NationStates Jolt Archive

Right, over the last few weeks I have been seeing a lot of Sci Fi, I saw all 6 starwars movies over one night, Star trek Nemisis, and a few episodes of stargate. And a number of things have become obvious to me, which shouldn't be there. I am going to place them here.

Diclaimer:- These things piss me off royally, so the Language is NOT tame. If you do not like swearing, please do not read this. If you do you understand I am not going to be polite for you.


1:- Wide Hallways with Alcoves, what the FUCK. This is a fault in design if I ever saw one. Why the bloody hell do people with ships EXPECTING boarders design their ships in such a way that it is the most difficult way to get rid of the boarders. Hallways should not be big enough have proper fire fights ((All shows I watched)) have alcoves for people to take COVER in, and deffinetly not be wide enough to fit small fighters through ((Nemisis, I am looking at you)). Hallways should be able to fit Four people across, no more, and turrets with fast rate of fire would be nice to.

2:- Stupid people in command. This is in a number of people, palpatine, Tarkin, That Picard Clone, ANY Goa'uld besides anubis ((And even then)). That Woman that controled the Romulan ships, and Picard. Picard should NEver have been in command, since Data was a class above him, and Data doesn't burst out crying when his clone is retarded or Evil. That Romulan woman ran an attack run on a ship which FUCKED the other version of her ship, and she acts all suprised when the fucking thing kicks her ass. Did she not think MAYBE the fact the cloak went down for no fucking reason mean, shock, he might be planning on her making the attack run? Or at least do something that will kill it, RAM THE FUCKING THING, Picard managed to come up with this idea ((but by then it was rather usless, all he did was make himself a target for a ship.))

3:- Sparks...I swear to god...who thought that something when slightly bumped sparks and hurts is better...fiber optics don't spark, they work well...why do we need something that DOES spark? The only reason is its motovation for the crew. "Hurry up and get the job done cause I am about to EXPLODE!"

4:- Different coloured lasers for each side...why? When is this likely to happen. Why do you need a green laser for one person and a red for another and an orange for another. There should not be different colours, they should all be one colour, unless its lasers, and that really doesn't matter. Besides knowing if your own friends or enemies shot you, there is no concevable reason. The design wouldn't be THAT different to wattent colour change.

5:- There truely are some shit ship designs out there. Hell, even my favorate universe, the main ship in it ((The Serenity)) is a FUCKED design, no reason to make it look like a miniture Horse. The Enterprise shouldn't have those fragile Warp engines on the back, the Star destroyer should NOT have a Bridge tower. The Klingons shouldn't have a thin swan neck design, These are easily fixed problems that people just put because it gives style, warships should NOT look stylish, they should be pratical, style comes later.

6:- Trenches...I swear, every time I see a trench in Sci Fi. Ships. Should. not. Have. Trenches for no reason. The Deathstar,((Which might have been to cut down on how much material they needed, but on the trator beam thing?)) there was also one in Nemisis, the Remen Psycic fell down it. For ships the size of the deathstar, I am willing to be lenient ((Not at their location however, but their existance I can accept But NOT a path to the energy Generator in the Emperors throne room, thats an accident waiting to happen.)) but on a ship the size of the enterprize, why? Just WHY!? Its small, six hundred meters, the extra few meters of metal you need is not going to make the job that much longer, hell, it could be done in a few hours, and then you don't have people plumting to their deaths ((And another note, that hole was deeper then the enterpse was thick, how does that work?)) There is no reason for them to be there.

7:- All members of One race being the same. I hate this, it happens alot in most, although Starwars doesn't do this one much. Star trek is the worst offender, all Klingons are honorable stupid asses, all Romulans are Kiniving Stupid asses, all Remens are good fighters but stupid asses. Stargate does it to, all Goa'uld are clever in their own way, but their armies are quite bad when deployed. The Jaffa are all Ignorent. It continually annoys me, why are all races one single thing while humans are vastly different.

8:-Super Stations...come ON, why build a massive station? Build lots of little ships to do the same job, then when the job is done, LEAVE and be usful in more then one section after the job is done. Why do you need to blow a planet to nothing? Kill the surface, you waste resorses blowing a planet up.

