Award Sounds Music, Photography and Consultancy

This is the second part of the list, part 1 is in an earlier article.

21. There's always someone else
The good guys kill the evil overlord and/or dismantle the evil operation. If a sequel is required, then the following are the usual results:

• The overlord is not truly dead. He regenerates and returns with more force for the sequel
• The overlord has an heir or a lieutenant to take up the fight
• There's a newer, bigger and badder evil to fight next time
• The ex-overlord's romantic involvement wants revenge

22. Big spaceships have different armour
If the big spaceship is on the good side, then even the most powerful weapons will only scratch the surface unless the battle is near the end of a series.

If the big spaceship is on the evil side, then a small ship can destroy the larger ship by aiming at more vulnerable areas.

23. Evil spaceships have lousy weapons-targeting systems
An extension of (22), evil spaceships are unable to target the vulnerable areas of good ships with their weapons. Just seems to be the way of things.

24. In space, there's an up and down
Proof: Spaceships always fight the same way up. Ok, it's wrong, but that's the way that it's shown in movies and tv. Why though? I can cope with the fact that unless there's something closeby to orient against, then there's no up or down. So why don't we see ships attacking "upside down" from "underneath" the target ship?

25. Oil and non-stick coatings don't exist anymore
Doors open noisily rather than silently on their tracks. Even those that operate by an expanding iris make a noise as the iris opens.

26. Idiotic Minions
The evil organisation consists of an intelligent, but sometimes deluded, overlord presiding over a cast of mindless idiots. There will be a few intelligent underlings in the midst of the organisation, but on the whole, they are overwhelmed by the order-following nature of the rest of the organisation.

27. Spaceships hum
Possibly in more ways than one.

Whatever the spaceship, there's a background noise. I think it's meant to be hum of the engine, but in some ships the engine's almost a mile away from the bridge. I'd hate to be in the crew quarters closer to the engine if it makes that much noise from a mile away.

28. Windscreen at the point of greatest friction
I take no credit whatsoever for this one, but unfortunately I've no idea where it was first mentioned. I've known about it since before 1990. Anyway, to the point. The spaceships will have transparent windscreens at the front of the plane where they're most likely to encounter the greatest force, e.g. from friction on re-entry. Think about NASA Space Shuttles, the nose of the vehicle is covered with ceramic tiles. The windscreen sits on top of the nose and is itself shielded by the tiles of the nose. Few ships in Space Operas have much physical shielding. From what I remember, the 1960s Star Trek Enterprise had a display screen rather than a window.

29. Forcefields and energy shield
A potential corollary of (28), every spacecraft has a shield. Not only do they have shields, but the shields have levels and can be depleted and recharged.

30. Shields are independent of weapons
This may not seem a major point but it's an interesting one for me. I can't see why engineers would design and build a ship whose shields collapse before the weapons do. I'd have thought that shields were more critical than weapons, especially as there's more need for shields when there are no enemies, even asteroids can puncture hulls. So if they're more critical, why do they deplete first?

Wouldn't the same energy source power both shields and energy weapons? So why does one break before the other? In that case, you'd think that both would stop working at the same time. Or is it that the designers put the control systems or power conduits for the shields in more vulnerable areas than weapons? I believe a rethink is in order.

31. The best pilot can still fly while blinded
If the best pilot is blinded, that will not stop him/her from piloting the spaceships. Instead they will feel their way towards the destination.

32. Slavery results in interest in technology
Usually, the vastly different levels of technology will not be of interest to anyone on the planet, unless they have been enslaved. This triggers a switch in them and the only way to escape slavery is to obtain the advanced technology.

33. People are less bothered by the little things in life
Wouldn't the noisy doors annoy you to pieces? Every door would have a dent from my boot or lie smouldering from a blast. That noise would drive me up the wall. Same goes for the announcement of a ship-wide or fleet-wide message. It's worse than the introductory ident you get in a supermarket, just before the announcer tells you about a special offer that no-one is interested in.

34. Virus
Enemies can attack electronically using a computer virus. This can affect any and every ship in a fleet, despite there being many different models of ship (and you'd assume many different flight computers, lifesupport systems, weapons systems, etc). Yet we still see a virus capable of disabling all ships in a fleet, without exception.

35. Odd Value of Goods
There's an immense cost to owning a spaceship, the fuels to supply it and the crew to run it, let alone bribes, official registrations, etc. However, the bartering value of fuel supplies, food supplies and weapons just doesn't add up. After all, how much wheat grain does a ship cost? And if the fuel supply is such a rare substance that the crew cannot find it when they're in space apart from on certain planets, then how can a stable economy that includes agriculture exist?

I can see how agriculture is a necessity in providing food for life, but I can't see how a trader could make a profit transporting a normal crop from one planet to another. The cost of that crop would be vastly overrated on the target planet to make it worth it? And if so, why would people settle there, unless they had their own product/service that could be sold at an incredibly high price? Hmm, brings back memories of Elite.

36. Evil ships can hide, good ships cannot
An evil ship can hide on the far side of a planet, moon or sun, despite the powerful sensors available to both fleets. It will remain hidden until its captain decides to attack the good ships. A good ship can hide only for a limited time until found by an enemy recon squadron. If lucky, the scouts can be destroyed before the signal back to the evil ship. The limited time allows for a small breather, a few comedy moments and a pause before the next fight or flight sequence.

37. Evil is evil
There doesn't need to be a reason for evil, it just is. There doesn't need to be a reason for planetary invasion or galactic domination, it's just part of the overlord's plan. Occasionally, there's a rationale behind it, but it hardly makes sense other than obtaining absolute power. It seems that the invasion comes first, the motive second in the eyes of the screenwriters. Whereas, even in the eyes of the evil characters, the rationale would come first and the invasion second.

38. Under-Society
Humans are more "perfect" than they ever were. There exists an under-society of humans who didn't benefit from/weren't subjected to the medical or gene therapies that apply to the rest of mankind. These are only displayed when we are to see:

• how generous the good captain is
• how evil the evil captain is
• how humans of all status are worth more than enemies
• the rebels in the under-society overthrow their evil enslavers

39. Instant Communications
Radio communications work on the first attempt between ships owned by different races. Shouldn't there be some boot-strapping to get the two communications systems being able to talk to each other? Think about it, often they've never contacted each other before so all the protocols would be new and there's no guarantee that both races would implement systems using the same technology.

40. Humans are average
There are aliens, even those that can be played by actors without any additional make-up, that are stronger than humans as well as those than are weaker. Some are more intelligent, some less. Some more technologically advanced, some less. And so on for every measure, humans sit in the middle. It is the strength of being average that makes humans strong and able to succeed. Two things about this that I don't agree with:

1. Wouldn't a crew comprised of several other races succeed better by combining the strengths of each race? Even the original Star Trek included an alien to assist them.
2. Wouldn't humans be at the top of one scale or the bottom of another? Is it possible to be just at the top of one scale, that of averageness?

Plot Devices and Flaws
As I was writing this, I noticed that some were plot devices for episodes or flaws in Space Operas in general. I've removed most of them out and I'll publish them separately in later articles.

This is part of the Space Opera Side Project.