, Dueling characters who have access to advanced, futuristic weaponry, will eventually resort to using simple primitive weapons or means (stake, knife, blunt intstrument, cauldron of hot liquid, etc...) to finally defeat their enemy.
, Even though 21st century helicopters and fighter jets can automaticallly lock onto enemy craft, starships of the future rely on a human using a joystick to target the enemy craft manually, and they can't lock on to it even then.
, offworld exploration crew catches deadly alien virus
, Alien races are strictly monocultural. They speak one language, have one religion, a unique set of moral values, and even dress all the same.
, Humans from the future, even in the year 56 877, pretty much have the same set of moral values as 20th century people.
, In the future, all of humanity is neatly grouped into just one major faction. Cultures and nations that absolutely hate each other do not seem to mind.
, A scientist unlocks new science / technology / knowledge which is not supposed to be in human's hands, because it goes against "nature" and allows him to "play god". Eventually, everything goes wrong and the scientist is punished for his Hybris. Humans realize that some things should be left alone, and / or that ignorance is better than this kind of knowledge.
, When an emeny or robot can defeated simply by high-piched noise.
, Several points regarding an anthropomorphic robot: 1) Why are the robots built to look like humans? 2) the robot's "brain" is always in its head and chopping off the head "kills" the robot. (A robot's logic would probably be processed in circuits through the whole body or at least in the "torso" since the space isn't needed for internal organs)3) The eyes and ears for the robot are always on the robot's head - why not have sensors in different parts of the body? (E.g. a camera on the end of a finger so that the robot could just poke that around a corner instead of its whole head)
, The protagonist is never tempted by the power of the darkness. (This works in KH and Final Fantasy pretty well, in other places...not so much).
, A huge alien is able to take the form (or fit inside the body of) a smaller species (usually a human) until the climatic confrontation scene where it suddenly reverts to its gigantic size
, A system is locked down be security measures which, while impervious to the bad guys, can be overcome by a key character by a magical override.
, The Captain of the protagonist ship is never a mutant, alien or non-standard human stock, even when the culture on board the ship is multi-cultural and has mutants, aliens or non-standard human stock.
, The Good Guys are always human, while The Bad Guys are never anything but the most inhuman and / or disgusting species availible.
, Women who are small-breasted, uncurvy or otherwise "not feminine" are never important.
, The protagonists destroy the entire social structure and governmental system of the society they encounter, and only a few old fuddy-duddies complain. (should've been a red cross form the beginning)
, Single male tentacle monster ISO single human female. Objective: mating.
, The smaller the alien, the more fur it has covering a larger percentage of the body. You never see a small, hairless, alien, or a hulking furball. Wookies are the exception that proves the rule.
, Futuristic new and advanced versions of weapons systems and vehicles look exactly like the ones from the 20th century, except for a painted symbol, a blinking light or slightly different arrangement of control surfaces/tracks/wheels.
, Its easy to connect a human computer to a alien computer and controll it (and humans can learn how to use alien computers in seconds), even if no one knows how it works its no problems to write viruses for it, aliens dont need secure computer systems? Btw how do you connect a standard computer to a alien system? does it even use electrical signals...
, Soldiers that have been (re-)engineered into perfection: 1) go rogue, 2) turn against their government, 3) are dysfunctional in normal society. Usually some combination of the preceding.
, An entire world of peaceniks and pacifists who have absolutely no military or planetary defenses of any kind.
, Vehicles, computers, and gadgets in the future are flashy and gaudy.
, Alien species are anthropomorph, ie have human traits like a mouth, eyes, ears etc.
, Lesse crew members with no continuing roles, usually with last names like "Smith" and "Jones" are sent down to the mysteriously planet with a main character. Inevitably, Smith and Jones both get killed but the main character does not. This is lampooned well in Galaxy Quest.
, dues ex machinas
, protagonist always prevails
, The black actor is always a traitor (Lando, a black admiral in Star Trek six, and the gold forehead guy on Stargate).
, Advanced alien species are always contemptuous of humans, calling their technology primitive and their ways savage.
, A container carrying a heavy maintained virus/animal escapes and wreaks havoc on a civilization
, Any time a character in an SF story suffers from an injury that leaves them brain dead but physically unharmed, an alien or AI or other entity will be on hand ready to move in and take over. Conversely, when some friendly entity needs a human body for use, another character will suffer a convenient brain death malady that leaves them a body to use. (Unfriendly entities will just take whatever body they can get).