9:- Ships bigger then they have to be. This is stupid. Star trek ships are actually fairly good when it comes to this, But they lack what I would consider true size. A good sized ship is 800-900 meters, why? Simple, it can carry a fair number of fighters and hold sufficient weaponry and such. The star destroyer at 1.6km is just...compensating ((Although Palpy does this alot anyway so I guess thats means we know something bout Palpy)) In fact, one of the best designs I have seen in Sci Fi is the Colonial battlestar, laugh all you want, however, if you position Eight main guns on top, and six on the bottom, then you have a ship that has effective fighters which launch fast and Main cannons that can be brought to bear on the enemy.

10:- People ramming enemy ships quite commonly, but ships not designed to handle this. I find it a tad annoying, but why do people ram enemies so often, but no one ever changes designs to allow this. I find ramming is an effective tatic, and it happens, but never is the damage it should have done to the enemy shown, but people never change design to account for this. Sure, it may seem barbaric, but if crew have the option to ram through the enemy ship ((40k, the Rever ships in Serenity)) then they can do a hell of a lot more damage to your enemy if your outclassed. It may seem stupid thing to say, but it SHOULD be an option.

11:- Aliens which are compleatly human in apperance besides a few differances. People seem not to realise we look the way we do because of a various envirometal things. The planets gravity Determins our average hight, the lighting our average eye sight, the reason we breath oxygen because oxygen is the main basis of our planet. Why do Klingons look the same besides Ridges, What about Romulans? Those Twiliki dancers in Wars ((Blue ones)) Where are the masks they would need filled with a blue gas, the main one that comes to mind methane. Our skin is the colour it is because of the fact we breath oxygen. Where in most sci fi are the races that don't breath oxygen. I don't mind humaniod, but they shouldn't be all highly similar.

12:- Single Climate planets...a planet will never be all desert ((Unless its something like Tatooine, and that by all rights should not be habital.)). Planets have climates because of the amount of light they get...how is this make an entire planet just one big jungle? Doesn't happen. One bigClimate like europe? Unlikely, although not as common, its still there ((Noticablly in 40K and Star wars))

13:- Yavin 4 and Endor...neither should exist at all. Their entirely jungles for one thing...secondly, their MOONS. Life that survives on them shouldn't because they will orbit Behind their mother planet ((Which would be bigger then them...)) and be blocked off from the sun, which means that their plant life will probably die. Their existance is a sin against god...

14:- Interspecies love...no, just no...do you look at a monkey and think "I wanna have sex with that?" No. you don't On that same note, if you have sex with a monkey, you can't make it/get pregnat from it can you? Thus Halfbreed don't exist either...thus, its a peeve.

~~snip~~

That's impressive. Majorly geeky, but still impressive. A few points, though:

{from point10}I find ramming is an effective tatic

In your extensive space battling days, was this?


{from point 14}if you have sex with a monkey, you can't make it/get pregnat from it can you?

Let me tell you, not having to worry about pregnancy really saves money. Not to mention the stress. I bet Rotovia wishes he was as smart as me.

4:- Different coloured lasers for each side...why? When is this likely to happen. Why do you need a green laser for one person and a red for another and an orange for another. There should not be different colours, they should all be one colour, unless its lasers, and that really doesn't matter. Besides knowing if your own friends or enemies shot you, there is no concevable reason. The design wouldn't be THAT different to wattent colour change.


The lasers are that why to avoid confusion.


12:- Single Climate planets...a planet will never be all desert ((Unless its something like Tatooine, and that by all rights should not be habital.)). Planets have climates because of the amount of light they get...how is this make an entire planet just one big jungle? Doesn't happen. One bigClimate like europe? Unlikely, although not as common, its still there ((Noticablly in 40K and Star wars))

I mainly desert planet is possible, it just would not be all desert (take Dune for example, it contains ice caps and under ground wells).


13:- Yavin 4 and Endor...neither should exist at all. Their entirely jungles for one thing...secondly, their MOONS. Life that survives on them shouldn't because they will orbit Behind their mother planet ((Which would be bigger then them...)) and be blocked off from the sun, which means that their plant life will probably die. Their existance is a sin against god...

