#science fiction Star Trek Discovery Starship Troopers

[swordsandrayguns]

Star Trek Discovery And Starship Trooper Thoughts...

Okay, two things went down this week in my world of science fiction. One, I drove a whole bunch and ended up listening to audiobooks of Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky and Starship Troopers. I have a couple thoughts on Starship Troopers, observations really. I have read both before (more than once) but not in a while. Also, the new trailer for season three of Star Trek Discovery hit. Let’s tackle that first: so season three of Star Trek Discovery is Gene Rodenberry’s Andromeda? Please, please, please Universal Lords of Irony: let Kevin Sorbo make a guest appearance. At least give me a character named Dylan Hunt (how many Roddenberry projects had characters named Dylan Hunt? At least one of’em... maybe two.)

So, Starship Troopers. It is a great book with lots of debate over just what the Hell point Heinlein was trying to make. I am not going to pretend to know his motives or even give you my interpretation of the “point” of the book. Read it your damn self and make up your mind. READ IT; don’t rely on the movie. The movie is fun, but there are many, many key differences. Like the Mobile Infantry is NOT integrated in the book, although the Navy is. Dizzy Flores is a man (and a minor character) in the book. The bugs are smaller with more technology in the book, too. And are the Skinnies even in the movie? I don’t think so.

When you read the book (or listen to the unabridged audiobook) there a few things I want you to think about, though. Here they are:

The main character, Juan “Johnny” Rico, is a South American spoiled rich kid who, by the way, remains a trust fund baby at the end of the book. 

Many, many characters die and not just in combat.

Despite the fact this future utopia scoffs at the rampant crime of the 20th century Johnny Rico has experience with two violent crimes on Earth. One he is the victim of and another, a horrific crime in any age, is committed by a member of his training camp. This does not count the crimes under the military code of justice that occur during the course of the novel.

Although there is much discussion about how one acquires a franchise, citizenship and the right to vote, there is actually very little discussed about how the government operates and vote matters are the subject of elections. It is not even explained who authorized the forces of Earth to actually go to war (although why Earth goes to war seems to be made clear) even though there is discussion of the fact there is conflict even before there is officially war declared.

Johnny Rico speaks of the Mobile Infantry, and throws facts around about the independence of the Mobile Infantry such as they have the lowest percentage of officers in any army in history. He also speaks as if they are the only military force of his time other than the Navy. This is demonstrably not true, though. It is mentioned, or at least implied, the Navy has some sort of ground forces (when he speaks of how the Navy thinks it could win wars on their own and the Mobile Infantry is not necessary). There are also the K9 units and Combat Engineers, neither part of the Mobile Infantry, specifically mentioned in action. Also, a huge amount of the support roles for the Mobile Infantry (as illustrated on the planet Sanctuary) are filled by civilians. 

Johnny Rico is extremely proud of how elite the Mobile Infantry are... after all, less than 10% of his boot camp graduate to become Mobile Infantry and the rest are drummed out or quit. However, it must be remembered of the approximately two dozen military service options he was given the Mobile Infantry was his last option yet the only thing he was qualified to do. He did not, for example, qualify for a single Navy job. 

Finally, many people point out (and make a big deal about the fact) in this book only veterans can become voting citizens. This is technically true, but it is mentioned multiple times there are many, many ways a volunteer can serve because nobody is turned down. A job is found for every volunteer, which argues against that whole Mobile Infantry do it all themselves attitude Rico has. It also means most voting citizens are not combat veterans are even necessarily  “military men.” This is even specifically discussed at one point in one of Rico’s political science classes.

Just a few things to think about...

[orchestrators]

Stepping off the Edge

Hi there! My name is Lily and I am a huge fan of all things Sci-Fi. In particular I am more than obsessed with space fiction such as Star Trek, Mass Effect, and even Star Wars (even though that does push more towards science fantasy and the franchise has been in creative turmoil lately). The thing that really grabs me about this kind of Sci-Fi is the aspect of living on a ship, going on adventures, and discovering strange or alien things in the universe. Many have worked this concept before, Star Trek alone has done it to death as evident in the most recent season of Discovery. 

A little about me before we get into the good stuff. I am a 24 year old graduate of Art and Design, I live in Ireland, and work full time as a Chef. I love cooking, particularly making breakfast and dinner for my partner. If you were to ask me what my favourite TV show is I will most likely always say Power Rangers, and if I don't say Power rangers, then you better ask “Who are you and what the hell did you do with Lily?”, because they probably body snatched me. After I left college I felt drained in a way that my creative well seemed to have completely dried up. My dream was to be a concept artist, ever since I saw the concept works of weta workshops, or Peter Jackson's pre production concepts for King Kong back in the early thousands that was the dream.

