Little things that get to you in terms of beleivability

[Zixinus]

Which comes to my accuracy thing: are they telling me that they can make an artificial moon but lack the funds and technology to make a weapon that has advanced enough optics to allow stormtroopers fire accurately in closed environments? The whole Death Star escape should have ended short the moment fire was opened up on Luke and co.
And this is typical of almost EVERY sci-fi, not just star wars.
EDIT: OF course, it is due to a difference in focus: showing your beloved characters as snipers is not a nice thing, due to how people dislike snipers.

[Stark]

Don't be silly. It's BORING and writers want a fight that's visually interesting. Ford wants less of a divide between 'shoot tiny holes in people and not penetrate packing crates' and 'omg pwn cannon of 0.99c slugs'. High-power scifi should be about high power, not wanker superships while soldiers are armed with 20th century guns.

[Darth Wong]

Another pet peeve: the widespread (almost universal) assumption that modern technology is just as pitiful and primitive to a 25th century person as 15th century technology would be to us. It assumes a linear technological progression curve with no limit. Realistically, one should expect more of a horizontal asymptote than an indefinite linear curve. For any given technology, you start fast and then slow down as you approach a plateau, because there are limits to what can be done. Those limits are imposed by the universe, not by our own ignorance.

Many sci-fi fans will even attempt to argue that this is seriously true. But what makes them think that? Let's take optical telescopes for example: we are pretty much at the limits of what can be done with single-lens optics, so we went to array optics. Even there, we are pushing the limits of what can be done even in theory. So why do sci-fi authors assume that we can arbitrarily increase optical resolution just because we're in the future?

A lot of people don't realize that there are theoretical limits to optical telescope resolution. But one area where even the average netgeek can see through sci-fi is the use of magic "image enhancement", where two pixels can be magically transformed into a razor-sharp image. That's probably the most ridiculously obvious example of this moronic "infinite linear tech curve" assumption.

It's like thinking that a 25th century bucket would "probably" hold 10 times more liquid than a 20th century bucket of the same size, just because it's more advanced.

[Broomstick]

The fact that spacecraft crashes are so easily survivable has always annoyed me in sci-fi. How often do you see a spacecraft of any sort crash without survivors? Sci-fi seems to treat spacecraft crashes as if they're car crashes. But one look at the velocities involved and you know this makes no sense whatsoever. Just look at how rarely anyone survives a true plane crash (ie- a plane totally out of control, not just landing poorly), and remember that planes are much slower than spacecraft.

My recollection from FAA and EAA seminars on crashes and survivability is that pretty much anything over 80 mph (130 kph) is fatal. Now, there are things that can mitigate that, but really, at the velocities spacecraft travel barring some whiz-bang safety gear you're going to die. Certainly, what you have on the bridge of the Enterprise isn't going to save your ass.

[Batman]

That's because the 25th century bucket obviously involves space folding technology.
And frankly the image enhancement brainbug annoys me far more in crime shows. Far all I know the SciFi show in question DOES store each and every image in a 9 billion by 9 billion pixel format and thus CAN enhance the picture more or less arbitrarily far. Modern technology doesn't and can't. Sooner or later you're up against the physical resolution of the pic and all further enlargement gets you is really big pixels.

While I too find the artificial gravity being operational in derelicts funny I agree that it's more or less unavoidable (gravity it pretty much on by default as you're filming on earth).

[Batman]

Sorry for the double post but Stargate and no wheeled transportation. EVERYBODY is always either walking, flying about in spaceships, or outright teleporting. SGC has UAVs and missiles up the wazzoo but can't send them a few trikes or a dune buggy?
Conversely, the Goa'uld never managed to nab hovertruck technology or something off the Ancients?

[Captain Seafort]

Sorry for the double post but Stargate and no wheeled transportation. EVERYBODY is always either walking, flying about in spaceships, or outright teleporting. SGC has UAVs and missiles up the wazzoo but can't send them a few trikes or a dune buggy?

Never mind trikes or a dune buggy - they could have fitted a Bradley through the gate if they'd tried.

[Raxmei]

Ramming in scifi has gotten to be a pet peeve of mine. Mostly because it's cheap melodrama but also because it's unrealistic. In combat you'd expect the defender to be able to fire upon the rammer or simply get out of the way. Rammers are usually shot half to pieces before they get started anyway (see ST Nemesis or B5 Legend of the Rangers), so it shouldn't be that hard. Unsuccessful ramming looks pretty stupid, so when a ramming attack shows up in fiction it's probably going to succeed. When that happens it spotlights the fictional nature of the material because the events shown are clearly driven by dramatic laws.

[FSTargetDrone]

Frankly, these days what bothers me more than just about anything is the prevalence of humanoid aliens, especially forehead aliens. I'm a lot less tolerant of it than I was when TNG first came on the air. Now it drives me right up the wall. I know it's usually done for production costs and for giving the audience something to relate to, but like I said in one of the Avatar threads I want alien-looking aliens.