Depends on their orbit. It is possible for those moons to orbit the mother planet without the sun being blocked.


14:- Interspecies love...no, just no...do you look at a monkey and think "I wanna have sex with that?" No. you don't On that same note, if you have sex with a monkey, you can't make it/get pregnat from it can you? Thus Halfbreed don't exist either...thus, its a peeve.

Possible (depends on how compatable the species is), but the offspring would be sterile.

I mainly desert planet is possible, it just would not be all desert (take Dune for example, it contains ice caps and under ground wells).


Dune, the well known non-fictional planet useful as proof.

And did anyone remember to tell Naggeroth it's all make-believe?

Sound and fire in space. Space is a vacuum. There's no oxygen to fuel fires and medium to carry sound. You wouldn't hear a ship explode unless you were actually in it.

Space is a vacuum.

Almost, but not quite.

Dune, the well known non-fictional planet useful as proof.

And did anyone remember to tell Naggeroth it's all make-believe?

I know it is make-believe. I am just giveing a realistic example of a mostly desert planet found in fiction.

Yes thank you for comming in and flaming, I know its make belive, but if my entire life falls in around my head I tend to get into critizing Sci fi. If you don't have anything usful to say, PLEASE don't.

Anyway, thanks for the critizims. Lets get some of your own

7:- All members of One race being the same. The Jaffa are all Ignorent. It continually annoys me, why are all races one single thing while humans are vastly different.
I take it you're a Jaffa, then. The word is spelt ignorant.
Incidently, in New Zealand, Jaffas are sugar-coated orange-flavoured chocolate candy:
http://www.diversionary.net/daily/images/temp/jaffas.jpg
We also refer to Aucklanders as Jaffas, as in 'Just Another Friggin' Fuckin' Aucklander'

But I digress.

While I agree with your peeves, I was surprised to see you didn't include (imo) the worst offenders:
Sound in space. I HATE THAT!!! One of the many reasons I love 2001 is that it is (as far as I'm aware) the only major motion picture to have no sound for the space scenes. The scene where Dave gets in through the airlock is really cool because of this.

The way space ships slow down in space by switching off their engines. Has no-one ever asked an astro-physicist or NASA scientist (or astronaut even) what happens in space, and that there is no friction? You can't stop just by switching your engine off! You need retro-engines, for god's sake!

While I'm at it - it's also annoying to see their engines still firing (with sound of course :rolleyes: ) even after they reach top speed. Again - no friction, so no need!

Now do these get me membership into the sci-fi geeky nerd club?

Hehe. Aw.


I've always been bothered by one thing in particular, and it's possible that I misheard, but... that little pissy race on ST Voyager, you know, elves (they get everywhere, don't they?) but shorter and full of telekinetic powers and shit... I'm sure Kes states that, typically, her species only goes through the... thing-where-they-can-get-pregnant once in a lifetime. And I believe that she has a single-child birth and isn't surprised about it. And I gather that they have two genders, and am of the belief that only one of those bears children.

So, erm, why aren't they extinct? Have I questioned this, before (probably not under this account name, but Beth Gellert can't log in), possibly when drunk? Even if there's only one male in the whole race and he fathers a child with every female in the whole species, the next generation is going to be one smaller if they have single births (some crazy sack in the back type birth made it look likely, to me). If there's a significant number of males, say a 50/50 split, the next generation will be half the size of the last. Die out, you stunted telekinetic elves!


...I dreamed half of this up, didn't I? I'll just be over here, hanging myself, then.

I take it you're a Jaffa, then. The word is spelt ignorant.

lol. Well spotted.

If you don't have anything usful to say, PLEASE don't.


But then I would never say anything! I'd be the only person with a negative post count.

Oh, and what was that thing about stupid people in charge? Picked up a newspaper lately, have we?

many good points raised.

And now your redeemed, thats a good line...truely is.

And sound in space, THATS THE ONE! I knew I had forgotten something....