At least that's what it was before college. Growing up I thought I was a great artist, but then going to study art showed me that there is always a bigger fish. I remember seeing monster designs for Doom and the model makers for Star Trek: The Next generation make work that I adored, and that's what made me want to be an artist. I was always making concept work, creating narratives and characters that reflected my real life experiences and issues I have faced in my life. But as I said, after college this all fell away, but in the last year or so that has all changed for me. 

So why am I telling you all this, well it’s because it is sort of hugely important to me. For me Science Fiction has brought me to dystopian futures, to different theoretical cultures, and even to the questions of life and our place in the universe. All of these are of huge interest to me, and a couple of years ago I began to write up my own notes and ideas for a fictional story that explores these themes. Writing is difficult, and writing Sci-Fi even more so, there is a lot of research, conflicting ideas, and it is very easy to create loopholes and plot inconsistencies when it comes to McGuffin technologies.

Writing Sci-Fi is a lot like writing up a fantasy Magic System, both need defined rules for what can or can't be done. If this is done wrong, people feeling cheated when reading a story. Anyway I am actually digressing. I guess what I want to say is that I have a great interest in these things, and I have been writing about them. Mostly short stories and snippets here and there. What I want to do this year is finally take those concepts, art, writing, all of it, and give it a place out there for people to see. My ways of doing this are vast, and I couldn't set my mind on just one. It is now growing to be a huge portfolio of work and I am excited to say that I am going to start releasing it now. 

So here’s the idea: every now and again I will be uploading creative content about my universe to this blog. Chapters, sketches, scenes and even entire short stories will be put here for you guys to read, give feedback on, and even take part in the creative process. This will be a completely free to consume Sci-Fi literary blog. No subscription, no purchasing of books, or anything like that. Maybe one day i will write a book, but I don't feel my abilities with the keyboard are to that level yet. In that way I don't feel its right to traditionally publish or even independently publish a novel if I don't think it's good enough. So my work will live here.

There you go, that's the plan, so I hope it works out that people will come to read the work, see the characters and their relationships, and enjoy it all. A friend mentioned to me to set up a patreon for those who would like to see and take part in the creative process more. Again I don't feel like what I am doing is worth any money so I wont be doing that just now. So you have read my influences, heard a little about my work, and read a bit about my ideas. This is an introduction to my new, fully realized Science Fiction universe.

Welcome to “Orchestrators of the Universe”. A blog for fans of Space Sci-Fi to come and take part in what I hope to be a wholly original narrative. I will do my best to upload regularly, and make shorts and chapters what you guys will like. This is our universe, and we are the Orchestrators. So I hope to see you all soon, when the first piece of my latest short story is uploaded. If you would like to follow me on other platforms, I have a personal instagram and twitter.

So come along and say hi @justlilytbh and let's talk space sometime. Ide love to hear about what Sci-Fi you love. Be it Starship Troopers or Battlestar Galactica, I am all ears! Thanks for coming to read this introductory post, and I hope you enjoy “Orchestrators of the Universe”.

[mecharazzmatazzbean]

this is what science fiction is to me. there’s a time and a place for the hope and anxiety. there’s a time and a place for issac azimov’s calculated glimpses into the future, for star trek to envision a better tomorrow, for heinlein’s grim tidings and call to militarism in starship troopers, and the subversion thereof in that story’s film adaptation. there’s a time and a place for science fiction to be about tomorrow.

no living thing experiences that tomorrow. by the time it meanders to where we are, it is the present. each of us, as living things, regardless of being mired in the past, or eager or anxious for what is to come, we all act and live, love and lose, are born, eat, sleep, give birth, and die in the present. by the network of threads we weave, the actions which echo across the stony halls of history, roughly aligned into a succession by cause and effect, and braided by the machinations of the unceasing mind into a narrative, the gaps filled in with song, and paint, and cuisine, we are able to envision the coming days, but never to hold them.

when i think of the golden record, i am overcome with emotion. i feel deep love for life, for the living, as well as for the dead that permit our life, by the sickly-sweet rot of their bodies, by the inheritance of their lives’ works, by the love they in turn felt for life itself. alongside this boundless love is another feeling that i can not name. i am lucky enough to be familiar with love, that i can pick it out and identify it. this melancholy companion of love, this amāns amōris, “lover of love”, however, a name for it eludes me.

