Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The differences and similarities with some of the best Sci-Fi

This post is going to be a bit of a ramble, but hold on, I hope it will be worth your time. Ready? OK.

One thing I thought was really noticeable and surprisingly different with the top three Sci-Fi franchises of all time, Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who, is the perception of humanity in the future. While Star Trek took Gene Roddenberry's optimistic view, saying humanity had evolved past their anger, and plans of world domination and all around war-mongering to be a much more civilized race that focused on advancing themselves. While it wasn't always the case, the original series, and the Next Generation show embraced these values. Sadly, the Next Generation Movies looked to destroy that ideal, but since we have a fresh reboot, I hope to put that crap behind us.

Doctor Who, on the other hand, often shows humanity acting badly, and instead of being refined, often undo the Doctor's sensibilities and cause worse problems. Even in the future, humanity is portrayed as slightly week, with a small few showing true strength. And, while humanity is depicted beautifully in the Doctor's companions, the rest of the humanity is shows as savage, and easily driven to violence.

Star Wars, while technically, was supposed to be a long time ago, blah, blah, blah, depicts humans almost exactly as we are, or, rather were, with the exception that we work with aliens and robots. The obvious exception are the Jedi's, who show a true refinement due to religion.

Well, this thought isn't done, but what do you think? What other differences do the top Sci-Fi movies have? What is the one thing you think they share?

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