The Ten Commandments of Sci-Fi

Xander Hayes in Magazine 0 comments 19 MAY 2013

In mid-April, the UK website SFX asked their readers to suggest possible Commandments of Sci-Fi, cardinal rules that all sci-fi writers should adhere to. Needless to say, the response was overwhelming with suggestions ranging from serious, to silly to downright hilarious. A shortlist was made comprising of 30 suggestions picked by SFX and readers were allowed to vote for 5 of their favorites. 

So there you have it folks – The Ten Commandments of Sci-Fi…..

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  1. Thou shalt not make every planet look suspiciously like Canada.
  2. Thou shalt not resolve all issues with technobabble.
  3. Thou shalt not wear a goatee just to signify that you are evil.
  4. Thou shalt not cancel a sci-fi show before the writers have a change to wrap up the story arc.
  5. Thou shalt not have midichlorians.
  6. Thou shalt not remake classic sci-fi that’s less than 25 years old.
  7. Thou shalt not pretend that skin tight leather or PVC on a female character has any practical reason other than tittilation.
  8. Thou shalt not write about cowboy hybrid cyber-monkeys and then claim you’re not a sci-fi author.
  9. Thou shalt not have alien civilizations consisting of only one nation, with everyone dressing uniformly, having the same religion, and speaking the same language. Especially not English!.
  10. Thou shalt not use time travel to reboot or re-write canon.

 

Here are some of the suggestion that did not make the final ten, but we thought were equally as entertaining:

  • You shall not refer to zombies as “the infected”. They are not sick – they’re dead!
  • Thou shalt not beat the wookiee.
  • Thou shalt not save the universe in an hour (minus ad breaks).
  • Thou shalt not use more than one apostrophe in an alien name.
  • Thou shalt not use more than one Z or K in an alien race’s name.
  • Thou shalt not visit parallel realities where EVERYONE ON THE FRICKING PLANET is evil. Even… Gandhi and Nelson Mandela!
  • Thou shall not kill off a character just because he learnt the heroes secret identity.

 

Any suggestions of your own? Post them below for everyone’s enjoyment!

Xander Hayes
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