Not so Favorite Science Fiction Films
The list of bad Science Fiction films which are bad on the grounds that they do not take their own speculation seriously is a list is too long for me to write. We all wonder why someone does not merely outrun the slow-moving mummy, or why the aliens from SIGNS did not simply wear a raincoat, fer cryin’ out loud.
If you live in an evil society that burns all books, what about storing them on microfilm rather than going to the trouble of memorizing the whole book?
If you have a time machine, why no go back five minutes and prevent yourself from making the mistake that started the plot conflict you are in?
If you know your enemy is a immaterial and holographic illusion-being that can look like any of your friends, why not agree with your friends on the hand-shake rule: no friendis friendly until you confirm with a handshake that he is made of matter?
If your laser-pistol only fires once every five minutes, due to a technical limitation on the weapon, why not carry two or five or ten of the darn pistols? Why not have a revolver that switches the shooting elements after each shot? (This one is from a book, not from a movie, but you get the general idea.)
If you have a transporter machine that, when it malfunctions, can produce two of you, or a younger version of you, or eliminate disease spores from your body, why not have Doctor McCoy give you the same injection he gave you in the PLATO’S STEPCHILDREN episode, so that you have way cool psychokenetic powers? (Okay, that last question did not make any sense, but I hope you can see what I am driving at.)
So let me just sum up a general rule:
WRIGHT’S FIRST LAW OF SCIENCE FICTION LAMEBRAINISHNESS: if one of the player-characters in a Dungeons and Dragon’s game would think of doing something more clever, given the laws of nature and the technology you have invented in your invented world, than what you have had your own characters do, then your character is a Lamebrain.
COROLLARY: If your characters is a lamebrain, it means you have not thought through the speculative implications of your invented world. But thinking through the speculative implications of your invented world is what science fiction writers are paid to do.
Here is an example. If you establish that your psychic powers are based on mitachlorian bodies in the bloodstream, what is the logical thing to do?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
