h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just had to mention these two Sci-Fi series as counter-examples to your argument.

In Farscape the main character is a normal present-day human being, who is slung over to the other end of the galaxy, and so encounters all the aliens, lasers, weirdness etc. But to him it's all completely new, and therefore weird. He sees the oddness of it all, but learns to accept it at the same pace as the audience, drawing them in. And it's quite funny too.

At the other end is Firefly, the Sci Fi show created by Joss Whedon. It was cut short at 14 episodes in the States, and so never made it over here, but the DVD is available now so we can see what he was aiming at. Out of the list of oddities you gave, the only one present in Firefly is the FTL engines. No time travel, no aliens, no robots, no lasers, no technobabble, not even any sound in space. Admittedly all the worlds look the same, but the series is supposed to be a western in space, so if all the worlds look like American prairie, then that fits in perfectly, and so becomes a virtue rather than a flaw. And, given it comes from Joss, this series is quite funny at times as well.

Both these series are a refreshing change from the standard pap of Trek. They show the pliablity you were talking about. Variation does exist in TV Sci-Fi. You do have to search hard to find it though. As with all things.


Gary

I made an arguement? That doesn't sound right.