# Where does your ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ stop? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746 "2021-07-05T14:46:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**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:** [October 11, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/302 "2021-10-11T20:53:05Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > _War of the Worlds,_ the TV series from the late 80’s/early 90’s. I was _super_ into this series when it came out. I even read the novelization. (Not the Wells novel, although I’d read that, too.) Second season, they did a major direction change, killing off most of the cast, including all of the alien invaders, and replaced them with a different set of alien invaders. Also killed off my interest in the show, and apparently everyone else’s as well, as it never got a third season. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/303 "2021-10-11T22:27:45Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Sometime in the 60s Hollywood decided action men shouldn’t have chest hair. I could never come up with a viable reason why, but Jims (Kirk and West) starting getting shaved. I read somewhere that Zack Snyder wanted Henry Cavill to shave his chest for the role of Superman. Henry refused citing Supes had chest hair as seen in the comic books. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/304 "2021-10-11T22:29:46Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > _War of the Worlds,_ the TV series from the late 80’s/early 90’s. The premise was that the events in the 1953 movie all happened pretty much as portrayed, and the bulk of humankind…forgot it ever happened. I was under the impression that the Martian invasion was actually limited to a very small area and the movie was made as a kind of cover story. But its been more than 30 years since I’ve seen it so I might not remember correctly. I do remember that season 2 had some weird changes and I stopped watching. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/305 "2021-10-11T23:22:24Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Second season, they did a major direction change, killing off most of the cast, including all of the alien invaders, and replaced them with a different set of alien invaders… How does that make ANY sense? “Well, Billy, ah reckon Grover’s Mill is safe now, all the aliens packed up and went back home. I knew having them watch television shows would convince them they don’t want to rule us.” “Uhhh, pa? Don’t look now, but there’s a bunch of totally different aliens landing.” "Dagnabbit, not _again…"_ ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/306 "2021-10-11T23:49:08Z")
> [@digs](#): > > How does that make ANY sense? It’s not alone: Mulder, the aliens just stopped wanted to invade. The threat is gone. No more Black Oil, no more alien bounty hunters, nothing. I guess watching reruns of Green Acres drove them off. And, the singular thing that drove you to the X-Files, the defining episode of your life, never happened. Your sister never got abducted. But Scully, the same people we were struggling against, the same nefarious actors hiding in our institutions of government, who spent the last 50 years working to bring about an alien apocalypse, have all decided to pretend that never happened, and are now secretly working on “super soldiers ™” instead. Why Mulder? To what end? Another three seasons I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/307 "2021-10-12T00:00:25Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > _War of the Worlds,_ the TV series from the late 80’s/early 90’s. The premise was that the events in the 1953 movie all happened pretty much as portrayed, and the bulk of humankind…forgot it ever happened. See all Doctor Who after 2006 or so. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a proud Whovian, but there’s only so many times people can just forget massive alien invasions. I know at one point the Battle of Canary Wharf was wiped from the timeline (though it was restored…I think), but there’s been far to much handwaving over humankind no longer believing in alien beings despite invasion after invasion. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/308 "2021-10-12T00:05:15Z")
As the Brigadier once put it, “Just once, I wish we’d get an alien invader that isn’t immune to bullets.” Why yes, my Doctor is Tom Baker. ---
**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:** [October 12, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/309 "2021-10-12T02:49:41Z")
> [@digs](#): > > How does that make ANY sense? The aliens from the first season were killed off by the new aliens in the second season. I think it was some sort of, “The home world is tired of your failures,” sort of thing, except the new aliens had different powers than the original set, which changed the dynamics of the show. (I’m going off the wikipedia entry here. I only remember three things about the show: aliens being stored in toxic waste barrels, the main character had a self-hypnosis trick that gave him perfect recall, and the computer guy in a wheelchair also was an expert bo staff fighter.) ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/310 "2021-10-12T14:53:29Z")
Having been a proud Whovian since the days of Tom Baker, my WSoD has gotten quite a work-out. Forgetting things like, robotic Yetis in the London Underground, having to evacuate London because dinosaurs were randomly appearing, and having the Loch Ness Monster pop out of the Thames, the British must be the singularly most uninvolved people on the face of the Earth. It’s a hallmark of this trait that Douglas Adams immortalized as **The Somebody-Else’s-Problem Field.** ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/311 "2021-10-12T15:02:20Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > See all Doctor Who after 2006 or so. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a proud Whovian, but there’s only so many times people can just forget massive alien invasions. I know at one point the Battle of Canary Wharf was wiped from the timeline (though it was restored…I think), but there’s been far to much handwaving over humankind no longer believing in alien beings despite invasion after invasion. > [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Having been a proud Whovian since the days of Tom Baker, my WSoD has gotten quite a work-out. > … > the British must be the singularly most uninvolved people on the face of the Earth. I assume that all of this is happening in a parallel universe. We’ve been binging the “new” Doctor (2005 on), and there’s a few places where prior invasions / events are remembered. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/312 "2021-10-12T15:42:39Z")
