This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Sikon: Based on a long-lost YKTTW.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Cut this and put it here, as the parenthesis undermines the example.
- The Doctor Who episode "Midnight" had the Doctor trapped on a ship with passengers and an alien. The Doctor was distrusted because he knows too much, isn't in the records, and won't tell people about his origins. Of course, most other stories play utterly straight the idea that the Doctor could waltz into a situation, be detained as a suspicious character for two minutes, and then be treated like an authority for the rest of the story. (And even then, it was implied that the alien was making the passengers distrust the Doctor.)
I also removed an erroneous Stargate reference. And I would also like to know what the canonical status of the Stargate Novelizations are. If they aren't canon, then the one named can't create One-Shot Revisionism because what was seen would take precedence (that is, it would just mean the novel was wrong). So, is it closer to Star Trek (where only things televised or filmed are actual canon) or Star Wars (where anything that's professionally published is canon of some sort)?
arromdee: The parenthesis only undermines the example if we assume that the plot device is still supposed to be valid and the alien is making a completely bogus argument. A villain who legitimately points out that a common Doctor Who plot device doesn't make sense should, I think, still count.
Susan Davis: Cut the following:
- The failure of Translator Microbes in "Darmok", also from Star Trek The Next Generation.
...because the Translator Microbes didn't fail in that episode (and it was explicitly pointed out on screen that they were working just fine), it's just that the Forehead Aliens were speaking entirely in catchphrases and quotes... and Trope Namer trope examples. From a culture being encountered for the first time.
Air Of Mystery: Isn't it kind of presumptuous to assume that physics in Star Wars should behave exactly the same way that they do in real life? Space is both 2D and an ocean, when it's not a dogfight, and there's an actual mystical energy field; why the hell is sound in space so hard to accept?
Sikon: Because SF is presumed to be Like Reality, Unless Noted. The mystical energy field is from the "unless noted" part (for all we know, the Force might exist in our world, it just doesn't manifest itself because there are no Force sensitives on Earth). Sound in space is a violation of real-world physics.
Secretbison Hell, maybe the Force is the medium that transmits sound in space. It is something that surrounds and penetrates the whole Star Wars universe, and the real world hasn't got it. Sounds like it could fit the bill exactly.
