Will TV sci-fi script writers ever give this tired and absurd plot device a break?

Cafe Society
1

Been watching a lot of Farscape and Stargate-SG-1 shows lately and I’ve seen this BS over and over lately (esp in SG-1) and it’s pretty common in older sci-fi as well, but given the fairly high overall writing quality of both these shows you’d think they would have gotten past this tired script device at this point.

Evil villain with super sophisticated technology and his group of scientists are working on uber weapon or device. Time comes to test it and weapon fails or otherwise doesn’t perform to spec. Head genius/scientist in charge of project is then summarily shot, disintegrated, thrown into a pit of snarling blorgs. Beyond the sheer impoliteness of this act does any scriptwriter stop to think how this would pan out in real life?

Underling: Sir it’s been determined the new missle prototype crashed because of a design defect.

Saddam: Oh well, kill the head of engineering and tell them to try harder.

Underling: Um Sir. If we do that gettig the project back on track will likely take an unacceptable amount of time.

Saddam: What do you mean? Simply kill him and replace him with his second in command.

Underling: Sir, his second in command while competent does not have the education or technical skill of the head of the design team, that’s why he’s the head of the department.

Saddam: But the plane crashed. He must be killed!

Underling: Sir, when creating new things and testing untried parameters failure is the status quo. It is inherent in the nature of things.

Saddam: Hmm… I’m sorely disappointed, can’t we kill him just a little bit?

Underling: It’s not likely to help morale sir.

Saddam: What about my morale?

Underling: We could torture a soccer player for you?

Saddam: (dejectedly) It’s better than nothing I guess.

2

If the scientist was Klingon, his failure would bring dishonor on about three thousand generations of his family (all the way out to fiftieth cousins, and step-children and foster children and their kin), and he would voluntarily kill himself, saving the dictator the trouble.

:smiley:

Sir Rhosis

3

You mean the hackneyed alternative is somehow better?

Indiana Jones: Killing me won’t get you anywhere.
Donovan: You know something? You’re absolutely right.
Donovan shoots Dr. Jones Sr.

or

Professor Fassbinder: If you kill me, I won’t build your doomsday device.
Chief Inspector Dreyfuss: Then I will regrettably have to take it up with your charming daughter. To the schoolroom!
Dreyfuss rushes off to torture Fassbinder’s daughter.

:slight_smile:

FISH

4

Harry Turtledove wrote a scene similar to the one described in the OP. In his World War series, aliens with advanced technolgy invade Earth during WWII. The aliens are using atomic weapons. All of the human nations put their atomic programs on high priority. A few months later, after an unsuccessful test, Stalin decides to execute all of the scientists working on the Soviet bomb project to “encourage” the next team to work harder. Molotov, his number two man, argues that the next group won’t be as competent as the current group and progress would be even slower.

5

It’s the Law of Disposable Henchmen: The master villain will always kill one of his assistants for making a trivial mistake (and to show everyone how eeeee-vil they are).

So why exactly do the henchmen work with him? Would you go to work for a boss who’s liable to drop you in a pool of sharks if the coffee has too much sugar?

If I were trapped, I’d offer the bosses henchmen a raise, a health plan, and dental covereage if they joined me. They’d switch over to my side in an instant.

6

How else do you quickly demonstrate that your bad guy is EVVVVILLLL without having to bother with character development?

7

  1. Give him a goatee.

  2. Give him an evil-sounding name.

  3. Have him laugh in that villainous way. (But if he isn’t killing henchmen, what will he laugh at?)

8
  1. Give him an English accent!
9

“And here is the penaly for failure . . .”
(turns and shoots some random underling)

Clearly, Evil Leaders need to better understand who is responsible for what within their organizations.

10

I would think that wanting to take over the world would be enough, but otherwise, have him kill a random civilian if his people screw up.

11

Homer: Everyone will know the dog’s evil if we give hime shifty eyes!

12

Seriously, during the Stalin era, failure to achieve a scientific or industrial goal did get people shot or sent to a labor camp. The Soviet A-bomb project was overseen by Beria, the head of the secret police and the gulag system; and he was suspicious that his scientists’ claim that they could duplicate the American A-bomb was just a trick to obtain funding for purely theoretical physics. If for any reason the first test device had failed, Igor Kurchatov, the project head, might well have actually been executed.

13

Evil Captor of the Evil Overlords here. There’s a simple solution to the problem. Have a few of your minions organized into a special Communications Dept. Make sure they have a large, snappy, easily seen logo on their uniforms. Keep them busy writing press releases about what a great guy you are. And when you have occasion to kill someone as an example to the rest, snap off a quick shot at one of those easily identifiable Communications minions. You won’t miss them a bit organizationally, and they’ll have done the job of communicating to the others that it can be deadly to disappoint you.

It’s all a matter of organization.