What's the most flawed science SciFi TV show or movie?

[Yavin4]

Name a science fiction TV show or movie that had major scientific flaws. But first there are some rules:

1. Cannot be a complete fantasy story. No Star Wars for example. Nothing where the universe is completely made up.
2. The story has to have some grounding in reality. Star Trek would be an example of a story that is based on some reality with an extension into the future.

[underpants]

1. Land of the Lost

Bill Laimbeer was totally inauthentic as a Sleestak

[Yavin4]

2. OMG!

[underpants]

4. 🏹

?format=1500w

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/aces-coach-laimbeer-surprised-land-lost-stars-64674397

[RainCaster]

3. The "Planet of the Apes" series

[Jeebo]

5. Lost in Space.

It was ridiculous, it was laughable, it was stupid, but it was fun stupid, so I watched it. They made a Lost in Space movie some years back. My niece told me it was awful, but I didn't heed her warning and went to see it anyway, and she was right, it was awful. But it wasn't fun awful, it was just awful. They took the fun out of it and left just the awful. So I suppose the Lost in Space movie was worse than the Lost in Space TV series.

Oops, I had composed this and was just about to post it when I remembered Plan 9 from Outer Space. So I'd like to change my vote to Plan 9 from Outer Space. It was the awfulest science fiction movie, TV series, novel or anything else, I've ever seen or read. Whether you're talking about the science, or any of its other components.

-- Ron

ON EDIT: Yavin4, I think you need to define your first rule more clearly. I don't understand what it means or how the example offered explains it.

[Miguelito Loveless]

10. It started off serious

with Dr. Smith as an enemy saboteur, and had damn good effects for its day. Then it became silly.

[Stuart G]

24. Some, (I said "some" Consider.." Plan from Outer Space." to be the worst movie ever made..and...

it is one of the most boring movies I have ever seen. Yes...I showed it to a Science Fiction Club that
I sponsored in high school....Oh, did I say that it is boring, boring, and more boring.
.... If you watch this filmed you will be bored out of your mind!!!! (What mind is left after watching..
...........Plan 9 from Outer Space.

[Mr.Bill]

6. My Favorite Martian. n/t

[Miguelito Loveless]

7. Six Million Dollar Man

First time Steve Austin lifted a car, his non-bionic spine would have snapped like a twig.

[Dave Starsky]

35. The Six Million Dollar Man started off okay.

The producers made some attempt not to get too cartoony with the bionics. There were no slow motion scenes or elaborate sound effects. In the pilot episode, there's a scene where Steve Austin is running in the desert, and his shirt shows no perspiration under his right arm (the bionic one).

Then it quickly became a kid's show, and the producers began to care less.

(BTW, in the best-selling book that the show was based on, Steve Austin was much more rooted in reality. His spine and pelvis were reinforced to handle the extra strain of his limbs, and his bionic eye was sightless and only worked as a high-tech miniature camera.)

[Miguelito Loveless]

37. True,

I read the book (Cyborg?) and was shocked at all the differences. His should would have to be re-enforced as well, or it would tear out of its socket as well. The other thing that struck me was the power source, which was hand-waved away as "nuclear".

Ah, the 70s.

[Dave Starsky]

50. Ah, yes. The magic of mini-nuclear power.

Martin Caidin, the guy that wrote Cyborg, was an interesting guy. He had one of the first liberal talk radio shows in the nation. He was also a true believer In ESP (another fad magical trope from the 1970s) who really believed he could move things with his mind and thought that all humanity should be doing it.

His Cyborg sequel High Crystal was all about Steve Austin discovering an ancient astronaut base in the Mesoamerican jungle.

[cos dem]

8. Gravity

Hated that movie. I can suspend disbelief for the purpose of entertainment, but when a movie comes across as "realistic" I cut it less slack. The idea that astronauts can hopscotch between space stations and make it back to earth safely is ridiculous. Even the very beginning of the movie, with Clooney joyriding in a spacesuit, because, sure, rocket fuel is super plentiful in space! WTF?

[hunter]

30. Yes, "Gravity" was painful to watch.

I can view Star Wars as a magical fantasy like many people enjoy Lord of the Rings but Gravity was just screeching awful. I skipped Ad Astra because I heard it was worse.

[AllaN01Bear]

9. star lost. on my fave awful list

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlost

the computer was very snooty.

[Miguelito Loveless]

13. Oh, Jeebus, MagiCam effects

Which were bad even then.

