List of SFF Clichés

[cskendrick]

Originally Posted by Prefx

I hope this hasn't been done before. How about we compile a list of science fiction/fantasy clichés commonly found in the science fiction/fantasy realm of literature/movies/games.

I'll start.

1. Little poor boy/girl lives with family member(s). Family member(s) killed and the little poor boy/girl seeks revenge.

Are twists on the cliche' acceptable?

I'm only asking because it's what I'm attempting to do with a story I'm working on.

I'd rather know now, than later.

[cskendrick]

1. The captain just happens to be the youngest, most talented, best-connected and best-looking captain in the fleet. Just ask him!
2. The token alien officer has special powers as well as superior strength and intelligence, but it utterly subservient to human values and objectives, when asserted by #1.
3. The Ship's engineer is Scottish.
4. Both hand and ship's armaments have non-lethal settings.
5. For some reason, being caught by surprise, with utterly inadequate materials and impossible time constraints never stops the heroes from defeating the well-laid, well-supplied, well-orchestrated plans of the vastly superior antagonist.
6. At the same time, solid preparation, no pressure and getting the drop on the bad guys never goes wrong for the good guys.
7. A new principle of physics is discovered on the fly and converted into a ship- or world-saving solution in a matter of minutes -- and on a regular basis!
8. For some reason, the bad guys never accomplish this feat. Not once.
9. The good guys are always a harmonious team composed of talented members with a splendid and splendidly diverse toolkit at their disposal.
10. The bad guys are rife with dissension, possess obvious and easily-exploited weaknesses, and place all their eggs in one especially vulnerable basket.

[Thadlerian]

Scientist on the good team starts complexly explaining the technology/science behind the weapon that will save the universe, but is immediately cut off by one of the heroes (never the main protagonist, though), with something along the lines of: "Spare us the technical stuff" or "Could you make that comprehensible for ordinary mortals?" or whatever.

[alicebandassassin]

the guy you have never seen before and is not in the credits is going to cop it very soon

[SteveR]

Ok, saw this one this morning whilst watching Andromeda over breakfast (sad isn't it!)

"Breath, dammit breath....THAT'S AN ORDER!!!"

...and of course the previously dead person breathes as requested for fear of a court marshall.

Steve

[tiny99]

The significant alignment of the stars, or the ultimate day of reckoning, or the day on which the enemy beings are about to invade, which of course comes round once every six millenia is due to happen ... tomorrow (gasp)

[FelineEyes]

The captian always tries to go down with his ship, but is saved by some act of God at the last minute and so is his ship.

The "good guy" is always running from the cops for some small stupid thing and they will chase him for the rest of the movie, rather than work on the really, really obvious world problem at hand. And they will always arrest the hero last minute and refuse to allow him to fix the problem. The hero always escapes and gets to the timer before 0.

[Milk]

The ole "Tin man from the Wizard of Oz' cliche,


A robot/alien/android that can't (or won't) feel human emotions.

Its usually either one of the two.

A. This alien or robot desperately wants human emotions. Like a wooden pinochio.

B. This alien or robot consideres them beneath it or to be avoided, with a lot of lines like "You humans perplex me" etc etc etc.


Then it turns out that the Robot/Alien had these emotions the whole time afterall and is actually no different then us.

[BookStop]

A while back I was chatting with a friend and we discussed a similar issue. He said all stories have at least one of three elements in common with all other stories.

1) An unlikely romance - usually between an unbelievably charming man with a very serious, smart, and gorgeous woman.

2) An unlikely hero - even though guy appears to be pretty low on the success ladder, he is brilliant at something and will inevitably foil the evil super-power

3) revenge


Now, I don't know if it's true for every story out there, although I suspect you can bend almost anythng to sort-of meet those requirements, but it is an interesting premise and most definitely true in many fantasy and sci-fi stories.

[Tau Zero]

1. The Power to defeat your enemies was always within you, but to reach those Powers, you must suffer. (Why can't anyone get fantastic powers from eating a piece of cheesecake and getting a good night's sleep?)

2. The unattractive will become beautiful before it's over.

3. Evil is always attactive until someone learns to "see" beneath the obvious. Then it is hideous.

4. Anti-matter engines, worm holes, FTL transition, can all be accomplished by hand. Sure, computers help, but if anything goes wrong, a person can always take over. And often do!

[Thadlerian]

Endless pedantic/jargon variations over "the **** starts to hit the fan"...

I swear, that one's all over the place.

EDIT: Oh well, seems like that word was edited out. You know which one it is, anyway.

[Paige Turner]

One of my favourites from the 50s was the spaceship crew member who was a ship's "mechanic," and walked around in coveralls with a wrench in his pocket. Usually he had a name like "Gus," and a streetwise Bronx accent. I think he had a hat, too.

I seem to particularly remember a scene where a retracted space antenna wouldn't extend:

Captain: That antenna won't budge. Gus, are you sure you checked everything out before blastoff?

Gus: Sure, Captain. I just can't figure it. I checked' em. Greased 'em up good, too.

Captain: Grease? Gus, It's 1000 degrees below zero in outer space. That grease has frozen solid!

Gus: Jeepers, Captain. I didn't think of that.

[Tau Zero]

I forget which book, but it was by A. E. Van Vogt (a favorite, i might add), in which a spaceship went faster than light by throwing a large lever labelled "Star Drive." Seemed a little simple to me.

[jackokent]

What ever battle or scirmish our hero gets in he will always emerge with his shirt carefully ripped at the shoulder. It is likely to be a bit bloody but nothing gooey and unattractive. The only expection to this is if he gets shot. Again this will be in the shoulder and will require him to wear a manly, slightly bloodied bandage which will only serve to accentate his bicepts.

[Stuart Jaffe]

It was all a dream!