In science fiction . . .

[MrFun]

whether it's in novels, television series, or movies, some characters are shown to be half human and half some species of a type of alien humanoid.

But since different species cannot breed together to produce offspring, how do writers and producers work around that?

[DaShi]

Seriously?

[loinburger]

In the absence of having two species that are able to produce offspring together, they typically use costumes and makeup to mimic the effect of members of two different species mating

[Egbert]

They just have them reproduce anyway. Isn't Spock half human and half Vulcan?

[Asher]

In the absence of having two species that are able to produce offspring together, they typically use costumes and makeup to mimic the effect of members of two different species mating

[MrFun]

In the absence of having two species that are able to produce offspring together, they typically use costumes and makeup to mimic the effect of members of two different species mating

Now that we got the dumb answers out of the way . . . .


What creative reasoning or thinking do they use, that allows readers/watchers to suspend their disbelief?

[Egbert]

/attempt at sensible answer/

I think, at least in some cases, the only rationale may be "the viewers watched this rubbish before so they will watch it again".

IIRC I have read a story in which humanoids were scattered through the galaxy by some ancient alien species and although evolving a bit, so they looked a bit different, some humanoid sub-species remained able to interbreed.

IIRC In some other book, the basic rationale was that life evolves in a similar way on all planets hence a possibility of interbreeding. Pseudo-sccientific b*ll**** of course.

The reasoning behind humans breeding with aliens has always, at least with the books and movies I have read or seen, been plain dumb. A thin veneer of BS to encourage willing viewers to ignore an absurdity.

[-Jrabbit]

The key is to ratchet up the "fiction" while letting the "science" part slide.
This is particularly true in visual media.

[MrFun]

/attempt at sensible answer/

I think, at least in some cases, the only rationale may be "the viewers watched this rubbish before so they will watch it again".

IIRC I have read a story in which humanoids were scattered through the galaxy by some ancient alien species and although evolving a bit, so they looked a bit different, some humanoid sub-species remained able to interbreed.

IIRC In some other book, the basic rationale was that life evolves in a similar way on all planets hence a possibility of interbreeding. Pseudo-sccientific b*ll**** of course.

The reasoning behind humans breeding with aliens has always, at least with the books and movies I have read or seen, been plain dumb. A thin veneer of BS to encourage willing viewers to ignore an absurdity.

I thought maybe the writers and producers thought of some creative way of explaining how DNA or chromosomes would be such between certain alien humanoids and humans.

For instance, the Star Trek series - were all alien humanoids and humans able to mate and produce offspring? Or only with some alien humanoids because of the right relation or whatever between their DNA or chromosomes?

[giblets]

whether it's in novels, television series, or movies, some characters are shown to be half human and half some species of a type of alien humanoid.

But since different species cannot breed together to produce offspring, how do writers and producers work around that?

I get it, Star Trek is stupid.

[Al B. Sure!]

There are no human-alien hybrids in Stargate

[MrFun]

Amen to that, Albi. Stargate SG1 is great IMO - Atlantis, not as great, but good.

[Lorizael]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chase_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

[loinburger]

Now that we got the dumb answers out of the way . . . .

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. "How do science fiction writers deal with the fact that they're writing about fictional science?" We're talking about a genre that incorporates faster than light travel, time travel, zombies, god-like entities (e.g. the Eschaton), etc.

[Elok]

Yep, Loin nailed it. Aliens from distant planets interbreeding is peanuts compared to a ship less than a mile long somehow pulling enough energy out of its ass to warp space and time for light-years' distance. Then pulling itself across the shortened spot while still holding it together. Considering the distances, this is vastly sillier than suggesting a squirrel could juggle the Pyramids. Never explained: why can't it use the warp drive on any ship that messes with it, ripping it into subatomic particles, instead of screwing around with phasers and such? At least with the aliens you could make up some rubbish about convergent evolution that almost half makes sense if you squint at it. Or the "ancient seed" ideas already mentioned.

Also, shields are pretty ludicrous. And the transporter. Why the hell are the Enterprise's thruster-doohickies connected to its body by long, skinny poles, anyway? Warp drive or not, there are going to be some stresses from acceleration, plus the off-center engine is going to make the damn thing rotate at least as much as it translates. It's just piss-poor engineering. Also, the--oh, wait, that's right! IT'S A TV SHOW!