perhaps it is the fear of death. or along such a path, the acceptance of it. life is, after all, a song. it is defined not only by its melody and harmony, but by its genesis and its close. knowing that the purpose of such an object is to outlast, to vainly attempt to sate that oh-so-human urge to conquer the reaper, to, in poetic, adorable, awe-inspiring futility claw, and scratch, and snarl at the coming tide. but i feel this sensation when i think back on loves lost, as well. this is a humor that lives as much in the past as it does in the future.

so then, perhaps, it is regret. regret is, in equal measure, a dread and a sorrow, folded in upon themselves, evoking jörmungandr, the world-eater, the consumer of all, not sparing itself. i can conjure up amāns amōris by picturing the face of someone i have hurt. someone whose unique visage was, at one time, a great comfort to me, but by my own hand has become a reminder of my folly. someone to whom i wish to apologize, but fear that i will never have the opportunity to, or rather, that i will never grant myself the chance, for fear of their response. this golden record is inscribed with something much the same, i feel.

it catalogues the joys of life, it contains the discovery of love, the persistence of love, but by that very act itself becomes a tombstone upon love’s grave, a reminder of the fleeting souls of such joys. there is the fear that this disc will elude cognition. as it is now, it is understood, but there will come a time when this plate is etched with purposeless grooves and adorned with timeless runes, bearing the name of a bygone coalition, its warm greetings left to fall upon deaf ears, and its song hidden away behind an impenetrable veil of time-weathered arcane rituals.

but must a story be understood to be loved? to have meaning? just as i may bake bread, as countless ancestors have, just as i may tear that bread and pass the staff of life to my brother, as countless ancestors have, across bygone empires, across countless languages, around the globe, i can see the unity. my tools, my bread, they are of different make, of different material, than my forebears, but the ritual, that time-honored glamour, it binds us together. as surely as our pre-human ancestors struck percussion out of their hand-made instruments, we feel the same love for the music.

in caves around the world, homes for people before us, for animals and plants before, while, and since, there exist narratives. the hunt, the people, the song and the dance, they are immortalized, for what little that word is worth. we have no ear for their songs, no taste for their food, no feel of their touch, but they are nevertheless immutable. those icons of being persist as the threads that bind parent to child, bind neighbors to community, and bind lovers to love itself. these, i now see, are the sturdy heartstrings that bind dear, sweet amāns amōris to love.

given the infinite scope of time, i have very little doubt that at some far-flung point, our vessel, our bearer of our prized, humanity-laden passenger, bereft of classical life, but transfused with the spirit of the beings of the earth, will be found by some others. and what will matter most will not be that our meaning is transmitted, but that these others will find meaning in it. this feeling is not loss, it is not love, it is the feeling of bravery, of the human spirit. it is indomitable and it is endless. life is built from building blocks of love.

a so-called mindless beast loves the feeling of blood running down its throat. its prey loves rearing children. the blades of grass that creature eats, they each love the caress of rays of sunlight. in a sense, each photon the sun releases loves its destination, is drawn to it. and alongside this love is, and will always be amāns amōris, stalwart and brave, resilient and utterly unconquerable.

sometimes i think about the golden record and i want to cry

[captainsbabysitter-blog]

Eleven Questions Tag Game

Rules

1. Always post these rules

2. Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you

3. Write 11 questions of your own

4. Tag 11 people

Tagged by @mccoymostly

1. What’s your absolute favorite scene from any film?

Oh damn... Start off with a harder one, why dontcha? Okay, stay with me because I’m gonna have to explain this. The scene in Van Helsing when the giant vampire egg sacks are introduced and here’s why: the first time I watched this movie, I was the only one who hadn’t seen it. I stared at the screen for a moment, glanced around the room and declared, “Jesus, their vaginas must be like slip and slides!”

The movie was paused so we could clean up all the soda that had sprayed out of peoples’ mouths. It was a proud moment and I smile every time I see that scene because of it.

2. What’s the most terrible book you’ve ever read?

Okay, but worst I’ve read all the way through or worst that I’ve TRIED to read and just... Couldn’t? Worst I’ve ever read all the way through is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I fucking hate this book with a special hatred usually reserved for people who have personally wronged me or killed my puppy or something. Worst I tried to read and just couldn’t finish was Starship Troopers. I just could not get into it.

3. Star Trek NoTP, and why?

I actually don’t really have one? I have pairings that I REALLY don’t understand (Bones/Chekov???), but there aren’t really any pairings that give me that visceral NoTP vibe.

4. The four most badass humans to ever walk the earth? If you’re feeling it, I’d love to hear your justification. ;)

Hm... Most badass...