[Broomstick]

It's especially sad when ST:TOS in the late 1960's managed to come up with very alien aliens like the Horta and the Medusans with even lower budgets and lower tech than today, isn't it?

[NecronLord]

1) Incredibly resilient artificial gravity generator. You can utterly pulverize a spaceship into ruin. But it will never ever budge even one bit from maintaining exactly 1 G level of gravity within. This is especially hilarious when they explore a derelict starship in star trek shows. Even without oxygen or traces of an atmosphere artificial gravity still works !

For the record, in any circumstance where they're on a ship without atmosphere, they're in starfleet spacesuits, which as we saw to great effect in The Undiscovered Country, have magnetic boots.

[NecronLord]

Sorry for the double post but Stargate and no wheeled transportation. EVERYBODY is always either walking, flying about in spaceships, or outright teleporting. SGC has UAVs and missiles up the wazzoo but can't send them a few trikes or a dune buggy?
Conversely, the Goa'uld never managed to nab hovertruck technology or something off the Ancients?

The one industrialised goa'uld world we saw (Delmak) had a freaking motorway leading right into Sokar's palace. It was later used as a stock shot for Ba'al's throneworld too.

They also had hovering gear for their larger equipment to move it around, or at any rate, on their sarcophagi. They probably have the technology to build vehicles quite easily.

[Terralthra]

Ramming. This is a direct outcrop of "space is an ocean" fallacy. Ramming is one of the most dramatic things that happen is sci-fi. Yet if one looks at actual spaceships, they can either a, use nuclear bombs to obliterate the rammer before it can reach its target or b, move away. The would-be victor can has more power to just move away.

Personally I find ramming an enemy ship an overused trope when a captain must suffer a heroic death. I l want to see the captain go out in a blaze of glory as their starships crumble under overwhelming enemy fire. But I can't recall any instance in well known visual scifi for this.

This happens off-screen to Kor in Once More Unto the Breach in DS9. Heroic last stand against a numerically superior foe, he takes out several before being blown up, and I don't recall any mention of ramming.

As for what bugs me, nukes causing an EMP in space. It's gamma rays interacting with an atmosphere and a magnetic field, folks. It requires both a magnetic field and an atmosphere to happen. Neither of those exist in deep space.

[NecronLord]

Which comes to my accuracy thing: are they telling me that they can make an artificial moon but lack the funds and technology to make a weapon that has advanced enough optics to allow stormtroopers fire accurately in closed environments? The whole Death Star escape should have ended short the moment fire was opened up on Luke and co.

Followed by a scene where Tarkin upbraids the stormtroopers for disobeying the orders to let them go but make it look convincing, followed by Vader cutting them all nave to chops with his lightsaber?

Far better to ask why they forget about stun when it'd be useful, say on Bespin - though when Vader takes command again he orders them to use stun.

[loomer]

The lack of anything even approaching combined arms in sci-fi. While in some circumstances its excusable (obviously you won't see an MBT rolling through the hallway of most starships to repell boarders - as awesome as it would be.), in a lot of them, you see, at best, infantry, tanks, and some light air support.

This is wrong on too damn many levels. I've heard some people defend it with 'But they're an orbital brigade for a first response, how could they have <x> or <y>'. This doesn't work so much when we can airdrop artillery in the modern world, leave alone the fact that we generally will, you know, utilize APCs as well as light transports like Humvees. Halo, for instance, is a bad example.

Pretty much all of the games, the marines have just the Scorpion, Warthog, and Banshee. There's no artillery support, no actual air support or orbital support. Dropping in a couple of howitzers, a few actual APCs... Would that really be so hard?

I suppose this is largely just the whole 'vietnam reject' thing again.

[Peptuck]

Halo, for instance, is a bad example.

Pretty much all of the games, the marines have just the Scorpion, Warthog, and Banshee. There's no artillery support, no actual air support or orbital support. Dropping in a couple of howitzers, a few actual APCs... Would that really be so hard?

Halo is actually kind of justified in a lot of that, as most of the time in the games you're operating with minimal support, i.e. fighting using the resources from a downed, half-destroyed ship, or using troops scraped together from disparate survivors, or being dropped from a light ship that's only carrying a few troops. Halo Wars, at least, does a better job showing UNSC combined arms than the FPS games, if only because it has a fully-equipped task force; it has artillery, an MRLS system, direct orbital fire support and close air support. No APCs though, which is still kind of annoying, and no really long-ranged fire support, though that may be more for gameplay than anything else; the Wolverine looks like it would be used as a long-range MRLS if it wasn't designed with gameplay in mind.

There is, however, no excuse for that in the first few levels of Halo 2; that's one of the few cases in the FPS games where the UNSC should have been able to field a full-strength task force to deal with the Covenant.

