[jdjtcagle]

Ok I'm going to bed, I want to see what you all come with when I come back, so please don't spam, night...

[Falcon]

*Falcon brings out some spam*
*lights the spam on fire*
*throws it in cagles room*

[Cabbie]

1) Aliens are usually represended with one dimentional personalities comming from a singular cultural background. (etc Klingon's - race of warriors etc) when if you look at Earth you will see a huge diversity of cultures and backgrounds. I'm sure its should be the same with other sentinent beings from other planets

2) The dark gritty industrial feel of most mainstream western sci fi. Yeah true you have space stations, space ships, orbital bases which are naturally metal upon metal structures which is natural for these kinds of setting but it gets kind of old. Good examples of alternative ways to design your ship/station interior could be seen in those Japanese Sci-fi shows where you have a beautiful city inside a spaceship (macross) or gardens or some sort good architectural design eye candy all over the place.


3) Not enough small ship dogfighting if there was, it seem simplistic. Show me some good space fighter moves and such

4) Not enough beautifully designed sci-fi fighter ships. The only mainstream ship that are actually pleasing to (at least my) eye were the Rebel ships of Starwars (X-wing, Mel Falcon) the others were just plain ugly.

[Carl]

Originally posted by Cabbie
1) Aliens are usually represended with dimentional personalities comming from a singular cultural background. (etc Klingon's - race of warriors etc) when if you look at Earth you will see a huge diversity of cultures and backgrounds. I'm sure its should be the same with other sentinent beings from other planets

4) Not enough beautifully designed sci-fi fighter ships. The only mainstream ship that are actually pleasing to (at least my) eye were the Rebel ships of Starwars (X-wing, Mel Falcon) the others were just plain ugly.

1. in Star Trek there is a reason for this. The Star Trek universe is an analogy of earth and all of the cultures on it. if you one of the planets and break it up into different sub-cultures then that analogy is lost. not only that, but things will get over complicated

4. that's just a personal preference. all scifi ships are intended to have some kind of visual appeal. you make it sound like they're trying to make them ugly.

[Dough with Fish]

The fact that all aliens speak English/Basic or whatever you want to call it. I like how FreeSpace did it with the Vasudans, have them talking, and then some kind of translator speaking over it.

Another thing that relates to that is the fact that in most mainstream Sci-Fi, a person can sit down at the controls of a completely alien craft, and start using it right away. Now, come on, am I to believe that a Human can sit down at say, a Cardassian console (which, I assume, is laid out completely different from a Federation one, and in an alien language) and start using it fluently without any trouble. Ummmm, yeah.

[Thorn]

Originally posted by jdjtcagle
You obviously don't share them, Thorn...

No.. I share them.. they just have logical explanations.
Except for the Stargate comment.. they mainly use modern weapons.

[Carl]

Originally posted by Dough with Fish
Another thing that relates to that is the fact that in most mainstream Sci-Fi, a person can sit down at the controls of a completely alien craft, and start using it right away. Now, come on, am I to believe that a Human can sit down at say, a Cardassian console (which, I assume, is laid out completely different from a Federation one, and in an alien language) and start using it fluently without any trouble. Ummmm, yeah.

most people can't even use a different OS on the same machine.

[mrfun]

I hate hate HATE the "evil alien race predicted by prophecy is gonna pWn your ass!!!"  Almost every major sci-fi universe has done this, and with a few exceptions where it has been well done (Battlestar Galactica (the new one), B5, Battletech) it's just plain sick and trivial now.  Even Star Wars succomed to it, it's sad and depressing.  It's as bad as the fantasy "Legions of demons are gonna come through this wierd portal thingy and pWn your ass!", which are all absically just bad Tolkien copies.  In fact, it's the exact same thing, half the time the evil aliens are coming through a some kind of portal.

My 2nd greatest peeve is the excessive focus on tech. Good sci-fi has always been either character driven (B5) or idea/philosophy driven (Heinlen and other classics, startrek.  Well, some of startrek.) Cool toys are nice I guess but look at B5, the best scifi series TV has ever seen, and they almost completely ignore technology.  It's there like a normal part of life, never the focus of attention.

[Tiara]

Originally posted by mrfun
I hate hate HATE the "evil alien race predicted by prophecy is gonna pWn your ass!!!"  Almost every major sci-fi universe has done this, and with a few exceptions where it has been well done (Battlestar Galactica (the new one), B5, Battletech) it's just plain sick and trivial now.  Even Star Wars succomed to it, it's sad and depressing.  It's as bad as the fantasy "Legions of demons are gonna come through this wierd portal thingy and pWn your ass!", which are all absically just bad Tolkien copies.  In fact, it's the exact same thing, half the time the evil aliens are coming through a some kind of portal.

[/b]
You are seriously putting B5 outside of the 'evil doom prophecy'-catagory? Seriously... it has been prophicized for a thousand years by the Valen that there would be an ub3r w4r o' d00m. or the Third Space movie, which is another prime example of this with it's doom dreams about the aliens and some stupid doorway for them to come through.

