Big SF intellectual screwups

[GePap]

There are many levels to Sciece fiction, from very deep, almost philosophical things, to extremely shallow progarms made for pure netertainment value. I am interested in the noble failures.

Many times, some Sci-Fi ook, or show, introduces an idea hat could be great, could bring up so many intersting intellectual ideas, or great story-lines, and instead the author or director wastes it, mangles it, and creates great crap out of it. Other times, Sci-Fi writers try to tackle complex ideas and end up making mockery, like a 3 year old trying to recreate the Mona Lisa with crayons on a napkin. So, what and which do you think have been the great wastes of the medium, where what could have been just never was?

Two simple examples: The notion of the Borg in Star Trek: great issues about the meaning of society and what ultimate values we should foster: become a simple, ant-hive enemy that the valiant individuals most fight, like in a million other stories.

The TV show Andromeda's handling of the philosophy of Frederich Nietzsche

[DinoDoc]

Out of curiosity, what would you have done with the Borg that you think would have been better?

[carnide_]

Vintage SF books (and comics), describing the jungles of Venus.

[St Leo]

Why didn't the Borg have an "I"? In distributed computing, the node does need a pointer for oneself.

[loinburger]

Thing thing I never got about Starship Troopers (the movie, never read the book) was: why didn't the humans use tanks? I mean, the main grunt for the bugs was the kind with the scythe arms, so why not put the humans in a big metal pod so that the buggers couldn't get to them?

[DinoDoc]

IIRC, they had advanced armor in the book.

[Mr. President]

Have you read Hyperion by Dan Simmons? I think that universe had potential, but he made the book so obtuse.

[Kepler]

I remember when Space: 1999 came out Isaac Asimov wrote a list of 100 technical mistakes. My favorite was that even though the explosion of a nuclear dump on the "dark side" of the moon wouldn't result in any thrust, even if it did this would push the moon into and not away from the Earth. ;-)

Changing the planet in 2001 from Saturn to Jupiter was fairly lame as well, though that was an intentional decision, not a screw-up.

[Dis]

faster than light travel

[Ramo]

Asimov's psychohistory. It's an amazing concept, but he didn't explore the implications of a historical system being predicable (it must have some sort of feedback mechanism, for instance).

[Wraith]

--"why didn't the humans use tanks?"

The answer to this in the movie was because then you couldn't see all the pretty faces, and they obviously weren't hired to act...

I would recommend reading the book. It's much better.
In the book, they use powered armor. Big suits (described as making the wearer look like a hydrocephalic gorilla) of heavy armor and weapons. The main points in using them instead of tanks was mobility and ease-of-use (some training for C&C type systems, but most of it was wear-and-go). The fights against the bugs were very much different.

Wraith
You Can't Judge a Book by its Movie

[BustaMike]

I would recommend reading the book. It's much better.

BLASPHEMY!!!! Starship Troopers is one of the greatest movies ever! Period.

Anyone who doesn't see this simply didn't understand the movie. Of course it doesn't make sense. It's a satire. The reason the humans didn't use tanks... it wouldn't be funny.

Things that make this movie great -
Communism vs. Fascism theme
Awesome Commercials
Doogie Howser dressed as Hitler
"Mormon Extremist" settlement on Pi
The fact that it's the future and they're using machine guns and ground troops
A million other things I'm forgetting right now

Come on guys! I think you really missed the point.

[Bosh]

Hmmmmm, let's see, pretty much anything Heilein ever said about sexual relationships.

[Skanky Burns]

It's a satire.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by carnide_
Vintage SF books (and comics), describing the jungles of Venus.

Beg pardon? Any story playing on Venus HAS to have jungles. And scantily clad (sp?) Princesses. And don't make me start on Mars...

God, I love Burroughs