The big thing that bugs me in a lot of sci-fi is the insistence on using melee weapons. In some cases, it's really justified, i.e. Star Wars and the Jedi, or 40k and, well, everyone, but in some cases, like the Chronicles of Riddick movie, where the scary deadly horrible Necromongers used mostly melee weapons instead of firearms just made me :/ Melee combat and melee weapons may have their place, but they really need to be justified, i.e. a character uses one for honor or personal or religious reasons or whatever, and it generally should at least make the character and/or the culture they come from look eccentric or at least different and be remarked on.

[loomer]

Yeah, I suppose you're right about Halo overall, but I still find it irritating that apparently nothing but light vehicles, tanks, and VTOL dropships survive to be used. I hadn't checked out Halo Wars, though, so at least they actually included some.

[FSTargetDrone]

For the record, in any circumstance where they're on a ship without atmosphere, they're in starfleet spacesuits, which as we saw to great effect in The Undiscovered Country, have magnetic boots.

Actually, there was a breathable atmosphere inside Gorkon's ship. However, you're right, the loss of gravity was nicely-presented in that scene. The Klingons were just about helpless. I think the one whose arm was shot off was reaching for a disruptor to use against the assassins, but otherwise, the Klingons were easy pickings.

Imagine, if we might, the loss of gravity on a Federation ship during combat which then sees, say, the bridge crew (who of course is never seen using seat restraints) begin to drift away from their consoles. The people in engineering cannot reach the various panels and controls and the sickbay personnel cannot treat the wounded because everyone is floating away from each other.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Starfleet crew in the TNG era, at least, has little to no training of how to react on a vessel that loses internal gravity. There are no hand-holds in the corridors or along the walls to use to pull oneself along in the event of gravity loss. There are, as mentioned, no seat restraints to keep one at his or her position if gravity is lost. There aren't even any foot restraints near the various control boards in engineering and the like. Can you imagine trying to use the transporter (assuming it wasn't out of action). How would you stay in the correct spot over the pad? How would you get to the pad?

As we saw with the Klingons on Gorkon's stricken ship, a Federation Crew could be cut to pieces if gravity was lost.

The brig cells with forcefields as the only barrier keeping prisoners contained is also monumentally stupid. And don't get me started on medical forcefields. Why is surgery often performed without the medics using scrubs and gloves? Heck, the episode with Pulaski and the guy from Murder One performing cardiac surgery on Picard seemed to be dressed like real surgeons, but I can't recall seeing it anywhere else in TNG

[Zixinus]

Frankly, these days what bothers me more than just about anything is the prevalence of humanoid aliens, especially forehead aliens. I'm a lot less tolerant of it than I was when TNG first came on the air. Now it drives me right up the wall. I know it's usually done for production costs and for giving the audience something to relate to, but like I said in one of the Avatar threads I want alien-looking aliens.

The fact that they are humanoid is far less of a problem, but they should ACT alien. They should do weird moves, they should act in ways that should puzzle both the human characters and the auidence, they should have their own culture and beliefs derived from the subtle differences in biology.

Humanoid form is a bit justified given biology and evolutionary morphology, but the fact that they usually act exactly as some humans in funny makeup from another country.

The brig cells with forcefields as the only barrier keeping prisoners contained is also monumentally stupid. And don't get me started on medical forcefields.

Oh, that I hate too. Forcefields.

[neoolong]

The fact that they are humanoid is far less of a problem, but they should ACT alien. They should do weird moves, they should act in ways that should puzzle both the human characters and the auidence, they should have their own culture and beliefs derived from the subtle differences in biology.

Heh. Farscape tried to do this, to varying degrees of success. If anything, they did have pretty damn good designs from near human to pretty different from human. Though they did seem to often pull from animal life.

[Zixinus]

Yes, I was just thinking how good Farscape was in this respect. I am almost watch that show again just for the mention of it in this context.
Again, I can understand budget issues but not so much in the writer's laziness to imagine or think about this sort of stuff.

[Sarevok]

Yeah as far as alien critters go Farscape takes the cake for sheer variety. Where else do you find living bio-mechanoid spaceships, near humans, sentient plants, fire breathing reptiles and whole lot of other species living togather ? :p

[Crazedwraith]

Sorry for the double post but Stargate and no wheeled transportation. EVERYBODY is always either walking, flying about in spaceships, or outright teleporting. SGC has UAVs and missiles up the wazzoo but can't send them a few trikes or a dune buggy

IIRC in Stargate: Infinity (Children's cartoon version) The heroic renegade rookie SG team do exactly that. Well on quadbikes.

[FSTargetDrone]

Yes, I was just thinking how good Farscape was in this respect. I am almost watch that show again just for the mention of it in this context.
Again, I can understand budget issues but not so much in the writer's laziness to imagine or think about this sort of stuff.

How could I forget this! For a bunch of puppets, they did a fine job with Rigel, Pilot, et al.

[adam_grif]

"Scientists" in movies who, when asked if they believe in the afterlife/souls, reply "I believe in energy. His energy had to go somewhere!"

Drives me up the wall.