the speed of plot

[Plane]

Writer and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski had a standard answer for overzealous fans who would ask him obscure questions like, .How fast does a Starfury (the show.s standard fighter ship) fly?. He would say, .They travel at the speed of plot,. meaning that if the script called for them to get somewhere in a certain amount of time, they could.and if the script called for them to get there too late, they couldn.t.

http://www.giantitp.com/FAQ.html#faq1

[Xavier_Onassis]

A clever cartoon strip is here.

Thanks for posting it.

There would be a major difference between reality and science fiction is we actually did meed an alien race that evolved from lizards, like Klingons, or mole-like criters, like the Ferenghi.

First off their vocal abilities (if indeed they had any) would be vastly different.
Their languages would not be sort of difficult, like Klingon, but impossible, like talking to whales.
Odds are even that they would speak at a frequency we could not hear.

There were a couple of episodes of ST:TNG that got into this. The Crystalline entities which saw us as "ugly bags of mostly water", and the race that spoke in metaphors. "Chaka, when the walls fell".

Star Wars, being more infantile, assumes that everyone speaks some sort of English.

[Amianthus]

Star Wars, being more infantile, assumes that everyone speaks some sort of English.

Actually, it assumes that all humans use one common language (which to us sounds just like English) in common discussion, kind of a trade pidgin. Other species (and presumably many human groups) have their own languages (did you understand what Chewbacca was saying, for example?) which required a machine to translate (one of C3PO's jobs - he spoke over 50,000 languages, IIRC).

[Xavier_Onassis]

There is very little work for 3CPO in Star Wars.

Of course, a 'realistic' sci-fi film would be tedious to watch. More so if everyone had to translate.

I am sure you will agree that Star Wars is aimed at a less intellectual audience that Star Trek.

[Amianthus]

I am sure you will agree that Star Wars is aimed at a less intellectual audience that Star Trek.

Nope. Actually, they are totally different vehicles. Star Trek (the original series) was a criticism of the Cold War. Star Wars was a "space opera" - in this case a tale of redemption told in a science fiction setting.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I was not talking about the original series. Observe that I referred only to the Next Generation.

IN any event, both were primarily intended to be entertainment.

Star Trek deals with many more speculative and social issues. Star Wars is more for the kiddies.

[Amianthus]

Star Trek deals with many more speculative and social issues. Star Wars is more for the kiddies.

Star Wars deals with different social issues; that doesn't make it juvenile.

[Plane]

A clever cartoon strip is here.

Thanks for posting it.

There would be a major difference between reality and science fiction is we actually did meed an alien race that evolved from lizards, like Klingons, or mole-like criters, like the Ferenghi.

First off their vocal abilities (if indeed they had any) would be vastly different.
Their languages would not be sort of difficult, like Klingon, but impossible, like talking to whales.
Odds are even that they would speak at a frequency we could not hear.

There were a couple of episodes of ST:TNG that got into this. The Crystalline entities which saw us as "ugly bags of mostly water", and the race that spoke in metaphors. "Chaka, when the walls fell".

Star Wars, being more infantile, assumes that everyone speaks some sort of English.

Exactly , though a lot of Star Wars creatures spoke other than English. All of the creatures were interacting with little difficulty. This served the needs of the story better than Aliens that were totally inscrutable.

Sci Fi uses plausability to separate itself from fantasy , but still explosions in space make noise and aliens are never boring for the sake of the reader /audience.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Star Wars has become more and more of a mishmash. A feature Star Wars 'toon is a sign of this.
The last human film was pretty close to awful.

It seems to me that Star Trek will outlive Star Wars by several films. The setting is more believable, and the focus is more on societal issues than action. The entire Jeddi bit is a lot more like magic than science fiction, and the characters are essentially one-dimensional.

I enjoyed the first three Star Wars films, but after that, they got pretty juvenile.