Popular science fiction phases

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Wildshot

Spaceman
Is it just me, or did popular sciene fiction enter a phase a few years ago of biotechnology. It used to be everything was wires and plugs. Good old fasioned durasteel or whatever metal a particular show/book/movie/game used. Then starting with Babylon 5, biological technology became all the rage. After B5, Wing Commander caught the bug with the Nephilum, then Star Trek with species 8472. Now tons of sci-fi has aliens who instead of building their ships, grow them. I believe that show Farscape and the show Lexx have to do with that, but don't quote me on it because I don't follow either show.

Anyone else care to comment on this phase, or can think of other shows that caught the bio bug?
 
Well, biotech has been around for years. I remember there being an X-Men comic from the mid-70s where they were stuck in a spaceship that turned out to be alive. Before that, there was, I believe, a Damon Knight story about people stuck in a living thing for the whole book, and the climax is that it's a spaceship. Was a very good read in it's day but the French translators F'd it up and spoiled the ending by renaming the book "Spaceship". :)
 
Well, the Yuuzhan Vong in Star Wars novels seem to hate machinery and technological devices as we know it, and make use of biological devices they have genetically engineered. Everything from hand weapons to giant worldships.
 
yea alot of things have had living space ships, in Farscape the two good guy ships are living and in Lexx the ship is too. Don't forget the Vong from SW as being very biotech. Now the reason why I figure is that everyone is bored with everybody in a universe using the same types of tech so they deside to use biotech to set the races appart
 
And there was that episode of TNG with the Betazoid who couldnt turn off his telepathy. It was called Tin Man i think. He was the only one who could communicate with the alien ship cause it was alilve.
 
Originally posted by Wildshot
(...) Now tons of sci-fi has aliens who instead of building their ships, grow them.
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The example of the Zergs in in Blizzard's Starcraft comes to mind... :)

[Edited by mpanty on 08-06-2001 at 05:43]
 
Well perhaps scifi is turning in a valid direction. Not every race (and probably most races would grow things) has to build or look human like us. Its about time scifi recognised that. I think B5 did a brilliant job when it came to showing the Shadows and Vorlons.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
Well, the Yuuzhan Vong in Star Wars novels seem to hate machinery and technological devices as we know it, and make use of biological devices they have genetically engineered. Everything from hand weapons to giant worldships.
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::runs out of the room screaming at mention of the SW: Expanded Universe series:: :mad:
 
i've read alot of Star Wars novels in my day, and I never recall hearing any species called Yuzhong Vong(sp). As for the Zerg from Starcraft, thats my point entirely, the Zerg are recent.

A lot of people came up with some great example I never knew about, but most of what you said isn't widely known Sf. I've never heard of this Mycon before.

Anyway, it seems that in almost every scifi universe, when a species with biological technology is introduced, they are the enemy. The Vorlons and the Shadows from B5, species 8472 from Star Trek Voyager, (hehe, fluidic space)The Nephilum, the Zerg. Yeah it does make sense that not all the species in the galaxy would use the same type of technology, so it should make sense that not all the bad guys do so as well.
 
That is your choice to make, LeHah. Wildshot, they're in the New Jedi Order series. I know it's a sorry excuse to keep the series selling, but I like reading about the next generation of Jedi growing up, especially the Solo kids.

Originally posted by redwolf
Not every race... has to build or look human like us.
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True, but like Wildshot said, I think there's too many insectile races popping up in sci-fi lately. I liked the Kilrathi for being feline, even if they are humanoid. But bipedal motion seems to be more economical than for a quadruped, so most alien races are portrayed as being 'humanoid'.
 
LeHah said: ::runs out of the room screaming at mention of the SW: Expanded Universe series::

Agghhh, you're one of... those people!!!!! :eek:

*SWEU rules!*

[Edited by Dralthi5 on 08-06-2001 at 23:05]
 
Ahh yes, the New Jedi Order series. I had seen them in the store. I noticed they were by Michael J. Stackpole, whom I really liked in the X-Wing Series(Aaron Allston was ok). Also Stackpole wrote the book "I, Jedi" which was great and as far as I know, the only First Person perspective star Wars novel.

But I didn't buy this one. It just seemed too far off to me, and while I did see Gavin Darklighter was in the new books and I really wanted to see whether he ever met Asyr Seilar again, I didn't buy them, and want for some more Foundation prequals that aren't buy Asimov instead(be careful if you buy these, some are really good, and some suck!)
 
I wasn't too keen on getting NJO books at first either, but when I saw that there weren't going to be any more from Bantam's series, I started with Stackpole's final (for now) Star Wars novels.
 
Wildshot: NJO is great, man! Some of the books are a littler shorter than I prefer, but the Vong are very interesting, far more than the tired old Empire had become (ah, the good old days of Vader or Thrawn...). You should check 'em out!

Wedge: Have you read Vector Prime at all?



[Edited by Dralthi5 on 08-06-2001 at 23:21]
 
ehh, I'll see if they got em at the library, I'm just afraid it'l be a kid book like the old Young Jedi Knights books were.
 
Haven't touched the Young Jedi books, they were clearly kids stuff.

Dralthi, I have the first five, I'm still waiting for Balance Point to get to the cheap store. 35% off RRP of all paperbacks! :) Doesn't matter anyway, don't have much time for recreational reading nowadays.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
But bipedal motion seems to be more economical than for a quadruped, so most alien races are portrayed as being 'humanoid'.
Click to expand...

Yes, in an atmosphere of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, with an air pressure of 1 atmosphere and with a gravitational force of 1 G (Gotta love human-centric measurement)

But what about life in different, exotic environments? Also remember, insects are one of the most, if not most populous life forms on the planet. Does that preclude them from being the dominant race on another Earth like world?
 
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