, The main characters friend/best friend dies while he survives and he drops to his knees and yells slowly "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" then either sits there or goes into an alien-killing rampage.
, Reconstructing a new person from DNA restores all the memories and learned skills that were in the DNA-donor's brain.
, Time travel stories where time is linear (i.e. going back will affect YOUR present, and not just spin off another that doesn't affect you), but in which the characters discuss correct versus incorrect "time lines" (thereby contradicting their own belief that time is linear).
, No matter how out-gunned and out-numbered the human race is in an inter-galactic war, the hero will single-handedly push the tide.
, There will always be a neutral parasitic life form that seeks to devour all form of sentient life in the universe, including but not limited to, the hero and the offending alien race in the story.
, Alien societal structures, morals and technologies are compared to human equivalents of an earlier historical era (medieval, industrial era, modern age). The history of the era between the modern and the future period of humanity (say between 20th - 24th century) is only, if ever, mentioned to show how civilisation has moved on.
, horror sci fi movies if a character obtains a weapon such as a metal pipe or axe they will only use it once then drop it
, ammo always runs out when they are about to kill a leader/boss/main bad guy and then they always have to resort to melee combat
, Starships appear visible in perfect 3 point lighting, no matter how deep in space they are. They also bother to bank when turning, despite the need to, just for looks, I guess. No jews or gays in the future. Also humans must go on all dangerous missions when I, personally, when send a few robots out first, as we do today. Also, even though control panels are just basically a series of input output interfaces, they can blow up and kill you. Imagine if phones or atms could do that. Finally, apparently, only military strories are interesting. No comedies, romances, dramas or tense intrigue or small slice of life stories are worthy of skiffy treatment.
, Starships appear visible in perfect 3 point lighting, no matter how deep in space they are. They also bother to bank when turning, despite the need not to, just for looks, I guess. No jews or gays in the future. Also humans must go on all dangerous missions when I, personally, would send a few robots out first, as we do today. Also, even though control panels are just basically a low voltage array of input output switches, they can blow up and kill you. Imagine if phones or atms could do that. Finally, apparently, only military strories are interesting. No comedies, romances, dramas or suspenseful intrigue, or small slice of life stories are deemed worthy of proper skiffy treatment.
, A character massively affected by a disease/mutation, when cured looks exactly as he did before the whole ordeal.
, after being a perfectly good antagonist for the entire plot, upon losing begs the heroes for forgiveness because he did not see a simple flaw in his plan that the heroes took advantage of. (its not really cliche as much as the others, but I just find this to be a lack of creativity and effort on the authors part.)
, At the first presentation, the heroine usually is inexperienced romance-wise (compared with the hero). She will usually remain childless to the conclusion of the story, but if she does have any children (with the hero), prophecies and proof will surface that her offspring are extremely special, gifted, and powerful and are destined to save the world, universe, rabbit-kind, blah blah. From now on, she usually focuses solely on keeping her kid(s) alive. Examples are found in Terminator, X-Files, and Star Wars.
, Alien-human hybrids only come in 50% human, 50% alien (e.g. Deanna Troi and Worf's son from Star Trek and Ka D'Argo's son and Scorpius from Farscape). These hybrids seem more interested in human mates than alien ones, but for some reason that doesn't result in more hybrids that are, say, 3/4 human.
, If the heroine and hero initially hate each other, they will become best of friends and lovers. Resistance is futile.
, Villainesses are either elderly battleaxes or promiscuous young temptresses.
, Villainesses are either elderly battleaxes or promiscuous young temptresses.
, Humans welcome aliens in their societies, but aliens do not return the favor. How many humans do you see in Klingon society that are as well-accepted as Worf is in StarFleet?
, There is technology for self-replicating universal manufacturing (nanotechnology, Star Trek replicators)and they don't reconfigure asteroid belts into habitats, spaceships, weapons etc. Only a miniscule fraction of a star systems resources are utilized.
, There is technology for self-replicating universal manufacturing (nanotechnology, Star Trek replicators)and they don't turn asteroid/kuiper belts, found in every star system, into thousands of luxurious space colonies. Instead they look for Earth like planets in deep gravity wells.
, 5 out of 6 billion present humans are non-Western. But future societies are entirely Western cultures with a few token minorities. More often than not, the future is an exclusively American society.
