Adam and Steve?
Right. The cloning technology of their civilization was quite advanced.
But not infallible, which is why we ended up with green salads and not being able to watch sports and fart all the time…
Just curious. Does anyone know the earliest-published version of that story? I think Twilight Zone or Outer Limits used it, but who got it into print first?
I like how in The Expanse the public spaces on Mars looked pretty much like a slightly alien indoor shopping mall.
I thought for sure TV Tropes would have this, but not quite: they have AdamAndEvePlot, which is generically about all repopulating scenarios. Some overlap with New Eden and Earth All Along. The page does say:
Literary note: the “Adam and Eve” plot is pejoratively discussed in many articles and books on writing science fiction stories. Apparently it was, for many years, one of the most over-used twist endings in the badly written stories that make up the editors’ mountainous “slush pile” of wasted efforts — in fact, many editors would reject stories with this twist on sight.
Flying is safe too, but people are still afraid to fly. And I’d definitely give someone a pass if the flight right before theirs exploded on the runway.
What was also annoying was how Kirk told the horrified technician “there was nothing you could have done”. Yeah, dummy, because you pushed her out of the way to take over her job running the transporter. Not that the outcome would have been different, but is Kirk even rated to operate the transporter, beyond the normal getting from point a to b most people know?
These twist plots in general are sometimes known as “jar of Tang” stories:
An entire pointless story contrived so the author can cry “Fooled you!” For instance, the story takes place in a desert of coarse orange sand surrounded by an impenetrable vitrine barrier; surprise! our heroes are microbes in a jar of Tang powdered orange drink.
Twists like that are especially common in old SF short stories. There was once a SF magazine called Vortex that was dedicated to SF short stories only, no longer fiction, no articles, reviews, editorials, etc. It lasted for two issues in 1953. It is filled with twist-ending stories.
I wrote a piece entitled “Teleportation Angst” that appeared in our sadly defunct e-zine Teemings, and is sadly no longer available. It was about how people have long been shocked and horrified about the idea that teleportation might go wrong in the middle of sending someone, with awful results. In fact, this was the point of the very first two stories about teleportation, both published in the 19th century (The first was Edward Page Mitchell’s “The Body Without a Head” from 1877. You can see what it’s about right there).
So what, you say? Well, what if the very first two stories about heavier-than-air vehicles ended with them simply crashing? Of course, that’s not what happened. All the early stories about flight are about the wonders of being able to slip our earthly bonds and rise above the world. People emphasized the positive aspects. But with teleportation, right from the start, they were freaked out about the horrid consequences if it went wrong.
That’s what I call Teleportation Angst – worry about the consequences of a non-existent technology.
And it wasn’t just those first two stories. This is a common thread running through science fiction – even by those who love the medium, and you wouldn’t think would want to dwell on such consequences. It is, of course, the point of George Langelaan’s story “The Fly”, and on the five – FIVE! – movies that ultimately derive from it.
You’d think that Star Trek, which relied upon teleportation as a means of transportation, would be immune to this. And, in fact, in most cases, nothing awful happens when they use it. But they had more than their share of transporter malfunctions – episodes of not only the first series, but subsequent series. The aforementioned scene from the first Star Trek movie, with the malfunction. (One notes that a version of this, played for comic value, appears in the first MAD Star TRek parody. And in the parody of the first movie)
And at least two of the TZ “Adam and Eve” episodes (Two, and Probe 7 Over and Out) were written by Serling. I guess even the good writers have deadlines. And budgets (two actors each).
I’m sure that it’s because of the blatant overuse of this trope that Alfred Bester named his story Adam and No Eve. It’s a good story, but I think a lot of approval for it comes from so beautifully subverting the trope.
It’s been reprinted a helluva lotta times:
There’s a line in the novelization of STIV:TVH where Kirk starts to berate Dr. Taylor while they’re leaving the transporter pad about how dangerous it was for her to jump into the transporter beam while they were dematerializing. I can see why they would cut that line out (no plot advancement, little characterization) but I’ve always wondered if it was in the shooting script and if they made a take of it.
Any movie that takes place in the near future with a larger and better mass transit system than we have now. In the real world there’s been talks of building high speed rail for decades and we’re no closer. Here in Montgomery County MD a light rail system has been delayed for years with a current completion date of 2027. So don’t place your movie in the 2050s and have maglev trains zipping around everywhere.
Also,
of Wrath of Khan? Maybe III? Where Kirk thinks how stupid an idea it is for Saavik and David to hold hands during transport, lest they both arrive short handed.* Apparently, someone thought of it, they just choose not to go there.
*that’s me, not the novel. Sorry.
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has a lengthy article where the germ of the idea is pushed as far back as Lilith: a Romance by George MacDonald in 1895, although no crashed spaceships are involved.
Brian W Aldiss has given the name Shaggy God Stories to stories which provide simple-minded sf frameworks for Biblical myths. A considerable fraction of the unsolicited material submitted to sf magazines is or was reputed to consist of stories of this kind, the plot most frequently represented being the one in which survivors of a space disaster land on a virgin world and reveal (in the final line) that their names are Adam and Eve. Understandably, these stories rarely see print…
However, a half-hour search failed to reveal anyone willing to say this is the first instance of a tired trope.
I liked the idea in Genesis II with the subshuttle
a globe-encompassing series of trains running in evacuated tunnels.
Until I got older, and imagined a breakdown somewhere mid-Atlantic. And then remembered that the setting is a recovering post-apocalyptic world. Can we trust the maintenance?
Even Asimov has one.
“AC said: let there be light. And there was light…”
Yeah, we’ve discussed various train projects repeatedly. The problem is that the only thing new technology can offer is for them to go faster, and that just isn’t enough to make up for all the other limitations. In fact going faster adds a limitation: it requires restricting intermediate stops.
These novelizations were written by Hugo and Nebula winner Vonda McIntyre, who fleshed out the screen stories considerably, and added quite a bit to Star Trek canon (She’s the one who gave Sulu and Uhura first names – something overlooked until then). I suspect the thoughts about transporters came from her ruminations, rather than from the scripts.
This seems to be a frequent trope: it’s a dark, dirty, fallen world with gang rule everywhere… but somehow we still have antigravity, FTL travel, AI robots etc etc. Star wars being a typical example.
Who keeps the machinery running?
Wait, how is Star Wars an example of that?