I kind of liked the computer, or at least the actor who played it.

[LakeArenal]

11. The THUNDERBIRDS

https://m.

[Salviati]

12. The Core

That's not how angular momentum works, or energy, or nuclear weapons. Though apparently the original script was much worse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core#Reception

[Dave Starsky]

27. That movie is totally batshit bonkers, but I love it.

If it's possible to check any knowledge of science gained since grade school at the door, it's actually a pretty thrilling "team saving the world from doom" story in the vein of the classic Fantastic Voyage (which is also highly science deficient).

The Core is one of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. I'll defer to Neil Degrasse Tyson on that subject.

Personally, I was so disappointed in "Interstellar" after reading many positive reviews about the SUPPOSED realism of it, that it's about the only such movie on my mind right now. I hated it, and I also felt betrayed by the reviews (and the ALLEGED heavy reliance on actual physicists as advisors) which had compelled me to see it in a movie theatre. And, sure enough, Dr. Tyson later had similar complaints about it too. (He's much less critical of that movie in the above YouTube video than he was in the days after it was released, by the way.)

[Dave Starsky]

28. I kept hearing how Interstellar was so true to science.

And it was supposedly fact checked by some famous physicist.

And yet I never got over the fact that our intrepid astronauts kept cruising around solar system distances like they were going to the Piggly Wiggly in the next town over to pick up milk and eggs.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

34. I was so disappointed in much of the so-called science...

... and the plot itself.

The tessaract INSIDE the black hole, Cooper finding his daughter's book shelf within it, communicating the equations of quantum-gravity with Morse code to her... and the basic plot that a 5th-dimensional "they" decided all of this was the best way to save the human race from extinction for whatever reason?!

It had a few accurate and interesting parts, such as the time dilation near the black hole, but too much of it was unnecessarily inaccurate to create an emotionally compelling story... and the movie often sucked in that regard as well.

There comes a point with science-fi, as far as I'm concerned, that the director might as well go "all in" with nonsense. Why not have unicorns and fairies directing Cooper to the book shelf? Might as well! Then the inevitable apologists can simply argue, "Well, it's POSSIBLE since we can't see what's within the event horizon!"

[Boxerfan]

15. I have to turn off my credibility meter when watching almost anything nowadays.

Last edited Wed Feb 24, 2021, 12:41 AM - Edit history (1)

If I start doing a that's not how that works or that engine sound is wrong for a 2-cycle engine etc...I'll never enjoy a movie.

edit to actually answer .
I'll go with " The Crater Lake Monster". Or anything Svenghoolie has on and that's why I watch. Sometimes the worse the better

[rsdsharp]

16. Fireball XL5

[Yavin4]

17. Let me add Armageddon

Two words: Michael Bay. Enough said.

[First Speaker]

18. Space: 1999

...let me quote from a review of the show at the time--the 70s--by the sainted Spider Robinson. (This might not be word-for-word, but it's close.) "I can't bear to describe the show's premise. Ask the next SF fan you meet about it, and wait until he finishes laughing. Bring a lunch."

[Dave Starsky]

36. Even as an idiotic little kid...

I knew that any explosion powerful enough to launch the Moon into interstellar space was also powerful enough to smash it into dust.

[lastlib]

51. I've always found it hard to believe that a nuclear weapon works well in space.....

There is heat, there is radiation released--but there is no atmosphere to conduct the blast wave that does so much of the damage. And for the same reason, the heat has nothing to conduct it; it's only a little bit of infrared radiation into the void--it's not going to cook so much as a hot dog (although the microwave radiation released might.....)

Correct me if I'm wrong, pls.

[Dave Starsky]

55. Wow. I never thought of it that way.

It's the hot expanding gases that cause explosion damage. No gases, no destruction. Maybe melt some stuff, but that's it.

[lastlib]

56. Consider that every star is an ongoing fusion reaction.

And all that comes out is energized subatomic particles. The little critters hit things and make them warm, or make their internal compasses go haywire, but they don't knock down buildings or trees.

[Dave Starsky]

58. Exactly.

Mind = blown.

[Archae]

19. Capricorn 1.

NASA and the government fake a trip to Mars.

The story, acting and effects were awful.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

20. Too many, but 'The Expanse' has excellent space and gravity physics and is quite addicting

It will be coming back for a 6th and final season on Amazon

Earthers, Belters and Martians still warring till the end, awesome epic space battle scenes

[Ron Obvious]

21. Prometheus

Just about the only movie that actually made me angry enough to walk out after 20 minutes or so. Not bored, not sneering in laughter. No, actually angry. I was surprised by it myself.