5:- There truely are some shit ship designs out there. Hell, even my favorate universe, the main ship in it ((The Serenity)) is a FUCKED design, no reason to make it look like a miniture Horse. The Enterprise shouldn't have those fragile Warp engines on the back, the Star destroyer should NOT have a Bridge tower. The Klingons shouldn't have a thin swan neck design, These are easily fixed problems that people just put because it gives style, warships should NOT look stylish, they should be pratical, style comes later.
Well, the warp nacells actually have a reason as they need to be outside the ship and balanced to generate the field, but since this was made up to explain WHY the Enterprise was designed that way, point to your side. I was happy to see the damn stupid "neck" FINALLY taken out of the design though.

10:- People ramming enemy ships quite commonly, but ships not designed to handle this. I find it a tad annoying, but why do people ram enemies so often, but no one ever changes designs to allow this. I find ramming is an effective tatic, and it happens, but never is the damage it should have done to the enemy shown, but people never change design to account for this. Sure, it may seem barbaric, but if crew have the option to ram through the enemy ship ((40k, the Rever ships in Serenity)) then they can do a hell of a lot more damage to your enemy if your outclassed. It may seem stupid thing to say, but it SHOULD be an option.
I dunno... I mean if you look at the damage a kamikaze did in WWII to ships that DIDN'T have to worry about envio integrity...

11:- Aliens which are compleatly human in apperance besides a few differances. People seem not to realise we look the way we do because of a various envirometal things. The planets gravity Determins our average hight, the lighting our average eye sight, the reason we breath oxygen because oxygen is the main basis of our planet. Why do Klingons look the same besides Ridges, What about Romulans? Those Twiliki dancers in Wars ((Blue ones)) Where are the masks they would need filled with a blue gas, the main one that comes to mind methane. Our skin is the colour it is because of the fact we breath oxygen. Where in most sci fi are the races that don't breath oxygen. I don't mind humaniod, but they shouldn't be all highly similar.
Everyone in Sci-Fi (film) likes Star Trek's Class M theory, mainly being that we should assume that Earth represents a kind of glaxatic standard for what life needs to arise. Since that's that standard, most aliens that we could meet and communicate with would look very simular to us. The reason why it is so liked, IT'S CHEAPER! ;)

14:- Interspecies love...no, just no...do you look at a monkey and think "I wanna have sex with that?" No. you don't On that same note, if you have sex with a monkey, you can't make it/get pregnat from it can you? Thus Halfbreed don't exist either...thus, its a peeve.
This one's harder, especially after NS General had such a spirted debate about beastiality so I assume that some WOULD look at a monkey like that. ;)

In any case, anytime there is intelligence that can be communicated with and understood, the chance for love and relationships would be there. For offspring, yeah, that's not happening without genetic manipulation.

but if crew have the option to ram through the enemy ship ((40k, the Rever ships in Serenity)) then they can do a hell of a lot more damage to your enemy if your outclassed. It may seem stupid thing to say, but it SHOULD be an option.

Picky I know but in 40k, orks do have just such a ship. And of course any ship with a Mark of Khorne becomes a ramming ship by default.

Is everyone remembering that these films/TV shows have been designed so that people will watch them and be entertained, NOT educated in astro physics

Is everyone remembering that these films/TV shows have been designed so that people will watch them and be entertained, NOT educated in astro physics

ZOMG!!1111!!1111 You flamed Naggeroth!2"!!111 (apparently, anyway)

And it would seem not, no.

I mean, if you want to talk retarded sci-fi bullshit, lets start with the whole faster than light speed travel fucktardery.

Fry: That's impossible. Nothing can go faster than the speed of light.

Professor: Yes. That's why scientists increased the speed of light

Damn you Fox! Bring back Futurama!

Fry? Huh?
Wasn't it the Prof's clone?

[Sorry ;) ]

Fry? Huh?
Wasn't it the Prof's clone?

[Sorry ;) ]

Was it? I don't actually remember. The point remains that Futurama was great. And Fox suck. Damn them. And we want Futurama back.

Is it just me or does Star Wars seem to owe a lot of it's main themes to Dune? I mean, you got a desert planet in both, mystical fighting styles, an emphasis on melee weapons, arch nemesis' being related etc...

Seems suspicious to me.

