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Bad TV SciFi Tropes and Why They Exist
Jul. 13th, 2009 11:14 amSo, over the weekend, I posted a review of Vincent Lowry's novel Constellation Chronicles. In the review, I mentioned several "irritating TV tropes" found in the book. They were not surprising, since the novel started out as a screenplay. At any rate, I decided to list those tropes here and say 1) why they were bad and 2) why they still show up in TV fiction.
Trope: The crew of a starship is in suspended animation, but they don’t wake up until after the ship has crashed / been hit by meteors / whatever. There is no "on duty" crew.
Why It's Bad: What's the point of having a crew if the ship can fly itself? Even if the ship can fly itself, you would still want to schedule your wake-up before they land, so the crew can approve the landing site.
Why It's Done: Dramatic effect - we immediately get into a crisis without burning screen time for a set-up.
Trope: Instant and fluent command of English by aliens.
Why It's Bad: Besides the difficulty of learning an alien language, why English? Chinese is spoken by more people.
Why It's Done: Lazy writing.
Trope: Space dogfights at extreme close range.
Why It's Bad: Usually the dogfights are air-to-air events, with banks and dives. Except in space, there is no air, so no banking or diving.
Why It's Done: It looks cool, and allows for lots of facial shots of various characters doing heroic stuff. It's also cheap - you only need one fighter interior for all the actors.
Trope: Super-thick asteroid belts, or in this case, Kuiper belt.
Why It's Bad: Highly unrealistic
Why It's Done: Looks cool.
Trope: Captains of ships representing two warring alien races know each other’s name, and routinely communicate with each other during battle.
Why It's Bad: Does it sound reasonable to you?
Why It's Done: Quick and easy way to provide characterization. The bad captain snarls, twists his mustache, and otherwise chews scenery.
Trope: The crew of a starship is in suspended animation, but they don’t wake up until after the ship has crashed / been hit by meteors / whatever. There is no "on duty" crew.
Why It's Bad: What's the point of having a crew if the ship can fly itself? Even if the ship can fly itself, you would still want to schedule your wake-up before they land, so the crew can approve the landing site.
Why It's Done: Dramatic effect - we immediately get into a crisis without burning screen time for a set-up.
Trope: Instant and fluent command of English by aliens.
Why It's Bad: Besides the difficulty of learning an alien language, why English? Chinese is spoken by more people.
Why It's Done: Lazy writing.
Trope: Space dogfights at extreme close range.
Why It's Bad: Usually the dogfights are air-to-air events, with banks and dives. Except in space, there is no air, so no banking or diving.
Why It's Done: It looks cool, and allows for lots of facial shots of various characters doing heroic stuff. It's also cheap - you only need one fighter interior for all the actors.
Trope: Super-thick asteroid belts, or in this case, Kuiper belt.
Why It's Bad: Highly unrealistic
Why It's Done: Looks cool.
Trope: Captains of ships representing two warring alien races know each other’s name, and routinely communicate with each other during battle.
Why It's Bad: Does it sound reasonable to you?
Why It's Done: Quick and easy way to provide characterization. The bad captain snarls, twists his mustache, and otherwise chews scenery.