I think I mentioned before that, even though I don't read a lot of science fiction, I do watch a lot of it. I really like scifi movies and tv series. I've been thinking back to when it started, and I believe it was that magical cinematic moment when Leia took Luke's gun and started shooting storm troopers while Luke worked on a way to get them over that reactor core chasm on the Death Star. A scifi heroine who wasn't a helpless bimbo! It's different now, of course. Most of the time.
Anyway, this got me to wondering about something in Star Wars that I've never really seen an answer to. During the attack on the Death Star, when Red Leader says, "Stay there, I just lost my starboard engine" just before his fighter gets hit, did he lose the engine from a previous hit we didn't see? Or did he have some mechanical failure that just came at a really bad time?
There are other questions about scifi films that give me pause. So I've made a list of them and maybe you can help me come up with the answers.
My Top 10 SciFi Film Questions
1. During the attack on the Death Star, when Red Leader says, "Stay there, I just lost my starboard engine" just before his fighter gets hit, did he lose the engine from a previous hit we didn't see? Or did he have some mechanical failure that just came at a really bad time?
2. What makes grey aliens, with all their incredibly advanced technology, think that performing pointless experiments of the mad doctor variety on abductees (with no anesthesia, yet!), and then implanting random bits of metal, is anything like a good idea? Or even very advanced?
3. What makes Ming so Merciless?
4. Why do so many female crew members (and other random women) in scifi films and tv shows from the 1950s through the 1970s wear such impractical get-ups as miniskirts and/or halter tops?
5. Why do all Vulcan men have the exact same haircut?
6. How is cryogenically preserving someone's brain also supposed to preserve their personality/memories/thoughts, etc?
7. When computers/robots/machines succeed in taking over the world, why don't they ever do anything fun?
8. Why is the plot of Matrix Revolutions as full of holes as Trinity is?
9. Considering how often things go wrong with the simplest of devices, does anyone really think transporters that take you apart at the molecular level and put you together again are every really going to be effective enough for practical use?
10. What is that drippy stuff dripping down while Scully hides in the morgue at the military facility where they were storing the bodies of those gooey firefighters?
Any responses or explanations are welcome.
