For no particular reason tonight I was reflecting on science fiction. And I’m sure other people have written this more eloquently than I will. But it’s a shame the way science-fiction gets civilisations wrong.

If you look at humanity, we come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Tall, short, thick, thin. All kinds of different colours. We have poets and soldiers, doctors and teachers, singers and farmers.

Science fiction will write “These are the blorgons. They are all 2.5m tall, green, muscular warriors.” There won’t be any blue blorgons. No fairy-like happy-go-lucky blorgon poets. No brainy blorgon engineer with a pocket protector.

I do like Star Trek Lower Decks that has a small running plot line about how not all Orions are pirates. They do it pretty well. But a lot of other shows’ attempts at that do it badly. They focus so much on one exceptional character who bucks the trend of their civilisation. The only reason there is any plot at all is if you believe these exceptional people are super duper rare, and the overwhelming majority of that civilisation fit a crude and rigid stereotype.

I dunno why this popped into my head tonight. But now it’s in your feed.
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#scifi #fiction