Ada Lovelace has always been a personal hero of mine. I love ladies. I love math. I ESPECIALLY love ladies who do math. Particularly in a time where it was considered improper for such things.

Amelia Earhart. It’s cliche, but there was just SO MUCH about her that I love. She ticks off most of my deep love boxes. The creation of the 99′s in an attempt to encourage more female aviators is high up on that list.

Now for someone a little less famous. My paternal grandmother. Her first husband and father of my oldest uncle was apparently a right bastard and used to hit her. Well shortly after my uncle was born, she decided she had quite enough of that, thank you very much and went upside his head with a cast iron frying pan. She then took my uncle, left him, and then married my grandfather a few years later. Role model material right there.

Lastly, my mother. She went through a special level of hell living with my father who, while not physically abusive was definitely manipulative and emotionally/psychologically abusive during the years they were together. She has been a never-ending fountain of acceptance and love for me, my sister, and our friends. There’s a reason all the friends of mine that meet her usually call her Robyn-mommy.

5. The fictional character you identify most with, and why?

Leonard McCoy, hands down. My boyfriend and I constantly joke that he and I are the same person, but it’s only partially a joke. And I realize it more and more with little things here and there. Obsessively look after my friends and family while frequently neglecting my own care? Check. Snarky, sarcastic, sometimes abrasive exterior used to express fondness? Check. I could literally spend hours and hours dissecting this (because I have), but I’ll just leave it there for now.

6. If you could hang out with one person for a day, living or dead, who would you pick, and why?

Another hard one. Hm. I’d want to see what Jesus was really like, honestly. I feel like we’d jive really well and I’d just like to hear his thoughts on things directly from him without a middle man.

7. What character, from any source, do you think gives the best kisses, and why?

Hm... Probably wishful thinking, but I imagine Aragorn. He just seems like he’d have the right balance of gentle passion meets rough possession. Like... He’d grip your bicep to the point where you feel like there will be imprints of his fingers with one hand and the other would cup the back of your head or your cheek so tenderly you might cry and his lips would be that midpoint between chapped and moist that’s just... UGH okay I may have thought of this a lot.

8. Who is your favorite artist (any medium; this can be interpreted broadly), and why?

Da Vinci. I can’t even describe to you the amount of time I’ve spent over the years reading about his work, and I just LOVE all the drawings of his inventions no matter how farfetched and impossible they are. Just the fact that someone dared to dream them up makes me giddy.

9. What’s your favorite theoretical crossover? In other words, what characters, from different fandoms, would you like to see interact, or who would you like to see thrown into a different universe? I hope this question makes sense, guys.

I’m honestly not big on crossovers anymore. Back in the day, my friends and I used to RP and it was just... A HUGE crossover mishmash of anything and everything we were into at that particular moment crammed into a single universe we created, but now I’m just... Meh.

10. Who is your favorite iconic scientist, and which of their contributions do you find most significant?

Bill Nye. Hands down. His contribution was instilling in me a lifelong love of science and learning that has carried on as a recurring theme through my entire life.

11. If you could remake any movie, in any way you want, what movie would you pick, and what would you change?

Ooooooh... I would remake the Dragons of Autumn Twilight movie. And I would change... Everything except the voice actors they chose. The voices? Flawless. The animation? I wanted to cry. I’d aim for either a live action movie, or I’d remake it so the whole thing is in a hand drawn animation style instead of the weird as fuck thing they did where the draconians/dragons/other baddies were CGI, but literally EVERYTHING ELSE was hand drawn???

Bonus, because Anna lives to break rules

If you could make any contribution to any field (cure any illness, make any discovery, invent any technology, write any book or create any art, be remembered for anything), what would it be, and why?

I would solve the problem of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and other trash vortexes like it throughout the oceans. I have an insane love of the ocean and everything in it, and so the fact that humans created this giant mass of floating debris that’s hurting a ton of sea life, but we can’t adequately remove it all because of how small the pieces are/the sheer volume of the masses upsets me more than I can really describe.

Tia’s Eleven Questions:

If you could have one pet without being concerned about the size of the animal, what would you want?

If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

What’s a movie you feel is underrated by the public at large?

Is there a TV show you feel shaped your childhood? What was it?

What your favorite item you own and what makes it special?

What’s one vice you have that you know you indulge in more than you should?

Worst movie you’ve ever seen? Why did you hate it?

Favorite childhood memory?

What animal do you feel best represents who you are? Bonus points for why.

What makes you feel accomplished?

What’s on your bucket list for this year?