Aye, think so, he was talking about how this is, "especially impossible" and... well, yeah, it doesn't matter. I'd be happy to see it [Futarama] back so long as there's no more along the lines of the repeat I saw this morning [Fry's dog- the life, death, and heart-rendingly near reanimation of]. It's all in the screen-name, tragically loyal dogs just get me... I have something in my eye!

[Runs off]

Is it just me or does Star Wars seem to owe a lot of it's main themes to Dune? I mean, you got a desert planet in both, mystical fighting styles, an emphasis on melee weapons, arch nemesis' being related etc...

Seems suspicious to me.

Someone should escort you out of this thread before the SW fanboys beat you over the head with plastic light sabers.

Originally posted by Naggeroth
11 - Aliens which are compleatly human in apperance besides a few differances. People seem not to realise we look the way we do because of a various envirometal things. The planets gravity Determins our average hight, the lighting our average eye sight, the reason we breath oxygen because oxygen is the main basis of our planet. Why do Klingons look the same besides Ridges, What about Romulans? Those Twiliki dancers in Wars ((Blue ones)) Where are the masks they would need filled with a blue gas, the main one that comes to mind methane. Our skin is the colour it is because of the fact we breath oxygen. Where in most sci fi are the races that don't breath oxygen. I don't mind humaniod, but they shouldn't be all highly similar.

Hmm, are you sure that's all right? I know the gravity and light thing is right, but the skin colour? That's determined by the amount of melanin in the skin, which is affected by the sunlight. Surely it would mean that if the local sun was blue (burned blue, whatever) then the skin colour would be blue - after all, both methane and oxygen are colourless gases, so surely they wouldn't affect skin colour.

Of course it's entirely possible that I'm wrong - I'm primarily physicist (with a bit of chemistry thown in for good measure) and in my opinion biology is the spawn of Satan, so my knowledge there may be somewhat... shaky.

Aye, think so, he was talking about how this is, "especially impossible" and... well, yeah, it doesn't matter. I'd be happy to see it [Futarama] back so long as there's no more along the lines of the repeat I saw this morning [Fry's dog- the life, death, and heart-rendingly near reanimation of]. It's all in the screen-name, tragically loyal dogs just get me... I have something in my eye!

[Runs off]

Arr, twas a good episode. And it got to me too, man. It's okay, you can cry.

Naggeroth, Space Opera isn't expected to bear any resemblance to the laws of physics or logic. That's why nobody gives a shit about it involving matter transmission, faster than light travel, or other stuff that's completely impossible. Calm down.

4:- Different coloured lasers for each side...why? When is this likely to happen. Why do you need a green laser for one person and a red for another and an orange for another. There should not be different colours, they should all be one colour, unless its lasers, and that really doesn't matter. Besides knowing if your own friends or enemies shot you, there is no concevable reason. The design wouldn't be THAT different to wattent colour change.
The only semi-scientific point behind this is that "redder" lasers are lower in energy that green lasers or lasers shifted towards "purple" end of the visible spectrum. I'm guessing that it costs too much money to mass-produce a higher energy laser, so it has to get tuned down (E.G: A prototype beam saber that is generally weilded by Gundams is oftentimes purple/higher energy. Generally their mass-produced counterparts weild lower energy/yellow-ish beam sabers)

Also, I hate it when a small starfighter/weapon manages to wipe out a capital ship. I really don't care that "they're so small they're evading our turbolasers" or crap like that; Capital ships are designed to fight other capital ships, not just carry fighters to blow up enemy ships.

Right, over the last few weeks I have been seeing a lot of Sci Fi, I saw all 6 starwars movies over one night, Star trek Nemisis, and a few episodes of stargate. And a number of things have become obvious to me, which shouldn't be there. I am going to place them here.

1~14

Wow. That was pretty good. Let me guess, the only sci-fi series you really enjoyed for design was ExoSquad and Babylon 5?

Our skin is the colour it is because of the fact we breath oxygen.

Uh-huh. Chameleons breathe oxygen. Blue whales breathe oxygen. Bats breathe oxygen. Toads breath oxygen. What was that you were saying about oxugne breathing determining the colour of our skin?

