Tired old SF clichés

[vilakins]

Some further thoughts and a rant about the script of the Farscape episode Coup by Clam.

I was surprised to find this was written by a woman, Emily Skopov. There were some very good bits--the shellfish containing neurologically-linked bacteria which gave the people who ate them the same symptoms, and Crichton in drag which had me laughing out loud--but we had [rolls eyes] yet another society which oppresses women. Just what goes on here? Do writers think to themselves, "I know! I'll write about a culture in which woman don't count. That'll be original--it's only been done 5000 times, and it's not like it happens on this planet."

Bloody hell, why not write something really different, like a race with several sexes, all of which are needed for procreation, or one with a hive-mind? Or confound our expectations: I loved the garbage-collecting alien, Staanz, in The Flax who appeared male but was actually female, though he was cancelled out by the bloodhound couple Rorf and Rorg in Till the Blood Runs Clear who regarded females as inferior and owned by males. I think I've read only one or two stories in which females were dominant and usually this 'unnatural state' has been corrected by the end. Not that I approve of that sort of society either, but it would have been much more original, and also fun to see Aeryn and Sikozu in drag.

Sexist societies appear in every SF show I can think of. Hey, script-writers, how about a little more thought and invention and a lot less tired and offensive cliché?

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The bloodhounds annoyed me too, but I could have regarded them as a one-off.

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

Yeah. You know what I've always wanted to see? A society in the same stage of recovering from a destructive matriarchy that we are from a destructive patriarchy. Complete with assumptions about the nature of male intelligence and martial ability, and a reform movement being faced with a backlash and (in the context of Farscape) Aeryn going "Oh, please. Crichton's just an idiot, it has nothing to do with the fact he has a penis."

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I love it! Yeah, that would be an excellent script idea.

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

*G* I can just see it - the "But... but... What!" from Crichton, and the general shock that Rygel was once in charge of people, and Chiana having serious trouble with a culture where women are not supposed to seduce people in manner she does, and I think it'd have to be the Stark and Zhaan both period.

Because it would be fun to watch Enlightened Men trying to wake Stark up to the gender issues inherent in him being romantically involved with his mentor.

[kerravonsen]

Write it!

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

But I'd have to have a plot, you see, and these are things that often hide from me.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It would make a wonderful Farscape story. What she said: write it!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

*adds voice to chorus of pleas* :)

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

*will try* :)

[kerravonsen]

(points to icon)
It's obvious from above comments that you are already thinking of dialogue, which is the core of character, and character is the core of plot, so don't get hung up on it. What your goal for the story is, is to explore how all these interesting characters react to this recovering-from-a-destructive-matriarchy society.

Plot:
1. They go to the planet for supplies (they are always going to planets for supplies)
2. There is a misunderstanding, either because Aerin goes to get the supplies, or Rigel goes to negotiate for the supplies, or Crichton goes along with either one.
3. Crichton gets thrown in jail, and/or, Crichton gets accidentally involved with fringe reformers and gets thrown in jail
4. Aerin and Rigel try to get him out
5. Chiana tries to get him out
6. Various other characters get lost, stolen or strayed
7. Crichton gets out, having taught his fellow inmates and jailers something about equality. Or one of them, anyway.
8. They get the supplies, they leave.

There's your plot. The fun is in the dialogue. Go for it.

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

*G* Good point!

I'll have to work on it - the point would be the tension between legal equality (almost) and effective equality, which are not the same thing at all, but...

Oh, it would be fun. And Crichton does have an amazing ability to get himself into troublesome situations.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read C.J. Cherryh? Her Chanur novels do a reasonably good job of showing a society very slowly making exactly that transition. Or so I recall. It's been a while since I read them.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

There's a bit of it, to hop genres, in Mary Renault's The King Must Die!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

[The exclamation mark was mine, not Ms Renault's.]

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

I've read some of Renault. Her books about Alexander, for the most part. I'll have to try that one. Thanks!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

It's het, unlike Last of the Wine and the Alexander sequence, but none the worse for that. And the bull court is enthralling.

Sorry, Nico, we seem to have collapsed this thread.

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

Bull court! Yay! Dang, I love that period of art. So very pretty.

Oops. We have. Sorry, my fault!

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

Oh, no I haven't. People have recced her to me often, though. I really ought to quit getting sidetracked and actually check out the books people suggest to me. :D

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I like Cherryh. Her books can be slow-going sometimes (she loves to pack as much information as possible into single lines of dialog, so you have to read her carefully), and some of them are a lot better than others, but her best stuff is definitely worth reading, IMHO. The Chanur books are mostly space-adventure stuff, but she did put a lot of thought into her alien cultures, and it shows.

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

Yay! Well thought out alien cultures! And space-adventure, yum.

And I love being forced to read closely. It's probably something to do with all the close textual criticism I read at an early age. Warped me badly.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

TNG did it, and it was rather tedious; I'm afraid what's a bad cliche in one direction is just as bad a cliche in the other direction.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

The TNG one was exceptionally bad, but then it was first season, when they were still playing Riker as a boring juvenile romantic lead rather than a quite interesting man with a beard. It could be done better. And I suppose I'm saying Renault did it better.

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

Well, part of the problem is that TNG was pretty much replaying a TOS episode that was as throughly not feminist as you could get. It ended up re-enforcing the idea that male superiority is right and natural, not pointing out the ridiculous nature of our prejudiced social structures.

Plus, you know, it was Riker. Riker has a terrible tendency to be a pompous, humorless tool, esp in the first season.