, They can control matter to the atomic level (via nanotechnology,teleporters, biotech) but haven't cured aging or death. People don't back up their minds in case they die. They live ordinary lifespans, age and die.
, Defensive fleets of comprable size to the attacking fleet succesfully protect the home planet in orbital combat. The attackers never drop nuclear, or kinetic, weapons from orbit. In reality the defenders would have to be 100X as numerous as the attackers and stop every ship. Just 10 nukes would obliterate a planet.
, Future militaries don't even use contemporary military technology. The Empire didn't need a Death Star. Dropping megaton yield thermonucler weapons by the hundreds from orbit would have effectively destroyed Alderaan just as easily. Small nuke missles would have vaporized both clone and droid armies.
, Future people don't have relationships with siblings or relatives, don't marry, and don't have children. They don't care about advancement in business or society. They're either selfless bureacrats serving on a spaceship or noir pirates, assasins, and criminals that are really misunderstood and good. No one pursues ordinary careers, goals and relationships.
, All parents are evil dictators, manipulators, murderers, you name it. The only child (and it is almost always an only child) is always just and upright; this child will save or bring to justice his or her evil father or mother.
, The cast follows this predictable format: Handsome, manly man - leader/captain Beautiful woman - love-interest of handsome, manly man Big male warrior alien Droid or android, usually male-programmed
, The cast follows this predictable format:(1) handsome, manly man as the leader/captain; (2) beautiful woman as the love-interest of handsome, manly man; (3) big male warrior alien; (4) droid or android, usually male-programmed
, The evil ruler has never effected any good whatsoever. Just evil for the sake of being evil.
, The main male character romances many different women before settling on the main female character, even though she has been available all along.
, Humans have a certian something that makes them special compared to all other alien races. Its usually our human emotions.
, The prettiest, most refined female cast member is usually a short brunette with odd hairdos.
, Redheads are most often assassins and other types of baddies.
, Blond men and women usually take a back seat in sci-fi.
, The black man is ALWAYS the first person killed (Jurassic park), has some handicap (blind, can't walk, mute, etc.)(Geordi La Forge), or turns out a traitor (Lando Calrissian)
, The stories are centered on mostly white people. I know something like this was mentioned before, but reject. The reason didn't sit with me. Mainly because there are so many other races in America. I guess there is either a race war or some type of mass wipe out of all WOCs in the U. S.
, Characters in a story, usually the main hero, have no memory of a father/brother/mother/sister and somehow during the story line meet up with one or more of them and dont realize that they are related untill much later in the plot. example: StarWars, Eragon etc..
, The world is in complete peral from an all powerful diety or entity, and a "chosen one" is destined to destroy him, and sets out to do so..., PJP
,  Aliens invade/land on earth who have a fatal weakness to some incredibly common substance on the planet i.e. water. Alien Nation and Signs for example. That's like us invading venus without space suits. , WBWIII
, Starships or fleets exiting hyperspace, warp or slipstream are always in a horizontal formation and never arrive from "below", "above" or upside down., 
, A detective "just doesn't like" a technology that happens to be in the center of the story, and that makes him perfect to investigate it!, DJG
, All laser weapons are color coded for each side that uses them, or all of them appear the same color, rw
, All alien planets have two moons., HD
, The protagonist is usually a young white human male, and rarely is the character a girl. It's even rarer to have an an alien as the protagonist. (Can you name a story with an alien as the main character?), Rw
, The aliens rarely have animals or trees on their planet., jw
, There is hardly any fat people even though they sit around in front of computers all day or fly around in space ships, jw
, X planet is the only source of some super-needed resource and it can not be synthesized, or worked around in any way, TJ
, Humans in the future have totally abandoned ALL moral standards, creating a world populated solely by sociopaths and and nihilists., jc
, Heroine spends a great deal of time in the hospital (e.g. Dana Scully, Lana Lang), JC
, Ugly aliens are always evil, while attractive or human-like aliens are good., APL
, Planets, no matter how far out in the galaxy or even in other galaxies, more often than not have Greek or Latin names. And most times they are followed by an Arabic numeral (2, 3, 4 etc.) or the designation of prime. Unless all planets are named by Europeans and Americans it just doesn't make sense., JB
, If by some way a person flys out into space, they just float around while in reality they would explode it a bloody mess. Also, no matter how many holes they have in their ship, they never run out of air and never have to stop for repairs unless it looks that bad., JW
, That there are only 1 0r two elder races whilst the current timeframe has hundreds of them, A.M
, Anytime a crew needs to find someone on a planet, they always seem to beam down to exactly the right city in the correct continent to start looking for them., MM
, An alien planet viewed from the surface has the same generic features as earth (such as grass, trees, seagull like birds that fly around large bodies of water) except that the color pallets of two features have been switched. (Dragonball Z: Green sky overlooking blue trees and blue grass.) , MM
