io9
Science fiction has a long and honorable tradition of straying over the lines, from the noir of Neuromancer to the space-western of Firefly. But there are still a few genres that science fiction hasn't lifted from, in both the book and movie/TV worlds. Vote for the territory that SF should be invading next.
What Genre Should Science Fiction Steal From Next?
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1:40 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
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86 comments
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Space Juno...
They already talk like they are from an other planet...
Oh don't even get me started on Juno and my rage for the over-hyped Ellen Page. I guess the angsty sci-fi story sounds pretty good though, but I'm imagining Caprica will take that route...
Problem Child 8:Hell on Saturn!
[uk]
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In general, I think the "unwanted pregnancy" meme is ripe for Science Fiction. Think Juno, Waitress, Knocked Up, 4 Months 3 Days, etc.
But then again, I guess Alien has already filled that void (not to mention Alien Ressurection.) Maybe I should script a Juno parody in the Alien world.
Man, I am seriously tired of robots and the mafia. Yes, even the robot mafia is quite bleh. Alien Cheerleaders forced to go to SpaceCamp sounds good though.
The Dance contest one reminds me of the Robot Chicken's "You got robo-served!"
Space Gangsters, all the way.
Don't you be messing with the Centauri Combine my friend.
We're the Robot Mafia, the entire Robot Mafia.
i think Lucas is trying to do the gangsters thing with the live action "Star Wars" tv show that is in the works. Last I heard it would be about the Hutts.
I like the gangsters' idea. Or, in the same way teeny movies updated Shakespeare (10 things I hate about you) and Austen (Clueless), how about an SF remake of a teeny remake of the Bard?
Even just an SF Macbeth would be lovely, though. The three aliens that urge the intrepid middle-manager officer leading the away crew to topple the starship's leadership and claim the captain's chair for his own...the psychotic AI lover/confidant/servant who eggs him on...
@Guizzy: Well we know that in the future there will only be two kinds of dancing.. the Robot, and the Robo-boogie..
oh and all humans are dead...
Rob Schrab did a comic book called La Cosa Nostroid in the 1990s, which was about cyborg gangsters that fought in giant Ultratronesque robots. It was excellent
Rom-com. Staring Meg Ryan as the angsty, yet perky alien cyborg with the ticking biomechanical clock and Will Ferrel as her (cough cough) star-crossed holographic companion who slowly, and after much witty banter, learns the ways of human emotion.
Nora Ephron directs.
Little Miss...Sunshine
A bunch of quirky characters go on a mission to save our dying sun. They fail, but in a way that is both touching and hilarious.
Cheerleaders, of course.
@DocGratis: I said this in another i09 post - Joss Whedon is the Diablo Cody of science fiction.
I know, I know, Joss was around before Diablo. But his characters, especially everyone in Buffy, already sound like Juno in Space.
Bring on the space gangsters. How about "Star Trek: Orien Syndicate"?
@Belabras: HA!
I still contend that Christopher Moltisanti's screenplay might have been a little sci-fi. People coming back from the dead... Horror, sure; but superheros and Enis and Gaiman characters do it all the time.
Mr. Bean.
In space.
.
I like the idea of space Juno. That's more the angle I tackle in my fiction: present day concerns magnified with a few sci-fi tropes used as object lessons.
These polls anger up my blood
I am still waiting for a good Pirate Movie, in space.
Children's television!
Boohbah could really use a backstory....
I like the quiet suburban angst...in space.
Just a straight up little indi-flick that happens to be set in a space colony, but really, there is nothing inherently SF about it except as background. Think "You Can Count On Me" except the parents died from the great solar flares of 4842 C.E.
Or think Jetsons, but instead of being unfunny it's just intentionally not funny.
How about the "Genre Satire" genre: Airplane, Scary Movie, etc. It's time that someone made "Sci-Fi Movie"
Cheerleader/Dance movies... done. Looney Tunes: Space Jam.
"Sci-fi Movie"? Good Lord no. That's how we got 2001:A Space Travesty.
I'd like to see some science-fiction cookbooks (USEFUL, PRACTICAL) or like a Gossip Girl: The Next Generation. Maybe set in a more progressive era where lots of teenage nudity and same-sex kissing was actively condoned.
I wish they would do a movie where a robot learns what it means to love.
Suburban angst... in space: Solaris. The remake even more than the original. (The film, not the operating system.)
@mar3nez: Bwah!
@moff:
You mean like a 3 hour movie about it with multiple ending points and a really cheesy final scene?
@yatima: Suburban Angst... hmm... Saturn 5?
The Quirky Sundancy thing was done with "Pushing up Daisies"
@Belabras: Possibly. I think there are a lot of ways you could do it. I just wish someone would try.
