This is a page intended to [[BlueShifting blue-shift]] popular tropes used in ScienceFiction that are documented on the wiki. All of the original entries come from ''[[http://www.geocities.com/evilsnack/cliche.htm The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés]]''. On the original, clichés are further categorized with icons, but those are left out here due to formatting problems.

It should be noted that these are not "clichés" in the sense that we describe them. Clichés are a priori bad; trite and overused. What is described below is merely a list of Tropes, which are neither [[TropesAreNotGood good]] nor [[TropesAreNotBad bad]].

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[[folder: Note to Tropers -- The list item text (including the below description) and order should not be changed. Adding links to tropes should be fine, as long as they don't change the displayed text. ]]

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Those of us who have read or seen a lot of {{science fiction}} have seen certain story elements pop up [[SeenItAMillionTimes over and over and over]]. Some of these elements were [[TropesAreNotBad actually pretty good ideas]], and [[UnbuiltTrope when handled well make for a pretty entertaining story]], but have become hackneyed from overuse by the unimaginative. Others came into being through the deliberate effort to avoid another cliché. Still other ideas were [[DeadHorseTrope lame from the get-go]], and should have been dismissed from the author's thinking.

[[TropesAreNotBad Clichés are not in themselves necessarily bad]], but their overuse shows that the writer has forgotten what separates the strong tale from the hollow: "the human heart in conflict with itself," as Faulkner said. Where there is this conflict, the tale stands; where the conflict is absent, the tale falls flat, and in neither case does it matter [[RuleOfCool how many ships get blown up]].

The sophisticated reader will note that some of these clichés are [[OmnipresentTropes not found solely in SF]], but in other genres as well, and of course the [[PlayingWithATrope lampooning of clichés]] is a time-honored part of [[RuleOfFunny good comedy]].

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* OverusedSciFiStorylines (Section I)
* OverusedSciFiSettings (Section II)
* OverusedSciFiPlotDevices (Section III)
* OverusedSciFiSillyScience (Section IV)
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