Something to do with capilaries full of blood threaded through the skin, perhaps?

Also, I hate it when a small starfighter/weapon manages to wipe out a capital ship. I really don't care that "they're so small they're evading our turbolasers" or crap like that; Capital ships are designed to fight other capital ships, not just carry fighters to blow up enemy ships.

Hey, sci-fi film makers for the most part are just using WWII and late C20th naval combat as their model for space combat - there are plenty of examples of planes crippling or destroying ships in there, so it seems foolish to complain about it.

One that nobody's mentioned yet: The Time-Travel Reset Button (tm).

I've seen it too many times: you go through an entire episode, and then at the end, some time-travel trick will make all of it never have happened. Voyager was particularly guilty of this. The best Voyager episode ever ("A Year of Hell") finally did everything that Voyager should have been doing all along - the ship was a wreck, the crew was much reduced in numbers and had some serious, permanent injuries, the captain was turning obsessive-compulsive, and they were fighting for their lives all the time. And then, at the end, they pushed the reset button, time warped and flexed, and none of it had happened. :headbang:

I'm much more annoyed by this sort of thing than by some other common time-travel tricks, such as circular causality or alternate timelines affecting the main timeline. Those can be cool if done properly (which they rarely are, but it's possible - see the Star Trek Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" for a particularly good use of this. And never mind how they screwed it up in later episodes.)

God damn British Imperialism in SG1! No matter what planet they go to they people usually speak english! Why!?:headbang:

1. All future technology just works. Like magic. All the time. Just like in real life. Right.

2. Except when it doesn't -- those stupid sparks. If I were the captain of the Enterprise, I would have turned that half-wired death-trap right back to base and told them to get me a real ship. I mean, did they have a whole deck devoted to storing electrical tape and fire extinguishers?

3. Re 1 and 2, technology keeps working despite sparks and smoke. Riiiiight...

One thing to keep in mind about aliens and planets is that most aliens will have the size, shape, and basic functions of humans because they're played by actors. If you want all CGI critters, I have three words for you: Jar, Jar, and Binks. Planets will all be like Earth because we're on Earth and sometimes, it's cheaper to shoot on location, and even if it's not, it's always cheaper to recycle props and sets from other shows.

Hey, sci-fi film makers for the most part are just using WWII and late C20th naval combat as their model for space combat - there are plenty of examples of planes crippling or destroying ships in there, so it seems foolish to complain about it.
It would be nice to see a space battle taking place in silence rather than with loud zapping noises, the big spaceships making a noise like a train and the small ones sounding like jets, though...

{snip}
3:- Sparks...I swear to god...who thought that something when slightly bumped sparks and hurts is better...fiber optics don't spark, they work well...why do we need something that DOES spark? The only reason is its motovation for the crew. "Hurry up and get the job done cause I am about to EXPLODE!"
{snip}
Next time - buy something made with Union labor man!

It would be nice to see a space battle taking place in silence rather than with loud zapping noises, the big spaceships making a noise like a train and the small ones sounding like jets, though...

No, it wouldn't. it'd be really boring. Besides, on board a ship, I'd expect the computer to have the sounds of enemy weapons/ships stored on board. As such, to fully utilise the range of senses we have, the computer would play these noises as necessary. That way you won't need to see the ship/sensors in order to know what's blasting you.

A computer that smart would possibly be able to run the fight itself without human inteference, though.
It wouldn't necessarily be boring: the first scene from Star Wars would work pretty well like that. The two craft moving silently, apart from the panicked distress signals from the blockade runner which are drowned out by a gale of feedback every time the Star Destroyer fires at it...

I guess this would not work very well on screen; but, here is what I'd like to see: Just before entering combat the ships' captain orders the crew into their semiarmored space suits & then dumps the air.

I mean, come on! If you really want to rock then you're gonna see some holes poked in your ship anyways, right?

Or the leaks from holes in the hull going to be all that serious, though?

I don't know if it's lready been mentioned or not but it irks me that whenever anything in a sci-fi movie is presented from the point of view of a robot we see scrolling diplays of text and numbers with endless decimals. Computers and robots don't need these, all such visual displays are for you and me, there is no reason that the robot would display these in it's field of view.