Probably for featuring the world's most moronic scientists.

[canuckledragger]

59. The part in that movie that bugged me...

Was the stupidity shown when reacting to certain events.

...like when the big, crashing, donut-shaped ship is rolling straight towards Charlize Theron's character, and all she does is run straight ahead...instead of to the left or right where she would be safe.

The movie was full of supposedly smart people doing stupid things that way.

[lastlib]

22. Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea.

They could've just left off "of the Sea." The entire series just sank quickly to the bottom of hell. My brother and I fairly soon just started calling it "Take-Over Man." Every episode was about some monster du jour taking over the sub and using it to threaten to destroy the whole world. Only "Lost In Space" topped it in stupidity. And only Battlestar Galactica surpassed it as a waste of the talent of an otherwise great star.

[lastlib]

23. And I won't even start on "Zardoz"--

which would've better been named "Go Doze". That movie was an umitigated piece of crap.

[Throckmorton]

25. My cat Sporkweasel's secret name is Zardoz,

So it does have that going for it.

[lastlib]

26. Well, okay, if it's for a cat......

I must bow to our feline overlords.

(and you get snaps for "Sporkweasel"! )

[hunter]

31. Zardoz is wonderful.

It's an actual science fiction movie, not the usual techno-crud.

I tend to dislike science fiction movies about some hot headed fighter pilot who saves the world. It was a cliché when George Lucas did it in the 'seventies.

[lastlib]

32. I'm with you on the last part!

"Star Wars" got old the day after it was released, IMHO. "Star Trek" at least had some scientific ideas. But give me an Isaac Asimov work or an Arthur C. Clarke work any day. "Childhood's End" could've been a WAY better film than the version that was done, if it had stayed truer to the novel.

"Zardoz"--no. Have to disagree with you here. It's incomprehensible ridiculous crap. In the two times I've tried to watch & understand it, I found no redeeming qualities in it, and I'm done looking for any.

HAND

[Towlie]

29. Any time travel story.

 
?

Time travel stories can be fun, and the primary challenge of creating an entertaining time travel story is is how the author handles the paradoxes of the ways changes in the past affect the present. But those paradoxes can never be adequately resolved and always require suspension of disbelief.

[Archae]

33. Try the Isaac Asimov-written animated movie, "Light Years."

Good movie!

[Politicub]

45. The signals from the Perseverance rover blew my mind. I kept thinking about how

everything that mission control described during the landing happened several minutes in the past. It was a form of time travel, as is all light, I suppose.

[Paladin]

38. What was that space exploration series, with Lorne Green as "Adama"?

I thought that one sucked out loud.

[Paladin]

43. Got it! "Battlestar Galactica" !!!

With Lorne Greene as (trumpet blats, please) Commander Adama!!!

That series sucked the big one.....

[lastlib]

52. And WHO would name anybody (besides a coffe shop) "Starbuck"??

That was dreadful in itself!

[Paladin]

53. Yeah, once Melville used it in "Moby Dick," it was all downhill. (nt)

[Goodheart]

39. All of them.

Which reminds me of something I've heard from several doctors, nurses, and hospital workers: Scrubs was a lot more accurate procedurally and diagnostically and institutionally than was Grey's Anatomy.

[Yavin4]

41. Cops use to say that "Barney Miller" was the most realistic cop show on TV. n/t

[NightWatcher]

40. Quantum Leap?

[sarge43]

42. Red Planet.

Won't say it was the most flawed, but it was definitely a contender.

[Politicub]

44. I'm enjoying this thread. I'm not smart enough to know the most.

[mountain grammy]

57. Me too and same here.

[Demovictory9]

46. I dream of Jeannie

[Demovictory9]

47. Godzilla movies with respect to his weight on land... he should sink into the concrete

[Demovictory9]

48. Mortal engines... weight of the cities moving on wheels... seemed impossible.

[alphafemale]

49. Fantastic Voyage. A miniature spaceship with people injected into another human.

Spectacularly stupid

[lindysalsagal]

54. Outlander! Hello! Travelling through time by touching a stone!

Otherwise it's really very scottish and lots of fun! But the Scots wouldn't have treated Clair half as well as they do, even being a healer. And the evolved, equal-partnership-Jamie wouldn't have existed, either. But that doesn't stop me from re-watching it!