So I am currently rewatching Stargate SG1 and thinking about certain things that always rub me the wrong way when watching or reading SciFi. Now, I know that Stargate in particular doesn’t really take itself too seriously and shouldn’t be scrutinized too much. It’s also a bit older. But there are still some things that even modern SciFi-Worlds featuring outer space and aliens have or lack, that always slightly rub me the wrong way. I would love to hear your opinion.
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Lack of any form of camera surveillance technology I mean, come on, the Goa’uld couldn’t figure out a way to install their equivalent of cameras all over their battle ships in order to monitor it? They have forms of video/picture transmitting technology. Star Trek also seems to lack any form of video surveillance. (I’m not up to date with the newest series.) Yes, I get that having a crew member physically go to a cargo bay and check out the situation is better for dramatic purposes. But it always rubs me the wrong way that they have to do that. I would just love to see a SciFi-Series set in space where all space ships are equipped with proper camera technology. Not just some vague “sensor” that tells the crew “something is wrong, but you will still have to physically go there and see it for yourself”. I want the captain of a space ship to have access to the 200,000 cameras strategically placed all over the ship to monitor it.
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Languages I have studied linguistics, learned several foreign languages and lived in a foreign country for a while, so my perspective is influenced by that. I always find it weird when everybody “just talks English”. Yes, I get that it’s easier to write stories in which all characters can just freely interact with each other. But it’s always so weird to me when an explorer comes to a foreign planet and everybody just talks their language. At least make up an explanation for it! “We found this translator device in the space ship that crashed on earth”. There you go. I love the Stargate Movie where Daniel Jackson figures out how to communicate with the people on Abydos. During the series most worlds will just speak English, with some random words in other languages thrown in. As someone interested in linguistics I love Stargate for how much it features deciphering languages, though I still find it weird when they go to another world and everybody just speaks English.
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Humanoid aliens Especially with modern CGI I would just love to shows get more creative when it comes to alien races. We don’t need a person in a costume anymore. Every once in a while you will have that weird alien pop up, but all in all I feel like there’s still a lot of potential. Also changes in Human physiology due to different environmental conditions on foreign planets.
That being said, I would also like to mention some SciFi-titles that in my mind stand out for being very creative in this regard:
- The writing of Julie Czerneda is very creative when it comes to alien species. She was a biologist and uses her knowledge to create a wide variety of alien life forms
- The forever war (Without spoiling the end, so I’ll leave it at that. Just liked it as a creative take on an alien race so different it’s incomprehensible to us)
- I very much appreciate Douglas Adams for the babel fish.
- I also liked The expanse for including the development of a Belter language and changes in human physiology due to different gravity.
What do you think? Do you know any good examples of SciFi-Worldbuilding, that solve some common inconsistencies?
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I really appreciate a lack of ansible tech. Having to account for the speed of light in communication makes for better story telling, IMHO
My favorite examples of limited communication speed are the Lost Fleet books by John G. Hemry writing as Jack Campbell, and the Battletech franchise.
In the Lost Fleet, they are limited to realistic communications. When they jump into a star system, they gather Intel but it’s often pointed out that what their telescopes see and radios hear is X hours old based on the distance. There’s a lot of talk in battles about predicting where something will be at a certain time or trying to device the enemy by pulling fake maneuvers. When they want to communicate back home, they need to send picket ships to carry the message.
In Battletech, there is a common method of FTL communication between worlds, but not at smaller scales. When the writers remember it, we hear about the same kind of delays in Intel as in the Lost Fleet. The FTL comms are monitored by a sometimes hostile polity, so top secret stuff will be communicated by spacecraft pony express, and there have been some attempts to some up with other comm methods.
There’s a part where comstar shuts down the whole network of ftl communication too
Artificial gravity not achieved through acceleration or rotation. That and people don’t explode or instantly freeze when exposed to vacuum.
In and of itself, I don’t mind it, but I’m mildly annoyed by most having some form of FTL travel. That’s why The Expanse was so refreshing for me.
Like, I get it. Having FTL drive (or comparable ways to go vast distances in short times) allows a larger universe for the characters. It’s also, I would imagine, easier to write since the writers wouldn’t have to deal with the vast scales, time dilation, and asynchronous events happening in different parts of the galaxy/story.
