# "The Tom Swift series has started", he said, informatively **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [June 2, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539 "2022-06-02T01:15:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/1 "2022-06-02T01:15:48Z")
And it is bad. It is, really, really, really, really bad. This series got a backdoor pilot on an episode of _Nancy Drew_, and it is to science fiction what the CW’s _Nancy Drew_ is to mysteries. With _Nancy Drew_, the solution to mysteries is always that a ghost or a witch or a ghost witch did it. On the new _Tom Swift_, the science/technology is bad enough to make a _Star Trek: Discovery_ writer’s jaw to drop in shock. I struggled to finish the first episode, and I think I won’t be back for the second. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/2 "2022-06-02T01:36:16Z")
I’ve heard there are some better classic series adaptations out there, she said hardily. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/3 "2022-06-02T01:37:34Z")
I was going to make a comment about the **Thunderbolt Grease Slapper** , but realized I had the wrong Tom – should be Slick. I’ll see myself out. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/4 "2022-06-02T02:14:42Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > On the new _Tom Swift_ , the science/technology is bad enough to make a _Star Trek: Discovery_ writer’s jaw to drop in shock. Sounds very true to the original books, whose science ranged from vaguely accurate to ludicrously absurd. Much like Q’s gadgets for James Bond, whatever weird thing Tom had just invented always ended up being exactly what he needed to save the day. You will find a lot of things in the Tom Swift books: stalwart heroes, dastardly villains, cringe-worthy comic relief, wildly inventive “science,” racism, sexism, and Tom’s inordinate fondness for switching off the engine of his flying machines in mid-air, so that he could “volplane to earth,” which was his favorite method of landing any aircraft. What you will not find, interestingly enough, are “Tom Swifties.” It just wasn’t really a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/5 "2022-06-02T04:46:34Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Sounds very true to the original books, whose science ranged from vaguely accurate to ludicrously absurd. Much like Q’s gadgets for James Bond, whatever weird thing Tom had just invented always ended up being exactly what he needed to save the day. Well, in the _Nancy Drew_ backdoor pilot he came looking for a meteorite to turn into rocket fuel for a mission to Saturn. The first episode includes the mission to Saturn (by his father) in a contraption that looks pretty much like a SR-71 Blackbird. It includes zero-delay communications between Earth and Saturn. And in a quest sure to involve the next few episodes if not the entire season A data capsule launched back from the ship to Earth broke up in the atmosphere on re-entry, scattering debris across the US (in random directions, not just the flight path) and Tom is going to go around the country and collect all the debris so that he can reassemble the capsule and read the data. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/6 "2022-06-02T04:49:31Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > What you will not find, interestingly enough, are “Tom Swifties.” It just wasn’t really a thing. The Wikipedia entry has examples from one of the books. > **[Tom Swifty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swifty)** > > A Tom Swifty (or Tom Swiftie) is a phrase in which a quoted sentence is linked by a pun to the manner in which it is attributed. Tom Swifties may be considered a type of wellerism. The standard syntax is for the quoted sentence to be first, followed by the description of the act of speaking, such as: > "If you want me, I shall be in the attic," said Tom, loftily. The hypothetical speaker is usually, by convention, called "Tom" (or "he" or "she"). > The name comes from the Tom Swift series of books ... ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/7 "2022-06-02T06:22:38Z")
I have a whole bunch of the original Tom Swift books, and there is nary a Tom Swifty in them. I was quite disappointed. The name does come from them, but not the joke. The original books (written by the guy who wrote Uncle Wiggly) were reasonably scientifically accurate for the time. The 1950s - 1960 revisions were scientifically laughable, with immense numbers of impossible machines thrown in. I have a few of the third series with Tom Swift III in space. Boring, not even amusingly bad… ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/8 "2022-06-02T12:00:56Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The Wikipedia entry has examples from one of the books. The examples are of adverbs attached to speech tags. Lots of writers do that (J.K. Rowling can’t get enough of it!). What doesn’t happen is the adverb forming a pun with what’s being said. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/9 "2022-06-02T12:07:25Z")
TS was a precursor to Elon Musk. I had some of the early books, and I remember asking my mom what a runabout was. From the book, “Tom Swift and his Electric Runabout”. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/10 "2022-06-02T13:03:28Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > What doesn’t happen is the adverb forming a pun with what’s being said. Nobody claimed that it did? Ever? Tom Swifites are and have always been _mocking the played straight writing style_, not imitating intentional puns. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/11 "2022-06-02T18:21:13Z")
Per our good friends at Merriam-Webster: "A Tom Swifty is a play on words taking the form of a quotation ascribed to Tom and followed by an adverb. Here’s a good example: > “The thermostat is set too high,” said Tom heatedly. " ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/12 "2022-06-02T18:27:53Z")
“I got caught shoplifting in Saudi Arabia”, said Tom offhandedly. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/13 "2022-06-02T23:50:11Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Nobody claimed that it did? Ever? Until this thread, I thought the puns were from the original books. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/14 "2022-06-03T00:55:31Z")
That’s been my impression, too; that a fair number of people believe that the punning adverbs were a regular feature of the books. I won’t claim that there were never any usages like that (using “hotly” when talking about temperature, for example), but if so, they were very rare and most likely unintentional. It’s like how some people think that the Sherlock Holmes stories used “ejaculated” for “said” all the time, when in reality it was only done once or twice. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/15 "2022-06-03T01:24:41Z")
Same here. From the trailers I’d seen I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, and the first fifteen minutes or so pretty much confirmed that opinion. I forced myself to watch the whole episode just in case it improved. It didn’t. I removed it from my DVR recording schedule immediately afterwards. You may now resume your discussions of the origin of Tom Swifties and the quality of the science in the original books. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/16 "2022-06-03T16:38:35Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > “A Tom Swifty is a play on words taking the form of a quotation ascribed to Tom and followed by an adverb. […]” Continuing the hijack: Sometimes a Tom Swifty has the pun in the speech verb itself instead of using an adverb. Examples: “Hey, that’s my gold-panning site!” Tom claimed. “Well, it used to be mine!” Tom exclaimed. “My father married a German woman,” Tom muttered. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/17 "2022-06-03T23:27:10Z")
“I’m glad I passed my electrocardiogram,” Tom said wholeheartedly. “I think my heart’s giving out,” Tom croaked. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2022, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/18 "2022-07-09T03:09:20Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > And it is bad. It is, really, really, really, really bad. Looks like I wasn’t alone in that opinion. > **[The CW cancellations continue with 'Nancy Drew' sci-fi spinoff 'Tom Swift'...](https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/tom-swift-canceled-after-one-season-at-the-cw)** > > The CW has officially canceled sci-fi series Tom Swift midway through its first season due to low viewership numbers, Deadline reports. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2022, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-tom-swift-series-has-started-he-said-informatively/965539/19 "2022-07-09T05:15:55Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Sounds very true to the original books, whose science ranged from vaguely accurate to ludicrously absurd. Much like Q’s gadgets for James Bond, whatever weird thing Tom had just invented always ended up being exactly what he needed to save the day. Ever since I read those books, I’ve wanted a VTOL jumbo jet.