Tagging: @gracieminabox @mccoymostly @thevalesofanduin @ilovetinycreatures @theanishimori @imoutofmyvulcanmind @outside-the-government and anyone else who wants to partake in my craziness!

[welcometoyouredoom]

Here then is my current provisional list, from most to least realistic, where 10 is the real world, and 0 is total cartoon nonsense, with especially emphasis on spaceships and space opera:

10. The real world. Science is explained, no handwavium. Also, Non-Fiction. As TV Tropes puts it: “The Apollo Program, World War II, and Woodstock fall in this class.”

9.6. to 9.9 Technothrillers and Futurology. Technothrillers take place only a few years in the future, with only a few plausible near future tech projections. This category overlaps with Futurology which includes, as explained in TV Tropes “stories which function almost like a prediction of the future, extrapolating from current technology but do not assume or invent any important new technologies or discoveries.”  Quite likely some of the more rigorously and scientifically realistic of the ultra hard space exploration categories of the following category actually go here.

8.6.to 9.5 Ultra Hard Science – only extrapolation from known laws of physics. In TV Tropes this is called Speculative Science. In contrast to the previous categories, the science is “genuine speculative science or engineering, and the goal of the author to make as few errors with respect to known fact as possible.” Interplanetary vessels have milligee thrust. Rockets have to choose between high thrust low isp, or high isp low thrust, you can’t have both. Adherence to thermodynamics, real science. No torchships. Preferably no aliens, if there are, they are limited to the same physics we are, and also must justify in terms of Great Silence (Fermi Paradox). Greg Egan, Kim Stanly Robinson Mars Trilogy, Arthur C Clarke 2001, Asimov The Gods Themselves, GURPS Transhuman Space, Andy Weir’s The Martian, the first two books in Robert L. Forward’s Rocheworld series and Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress fall in this class. 9.5 is the most realistic, with only plausible near future tech projections.  For some excellent examples on Ultra Hard SF ships in fact and fiction, with authentic rocket science, see Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rockets website, a resource that I simply cannot recommend highly enough.  For tabletop spaceship combat game, see Ken Burnside’s Attack Vector: Tactical (although this also has less realistic FTL as a background explanation for why the battles are not in our solar system). John Lumpkin’s Human Reach series features similarily authentic spaceships, although the setting includes wormholes which pertain to one or two realism grades down.

7.6.to 8.5. Very Hard Science – extrapolation from laws of physics, with minimum handwavium for story purposes. Basic torchships (high thrust high isp), interplanetary vessels average around 0.3 gee thrust or less. Adherence as much as possible to thermodynamics and real science. Interstellar, non-relativistic travel. In TV Tropes this is called “One Small Fib”, “stories that include only a single counterfactual device (often FTL Travel), but for which the device is not a major element of the plot.” Some alien or posthuman handwavium / unobtanium allowed. Big Dumb Object without handwavium. Preferably have an explanation for Great Silence (Fermi Paradox). Arthur C Clarke Rama novels, Gregory Benford, Bruce Stirling Schizmatrix, Stephen Baxter. Many Hal Clement novels (e.g. Mission Of Gravity, Close to Critical) and Freefall belong here.

6.6 to 7.5. Hard Science – extrapolition from laws of physics, plus some handwavium for storytelling purposes. In TV Tropes this is called “One Big Lie”. “Authors invent one, or, at most, a very few, counterfactual physical laws and writes a story that explores the implications of these principles.” Tech otherwise consistent and explained. Interplanetary vessels average around 1 gee. Relativistic travel. May have reactionless drive but must be realistic, say exotic matter or singularity or other unusual tech. FTL only if plausibly explained, otherwise relativistic travel. Includes thermodynamics, rocket science, etc. Aliens with realistic-seeming biology, non-humanoid only. Token explanation of Great Silence (Fermi Paradox). Most works in Alan Dean Foster’s Humanx Commonwealth series, the Ad Astra board games and Robert A. Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold fall in this category, as do many of Vernor Vinge’s books. Also Haldeman Forever War, Niven Mote in God’s Eye, Greg Bear various stories, Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space/Galactic North Universe, Posthuman Studios Eclipse Phase (everything else very hard, say 9 out of 10, but “sleeving” consciousness with its associated cartesian ghost in the machine implications, also alien wormholes that are pure unexplainedium). John C. Wright’s The Golden Age probably would go here as well (say 6.7)

5.6.to 6.5. Firm Science – with handwavium and unobtanium, but these reasonably explained in the context of the setting. Torchships rather than reactionless drive, but absurd acceleration given energy allowance (fudging the figures). Token thermodynamics only. FTL with reasonably plausible explanation. Ignores Fermi Paradox. Niven’s Known Universe, Peter Hamilton, James Corey’s The Expanse, a lot of space opera in general.