For comparison, The Expanse worked because it was all within our solar system. In the Revelation Space series (book), humans are doing interstellar travel, but they’re in cryo the whole trip, and the journey takes years. The author formerly worked for the ESA and pretty much had to show his work every step of the way to get all the characters together on the same planets at the same time.
So yeah, I get why we don’t see that more often (especially in TV series with less accredited writers), but it would be nice to see it once in a while nonetheless.
Revelation Space series does not have FTL, but in its place, an engine that can produce 1G indefinitely (not manufactured anymore, powered by handwavium, it seems… but the secret is revealed in one of the short stories). There is further shenanigans with physics, but never FTL.
It definitely adds more nuance to the world, because now you can’t have interstellar empires if you cannot communicate over large distances.
Spoiler
I forget the exact hand-wavium, but something like a contained black hole kept in check by a child’s brain. A child who volunteered for the task.
There is further shenanigans with physics
Yeah, and I really liked that subplot, too. In Star Trek, inertial dampeners are just a handwave device. But in RS, they explored humanity’s experiments with manipulating inertia and the gruesome results when pushed too far. Probably one of my favorite chapters of Redemption Ark.
I’ll never forget the Expanse audiobooks pronouncing gimbal and “gym ball”…
Only for the first 6 books or so, was listening to Persepolis a few weeks ago and had to do a double take when the reader finally pronounced it with the hard g (“gim ball”).
I figured it couldn’t be any worse than the Black Prism reader absolutely butchering javelina (ordinarily the J makes an H sound) a few books in
I intuitively pronounce gimbal as gimble because of Jabberwocky. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; all mimsy were the borogroves, and the mome wraths outgrabe."
Like even if it was wrong that is how it looks like it sounds.
I can’t remember the name of the book.
Space travel takes years. One trick is to slow down the crews metabolism so that a five year voyage feels like five weeks. The ship’s AI ‘wakes up’ crew when an emergency occurs. If you were not ‘awoken’ you’d see your crewmate suddenly vanish and then reappear a moment later.
I’m curious how everyone gets here about the languages in the original star wars trilogy?
Secondly, in one of the ex expanded universe series, leia and chewbacca go back to kashyyk and Leia can understand the wookie mayor much better than she can chewbacca.
It’s explained that the mayor actually has a speech impediment, which makes him easier to understand than most wookies
This is why Darmok is peak sci-fi. It discusses what happens when species can’t communicate with one another. It even works within the in-show explanation of the universal translator: the Tamarians don’t just use different vocabulary and syntax. They have an entirely different language model.
We live in a time where live action adaptations of classic sci-fi literature are now possible - both technically and financially. But now TBH I find most of it super boring. Been trying to plow through that Foundation series and got to say it just doesn’t hold my attention. Same with the William Gibson adaptation the Peripheral. I liked the books but just can’t hang with the vids.
There is stuff I like but its rare. Arrival, Raised by Wolves, the Dune movies, a few others.
I do generally enjoy animated adaptations more, and agree with your list.
Arrival - we were rewatching this one evening when my teenager came home with some friends - for reference these are a group who have been watching the “evil bong” movies together, not people I think of as film geeks at all. But Arrival held their interest despite being a slower paced story and 2 of them came back to watch it in full because it just didn’t let them go. It’s such a good movie.
Scale. Most sci fi notoriously sucks at doing large scale well. 40K, of all things, is one of the few that does.
My main gripe is a lot of plots have too much high stake events solved by improbable happenings?
Why save the earth when one can save a meadow? I would love to see a story about a group of people trying to prevent nano technology from entering a park, and the social backlash when they try.
Why do nearly impossible things within a certain time, when one can have more humble happenings?
Space battles are cool but does the main character have to save the ship, fleet or day? Isn’t it enough to save one’s squad?
“From Russia, With Love” has, imho, the best script of any of the Bond movies. The McGuffin in the movie is a decoder. No A-bombs pointed at NYC, just a pretty routine Cold War assignment.
I’m saying this in the terms of the tabletop role playing game setting Transhuman Space but…
Your post reminded me that I’d like a series of either mysteries or maybe noire detective stories with infomorphs running in cybershells used for blue collar labor like janitorial services on a big belter trading port.
To your second point, I think the Universal Translator in Star Trek is the best explanation. Not only does it make for more convenient television, but it seems like such a well thought-out invention that would actually exist in the future. Like why make everyone learn one language and wipe out all the history/culture behind the others when you can just let everyone do their own thing.
Best explanation was in Fargate tv shows.
