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"We come in peace; shoot to kill"
This is what come of watching too much TV...
Most TV and movie sci-fi is really militaristic, isn't it?
Either it's about scientific exploration conducted by the military (Star Trek and Stargate) or it's about non-military characters getting sucked up into military conflicts (Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, etc). They're always having wars, these future people, aren't they?
Not that there isn't, obviously, a lot of historical precedent for this, not just the war thing but also the military being the element of first contact with newly discovered people -- due to governments being the entities primarily with the money to send explorers off to strange lands. But that's not *all* you've got. There are private entrepreneurs and adventure-seekers; there are resource development companies sending out sampling teams to remote places; there are anthropologists and missionaries and, of course, colonists.
This line of thought is kind of making me want to write SF that doesn't involve people shooting at each other as a regular plot point. Of course, Kismet's not really the place to begin, being all about the shooting.
Actually one of the things I like about the Stargate series is the way that the uneasy military/civilian relationship in the exploration teams is handled ... it's especially noticeable in Atlantis where there is distinct tension between the (approximately equally balanced) civilian/scientific and military elements of the expedition.
Still, it's interesting to get to thinking about it and realize that I can think of very few SF shows that don't have that military element at the forefront, either focusing on military characters at its core, or dealing with a large-scale military conflict. Well, there's Red Dwarf ... which is more of a comedy, really. But honestly, that can't be the only one! Can it?
EDIT: Aha, I *did* just think of another one ... Earth2, which was all about human colonists on an alien world. Sort of like Wagon Train in outer space (which I realize is how Battlestar Galactica -- the old one -- is usually described, but it fits Earth2 better).
God, I am such a geek. No wonder I never get anything done.
(Note: the title of this post is from a Weird Al Star Trek parody song, aptly misquoting Kirk.)
Most TV and movie sci-fi is really militaristic, isn't it?
Either it's about scientific exploration conducted by the military (Star Trek and Stargate) or it's about non-military characters getting sucked up into military conflicts (Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, etc). They're always having wars, these future people, aren't they?
Not that there isn't, obviously, a lot of historical precedent for this, not just the war thing but also the military being the element of first contact with newly discovered people -- due to governments being the entities primarily with the money to send explorers off to strange lands. But that's not *all* you've got. There are private entrepreneurs and adventure-seekers; there are resource development companies sending out sampling teams to remote places; there are anthropologists and missionaries and, of course, colonists.
This line of thought is kind of making me want to write SF that doesn't involve people shooting at each other as a regular plot point. Of course, Kismet's not really the place to begin, being all about the shooting.
Actually one of the things I like about the Stargate series is the way that the uneasy military/civilian relationship in the exploration teams is handled ... it's especially noticeable in Atlantis where there is distinct tension between the (approximately equally balanced) civilian/scientific and military elements of the expedition.
Still, it's interesting to get to thinking about it and realize that I can think of very few SF shows that don't have that military element at the forefront, either focusing on military characters at its core, or dealing with a large-scale military conflict. Well, there's Red Dwarf ... which is more of a comedy, really. But honestly, that can't be the only one! Can it?
EDIT: Aha, I *did* just think of another one ... Earth2, which was all about human colonists on an alien world. Sort of like Wagon Train in outer space (which I realize is how Battlestar Galactica -- the old one -- is usually described, but it fits Earth2 better).
God, I am such a geek. No wonder I never get anything done.
(Note: the title of this post is from a Weird Al Star Trek parody song, aptly misquoting Kirk.)
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There was also a brief, 6-episode, BBC series in 1973 called Moonbase 3 that dealt with, you guessed it, day to day life in a multi-cultural moonbase. The best episode was the final one, where contact was lost with Earth and, in the general paranoia that ensued, everyone came to believe that all life on Earth had been destroyed in some catastrophe. Much angst and scenes of suicide-contemplation followed...