I guess this would not work very well on screen; but, here is what I'd like to see: Just before entering combat the ships' captain orders the crew into their semiarmored space suits & then dumps the air.

I mean, come on! If you really want to rock then you're gonna see some holes poked in your ship anyways, right?

You've been at the old Classic Traveller rules again, haven't you?

You've been at the old Classic Traveller rules again, haven't you?
Heh heh heh heh heh. Guilty!

Heh heh heh heh heh. Guilty!

Next you'll be arguing that ship mounted weaponry should only be fired once every 16 minutes. It did have a 1000 second turn system for space combat, didn't it?

Or the leaks from holes in the hull going to be all that serious, though?
I'm parsing this as "Are the leaks ..."

People can be surprised by how long it can take to depresurize a room full of air if the hole is golf ball sized or smaller. Can take a long time.

Once again tho', if you're gonna rock why take the chance?

This way even if the ship gets all beat to hell, most of the crew may survive the process with some good stories for the grandkids. Or to play the boarding party ( And I do mean party ) game.

Next you'll be arguing that ship mounted weaponry should only be fired once every 16 minutes. It did have a 1000 second turn system for space combat, didn't it?
Some times one wants to just kick back & take the time to really, really, savor all that killing...

"Sociopathic adventure in the far future!"

God damn British Imperialism in SG1! No matter what planet they go to they people usually speak english! Why!?:headbang:
Because they were all transported from Earth by the Goa'uld, which really doesn't explain anything. I assume they just got tired of having the actors try and learn their lines in probably gibberish languages.

Some times one wants to just kick back & take the time to really, really, savor all that killing...

If nothing else it sure makes those SFB/CT crossovers into one-sided fights.

Hey, sci-fi film makers for the most part are just using WWII and late C20th naval combat as their model for space combat - there are plenty of examples of planes crippling or destroying ships in there, so it seems foolish to complain about it.
Well it's not so much a problem if the planes attack en masse; what I get pissed about is the whole lone-X-Wing/fighter/etc-blows-up-huge-ass-ship-against-all-odds

Well it's not so much a problem if the planes attack en masse; what I get pissed about is the whole lone-X-Wing/fighter/etc-blows-up-huge-ass-ship-against-all-odds

Yeah, well that's just bad space opera cheese.

1:- Wide Hallways with Alcoves

Wide hallways? Fine. Some things are too small to fit through narrow hallways. Alcoves? Sure, why not? Hallways on spaceships tend to be long and if someone is coming down the hall with a very wide piece of equipment, it would be nice to have somewhere to retreat to to let them pass by instead of having to retreat all the way back to the beginning of the hallway.

2:- Stupid people in command.

People in command often appear stupid because they have more options for action. This theory is borne out by the Petals Around The Rose (http://www.borrett.id.au/computing/petals-bg.htm) game. Finally, the solution that they come up with has to be obvious to the reader/observer. Two ships may be locked in deadly/mismatched combat and if the captain orders "target the Missenhoff Unit!", they fire weapons, and the ship blows up, the reader/observer is going to be left thinking "wtf happened?"

3:- Sparks
Why not sparks? I would put the reason for sparks in the same category as the reason that methane gas smells like rotten eggs: if it's not uncomfortable, people are going to underestimate the danger involved.

4:- Different coloured lasers for each side...why?

To distinguish friendly fire from enemy fire. It's the same reason that military units wear uniforms. Granted, you can always be sneaky and put on someone else's uniform or have your weapon's fire color be the same as the enemy's, but that's just not cricket.

5:- There truely are some shit ship designs out there.
I'm not suprized. Considering that ship design does not have to take into account things like gravity, or, in many sci-fi universes, inertia, any ship design is possible. A brick will zip through space with the same ease as some cool, streamlined-looking thing. Considering ships are not subjected to these limitations, artistic designers will design them so they fit their concept of cool, regardless of the functionality.

6:- Trenches

Easy access to infrastructure. In most sci-fi universes, they have never heard of OSHA, and see no reason to comply with basic safety considerations if it means getting at things easier.

