What makes scifi stick?

[Daryn]

I was thinking of this for a while now. What is it about certain scifi that makes it stick in your mind? Some stuff is well done, but just never grabs you. So, I'll add a poll to this thread and we'll see how people weigh in.

[WolfyWetFurr]

Being able to have your fantasies and wonders with an effort of explanation and perhaps hints of realism to make it all seem more possible.

[SliceOfDog]

Characters for me, with Setting in a close second. I've never been too bothered about tech or vehicles (in my mind you can have a great sci-fi with no tech past modern day. Doesn't mean I don't love a good blaster or hover tank, but it's far from a necessity) so I couldn't really choose a bit of all of them.

The reason characters came first for me was that when I tried to sum up sci-fi in a single image this is what I saw: An eccentric, fat black-market trader with a mech eye and a metal leg. Don't ask why, but that's the first thing I thought of. If I had to place him anywhere it would be on a busy space station on the far reaches of the civilised galaxy, maybe attempting to flog some dodgy weaponry to the protagonists, or else a sex slave who later is freed/escapes and becomes a secondary protagonist.

Also, when I think of Star Wars I think of Vader, and when I think of Babylon 5 I think of G'kar and Londo. So characters it is for me

[Daryn]

Characters are certainly important for me as well. A good set of characters can stick in your mind for years. I'm not likely to forget Gore Bernelli or Paula Mayo. But I'm a geek, so I really love the gadgets. I look at things like embedded memory crystals, or organic circuitry tattoos or an e-butler system and think "I want that!". So for me the tech has a lot to do with it.

[Rick Canaan]

A great many science fiction movies that failed to grab attention like the better ones did, attempted to rely too much on the tech and special effects, and too little on plot and character development.

Yeah, I'm looking at you, Star Wars 1 through 3.

But science fiction movies can also fail if they ignore the all-too important factors of special effects and tech. I've seen movies that had great performances and decent plots, but never desired to watch them again because their special effects were too hokey or there just wasn't any decent tech.

It is a well balanced amalgamation of all of the elements that makes a science fiction movie memorable. For any movie, you need good character development and plot. But for science fiction, you need the science fiction!

Failing to put well done tech in a science fiction movie, is say... like... forgetting to put the romance into a good love story! People will scratch their heads and go, "What was that about again?"

Hehe, so I voted all of the above. It takes all of the elements to make a movie memorable. Not only in science fiction, but science fiction being one of the genres it is required especially!

[WolfyWetFurr]

I refrain from selecting characters, since that is one element that is shared between all genre. To me the main difference is delivery. So... basically what Rick said.

[Daryn]

So with the 'science' in mind, what is your favorite SciFi technology? Currently mine would have to be the Virtual Vision. I'm particularly interested in this because we're now in the early stages of the technology that would make this possible!

[themnax]

for me, what makes REAL science fiction memorable, as opposed to the poor imitations of it which are what is usually fobbed off on unsuspecting consumers of mass media, is characters that are actually intelligent, facing situations/solving problems, that are actually interesting, as opposed to the usual media kind of plots that depend on nearly everyone being some kind of egotistical emo idiot. i mean the setting is the law and the prophets. and the techno aspects of the setting, but you know, the real deal doesn't rest entirely on this either. you can have real s f, where the science is anthropology, and the tech level is where they've just discovered fire or invented the atl-atl. the main thing about it is where you have really nontypical plot situations, and again, people, refreshingly, actually facing them INTELLIGENTLY.

[Uilliam]

For me, it's a bit of 'All of the above'.
I mean good engaging characters make or break. Afterall the tech is only the storytelling device (oh no this must happen because this is happening in this sort of environment).
If the characters are crap, then there's not much investment in the movie.

On that note, it *is* sci-fi. So there should be interesting futurey stuff, even if it's something as simple as an E-ink map and a plethora of small UAVs.

And say what you will about Avatar being 'Dances With Smurfs', but the coolest bit for me was when Jake wakes up and drifts...not walks drifts, in zero-gravity to his locker.
That and once I realised 'why' the ship was designed how she was, with all that hard sci-fi. That made me smile.

I mean if I wanted to walk all over the place, I'd stay on Earth.