When MC find himself to other side of galaxy in alien spaceships with prisoners escaping he is injected by a little icon robot with nanobot (or something like that) enabling him to understand any language.
Just before he is injected other characters are speaking alien and you don’t understand them and gradually (but in a matter of 15/30 secs) after injection you start to hear aliens speaking English. I believe they even specifically speak about the technology.Look at Species of Farscape #8 – Translator Microbes it is explained better and there is a short video. Too bad you don’t see him injected/shot but you got alien explaining how it works.
Like the Babel fish in H2G2
Such a great topic, thanks for making this post!
I’ve heard a lot I agree with already (ditto on the Becky Chambers / Wayfarers rec for alien morphology and culture).
One thing I haven’t heard yet (maybe it’s not a perfect fit for the question) - poor characterization and an over reliance on world-building / technology. This is how later Neal Stephenson books (Reamde) have felt to me, where the characters feel like flat automotons but there will be pages and pages about some minute technological detail. Consider Phlebas is another offender, although I do think some of the latter Culture books do better. The final mention would be a number of Peter F Hamilton books.
Because this is all a matter of taste, I find this interesting on a more personal level. I’ve noticed my own preferences change as I get older, away from the neat tech aspects and more on the characters and their respective arcs. And even their arcs don’t need to be tied to external plot beats, but can be intensely personal (e.g. Sissex’s struggle to understand whether they want to be a parent in Wayfarers). I also really liked Amos’s arc in the expanse where we get an idea of where he comes from, and is able to find companionship with Clarissa (who has a pretty good arc herself as well).
It’s a very similar dynamic in my fantasy tastes these days as well - my favorite series is Realm of the Elderlings. Whether Sci-fi or Fantasy though, it has been relatively difficult to find books that better align with these tastes. Definitely open to any recs from others!
poor characterization and an over reliance on world-building / technology
Interesting, I think I’d completely disagree! A story can be rubbish at being a story but still be great sci-fi; I think the world-building and technology is generally what makes it sci-fi, the characters, plot etc are an independent thing. I guess needing to nail both of those makes writing really good sci-fi even harder.
And yeah, getting good characterization and good world building together in the same novel is really hard. Most things I read do a moderately okay job balancing those two, but when it over-indexes on the world-building I struggle to connect with the story being told.
I think the more introspective characterization is a more modern / post-modern trend, so I tend to be a little less picky if I’m reading something like Herbert, Asimov or Heinlein. I just don’t think this narrative style was in the zeitgeist yet, but I guess I have higher expectations for more contemporary works.
For sure - it’s like jam bands. You can have these incredible musicians improvising together, but I don’t have any interest in listening to it. I can appreciate the skill and artistry, but also say “it’s not my thing”.
Can’t believe no one has mentioned this yet but my big one is physics in microgravity. There are some that do it well (like obv Apollo 13 given how they filmed it, and The Expanse is usually pretty good about it too) and plenty that it doesn’t really matter but there’s a bunch of movies and tv shows that hang major plot points on poorly thought out physics. The worst offender imo was ironically the movie Gravity, where a major character dies because apparently when two people are tethered to each other in zero-g and the line goes taut they don’t just bounce back towards each other, oh no, because there’s an extra special force that keeps pulling on the futher person so he has to make some dramatic self sacrifice. I was so sad because that movie looked really amazing from a cinematography perspective and obviously a lot of people loved it regardless but i just couldn’t get past how dumb that and a few other scenes were.
Definitely agree about Gravity. Beautiful to watch, completely unrealistic (which wouldn’t have been such a problem if they weren’t pitching it as ultra-realistic!)
What annoys me is that science fiction is that some of the biggest writers don’t seem to know any women IRL. If Robert Heinlin or Cixin Lu had to write a believable woman character to bring them food and water, they’d be dead in three days.
That’s true. I already mentioned Julie E. Czerneda, her books have female main characters that are pretty well written. I’d recommend looking into her books.
Distance. Almost every SciFi completely fails to represent distance even remotely closely.
This isn’t a gripe about FTL, it’s a gripe about non-FTL! Fancy FTL avoids the problem.
Star trek does it quite well in most cases, it takes days at warp foo to get anywhere. Voyager took years.
New Star wars butchers it; e.g. The Mandalorian episode with the no lightspeed/hyperspace plot device: oh no it took hours/days to get between star systems. Days! Imagine taking days to travel unfathomable distances!