4.6.to 5.5 Physics Plus (to use the TV Tropes moniker). “Stories in this class once again have multiple forms of Applied Phlebotinum, but in contrast to the prior class, the author aims to justify these creations with real and invented natural laws — and these creations and others from the same laws will turn up again and again in new contexts.” Some Science. Reactionless drive ships easily pull dozens or hundreds of gees. Doesn’t explain why relativistic reactionless drive ships aren’t used as doomsday devices to annihilate whole planets, or as perpetual motion free energy devices. Differs from Token Science in that there is still some rocket science. Heinlein Citizen of the Galaxy, Starship Troopers, Brin Uplift universe, Iain M Banks Cultureverse, Schlock Mercenary, David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, David Brin’s Uplift series, and Battlestar Galactica (2003) fall in this class.

3.6.to 4.5 Token Science. Some real science, but only because this is “science fiction”; the science is there only for storytelling purposes rather than realism. For the most part handwavium and unobtanium with little or no explanation. Ignores thermodynamics (no radiator fins). Reactionless drive, agrav, forcefields, tractor beams, stealth, some aliens look like humans, others very different. FTL with arbitrary explanation.  Consistency in worldbuilding, in contrast to the Pure Technobabble category.  Frank Herbert’s Dune, Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos, Firefly/Serenity, maybe Eve on line.  Babylon 5 may belong here, although humanoid aliens belong to the next category down, and conversely fighters use vector thrust and larger ships generate artificial gravity by centrifugal spin, which put them in at least the 6 or 7 out of 10 category.

2.6 to 3.5. Technobabble and Handwavium. Differs from Science Fiction In Name Only in that at least there is some attempt, no matter how poor, at a rational explanation. Or in otherwords, to quote TV Tropes: “Phlebotinum is dealt with in a fairly consistent fashion despite its lack of correspondence with reality and, in-world, is considered to lie within the realm of scientific inquiry.” So for example the Enterprise cannot land on a planet, showing that large ships are outer space only. Even so, this is still full of sillytech and inconsistent worldbuilding. Because of handwavium and phlebotinum, anything can be explained. You can have ST style matter transportation because it is assumed all the technical problems were solved, most aliens are humanoid, many identical in appearance to H. sapiens, human and aliens can interbreed, and humans live in similar environments can eat same food etc, because it is assumed there were humanoid progenitors. At the same time, there is serious worldbuilding incompatabilities e.g. if you have ST matter teleportation otherwise you could easily drop a nuke in an enemies lap, have immortality, limitless clones, etc. But it is never explained why this never happens. Star Trek is the classic example, but also included here is E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Warhammer 40k, the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (now called “legends” and considered non-canon) which at least make some attempt at explanation over the totally unrealistic canonical movies, Cowboy Bebop, and StarCraft.

1.6 to 2.5 Artistic License. Although unambiguously considered to be “Science Fiction”, there is no actual science to be found. Rather, the story follows what looks good artistically from our contemporary early 21st century perspective. Ships wheel and bank in a vacuum, blaster bolts move slower than tracer rounds. Battles directly mapped from WW II naval engagements. Lantern-jawed heroes and busty maidens, or scary monsters, or both. More realistic than comic book superheros only in that it’s assumed you need a spaceship to travel through space, and there is an attempt at a consistent plot. Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr Who, Red Dwarf, Farscape, Space Battleship Yamoto. Some Star Trek movies, e.g. Star Trek out of Darkness has worldbuilding inconsistencies  that are if anything even worse, e.g. Transwarp allows teleporting across interstellar distances, but it is never explained why people still use spaceships

0.1. to 1.5 Comic books. Only token attempts at explanations – Marvel and DC superheros, e.g. superpowers because from a planet with a red sun, Genetic mutation, or Peter Parker bitten by a radioactive spider. Sometimes not only that, so that, to quote TV Tropes: “Green Rocks gain New Powers as the Plot Demands”. The DC and Marvel superhero universes belong here, along with Futurama, manga and anime like Dragonball Z and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and humorous aspects of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

0. Cartoons that are not meant to make sense, e.g. Marvin the Martian

[trendingnewsb]

5 Bizarrely Specific Things Every Sci-Fi Movie Does

Anything is possible in science fiction! You can explore the future, delve into the past, chronicle alien civilizations, and probe the endless possibilities of time and space. The genre is limited by nothing but human imagination. Unfortunately, human imagination seems like it was depleted sometime in the 1970s, because no matter what obscure corner of the galaxy you warp to, some things never change. Like how …

5

The Only Design Philosophy In The Future Is “More Angles!”

