The lamest, laziest, most hackneyed plot device in science fiction

[Orrex]

:rant:

Hands down, it absolutely has to be the sf-issue-decided-in-courtroom-drama. It's also true of fantasy and horror.

Horrible. I've read or seen it done dozens of times, and it has never been anything other than awful. Hideously trite at best. At worst? Well, they're all pretty much equally dreadful.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, strangles the life from what might otherwise be a fresh science fiction concept than an unbearable digression into pseudo-legalistic posturing in a blandly familiar and blandly off-the-shelf setting. No matter what the underlying premise, the courtroom treatment makes it as unwatchably sterile and pre-packaged as any episode of LA Law.

This includes ST:TNG's Measure of a Man and certainly includes tonight's embarrassingly bad episode of Masters of Science Fiction. That series is so bad, incidentally, that it almost makes me ashamed to be a fan of the genre.

Find me the person who first suggested this insultingly bland device, so that we may catapult the offender. Alternatively, you could find me a sci-fi courtroom drama that breaks from this drab convention.

It's lazy. It's lame. And it's all too common.

[Frank Cannon]

1. Just about anything that involves interstellar politics

IMHO, this is what killed the Star Trek franchise. I just could not give a tinker's damn whether the Zoogs are honoring the trade rights of the Krangs, or whatever. It's all just a bit ridiculous.

[Orrex]

2. Good call

Shit like that can make for a passable backdrop, but it almost unavoidably becomes a narrative quagmire that's of no interest to anyone except the characters directly involved.

I've often sensed that this sort of thing is symptomatic of a writer who's spent a lot of time putting together his universe and who, as a result, can't bear not to spell it out for the reader/viewer in excruciating detail.

[skepticscott]

3. Uh, would that be Isaac Asimov?

Or can you cite an earlier example than the courtroom scene that kicks off Foundation?

[Orrex]

4. Well, if he was first, then he gets a provisional pass, I guess

I have other problems with the narrative structure of Foundation, but at least it can be said that the opening courtroom scene didn't really resolve the series, whereas the common offenders do exactly that: "Let's set up a tricky and edgy issue, and rather than exploring its implications, we'll have a judge (or tribunal, or whatever) declare it resolved. Simple!"

It was last week's installment of the glaringly mis-titled Masters of Science Fiction that really set me to a boil. First, the episode featured some of the worst CGI I've seen in the last decade, and it followed with an extraordinarily tepid rehashing of the "what is human" question. Even dumber, rather than sorting out the question through the actions of the characters or through the reactions of society, they crapped out and went with the judicial fiat.

Boring!

IMO the only thing worse than deciding a science fiction issue in court is the invocation of God or The Soul in the process. Which, incidentally, the episode also did.

[qdemn7]

5. Well I really like the courtroom scene

In Heinlein's "Lifeline". Yay for Pinero!!

[Orrex]

6. Not familiar with that one

Is it used to settle the s/f element of the story, or is it used as a reasonable part of the story as a whole?

If the latter, then I can see where it would be fine, even given my general objection to the courtroom as plot device.

[qdemn7]

7. Used as a major scene

Cliff notes:

Scientist develops a device that can accurately predict the date and time of a person's death, markets service to the public.
People snap up service, starts buying large insurance policies right before death.
Insurance companies suffer big losses, fight back in court.
Judge hands insurance companies their heads.
Insurance company hires assassin.
Scientist murdered, he accurately predicted the date and time of his own death.

Here's quote from the judge in court, one of the best things Heinlein ever wrote:

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped or turned back, for their private benefit.

[Orsino]

8. See, I like the idea of sci-fi courtroom scenes.

Even "Measure of a Man," despite its ludicrous plot device of pitting Riker against Picard, and despite the preposterous premise that a Starfleet officer could suddenly be declared a non-person, explored the issue at hand rather well, and had great acting. It's obvious, however, how the episode came to be; some writer or producer said, "Hey, wouldn't it be great if two crew members had to become lawyers, and if they had to argue over whether Data is alive?"

Sci-fi is supposed to explore the personal and cultural ramifications of technology, and courtrooms are part of any civilized society. The genre demands the occasional criminal or civil case, if any civilization is to be examined fully. I would argue against your thesis, but I must agree that in execution, the courtroom is often a painful excuse for a plot.

[Orrex]

9. I summarily reject your argument because it's far too reasonable

:evilgrin:

Maybe it works better in a case when established characters are involved (either a series or a full-length novel), rather than in one-shot stories. In the latter case, it comes off as something of a deus ex machina, declaring outright that this or that issue is decided to be X. The courtroom is a poor literary surrogate for society as a whole, so when a society-affecting s/f issue is decided by a judge or tribunal or whatever, I tend to find it grossly unsatisfying.

[Orsino]

10. Ah, yes. Shades of Bush v. Gore.

Grossly unsatisfying.

[Orrex]

11. Good call, and I confess that I hadn't even thought of that

But you're 100% correct.

Incidentally, I have a very intelligent friend who, for close to 20 years, has pronounced deus ex machina as "Duce Ex muh-SHEEN-uh."

There's no reasoning with some people.

[Deja Q]

12. Written by Melinda Snodgrass if I recall, it was just as bad on original airing...

I recall how crass and unimaginative it was back then too.

And it's in TNG's much lauded third season. :(

Wait, am I thinking of "A Matter of Perspective"?

Except "The Measure of a Man" became a template for a series of TNG episodes, one of which was the truly wretched "The Quality of Life"... but at least TMoaM had some thought put into it...