New Dune (KJA’s books) inexcusably get it wrong. Claiming that “slow” travel between systems took months.
The mote in God’s eye does it extremely well with its pairs of jump points (shoutout to Mass Effect here too). Sometimes it’s quicker to use a jump point to another system, crawl to another (nearer) jump point and then jump back to the first sytem rather than crawl directly across the original system.
It takes light very long time to travel across our solar system, let alone interstellar distances. It’s like these writers have never even considered how long a container ship on earth takes to travel and still be viable.
I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Dirk Van den Boem “Sternkreuzer Proxima” (“Starcruiser Proxima”, couldn’t find the actual English titel on a quick search). He has some very good descriptions of the gruelingly long times any maneuver in space takes. Also being cramped in a small space ship with no fresh air, tasteless food rations and not knowing what is going to happen, while your ship and the enemy ship spend the next 50 hours getting in position for their attack.
Starships in Star Trek have three systems for propulsion: thrusters, impulse, and warp. Oh, and in my head, nothing exists after Bakula’s Enterprise, the era of star ships dogfighting like fighter jets flooding the screen with beam spam “isn’t my father’s Star Trek” and isn’t mine either.
In TOS through ENT, we see;
Warp Drive is the FTL technology in this setting; when at warp the stars themselves seem to whiz by like signs on a highway. The exact details of what warp factor means what actual speed change over time; Warp 10 is and isn’t an absolute speed limit, trans-warp drive is a thing USS Excelsior has, and then something only the Borg have…generally the bigger the warp number, the more desperate the plot is. Urgent plot point! Helm, warp 8, engage! Episode is over and the status quo has resumed. Helm, set a course for somewhere, warp 2, engage.
Thrusters are barely able to move the ship and are used for docking maneuvers or when the ship has had the snot beat out of it and nothing works; the thrusters never break so they are always at least barely able to move.
Impluse power is also depicted inconsistently. In plot delivered by dialog, the ship can move at like a quarter of the speed of light under impulse power; they sometimes talk about doing short trips under impulse to the next planet or star system over; yet when we visually see ships maneuvering under impulse, they’re acting like watercraft chugging along at 10 or 20 knots, slowly hoving in and out of space dock as if “1/4 impulse power” meant “all ahead slow.” If full impulse power moves the ship at 0.25c, leaving space dock under 1/4 impulse should look more like THIS.
I love how the different special effects recontextualizes the actors’ performances.
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New topic: my favorite sci-fi mode of FTL travel is from the Battletech franchise. Jumpships are able to teleport anywhere within 30 light years of their present position in a matter of seconds, though they’re delicate and need to stay pretty far outside of a gravity well for safety, so they tend to hang out far outside the plane of the ecliptic above or below a star, recharging the engine via solar power. The trick is flying to and from the jumpship, which is done on a dropship which spends half the time accelerating at 1G, and half the time decelerating at 1G, because “fusion rockets” can do that.
A journey from Earth (called “Terra” in-universe) to some planet within 30 light years will take a week or so on the dropship on the way to the jumpship, a few seconds in hyperspace, and then a week or so on the dropship on the way down to the planet. Need to go farther than 30 light years? You either have to have set up a series of jumpships ready to do a relay race, or your jumpship has to take half a week to recharge its batteries to jump again.
They even treat communications semi-realistically; there are special space radios called HPGs which kind of use jump drive technology to instantly send a message to another HPG within 50 light years, or you can hand the message to someone who is getting on a dropship, or you have radio as we know it now complete with speed of light delay. And unless Michael Stackpole is writing, it’s depicted as pretty consistent. (In one of the Blood of Kerensky books, Stackpole has the Wolf’s Dragoons jump into low orbit of Luthien “inside the orbit of our nearest moon” which per established fiction shouldn’t have worked for a couple different reasons.)
What do you think? Do you know any good examples of SciFi-Worldbuilding, that solve some common inconsistencies?
There’s some good stuff in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series about non-human intelligence and societies that I found compelling and very thoughtfully composed. It comes from a grounded place, and especially the first two books do a great job of building up concepts of civilizations that feel truly foreign but make a lot of sense in the universe. The difficulties in cross-species communication are addressed and made to be a focus and feel realistic. I’m being deliberately vague because part of the fun of the books is seeing how far things go.
That women can only be scientists or whatever if their father was. They can have no other reason or backstory.
