Remember those common themes in Science Fiction?

[Tracker]

It also explains away the pesky Fermi's Paradox that SF writers don't want to have to deal with.

Okay, enlighten me....Fermi's Paradox???

[Wandering Tamer]

Okay, enlighten me....Fermi's Paradox???

The Fermi paradox is a paradox proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi that questions the probability of finding intelligent extraterrestrial life. More specifically, it deals with attempts to answer one of the most profound questions of all time: "Are we (human beings) the only technologically advanced civilization in the Universe?". The paradox was formulated in response to the Drake equation for estimating the number of extraterrestrial civilizations with which we might come in contact. Subject to the values inserted into this formula, the Drake equation seems to imply that we should not expect such contact to be extremely rare.

Fermi questioned this conclusion. He asked that if there were a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy, the Milky Way, then, "Where are they? Why haven't we seen any traces of intelligent extraterrestrial life, such as probes, spacecraft or transmissions?". Those who adhere to the premise behind the Fermi paradox often refer to that premise as the Fermi principle.

The paradox can therefore be summed up as follows: The commonly held belief that the universe has many technologically advanced civilizations, combined with our observations that suggest otherwise, is paradoxical, suggesting that either our understanding or our observations are flawed or incomplete. - WIKIPEDIA

I other words, this allowed for the writers to creat advanced civilizations where and when they are required for intereaction. A more logical approach would be the time is also a factor. Humans have only been "advanced" for a relatively short period of time if going by univseral standards. So, while there could be thousands of advanced species, they might not all exist at the same time

[DigiEmissary]

I think that idea is used as a way of explaining ancient ruins on our planets. I mean, we have ruins of societies that date back further then we can record history. It does make for interesting spin offs.

I was also wondering what everyone thought about an Ancient race seeding life in the galaxy. The Ancients did it and so did that race in STar Trek.

I personally think the Ancients weren't the first to do this. They seeded human life, but we've seen other aliens and they're all bipedal, have eyes, ears, skin, mouths, etc. (which indicates that they're DNA-based.) That something like this would happen randomly is implausible to the point of practical impossibility, so someone/thing probably spread a primitive form of life around into certain environments.

This happened in Star Trek (an unnamed race seeded DNA around the cosmos.)

[Buggy542]

There's a hilarious site with loads of SciFi clichés here: http://enphilistor.users4.50megs.com/cliche.htm

[Unas]

There's a hilarious site with loads of SciFi clichés here: http://enphilistor.users4.50megs.com/cliche.htm

I already had it in my first post to this thread.

[Tok'Ra Hostess]

Another common theme is that good guys think and move at FTL speed, which is really handy in space battles.

[Dahak]

The Fermi Paradox basicly says (after a whole bunch of complicated math) that it would take no longer than 60 million years to colonize the entire galaxy. It has a lot of variables and since the guy that came up with it had an IQ of about 200 it can be pretty involved.
Probably my pet peeve SF cliche is space ships fighting at ranges of hundreds of yards. What is this the Spanish Armada? WW2 fighters didn't get as close together as a star trek, star wars, B5, and all the rest do. While I know the real reason is that it's far more interesting to see both ships shooting each other when Capt. Archer says," we need to get withing 500 meters" it PO's me every time.

[KingofAquitaine]

I would say one major theme is we are being watched by a benevolent race much greater than we are, who often interveine and seem to get in our way. Always realising in the end we "have to make our own mistakes"

INterestingly all human societies in the future are democratic, yet hardly any other alien races are. Even the nice ones, our allys either have a cast system, or a feudal type system, gerentocricy etc. Never a democratic system that resembles earths in anyway.

"our" passion for exploration and inginuity is always expressed some way

other less serious ones are:

even races far more advanced still have a penelty that requires a fight to the death

No one ever has TV or radio

Fashion in the future is s**t and composes of either toga-style one pieces, or pastel shades

No one ever respects our customs, even when on earth or aboard an earth ship

Ships never meet each other upside-down ^_^

[DragonGate]

Then there's Alternate Realities. Both Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 have done them. Alternate reality is the ultimate expression of the "What if?'s" created in a person's life. Who doesn't speculate how things might have been different or what could have been done to prevent Event A from happening? Star Trek delved into the idea of an "evil" alternate reality, but the concept of a reality that is far more similar to the "Base reality" of the show is more fascinating. With a closer similarity, it's easier to see exactly what was different. And you can't help but wonder how our main characters would be different if the tragedies in their lives hadn't happened.

What other shows have done alternate realities?

[MarshAngel]

The biggest scifi theme I've noticed is a critique of humanity as it stands now. Even when, like in Star Trek, we imagine a utopian society it's about the contrast between what we hope we will be and what we really are.

One of the biggest scifi flaws in the imaginings of the future is the lack of variety in entertainment. I don't think that at any time in the future human are going to be any less eager to be entertained than they are now. The technological trend seems to be aiming at more and different rather than less.

Another theme is that our manipulation of life whether it be through cloning or sentient machines, or genetic engineering, will lead to our downfall. We'll create giant evil monsters, alter ourselves beyond recognition, or create evil robots. It's an intertesting theme sometimes but it can get cheeesy really fast especially with the giant bugs and evil robots.

[dosed150]

Ships never meet each other upside-down ^_^

in an episiode of enterprise the enterprise and columia flew in a dorsal to dorsal formation

[Wyrminarrd]

Sci-fi has a lot of common themes, for one the guy´s the shows about are always good guy´s who do the right thing

I´ve also noticed the tendancy for humans to be peaceloving and having the "right and proper" morals, it´s very irritating as we humans are at heart a very conflict driven species.

I´ve always liked how Alan Dean Foster portrait the human race in The Damned trilogy, there most species were overly peaceful and incapable of violence while humans turn out to be the universes most ruthless and mentally able fighters.

Babylon 5 was actually better as far as this is concerned, at least humans weren´t supposed to be this very noble and peaceful race that gathered others around it. But even in B5 they made a big deal about how humans could form communities while other races couldn´t