Coming up with a new sci-fi aesthetic is tough. Luckily, there’s a shortcut that does about 80 percent of the work: Add some unnecessary angles! Tilt half of it, chop off a corner — it doesn’t matter how you make those angles happen, or what they might possibly be good for. Everything in the future has at least seven unnecessary zigzags.

Universal TelevisionThis isnt paper; this is space paper. You can tell because they cut the corners off, as is space custom.

Most cars in modern sci-fi movies are nothing but contemporary designs with all the curves replaced by straight lines. Here’s one from the original Total Recall that is so much from the future that you might almost say it looks stupid and ridiculous.

TriStar Pictures“WAOW, LOOK AT DAT IDIOT CAHHH. DIS IS A VERY DUMB FUTAH.”

The 2017 Ghost In The Shell remake took the same approach, and wound up with a “futuristic car” that more resembles a 1983 Datsun.

Paramount PicturesAnd made less at the box office than a 1983 Datsun is worth.

After 2025, all windows are uselessly weird trapezoids. Here’s what the poor bastards in Empire Strikes Back have to look through when they want to see outer space:

LucasfilmBetter check your blind spot. All 26 of them.

Jupiter Ascending also knows that good science fiction is all about inconvenient angles and unnecessary corners.

Warner Bros. PicturesIt is the year 2060. Window manufacturers have gone mad, and the whole world suffers.

Here’s a cockpit from Prometheus, apparently designed by a drunken spider:

20th Century FoxThe script was written the same way.

In the future, we will invent six brand-new, never-before-seen angles, and we will use them everywhere. From the landscaping in Star Trek …

Paramount Pictures

… to the hallways in Star Wars …

Lucasfilm

… to the maniacally uncomfortable tables in Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Marvel Studios

It’s not clear if this is all some fashion trend or the side effect of cosmic radiation on the human brain. All we know is that no one in the future can stack anything, and it takes 15 hours to measure a room for carpet.

4

All Aliens Eat Bugs

Here on Earth, we eat a wide variety of food. In fact, whole industries have been built around preparing, packaging, marketing, and ultimately ingesting food. Seriously, if you haven’t heard of food, you should Google it. People go nuts for this stuff. But in science fiction, aliens eat insects, grubs, or worms. That’s it. Aliens might have similar dinnerware and mealtime rituals, but they almost always eat swarming plates of live bugs. Take, for instance, the Klingons. They’re a proud warrior race that should probably be eating seared Gorn ribeye for every meal, but instead they sit down to bowls of worms, like a bunch of chickens. They gussy them up like they’re some kind of delicacy called Gagh, but look at it. It’s worms.

CBS TelevisionThe Klingons might be brave warriors, but they eat like gullible Earth catfish. TuHmoH!

In Babylon 5, a series for nerds who think Star Trek is too approachable, everyone’s favorite food is Spoo. It’s a bunch of cubed worms, and the best way to eat it is when it’s very old. If you’d like to read more about Spoo, please find the angriest comment below describing how we obviously didn’t do our research, or we would know only the Centauri prefer their Spoo to be aged.

Warner Bros. TelevisionAnd now try new Spoo: Chocolate Starlight!

If you’re from outer space, all sustenance comes from slimy, wriggling worms. Here on our planet, we chop and saute and burrito, but aliens find that ridiculous. Here is the alien food from the Fallout series: a sloppy-ass worm on a metal tray.

Bethesda SoftworksYou couldn’t slice that thing over a salad?

In Titan A.E., the chef, who is himself a beetle monster, is inexplicably proud to offer up Akrennian Beetle Sashimi, which is just a writhing trough of insect larva. That’s like going to a human buffet and finding it filled with screaming baby monkeys. In other words, tantalizing and delicious.

20th Century Fox“No offense, chef, but … are these, like, your kids?”

3

Everything In The Future Is Asian (Except The Cast)

If there’s a single unifying element in modern science fiction, it’s this: Asian stuff is sick as hell. From the 1980s on, we pretty much decided that any sci-fi future looks like somebody opened a Radio Shack and a Benihana in the same space. In every dork’s favorite failed show, Firefly, they live in a future so Asian-influenced that people curse in fluent Mandarin, and yet none of them seem to know any Chinese people.