, There is exactly one doctor on staff working at the starship. There may be as many as 3 nurses, but there is only one doctor. The doctor is reasonably skilled in all medical fields: Dentistry, Brain Surgery, Optometry..., Mush
, The starship is mysteriously clean, even though there are no janitors or janitorial robots anywhere. , Mush
, A shuttle may land on a planets’ surface and leave their door open for days (while the crew explores or gets captured,) but the shuttle never seems to get water damage, leaves blown in, or a small infestation of ants. , Mush
, Even if the aliens don’t speak English (or have communicators that translate their speech into English), the aliens are still able to communicate such things as what their names are, that they need medical attention, that the village that has the equipment that the humans need to fix their shuttle is 90 miles away in a south east direction. I don’t know about you, but I can’t tell where one word ends and another word begins in any language other than English., Mush
, If a human has to explain what his space ship is to a primitive alien culture, the term “flying chariot” is understood and accepted just fine. The aliens don’t ask “How do you tame flying horses to fly your chariots?” or “Why do you call it a chariot? It’s clearly a highly polished river rock with a door.”, Mush
, There is no text messaging in the future. Phones are purely video and audio. Nice to know that technology has regressed back to the 1990’s. , Mush
, There is no text messaging in the future. Phones are purely video and audio. Nice to know that technology has regressed back to the 1990’s. , Mush
, Different alien cultures are all ridged obeyers of ceremony- no mater how uncomfortable or pointless the ceremony is. If some visiting party member sneezes during the 5 hour greeting ritual, that person is executed. It’s also worth mentioning that these alien cultures never inform the Humans of what their unwritten rules are, what the penalties for breaking those unwritten rules are, and why those unwritten rules don’t appear in printed law books., Mush
, Also, Alien greeting customs seem to have been formed for no other purpose than to look ‘alien’ to an American audience. Customs and ceremonies don’t just appear out of nowhere; they are created for very specific reasons: The “Hand shake”, for example, was originally created to jostle any hidden items out of a visiting person’s sleeves. If things like knives, small concealable guns, or ‘Ace’ cards (for cheating at card games) fell out, then you would know the other party had unwholesome intentions for you., Mush
, Aliens are really, really good at disguising themselves as humans. You never see an alien’s “human costume” have hair that looks like a waxy unflowing helmet, arms that have absurdly bulbous muscles (like Popeye’s), a mouth with no teeth or tongue, or stiff facial features. (Invader Zim is the only exception to this rule I have ever seen.), Mush
, Offensive Cliché- Any story where humans are the epitome of all that is corrupt and wicked, where there are no redeeming elements in humans, or where humans are douche-bags for the simple joy of being douches. (Battle for Terra, Ferngully) It’s true that there are evil people in the world, but they do not make up more than 40% of any given population.. Unless your story involves hardened criminals or sociopaths, if you make bad guys out of 10 humans or more when you have only introduced 15, then you are committing this offensive cliché., Mush
, A scene where a character is introduced by depicting the character just loafing around on the porch not doing much of anything. Normal people engage themselves constantly in activities- they don’t sit in rocking chairs on their porches and watch road traffic; they preoccupy themselves by reading, sleeping, eating, gardening, cooking, and setting fires. Nobody just sits, stands, smokes, or lies down without being occupied in some other way. My point is that normal people don’t “do nothing”- and your story characters shouldn’t either. (Exceptions: Your character could just sit there and do nothing if they are druggies, if they had just finished going through some emotional ordeal, or if they are blank-of-mind because their souls had been sucked out their eye-sockets (or some other sci-fi reason.)), Mush
, Girls wear short skirts in the future., SM
, Geologically impossible structures: floating mountains (Avatar), broad flat plateaus several meters across balanced on thin pillars of rock only a few inches thick (cover art of Street Fighter 2010), Mush
, A planetary wide scan of an inhabited alien planet (advanced alien planet) does not show any sort of agriculture. What, is food imported into the planet?, Mush
, Aliens never believe in ghosts, gods, demons, vampires, or werewolves. However, aliens do believe in ESP, alien abductions (because they’re doing the abductions), telepathy, and zombies. , Mush
, If aliens are able to understand what you (an English speaker) are saying by reading your brainwaves, then they shouldn’t be able to understand what is being spoken in a recording or on a walk-y-talk-y., Mush
, Swallowing the diamond the size of your fist prevents the burglars from running away with it. The burglars do not surgically remove the diamond, they just kidnap the person who swallowed the jewel. (Dragon ball z: Gohan, a 4 year old boy, is kidnapped because his hat has a mystical object of great power sewn to the top of it. The bad guys don’t think of removing the hat from atop the weak little boys head, they just kidnap the kid), Mush
, 'You are no. 6', 'we want information' shtick from a 'superior' group watching over a 'subject' who is either sub-human, a killer or both., P.C.