Mind you, why TMoaM had to bring back Tasha to remind us that she and Data got jiggy together... bad move.

[Orrex]

13. Ugh. I'd forgotten about "A Matter of Perspective"

Forgive me--I'm a little rough on the names of episodes, and my home dial-up connection's too slow for convenient use of Wiki. But here are a few votes for courtroom episodes that weren't that bad after all:

TOS: The one in which Kirk is court-martialed for jettisoning that guy, and the question of protocol during red vs. yellow alert was central.

TOS: The one with Scotty suspected of murder when in fact it was that Jack-the-Ripper entity

TNG: That one with Ardra masquerading as a devil-figure who returned to claim a 1,000 year-old contract

That's just three I can think of upon further reflection. Which one was "The Quality of Life?" Was it the one in which Worf was temporarily paralyzed? That one was a real steamer, to be sure.

[Deja Q]

19. Quite.

"Court-Martial" had to really push the viewer from thinking the obvious; that computers can be manipulated; but for a 1966 populace, few would have guessed the solution at the time. The rest of the story more than makes up for any 'fallacy' that was simply due to the prevailing mindset in the face of new technology...

"Wolf in the Fold" - the Scotty/murder story. Definitely a classic, with a brilliant revelation, and is creepy a story too.

"Devil's Due" - season 4 TNG story, originally written for "Star Trek - Phase II" (the Kirk TV series that folded in favor of 'Star Trek - The Motion Picture').

'The Quality of Life' is TNG season 6 where Data goes batshit over somebody's newly built exocomp droids; claiming the droids were intelligent. It's essentially 'The Measure of a Man' re-written, and badly too. Maybe if it was a 2-parter showing Data's antics with the Exocomps, which then provokes a larger epic scale where Data's own status is re-determined, and then not given the one-way slanted preachiness the show became well known for by the 6th season... but that would be too cerebral, no doubt...

The Worf episode you referred to is 'Ethics'. Season 5. A big container of stored Romulan poo konks Worf in the back. Worf, after hearing he's paralyzed forever (of course), begs everyone to euthenize him saying it's his culture and everyone responds 'no, because it's barbaric and I'm your friend'. Couldn't even get his offspring Alexander to do it... Then Worf tries to life live as a paralyzed man until Dr Crusher and the guest star doctor of the week find a possible way to regenerate his spine. Crusher says lots more time is needed; the guest star says Worf would rather die, and sometimes we have to go beyond simulations. The experiment fails, of course, but Worf has redundant organs, including a second brain, which allows him to conveniently survive 3 minutes before the end, which also gives Crusher plenty of time to moralize to the guest star doctor about taking the time to proper research. Did a toddler write that contrived garbage? TOS knew how to tell a story with big concepts without having to preach one point of the other and letting the viewer think for himself. TNG always had its mindset and if you thought differently, you were wrong. (Especially season 5 onward.) Yuck.

Sadly, I didn't have to google any of that.

Remind me to babble the differences between 'The Ensigns of Command' and 'The Masterpiece Society' some day. Both feature a society on the brink of destruction due to an outside force; the former has the crew telling them they have to leave and rebuild. The latter says "We can soup up your dome so you can survive things" -- of course, their attempt to soup up the dome fails and the colony starts to fall apart, with Picard saying at the end they shouldn't have bothered... oh boy... though these aren't courtroom-based episodes... :D

[Orrex]

20. IIRC "The Quality of Life" featured the most blatantly phallic object ever shown in primetime

Nothing like a big "particle fountain" pissing onto the planet to remind you that the almighty penis rules the cosmos.

As to your other points--all are right on target IMO. And I didn't know that about "Devil's Due." Thanks for the info!

[shenmue]

14. Courtroom scenes don't really bother me.

I don't see them very often to begin with.

What crops up far more often is the repetitive story of yet another battle against another galactic menace. The writer creates all these other worlds, only to immediately change the story to a race downhill against the menace of the invading army.

How about telling me about *life* on these other worlds? Isn't that why we would try to go there anyway?

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

15. My exception

is for the "Little Fuzzy" books from H. Beam Piper, which featured an extended courtroom drama involving the issue of whether a species was sentient or not (and whether a corporation would have to back down and leave a decade's worth of development on a colony world).

I first read these books as a kid, and the courtroom stuff was the first example I can remember where a sci fi book became didactic. I never pursued law, but I always remembered there are two sides to any debate.

I don't necessarily disagree with the topic here; just pointing out an example of a sci fi courtroom drama I didn't find so bad.

[Orrex]

16. I'm happy to hear of exceptions to my "rule!"

It was my perception that too many s/f courtroom scene suck that impelled me to seek other inputs here.

I'm not at all familiar with the "Little Fuzzy" books, but thanks for offering them as an example.

[tomfodw]

17. Anything where it turns out to be a dream...

...or a computer simulation. No question.

...except for "Carcinoma Angels" by Norman Spinrad, or the Next Gen episodes "Inner Light" and "Tapestry." Plus the Red Dwarf episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse."

I'm sure there are a few other exceptions.

So maybe there is some question. But not much.

[Orrex]

18. Yeah, that's always dreadful

The only thing worse than "it was all just a dream" is "it was all just a dream. Or was it?"

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. "It's some new kind of metal!"

"Some new metal" wasn't a bad way to express alienness... back in the early part of the 20th century when people were still fitting in the gaps of the periodic table.

Now it's just there to delay the plot for whatever reason. Like to explain why Bruce Willis is having so much trouble drilling into an asteroid.