In Blade Runner, the entirety of Los Angeles is a grimy, rain-drenched Little Tokyo. This makes a bit more sense than LA becoming a grimy, rain-drenched El Salvador, but it still has a lot of pagodas and geisha for a multicultural cyber metropolis.

Warner Bros. PicturesNothing says “Future LA” like seventh-century Japan?

And when they rebooted Total Recall to be less fun and more terrible, they decided that “the future” meant an Asian-style parasol in the hand of every extra.

Columbia Pictures“I don’t even think it’s raining.” — Colin Farrell

Even Demolition Man, a movie so stupid it imagined Pizza Hut and Taco Bell would be the food of the future (when it will clearly be Carl’s Jr. and Kenny Rogers Roasters), made sure that even after all culture has been homogenized, kimonos will hang on.

Warner Bros. PicturesAn outfit that says, “My anime pillow wasn’t as durable as I was promised,” and a haircut that says, “Let me speak to your manager.”

All of this would barely be worth mentioning, except that none of these series have an Asian person as anything but an extra, for the most part. It’s as if every sci-fi universe shares a common history wherein all the important Asians were wiped out and the architects of their genocide said, “Oooh, but let’s keep their furniture and robes!”

2

Artificial Humans Always Involve Some Kind Of Milky Liquid

If you see an android in a sci-fi movie, then it’s almost guaranteed that sucker is somehow dependent on white goo. It’s as if robot scientists said, “Look, we can build you a perfect replica of a person, but it only works if we fill it with satin finish house paint.”

In Westworld, the process of creating a host involves submerging an almost-complete body — full skeleton, developed muscles — into a vat of thick milky stuff. The production crew calls it “the skin dip,” and it’s a protein liquid that builds all of the body’s remaining tissues using sci-fi magic.

HBO“BEHOLD AND TREMBLE AT THE HORROR MILK HAS CREATED.” — The National Dairy Council

They probably got that from the original Ghost In The Shell (seen again in the live-action remake), wherein the final stage of the Major’s birth involves dipping her body into a vat of white liquid. Again, a mechanical skeleton monster goes in, and a sexy, sexy human comes out.

Paramount Pictures“Warning: Your sex robot will ship covered in a flaky layer of dried goo. And it won’t be the first time, amirite?” — Shell Instruction Manual

The Alien franchise also features human replicants and white goo. It’s just that this goo squirts out of them like a terrible milk truck accident any time they get hurt. We first saw it 1979, when Ash was torn apart in Alien.

20th Century FoxHe took it pretty well.

We saw it again in 1986, when Lance Henriksen got himself gutted in Aliens, and it happened more recently in 2017’s Alien: Covenant. Basically, any time someone makes a movie about human-like robots is a great time to be a white fluid salesman.

1

In The Future, There Will Be One Font To Rule Them All

Any fully realized sci-fi world contains many different societies, nations, and peoples. This should mean a huge variety in graphic design and typography, but apparently there will be a moment in our future when we all come together and decide that we need only one font: Eurostile.

If the future needs to say something, it does so in Eurostile. The font was originally created by an Italian designer in 1962, and it’s all sci-fi movies have needed since. Here are but a few of the universes which Eurostile has taken over, as well as a fun rhyme you can use to remember them all.

PixarIt’s the only font to survive the apocalypse of Wall-E …

Universal Pictures… and its used to describe Jaegers as they battle kaiju near Bali.

TriStar PicturesIt’s the default web font in Johnny Mnemonic‘s time …

TriStar Pictures�� and it beat out Jokerman and Wingdings to be the font of District 9.

Universal PicturesIt’s used on the boats docked at Jurassic World …

Orion Pictures… and you can see it in RoboCop, right behind this mean girl.

TriStar PicturesYou may not remember Elysium, but it too used that font …

TriStar Pictures… and so did Total Recall, on every subway and restaurant.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Sony Pictures ClassicsThe Lego Movie used it, as well as Moon …

Walt Disney Pictures… Eurostile even showed up in the Big Hero 6 cartoon.

Universal PicturesIn Back To The Future, it made energy from waste …

20th Century Fox… and you can spot it in Alien 3, if you have no fucking taste.

PixarYou’ll spot Eurostile in The Incredibles if you have a keen eye …

Warner Bros. Pictures… and in Edge Of Tomorrow, as you watch Tom Cruise die.

TriStar PicturesStarship Troopers used it too. Would you like to know more?

CBS TelevisionThen watch Star Trek: Discovery, you font-hungry whore!

Nathan Kamal lives in Oregon, where he writes. He co-founded Asymmetry Fiction for all your fiction needs.

For more poetry like that, check out Even Superheroes Have Bad Days.

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