7:- All members of One race being the same.
Well, yea, I can't see that as happening to the extremes that it does, but it helps to emphasize the "alienness" of other races. It wouldn't make for good story if all characters were homogenized to the point where you couldn't make any distinctions between one and the other.

8:-Super Stations

9:- Ships bigger then they have to be.

Like everything else, everyone assumes that bigger is better, so the idea is to make something intimidating looking. If you were walking down a dark alley and at one end was Chewbacca and at the other end was Yoda, which one would you assume is the easier target?

10:- People ramming enemy ships quite commonly, but ships not designed to handle this.

Face it. Spaceships are expensive. Even if your sci-fi economy has no money, it does have manpower and resources, both of which are heavily invested in making ships. Any tactic where one sacrifices themself to harm their opponent is considered unorthodox and generally is not anticipated.

11:- Aliens which are compleatly human in apperance besides a few differances.
This may change now with the advent of CGI, but not to the limits one might think. Sure you could have an alien race that looked liked big rocks that move by teleporting, but nobody could really relate to them, so there would be limited opportunities for anthropomorphism and limited opportunities for developing a sense of understanding.

12:- Single Climate planets

13:- Yavin 4 and Endor

The assumption is that planets have a single climate, simply because the action on a planet tends to take place in one location. As far as the moons go, it's possible to have the rotation and revolution of the moons around their planets work out so they could have adequate periods of light and darkness for life. Not likely, but it's cool to think such a thing could be possible.

14:- Interspecies love
Love is blind after all. Why not? The reproductive things? Yeah, that's pushing it beyond reasonable.

Yeah, well that's just bad space opera cheese.
True - but there are a few excellent hard sci-fi space operas out there, no matter how few they be.

I'm parsing this as "Are the leaks ..."

People can be surprised by how long it can take to depresurize a room full of air if the hole is golf ball sized or smaller. Can take a long time.

Once again tho', if you're gonna rock why take the chance?

This way even if the ship gets all beat to hell, most of the crew may survive the process with some good stories for the grandkids. Or to play the boarding party ( And I do mean party ) game.
I did mean "are". I'm assuming that there's going to be a huge volume of air compared to the size of the hole, so dumping the whole spaceship into vacuum before starting would be pointless, whatever Marc Miller says...

True - but there are a few excellent hard sci-fi space operas out there, no matter how few they be.

Indeed. I used the phrase 'bad space opera' in an attempt to show that I was refering to a particular kind of space opera, rather than so as to dismiss it all out of hand, however this may not have been clear.

Chain reactions are another huge peeve to add to that list. What do we do to destroy a moon-sized space station? Chain reaction. How do we take down a several kilometer long flagship? Chain reaction. How do we blow up a ground-based planetary shield system? Chain reaction.

Star Wars is pretty big on this, but it's definately not limited to it. It keeps things simple for a few hours of film, but damn does it get annoyingly frustrating. You'd think that ship architects would know better than that.

Just because of all the incorrect speculation I thought I would post what determines human skin color. Human skin is a combination of the melanin (which gives brown and black colors) and blood. Blood is red not because of Oxygen, but because the hemoglobin that caries the oxygen contains iron. The iron is red (just like how rust is red). Not everything living thing on earth has red blood because they use different metals to carry their oxygen.

One of my pet peeves is the cliche of the spiritualist. In every SCI-FI show they have this really reserved, calm, collected, aloof character who pocesses a whole range of unknown but great power/knowledge. This is part of the Wests love for Budhist imagery and it just gets on my nerves.

I believe they parody the cliche on LEXX when they encounter this man on the beach in Japan who seems to be meditating and may pocess some great power. It turns out that he is some fool who has been tricked into joining an organ harvesting cult and his "meditation" is actually him fainting due to the pain of his "mechanical organs". He sold his real organs to the cult to get enlightenment and in the end he dies.

~snip~
Granted, you can always be sneaky and put on someone else's uniform or have your weapon's fire color be the same as the enemy's, but that's just not cricket.

~snip~


Doesnt your location say you are in America? so why on earth are you saying anything about cricket?

and yes i know the saying