, The devil as an alien, old and ugly and 'must be destroyed'! ., P.C.
, The human race always forms a perfect democracy where everyone is equally represented, while the aliens are always in a facist dictatorship, a communistic society, or is a hive mind...never the other way around., SGS
, If you land your ship on an alien planet, the first alien entity your people get to meet will be a dangerous non-sentient life form (usually it resembles a mountain lion or a swarm of superficially cute, but blood thirsty, animals.) If the hero of the story is not among the initial exploratory crew, then all or most of the crew will die a HORRIBLE death (usually on camera that has a live video feed being viewed directly be a Sergeant or General) Everyone of your people will come to the conclusion that ALL aliens from the planet you landed on are hostile. The second alien entity you meet will be sentient and harmless (usually it resembles a peasant boy around 10 years of age.) The General who witnessed the death of his previous crew will want this new alien executed. The hero (being the sole voice of reason) will defend this second alien by saying “But he’s just a boy!”, Mush
, Dimwitted guards who can be easily distracted by the sound of a tossed pebble, can be fooled by disguises made of bed linens, and who sleep, drink, or oogle the latest issue of Hot Babes while they're supposed to be on duty., jc
, "He's right on my tail! I can't shake him!!" Spacecraft do not necessarily travel in the direction their nose is pointing. In fact, during an engine burn, the thrust is in the direction of the nose. But once the thrust is off, the ship can turn to any orientation. It can fly "sideways" through space if it wants. So all those scenes from Star Wars, Star Trek and the old Battlestar Galactica where a hapless space fighter cannot shake the enemy on their tail are completely laughable. "He's right on my tail, Rogue Two! I can't shake him!!" Oh, come on! All they have to do is spin on their short axis and blast the tail-gater! Seriously, anyone with the slightest grasp of Newtonian Physics could get it!, Rowan17
, Spaceships where the floor is built with spikes lining a spike-free walkway (mostly seen in videogames). My problem with this is that inside halls of a spaceship are supposed to be designed with smooth- perhaps cushioned- walls because the ship is bound to run into turbulence as it enters a planet’s atmosphere. Not to mention that rows and rows of spikes are a waste of materials. This cliché probably arose because the presence of spikes is something like a shorthand notation for “evil.” , Mush
, Any technical difficulty can easily be solved by "switching the phase" and/or "reconfiguring the matrix". And again. And again, until everyone including the viewer forgets what the original phase and matrix were., Syl
, When "the serum" is given to someone with an awful, disfiguring disease, the blemishes/fissures/discoloured patches/growths disappear in seconds, leaving the character looking exactly like he/she did before getting the alien disease., Al
, Future societies are 99% of the time depicted as multicultural utopias in which all the races of the human species (plus a huge variety of aliens) dwell together in peace (and apparently have done so for ages). This theme disregards several historical trends. For one, multiculturalism creates strife rather than peace; after all, racism is a by-product of diversity – racism does not & can not exist in racially/ethnically homogeneous nations. Additionally, diverse societies have always ultimately collapsed due to infighting & disunity among all the different ethnic/racial groups [e.g. the Roman Empire; an example of a collapse-in-the-making is America; circa WW2, when America was at its peak militarily, economically, and culturally, it was also at its most racially homogeneous (90% White); ever since desegregation and the legalization of non-white immigration, America has become much more diverse - and has been on a steady but sure decline]. Lastly, diverse societies eventually become non-diverse due to race-mixing and displacement of one or more racial groups due to race competition. Given the historically-proven failure of multiculturalism, how can anyone with a functioning sense of logic believe that the way to create utopia is by taking all the human races (with all their cultural/religious/political/etc. incompatibilities) and placing them in one mega society - and inviting space aliens over as well?, JL
, The offspring of inter-species unions are always presented as either perfectly normal/healthy or sometimes as examples of hybrid vigor. Outbreeding depression, which occurs often in race-mixed humans and "mongrelized" animals, and the possibility of getting the worst of both sides rather than the best is never addressed., JL
, "Oh no! we're somehow lost and without many resources, I hope we can survive and make our way back home!" DS9, SGU., GE