@moff: If the cast consists entirely of cheerleader-gangsters, this idea is perfect.
@moff: Although the Gossip Girl thing should be a priority.
@mar3nez: You are my new best friend.
Maybe the college movie but in space. Revenge of the Nerds V: Nerds in Space.
I love the idea of the angst novel though. Imagine the voice over: "In space no one can hear you sulk."
Mmmmm ... space cheerleaders.
I'd love to see good sci-fi rom-com...
Hugh Grant is the administrator of a space station...
Sandra Bullock is a fiesty ship captain...
...witty stuff...
...charm...
THE END
writes itself.
@Goodnightbabytron: I would pay my $10 to see that.
I had a couple of Hutts try to shake me down once, try to muscle in on my turf.
I poured salt on 'em, watched 'em melt.
Fugheddaboudit.
Of all the choices there...I would hope to see a movie about the dreaded Space Mafia.
@modernboy, : @Silver_Back: So you're saying it would be the Sopranos...in space???
@Dillenger69: Allow me to familiarize you with my friend, Seven of Nine.
@moff: Allow me to introduce you to my friend, Bender.
Does the whole Alien facehugger/chestburster thing count as an "unwanted pregnancy" ???
Gilligan's Island: TNG
The "Skipper" and the "Gilligan 3000" comical 1st mate droid of the "SS Meteor, shipwrecks our space castaways on a uncharted tropical planetoid during a three light year tour...
A three light year tour.
Just sit right back and hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
It started in this Cosmodrome,
aboard this tiny space ship.
The mate was a mighty space navigation android,
The Skipper, brave and sure.
Five passengers launched that day,
for a three light year tour.
A three light year tour.
The solar flairs started getting rough,
The tiny space ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Meteor would be lost, the The Meteor would be lost.
The space ship crash landed on the shore of this uncharted tropical planetoid.
With Gilligan 3000
The Skipper too,
The Multi-Billionaire
(inflation)
and his wife,
The Holographic entertainment star
The professor and Mary Ann,
Here on Gilligans Isle: The Next Generstion!
(sp) flares
(sp) generation
(please ad edit function!)
(sp) add
Oh, hell. I'm going to bed.
Would implants be considered bionic parts? If so I might have already seen that cheerleader movie.
@Zantor:
"The Holographic entertainment star"
Oooh, space Ginger...
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I can see "But I'm a Cheerleader" retold in the setting of some off-world colony, with robot lesbians and evil Amazonian overlords... and a gay guy.
Every fourth episode of Star Trek seemed like a cheerleader movie. "Welcome to the planet of all women! We need Kirk to save us." Etc.
Um, I'd just like to point out that 'Save the Last Dance' didn't actually involve any dance contests per se; there was dancing, and dance practice, and then she had to dance to get admitted to Juilliard, but it wasn't a dance-off or anything, just the admissions process.
Not, you know, that I've seen it or liked it or anything. /nitpick
@darcymcgee: a perky 7 of 9 in a short pleated skirt and heels would be all kinds of win.
Bring back the old boxing pictures from the golden age of Hollywood and put them in space or an alternate history.
No, I'm thinking something more cerebral and less like "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots: The Movie".
@moff: Mais oui, Jacques Pepin...en espacer.
It's a cookbook! A COOKBOOK!!
That reminds me, I have to finish my Serenity/CSI: Miami crossover fanfic.
YEAHHH!
@modernboy: Someone should just lock him in a room with a slot for them to pass papers in. The man's a good continuity editor-or something-but everything he gets directly involved in sucks.
@SundaySundayFnC: I could see something like Jean-Claude Van Damme's BloodSport or Kickboxer crossed with Predator: A human, out for Glory (and revenge against his Brother's killers), enters the Pan-Galactic Kumite in order to defeat the 4-armed current champion and win the love of the hot blue girl of his dreams...
Apropos suburban angst novels and Sci-Fi. In Douglas Couplands novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, there's a sub-plot about a piece of 1970's suburbia being lifted of the face of earth and grafted on to a large asteroid. Now it's inhabitants forever drift through the Kuiper belt living their suburban existence.
science fiction needs to steal more from science fiction.
@Freddie Freelance: I believe you might get something similar to what you wish for with Arena...
@Zantor: Ahahaha! You crack me up so bad :-D Well done, sir.
I'm down for the Suburban Angst-schtick. Think how cool Arlington Road would have been if Tim Robbins &co. had been alien mutants instead?
How about the Pets Make a Trek to Finf Their Owners genre? closest a can think of in scifi is Heinlein's Starbeast, not quite a pet story. Could vary fro