There’s always the standard government cover story “terrorists released a cloud of hallucinogenic gas”. Yeah, I didn’t think so either. I’m waiting for Jim Butcher to expound on how the [Masquerade - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Masquerade) breaks down after the events in his Dresden Files story “Battle Ground” where a supernatural entity trashed large areas of Chicago, killing thousands ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/313 "2021-10-12T18:41:45Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > having the Loch Ness Monster pop out of the Thames, the British must be the singularly most uninvolved people on the face of the Earth _“Oh, sod it, another monster in the Thames, they’ll probably close Waterloo Bridge again… Well, better ring up the missus and tell her I’ll be late. So, fancy a pint? I know a good pub well away from the river…”_ ---
**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:** [October 12, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/314 "2021-10-12T20:42:43Z")
There was a bit in one of the Dr. Who Christmas Specials, where they show up in present day London on Christmas Eve, only to find the streets deserted. They ask someone what’s up, and the guy tells them, “Well, alien stuff always happens on Christmas, so everyone’s staying home to be safe.” ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2021, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/315 "2021-11-21T04:46:33Z")
I’ve been reading a lot of sci-fi romance, and this one otherwise good post-apoc series keeps bringing me out of the story by creating moments of sexual tension at the most unlikely times. Like, “I’m elbows deep in an alien corpse, but you just brushed my hand and now warmth is pooling in my stomach.” Or, in the middle of an armed firefight with giant bug creatures, bullets flying, she notices his hard, lean body and becomes aroused. It’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2021, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/316 "2021-11-21T12:56:34Z")
For some reason I can’t quite pinpoint, I can’t buy the premise of either of the Denzel Washington time travel films (Deja Vu and Out of Time), and yet I’m fine with films like Time After Time and Back to the Future. I guess because the Denzel ones are otherwise in the style of (semi)-realistic action flicks, while the others are fun fiction. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2021, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/317 "2021-11-21T13:41:58Z")
James Patterson has taken the Tom Clancy / Clive Cussler route these days and now uses ‘co-writers’, which probably means he only provides the barest outline of a novel idea, if that, lets the other guy do most of the work, and churns out books by the boatload. I downloaded one of these from the library online, “The Noise”, a science-fictiony story in which the eponymous anomaly is leaving dead bodies in its wake with internal body temperatures that are rising, not falling. A crack team of scientists assembled by the government to solve the mystery of “The Noise” is speculating on why the dead bodies’ temps continue to rise. One of them suggests exposure to microwave radiation, saying “microwaves heat from the inside out”. Uh, no they do not. Microwaves heat from the outside in, by causing water molecules to vibrate. If you’re microwaving, say, a Hot Pocket, with a liquidy interior and the relatively dry outer crust, it seems not very hot on the outside, then you bite into it and the filling is molten lava which burns the inside of your mouth. So it may seem like the microwave heated it from the inside out, but it did not. Reading the line of a character who was supposed to be a scientist claim that old myth almost stopped me from reading on. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/318 "2021-12-09T03:59:55Z")
I came up with a list of half a dozen plot points that undermine my suspension of disbelief, but I’ll limit my posting to the runaway winner. I can’t stand it when a character suddenly breaks into a song, or worse yet, a song-and-dance number. In other words, EVERY F\*\*\*-ing MUSICAL EVER PUT ON A SCREEN (big or small) OR STAGE! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/319 "2021-12-09T06:13:41Z")
Is a genre a plot device? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/320 "2021-12-09T13:57:10Z")
> [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > I can’t stand it when a character suddenly breaks into a song, or worse yet, a song-and-dance number. In other words, EVERY F\*\*\*-ing MUSICAL EVER PUT ON A SCREEN (big or small) OR STAGE! The only musical I actually, honestly enjoy is the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because there’s actually an in-universe reason for all the musical numbers, that’s consistent with the lore the show had already established\*. \*That is, magic and curses exist, and can affect the entire world in significant ways. Turns out, summoning a music-themed demon wasn’t as fun as it sounded. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746/321 "2021-12-09T14:04:44Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Is a genre a plot device? No, but plot devices can define a genre. And tropes that are defining elements of a genre can and do undermine willing suspension of disbelief for a lot of people. A lot of folks will accept unrealistic physics and science in fiction but draw the line at literal magic, which effectively means their willing suspension of disbelief is undermined by entire genres. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-your-willing-suspension-of-disbelief-stop/945746.md?page=17)