SF Stuff that Really Annoys You!

[JunkMonkey]

Because you'd have a film so short the opening and closing credits would both be longer than the film?

I once attempted to write the world's shortest screenplay. It was called The Texas Chainsaw Suicide and basically it was over before the opening title cards had finished.

 

[Ursa major]

If a possibly less gory (and rather longer) sequel was ever required, they could have made The Texas Chainletter Suicide Note.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I am reading the Saiph series by P P Corcoran.

The story is OK but he keeps writing Elliptical Plane when it is supposed to be Ecliptic Plane.

I wish I could reanimate Arthur C Clarke to kick his ass.

 

[Bramandin]

Did we touch on single-biome planets where everyone wears the same hat?

 

[Bick]

Did we touch on single-biome planets where everyone wears the same hat?

I believe so.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I believe so.

I don't remember the hats being discussed.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Did we touch on single-biome planets where everyone wears the same hat?

The Rebel Without a Hat.
The Thrilling Saga of a Planetary Society torn asunder by the one man who refused to put a lid on it.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I don't remember the hats being discussed.

I once filled a page of a notebook, carefully noting the moment when a particular hat would appear on one of the civilian background extras in Babylon 5. It wasn't there in every episode but every time there was a scene in the Zócalo market place or Downbelow it would crop up. It got to be something to watch out for like Siler's Really Big Spanner in SG1

 

[Parson]

I am reading the Saiph series by P P Corcoran.

The story is OK but he keeps writing Elliptical Plane when it is supposed to be Ecliptic Plane.

I wish I could reanimate Arthur C Clarke to kick his ass.

Have you thought of emailing or Twitter alerting the author. I would like to know that I'd made that kind of an error if it was my book out there. He might be even able to change it in digital versions.

 

[Pyan]

In the post-race discussion in Ch4’s coverage of Formula 1, I always await with anticipation the two mechanics pushing the rack of tyres past behind the presenters.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Have you thought of emailing or Twitter alerting the author. I would like to know that I'd made that kind of an error if it was my book out there. He might be even able to change it in digital versions.

OK, you twisted my arm.

I left a comment on his YouTube video, Search for the Saiph. But that video is 7 years old.

 

[Bramandin]

I don't think that instant transformation has been covered yet. Someone's injected with a mutagenic virus or something and within a few days they're a monster. Also instant cures where a person is given medicine and they're immediately in fighting-form again.

 

[Dave]

"Oh." she said. "A Bronson Canyon movie!"

If it was BBC (Doctor Who or Blakes Seven) then it was usually one of two Purbeck quarries, or else Rhiwbach slate quarry. Hollywood likes to use Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. That's where Kirk fights the Gorn, and more than a few Westerns ride around there. if it is Stargate, then it's Vancouver woodland.

I always wonder about the mysterious gravity that spaceships usually have. Why isn't everything floating about freely?

I can accept artificial gravity created in some mysterious way, but when the power is cut off then it always continues to work! it ought to be the first thing that goes, even before the lights dim.

Space 1999. The Moon leaving orbit because of explosions on the surface was beyond my limit.

If you watched it longer then you would see it reach a sufficient velocity to pass through a new star system on a weekly basis. Yet, they could still manage to launch Eagles, land them on planets, but catch up with the Moon again later.

Has anyone mentioned why they keep fireworks on spaceships? There is a crash landing or someone deliberately destroys a computer with a hammer, and the ceiling tiles will collapse revealing high voltage cables and Tesla coils, while computer cabinets start launching fireworks.

 

[Bramandin]

Has anyone mentioned why they keep fireworks on spaceships? There is a crash landing or someone deliberately destroys a computer with a hammer, and the ceiling tiles will collapse revealing high voltage cables and Tesla coils, while computer cabinets start launching fireworks.

Maybe that's an extension of why cinematic cars tend to blow up in situations where a real car wouldn't.

I couldn't find the "must be bulletproof" clip where Schwarzenegger is confused about why shooting a cab doesn't cause it to explode. Be careful with this clip if you don't like women in lingerie for titillation.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I can accept artificial gravity created in some mysterious way, but when the power is cut off then it always continues to work! it ought to be the first thing that goes, even before the lights dim.

Yes but if it did that our heroes wouldn't get the chance to lift the heavy beam off the trapped crew member just before the ship explodes. Maybe artificial gravity has some really big capacitors involved that take time to discharge.

One of the few genuinely good moments of the dreadful Starhunter is the moment where the perky teenage engineer girl turns tables on the bad guy by suddenly raising the gravity up to eleven on the bit of floor he's standing on.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

The Rebel Without a Hat.
The Thrilling Saga of a Planetary Society torn asunder by the one man who refused to put a lid on it.

As the executioner said, "If you like it, then you shoulda put a lid on it."

 

[Bramandin]

Maybe artificial gravity has some really big capacitors involved that take time to discharge.

Artificial gravity is generated by quantum-locking the particles in the carpet to a carpet in an alternate dimension that's carpeting the floor of a centrifugal space-station. They can't shut off the gravity without a hella-alot of effort of which spacing the carpet would be the easiest.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I once filled a page of a notebook, carefully noting the moment when a particular hat would appear on one of the civilian background extras in Babylon 5. It wasn't there in every episode but every time there was a scene in the Zócalo market place or Downbelow it would crop up. It got to be something to watch out for like Siler's Really Big Spanner in SG1

Damn! I am pretty crummy B5 fan. Can't recognize the interesting stuff.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

Brace for impact?

Excuse me Star Trek but SERIOUSLY?

They can go to Warp 9 in a few seconds and their inertial dampeners can handle that.

But going from moderately quickish sublight to an abrupt stop and we've got histrionic tumbling over consoles and people falling about.

That is witless banality on the part of the scriptwriters and producers. There is no excuse.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Brace for impact?

Excuse me Star Trek but SERIOUSLY?

They can go to Warp 9 in a few seconds and their inertial dampeners can handle that.

But going from moderately quickish sublight to an abrupt stop and we've got histrionic tumbling over consoles and people falling about.

That is witless banality on the part of the scriptwriters and producers. There is no excuse.

Here's a thing I think every time the Enterprise is under attack. A photon torpedo hits. The ship lurches. Everyone on the bridge does what I always think of as 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' acting and throws themselves screen left, screen right, and back again. I wonder about what is happening in the rest of the ship. If the bridge, which we are told is in the centre of the saucer section, is rocking from side to side at an angle large enough to make people fall over, it follows that out at the edges (sides) of the disc, crew members are going to be in serious trouble as they are bounced off the ceiling and pounded to a pulp.