golden Age” stories, edited by Isaac Asimov. There were two stories by a Capt. S. P. Meek, entitled _Submicroscopic_ and _Awlo of Ulm_. The human hero shrinks to microsopic size and discovers a whole world hiding between grains of sand. In those two stories, but especially in the second one, the people wear suits that have various types of power rays built in. There is even a ray gun duel where you have to use your various different-coloured rays to best effect (that guy is trying his yellow ray on me! But I can counteract with the purple ray!) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/69 "2012-02-29T04:30:36Z")
No robots that look like a gorilla suit and a diving helmet.☹ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/70 "2012-02-29T13:00:19Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > And then there’s Planet X, the planet in Earth’s orbit but on the opposite side of the Sun from us at all times. I don’t think you hear about that one anymore either. > > The Gor novels were the last major SF series to use it … Gor was a counter-Earth, which is the term for what you’re describing. Marvel Comics (does that count?) first had stories involving a “Counter-Earth” on the other side of the sun years after various Gor novels had come out. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/71 "2012-02-29T13:22:47Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > It’s not really sci-fi, but the Harry Potter series has some brain-in-liquid thing going on. Barely. The Department of Mysteries, right? ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/72 "2012-02-29T13:25:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Quote: > > Originally Posted by RealityChuck > > Waterlogged and swampy Venus. > > Used by S.M. Stirling as recently as 2006. Although he was intentionally using it as a retro-theme. Who in 2008 also had a Mars of ruined canals and dieing cities, a Martian Princess, and a sword wielding hero from Earth 😃 But as \*\*Little Nemo \*\*points out he was deliberately going for a retro-theme and used an alternative history to setting to allow him to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/73 "2012-02-29T15:30:43Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Marvel Comics (does that count?) first had stories involving a “Counter-Earth” on the other side of the sun years after various Gor novels had come out. Well, different medium, one long noted for using any damn trope it wanted to, whenever hand however. I mean, Green Lantern is basically a story of supermen with magical rays. (“My green ray does nothing against yellow rays!”) And Superman is powered by Earth’s yellow sun. Somehow. God knows SF has had its tropes-busters, but hardly on the scale of comics. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/74 "2012-02-29T17:16:48Z")
Mahaloth: > [@](#): > > Barely. The Department of Mysteries, right? Correct. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/75 "2012-02-29T19:26:17Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > The military leadership coucil, consisting of many command officers wearing full dress uniforms complete with a chest full of medals, all arguing, all making dire predictions… One of my favorite bits in the Stargate: SG1 series was that you could very clearly see when their military advisor pointed out that Air Force officers don’t constantly wear full dress uniforms. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/76 "2012-02-29T20:02:13Z")
Making huge computers break down with logic problems, dilemmas and computing pi to the last decimal place. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Over-population as a plot device seems to have run its course. It was big back in the seventies after the Club of Rome book. But the most recent works I can think of that used it were George R.R. Martin’s _Tuf Voyaging_ in 1986… Fantastic book. One of my all-time favorites. > [@Marley23](#): > > And then there’s Planet X, the planet in Earth’s orbit but on the opposite side of the Sun from us at all times. I don’t think you hear about that one anymore either. Or all those books and short stories set on a Mercury which always keeps the same face towards the Sun, instantly rendered obsolete when we learned in 1965 that it doesn’t. > [@VOW](#): > > The military leadership coucil, consisting of many command officers wearing full dress uniforms complete with a chest full of medals, all arguing, all making dire predictions… > > …and all smoking cigarettes like mad. I’m re-reading Asimov’s _I, Robot_ (1950) and it’s amazing how much smoking the characters do. They light up all the time - even in labs, on space stations and asteroid bases! ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/77 "2012-02-29T20:45:22Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Making huge computers break down with logic problems, dilemmas and computing pi to the last decimal place. \*“Acknowledged, Captain. Spawning low-priority subprocess to compute the last digit of pi. Will report when completed.” “Now, back to killing everyone on the ship.”\* _BZOP_ _BZAP_ _BZOTCH_ > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Waterlogged and swampy Venus. Yes, so you can’t do stories [like this one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Rain) anymore. A pity. That was a childhood favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/78 "2012-02-29T21:04:56Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’m re-reading Asimov’s _I, Robot_ (1950) and it’s amazing how much smoking the characters do. They light up all the time - even in labs, on space stations and asteroid bases! I just re-read Asimov’s original _Foundation_ trilogy, 30 years after I read them the first time. Same thing there. 50,000 years from now, all of humanity is still smoking tobacco and using nuclear weapons and nuclear power for everything. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/79 "2012-02-29T21:27:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m re-reading Asimov’s I, Robot (1950) and it’s amazing how much smoking the characters do. They light up all the time - even in labs, on space stations and asteroid bases! Watch _It! The Terror from Beyond Space_, a 1950s gem of a movie, written by Jerome Bixby (and ripped off by _Alien_ years later). The people on board a space ship with limited air (a plot point, it later develops) smoke like chimneys – and have _cartons_ of cigarettes in their lockers. They also carry guns and grenades on their space ship, which seems a pretty stupid idea. Notice also that it’s the women on board who due the table-waiting, and get the coffee. But at least there _are_ women on board. One of the (unintentionally) funnier moments of the original _Day the Earth Stood Still_ had the doctors at the hospital talking about how advanced Klaatu’s medicine was, and how healthy he was – while they both smoke cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115/80 "2012-02-29T21:51:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Notice also that it’s the women on board who due the table-waiting, and get the coffee. But at least there _are_ women on board. A couple years ago I watched the pilot episode of _Lost In Space_ on Hulu. I laughed out loud when, in the far future of 1997, the family set up shop on the planet where they’ve crashed, the father and son grabbed the guns and went exploring, while the wife and daughter stayed near the ship … and did laundry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-scifi-tropes-that-have-fallen-out-of-use/614115.md?page=5)