# Stupendous Stupidity in Science Fiction (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932 "2009-08-27T17:57:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 22
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/421 "2009-10-09T20:16:50Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > The **Interceptors** from **UFO**. A squadron of three with one shot each, what if they miss or the aliens send more than three. The interceptors’ single “missile” actually contains multiple independently-targeted warheads\* - which is about the only chance they have of hitting even one UFO moving at SOL decimal 8, anyway. The aliens tried a mass attack once, in “Reflections in the Water” - while some of them were decoyed into the Earth’s atmosphere where the SkyDivers\*\* took them out, a fair number were destroyed by the moonbase interceptors and ground defences… what we see on screen suggests that the interceptors are just very good at making _really_ fast pit stops. \*Sort of canonical, based on the interminable amounts of background material for the show. \*\*Definitely canonical; we even got to see SkyDiver 3 in “The Psychobombs”. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/422 "2009-10-09T22:44:11Z")
I am tempted. [![](http://ufoseries.com/books/techManualInterceptor.jpg) ](http://ufoseries.com/books/techManualInterceptor.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/423 "2009-10-09T23:58:57Z")
Design classics like that never go out of style. Actually, responding to another point earlier in this thread, about people not moving realistically in low gravity - I don’t think Gerry Anderson is guilty on this count. Moonbase Alpha in _Space: 1999_ had gravity generators to provide Earth-normal conditions inside the base (I realize I’m on a hiding to nothing, trying to defend the physics of _Space: 1999_, but what the hell). I think the same may be true of SHADO’s moonbase, too - I know it’s true of _Moonbase 3_, that other justly neglected classic of the Seventies. And as for the other Anderson series - the characters in those move as if they’ve got no weight at all; why, it’s almost as though they were held up with strings! ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/424 "2009-10-10T00:08:29Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > I am tempted. > > [http://ufoseries.com/books/techManualInterceptor.jpg](http://ufoseries.com/books/techManualInterceptor.jpg) That’s one ugly looking fighter, there… ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/425 "2009-10-10T00:16:05Z")
> [@Steve\_Wright](#): > > Design classics like that never go out of style. > > Actually, responding to another point earlier in this thread, about people not moving realistically in low gravity - I don’t think Gerry Anderson is guilty on this count. Moonbase Alpha in _Space: 1999_ had gravity generators to provide Earth-normal conditions inside the base (I realize I’m on a hiding to nothing, trying to defend the physics of _Space: 1999_, but what the hell). I think the same may be true of SHADO’s moonbase, too - I know it’s true of _Moonbase 3_, that other justly neglected classic of the Seventies. > > And as for the other Anderson series - the characters in those move as if they’ve got no weight at all; why, it’s almost as though they were held up with strings! But nothing makes a guy feel older than to realise the ‘future’ of the ‘past’ was \*\*TEN YEARS AGO. \*\* ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/426 "2009-10-10T00:29:39Z")
And _UFO_ was set in the incredibly futuristic year of 1980… If it’s any comfort, we have 59 years to go before _Captain Scarlet_ becomes dated… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/427 "2009-10-11T04:59:54Z")
Quoth **Kolga** : > [@](#): > > So, the “everything tastes like chicken” scene in the Matrix, to me, illustrates a lack of understanding of cognitive schemes in normal humans. OK, sure, but how many people know that? I think it’s perfectly plausible for a movie character, especially one who’s not a psychologist, to have alternate explanations for a phenomenon like that. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/428 "2009-10-11T09:59:00Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > That’s one ugly looking fighter, there… However, props for being the most phallic aircraft ever built. And that’s saying something. ---
**Author:** ![NH2112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NH2112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NH2112)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/429 "2011-11-08T01:14:39Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > No. You’re reading too much into a simple statement. Quite simply, if you’re drifting without power and you’re _not_ drifting towards an inhabited planet fast enough to get there before you run out of supplies, you’re screwed. Pointing out that they were still going forwards at a snail’s pace or drifting towards nothing in particular would provide no useful information. > > Once you’re out in space without any useful reference points “stationary” is a purely arbitrary concept anyway, so your complaint doesn’t even make sense. The error in that episode was that all the items that were blown out the cargo bay door when the air/fire was vented somehow stayed within a few meters of the ship. They should have continued at the speed imparted to them by the escaping air, relative to the ship. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/430 "2011-11-08T03:59:34Z")
This is a time travel episode, right? I hate those. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932.md?page=21)