That's a good one!
The only time I've seen it done well is in TNG's "The Survivors" (S3E03), which involves discovering a being so powerful that it commits a crime so horrific, there doesn't exist a mechanism capable of grasping the immensity of what it's done, let alone with the power to enforce a sentence.
Picard leaves that entity with its grief, which is all a mere mortal can ever hope to do.
@MLClark Universal translators. I understand the need for them from a plot point of view, but they always seem like a cheat. Or why "Darmok" is one of the TNG episodes that sticks with me.
Great choice.
I love the acting in "Darmok", and it's a good teaching tool, but it's also lousy on the linguistic science. Our languages are riddled with figurative expressions that the universal translator can handle with ease.
(And not just spoken language, but also tons of visual signs that carry whole embedded meaning structures:
Pikachu, his mouth open!
Monkey-puppet, his gaze to the side!
Kermit, sipping tea!
We are a highly referential species!)
@MLClark Incidentally, I kind of like the Babel Fish solution: translation can be messy and uncomfortable, and that leans into this aspect.
Yes! That embraces the chaos.
My least favorite sci-fi is when it is really a thinly veiled cowboy story, or colonial suppress and exterminate the natives tale, or any sort of pew pew shoot em up, and then ending with a celebration of human exceptionalism.
YES. This comes close to my personal most-loathed trope: the monocultural alien planet.
Big ol' world!
But at tops, there are only two warring groups upon it, or one slave and one master class. Ridiculous. Any advanced species we meet should be teeming with subcultures, as ours is.
Any self-congratulatory human exceptionalism in the face of such "unwashed masses" on alien worlds is another big yawn from me, too.
@MLClark Mind control.
Such a lazy concept! And also one of our oldest.
Mesmerism and notions of possession were around long before the Cold War anxieties that prompted decades of experimentation.
I suspect we're just not that good at understanding cult behaviour / groupthink, so we spin wild theories around mental possession instead.
@MLClark Exactly!
It's especially annoying when it's used to cram a character into a behavior that doesn't comport with the narrative arc that's been established for them.
"...hold up, they'd never do that."
"..."
"..."
"...they would if they were being MIND CONTROLLED!"
🙄
UGH. Yes.
I didn't watch Jessica Jones for this reason - can't stand this trope, even when I understand that it's being used in part as an analogy for abusive relationships - and also checked out of Dollhouse at E1.
There *are* shows that have characters acting differently depending on the context, and I admire the hell out of them for the work they do on building narrative continuity.
The rest is often lazy writing / bored actors tired of their role.
What're you watching these days?
@MLClark I feel like I have something of a cycle of stuff on background. Right now it's Lillyhammer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I hear that. I put on a lot of mystery-oriented shows in the background (tone varies, as does the range from episodic to series-arc), because there's just something solid about the beat structure for that kind of storytelling.
Hopefully everything in your media cycle these days is delivering compelling storylines without cheap gimmicks to throw you out of the work!
@MLClark @kel
These days I watch very little of anything.
I enjoy: Three specific quizzes: Mastermind, Only Connect and University Challenge.
A few programs about antiques and collectibles.
Nature and science documentaries, particularly those in which The Open University is involved (most of Attenborough's or Cox's work, for instance).
That's it. The TV is switched off for 22 to 23 hours a day, every day.
That sounds like bliss, Stuey!
Pff. Next thing you're going to tell me, Section 31 was supposed to be a cautionary tale and a site of deep narrative unease, not fodder for a swanky, high-thrills space adventure starring Michelle Yeoh as a reformed genocidal queen! 🙄
@MLClark Why tell you what you already know?!
Another one that annoys me is the "evil admiral" who always comes in to be the antagonist of the week.
To be more generic, I'd have to give some thought to evil highers-up who come in with some agenda to frak up our protagonists.
body snatching. Specifically the "Freaky Friday" type. or people puppets.