Star Trek on the other hand had very little of it. the only instnce of which I can think of is when Q introduced Picard to the Borg. And that even doesn't really fit in that description The rest in Trek isn't prophecy based. Just your average warring neighbours.

[Cabbie]

Originally posted by Carl


1. in Star Trek there is a reason for this. The Star Trek universe is an analogy of earth and all of the cultures on it. if you one of the planets and break it up into different sub-cultures then that analogy is lost. not only that, but things will get over complicated

Yes I know that. It's an age old method used not only by sci-fi story tellers but also by fantasy writers to simplify some aspects of the story so to appeal to a broader range of people.  I won't go into detail why mainstream science fiction's "analogy of earth and all its cultures” approach is a pet peeve of mine but the approach really disturbs me.  (Especially when I have an impression that avid sci-fi fans are relatively more intelligent then the general viewing public)

Then again its just entertainment

Maybe in the future a mainstream sci-fi story will be able to put this concept of diverse alien cultures into view more eloquently then shows like Star Trek.

4. that's just a personal preference... you make it sound like they're trying to make them ugly. [/B]

Thus the topic title "Scifi-Pet Peeves"

Like you have just stated "personal preference." To you,  certain mainstream western sci-fi ships have a certain of visual appeal but for me the majority are just aesthetically unappealing . Pls note that  there are a lot of western sci fi designs that I really admire (Freespace ships are one of them)

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Tiara
You are seriously putting B5 outside of the 'evil doom prophecy'-catagory? Seriously... it has been prophicized for a thousand years by the Valen that there would be an ub3r w4r o' d00m. or the Third Space movie, which is another prime example of this with it's doom dreams about the aliens and some stupid doorway for them to come through.

No. Re-read. He said B5 is an example of where it was done well. The shadows turned out to not be anything like what the prophecy claimed they would be.

Originally posted by Tiara
Star Trek on the other hand had very little of it. the only instnce of which I can think of is when Q introduced Picard to the Borg. And that even doesn't really fit in that description The rest in Trek isn't prophecy based. Just your average warring neighbours.

He did say almost every sci-fi series. For once there is a cheesy plot hole that trek hasn't fallen into



My biggest pet peeve. Alien viruses. Bacteria is one thing but viruses spread by infecting their host and hijacking the replication machinery in their cells. An alien virus isn't going to know what the f**k to do with a human cell and as such wouldn't be able to copy itself.

[kasperl]

Well, the alien console being easy to operate is one thing, but the basic concept of a civilian without any flight experience taking the helm of a shuttle without any issues seems a bit, odd.

And off course, lasers going at sub-light speeds are quite odd too.
Singular mindset cultures aren't much either.

[jdjtcagle]

Will Smith flying an alien craft in a matter of  seconds is barbaric...
just thought I would add that in there, don't have time to read everything now...

[Styxx]

Originally posted by jdjtcagle
Will Smith flying an alien craft in a matter of  seconds is barbaric...

But... he had a post it to tell him how the controls worked!

[Dark_4ce]

I've always kinda been bothered by the fact that aliens are always:
1. Evil and out to get us/enslave us/eat us/test on us/kill us/rape us

or

2. Friendly and out to help us/evolve us/protect us/build stuff for us/rape us

I've always wandered why dont they ever have indifferent aliens. Like "oh look, humans... Meh."

Just a thought.

[Ford Prefect]

I think Andromeda handled this the best: The Perseids made contact with the human race in order to invite us into the Systems Commonwealth, but after our period of adjustment, we ended up taking a leading role in the government and in the Argosy, even though the empire had been around for several thousand years. It's more plausible because nothing is written in stone; like society in real life, the balance of power will always be a dynamic factor.

[ionia23]

Time Travel - The future is never what it used to be.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Falcon for someone who talks about others spamming all the time you don't half post enough yourself.

I've seen a few threads where you've just posted that everyone else is spamming. See the irony here?
[/color]

[ZylonBane]

#1. Human beings, despite being dumber, weaker, softer, and less technologically advanced than most alien races they encounter, someone always manage to outperform the more advanced races and Save The Day. Because, y'know, we're just so darn special.

#2. Any hideous bodily deformation (rapid aging, devolving into a lizard, etc), can be perfectly reversed.

#3. The twin is always evil.

#4. You can tell when you're time-travelling by watching the clocks.

#5. Significant urban renovation is strictly forbidden wherever someone is time-traveling into the future. Moving mannequins requires a special permit.

#6. The bigger the unstoppable doomsday machine, the easier it is to hit its weak spot.

#7. Despite the infinite vastness of space, every spacefaring race has nonetheless agreed on which way is "up".

#8. Genetic clones posesses all the knowledge of their originals.

#9. In the event of enemy attack, ship's system will fail in the following order: weapons control, helm control, shields, life support, communications, coffee maker.

#10. Godlike super-intelligent beings will have the emotional maturity of a 12-year-old.

#11. Automatic doors can tell if an approaching lifeform is going to walk through them, or just past them.

[jdjtcagle]

There are 11 more good examples!