, All aliens are just humans with things glued to their heads., AA
, To become captain of a ship you have be brilliant on every level know everything about every culture be amazing in battle and only care for your own option or the options of the five senior grew members if the rest die you look and you don't even care., 
, The main protaganist never has the best lines for dialogue. Whenever it's attempted, the attempt fails and sound very corny., CWBK
, From the Leader to the janitor, everyone of the alien races know about the existence of other alien races. But it's a *big* deal if more than a handful of humans find out., AJ
, Anyone who is vaguely referenced as a friend of the main cast is targeted by some form of parasitic force and despite being mutated and transformed into the parasite will immediately revert to their original form after the parasite has been killed by the main cast and blame the irreplaceble damage they caused on "being possesed", SN
, Technological common sense: Despite decades / centuries / millennia of technological progress, common technology is ignored in starships. The Starship Enterprise uses superfast elavators & jeffries tubes (tough on the knees) yet has no staircases in the event of power failure thus trapping those in a room especially without any manual doors or locks anywhere? Some of the most important ship functions are relagated to areas of the ship that are difficult to access. They require massive crews to man the vessels despite being extensivley automated; just what are these people doing for work in the future when examples show the ship being run on as little as 3 or 4 people. Futuristic metal alloys shows signs of rust despite no oxygen in a vacuum and the sophisticated climate control aboard that should eliminate humidity. Computer interfaces, exist in every room and hallway which may permit someone to hack into otherwise crucial systems. Even in the vacuum of space their are stray particles that interact with the ships matter, thus even if invisible, a cloaking device is essentially useless if one can simply scan those particles., JAH
, On the odd occasion an alien can't speak English and learns to speak it, in what seems like no time at all they don't even speak broken English or struggle with words., TH
, Using weapons which make bright bursts of light when fired while in a firefight with poor light, no one seems to get concerned they would ordinarily be blinded by their own weapon. In fact no one even so much as squints! , TH
, No one seems to suffer from jet lag/space lag when visiting another planet, or the planet has 24 hour time (or close to)., TH
, Star ships can only move along one plane. They cannot move up or down (at least not very far). Instead of up and over the territory of some very trigger happy alien species the said star ship must for some reason travel through the alien's territory. Same goes for traveling through a dangerous nebula instead of over or under it (which is not even considered)., TH
, This mainly applies to star trek: Cutting your hand with a knife in an alien ritual and then letting someone else cut their hand with the same knife WITHOUT cleaning it. Oddly neither character has a scar on their hand afterward, usually as of the next shot or scene., TS
, We Had It All Along! If the protagonists' ship is ever destroyed, they will either immediately find another more advanced ship, or learn that the government has been working on a new, more advanced ship and is only days away from finishing it, despite never having heard about it prior to this., SD
, God? Oh, You Mean The Guy From Mars! All dieties, whether mythological or theological, are in reality alien beings played by either John de Lancie, or the alien from Paul. The main protagonist will be the only person in the universe said beings are ever interested in., SD
, You're Our Only Hope Because, You Know... Despite the fact that the military has ships far better equipped, the main protagonists' ship is the only one ever in range of the distress call. They may lack the equipment necessary to carry out the mission, but they're still going anyway., SD
, Robots that can mass produce flawless can't wipeout the humans they currenlty or soon could outnumber. Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Terminator., DTA
, Alien and future weapons are remarkably less useful than weapons today. They fail to hit, fail to kill when they hit, fail to penetrate simple cover, etc. Today we have single-person grenade launchers with laser range finders and automatic air-burst capabilities, thermal sites, fully automatic shotguns, etc. Yet... weapons of the future can't hit anyone, kill them, deal with a tree, etc. Why doesn't the weapon fire in a spread, aim the beam itself, or cause a massive explosion on the ground to kill via fragmentation? Heck... fire continuously and allow the user to just wiggle their wrists and no one can keep dodging it., BW