The jump in logic to make it happen in the first place, and the confusion (and stupidity) of the characters to figure it out or don't
might be fun for the actors, but as a viewer the plot is so contrived I have a hard time enjoying it. Seems like a cheap form of writing
I once ran across a hysterical list of "Top Ten Things You Will Never See on Star Trek"
I forget the order, but my favorites, and thus a backhand answer to your question were
The Enterprise encounters an alien disease the cure for which is in its well-stocked sickbay
and
The Enterprise encounters a member of an extremely advanced civilization that does not immediately put the captain on trial for all the crimes of humanity.
It drives me UP THE WALL that more effective medical uses for transporter tech weren't routinely featured on Star Trek - but of course, the moment you logically follow through on a new transporter capability, you lose 1/3 of your crises-of-the-week!
Exactly. They were so all.over the place with medical stuff, mostly just because lazy plot tropes.
I loved how Scalzi roasted the whole Sickbay thing in Redshirts.
I'm kinda over dystopia, @MLClark. Maybe because it seems less like fiction as we inch closer to making it reality. 🤔
I too am thoroughly sick of dystopia - not just because it makes sport of what's often reality, but because of some creepy libertarian undertones to the longing to do away with, say, 9/10ths of civilization so that one can have a better chance of building a kingdom of one's own with whatever remains.
We have to get better at making mundane, collaborative futures in hardship a more exciting sell!
I'll leave that to you, @MLClark 😜
PFF. Fine. But you better have something grand up your sleeve for your own next book, C.M.!
I really don't mind stories of 'the chosen one,' provided they aren't exceedingly predictable, but that's about the only trope that really stands out to me.
Well, that and easily understood alien motivations. They're alien and I expect alien paradigms G-dangit!
@BosmangBeratna @MLClark Have you ever read The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness? It's a book about the background characters who are just trying to live their lives while the Chosen One saves the world.
@stephen_a_allen @BosmangBeratna
Oh, fantastic rec, Stephen! Seconded!
Heck yes! I always want more alien-aliens! Make 'em WEIRD.
And make 'em think WE'RE weird! I want more aliens grossed out by humankind!
@BosmangBeratna @MLClark the story in working on now, the characters are identified as chosen ones and that’s precisely the problem. The God that chose them has nefarious purposes currently hidden.
I like to play with tropes and come at them from new angles as well as bust tropes or purposefully violate them.
@BosmangBeratna @MLClark like I’ve done mind control but I’ll do it on mass to represent Fascist thinking and the assimilation and annhilation of culture or as a way of showing how abusive relationships can be normalized for those involved.
A very important theme for our times!
Woo! That's great fun! Playing with overdone tropes is precisely why I put out the question, pre-writing session tonight. I like to shake out the dust on SF to date before diving back into my own.
"Lo! I have chosen you!"
"Oh."
"...That's it? Just 'Oh'? You've been CHOSEN!"
"Right, but, ah... for what?"
"Oh, shush, never you mind all that now."
🙃
The one where (whether viewed positively or negatively) "Earth Civilization" is a thinly disguised substitute for Western/Euro-American/White culture.
Ah, yes, otherwise known as a good 3/4s of all Western-published SF!
@MLClark It's my least favourite trope in all genre, but it's particularly common in horror and scifi:
"There's something bad happening here" is never followed by "You're right. Let's leave."
The movies are almost always full of *really stupid people*.
😂 Shortest movie ever, if people just kept their noses out of it!
@MLClark At this point, I'm super bored of aliens that are alien enough to be shot on sight, but still human enough to want to shoot humans on sight. I'm often unpleasantly surprised by a default to military options in space operas to progress the plot, despite their not working with the characters or situation. This kind of action drove the plot of Paoloni's To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. Idk what I was expecting after the super militaristic Eragon series, but it bothered me all the same. 😅
@MLClark Ack, I meant "Paolini*"
@MLClark
Least favorite SF trope.
The all powerful being. A thing that inherently has no limits. Has no conflict, nor any real reason to move the plot along.