vilakins: (cally alien)
Nico ([personal profile] vilakins) wrote2005-10-21 06:04 pm
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SF conventions--of another sort

Someone on an SF mailing list directed me to an interesting post on [livejournal.com profile] james_nicoll's LJ.

If you could make one convention of modern SF go away, which one would you choose?

If you could add one, what would you add?
I commented there but I decided I'd like to know what you think. My picks are:
Get rid of the hackneyed civilisation where--gasp, how original!--women are oppressed. Even Farscape and Firefly have done it. Use some imagination already.

I want more alien aliens. How about furry aliens, or insectoid ones instead of the usual humanoids, and let's play with gender with a little more imagination. How about societies with several sexes, where you need more than two to procreate, or a hive society? Anything but clichéd old recycled human ones.
But you knew that. :-)

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[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
That's an excellent example of the sort of thing I'd like to see more of. [livejournal.com profile] astrogirl2 loves that series too; I think she's been watching it lately.

So, what are your picks? :-)
ext_166: Over a Canadian flag: "No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in real life!" (Default)

[identity profile] lizamanynames.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, the one I want to go away is:

(and this isn't just Sci-fi, this is EVERY TV SHOW EVER WRITTEN that's not a sitcom, it feels like.)

OMG, Unresolved Sexuel Tension!

I want a TV show where the lead character and his/her love interest find each other mutually attractive, form a rapport, fall in love...

And stay together. And have a nice, stable, open, honest relationship with a sane and normal level of conflict, that mostly stays in the background except on very very very RARE occasions when the plot revolves around it. Or hell, where they're together when the show starts. Less John/Aeryn, more Wash/Zoe, please.

What would I add? ...more alien aliens really gets my vote too, ESPECIALLY the gender thing.

Other than that, though...

(I am utterly aware how freaking impractical this is, but...)

Having the aliens TALK ALIEN, and subtitle it. Alien Nation, again, did this right. Alternately, it would be nice is alien talk is handled CONSISTANTLY. Either everybody talks one language for whatever reason and exceptions are subtitled or we have magic translation devices and everybody understands everybody, and there's no need to show off quoting latin or klingon, because it WON'T MATTER. (I'm looking at YOU, Star Trek!!) Farscape was really good most of the time, the Translator microbes felt alot more beleivable than the UT in Trek, and they sure as hell were MUCH better about idioms than Trek was, but they goofed on occasion.

I'm a linguist. A) this stuff gets under my skin, and B) acting as a translator for a sci-fi show is my DREAM JOB.
kerravonsen: cover of "Komarr" by LMB: Science Fiction (SF)

[personal profile] kerravonsen 2005-10-21 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
I agree with both of those -- I want more happily married couples, darn it!
And YES for the languages stuff.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
You know, SG1 started off well with the language thing, forcing Daniel to learn a few words of a culture's language so he could communicate, but it didn't take them long to have cultures separated from Earth for millennia all speaking fluent American when the SG team found them. Sigh. That's a good choice because it's one that irritates the hell out of me each time.

And yeah, B7 does it too.
ext_166: Over a Canadian flag: "No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in real life!" (Default)

[identity profile] lizamanynames.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 11:25 am (UTC)(link)
Honestly, the languages thing is one of the reasons I got turned OFF SG1.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. It annoyed me each time, but I kept watching because of Jack-wit. I wish they'd kept up their good start.
ext_166: Over a Canadian flag: "No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in real life!" (Default)

[identity profile] lizamanynames.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm rather liking Atlantis, so maybe I'll give SG-1 another shot - though the language thing STILL bugs me.
kernezelda: (drd blue)

[personal profile] kernezelda 2005-10-21 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I would have been interested to see in Farscape an episode where the translator microbes failed entirely. "Through The Looking Glass" in Season One touched on this very lightly, but it would have been neat to see how the whole crew dealt with suddenly realizing how much they depended on translation.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Some of the people they encountered didn't have them (e.g. the Diagnosan) and Sikozu had to learn Crichton's language from listening to him (I assume she also had to learn Nebari and Luxan etc) but of course she was an incredibly fast learner. At least they provided an explanation, even if it was very babel-fish; most series don't give them and BSG drives me crazy by being a parallel-developed US society (but I love it anyway).
ext_166: Over a Canadian flag: "No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in real life!" (Default)

Funny you should mention...

[identity profile] lizamanynames.livejournal.com 2005-10-21 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
...I've got a fic in the "Appleseeds" series I'm working on with that EXACT premise. Coming up with all the Sebacean, Banik, Traskan, Interion, Delvian, Nebari, Luxan, Diagnosian and Scarren dialogue is actually quite fun, as is the mangled English:

Chracter one: My English... not good.
Character two: (mutters) More good than Eglish mine.
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