How did the twin set off an explosion and not get harmed? I kept watching the scene…doesn’t make sense; he was too close to the agent. The son had more alarming mood swings than the father, and his constant chattering while supposedly serious talk was transpiring added nothing. In fact the occasional attempts at humor all fell flat. The professor’s ability to totally resolve the problem–listing off every chemical (and bovine) needed for a solution–stretched credulity. The emotionally impaired man being some kind of savant is too much of a caricature for me.

I am glad that this program was NOT in basic “real time,” as some of these criticisms lose their edge when gaps in time are accounted for.

I won’t be watching it. I don’t like paranormal or X-Files, and the list of “The Pattern” Abaddon rattled off sounds XFilish. But frankly, once I get wrapped up in a show, I can’t miss it (coughsmallvillecough) no matter how bad it gets. With Heroes and The Shield and trudging through Babylon 5 DVDs, I have enough entertainment for a small army.

Thought the music was nearly identical to Lost.

That depends on which series you’re talking about. It varies from series to series. None of which changes the fact that you specifically mentioned humans an opposition to “alien robots.” Robots built by Vulcans or Klingons would still be “alien robots.”

And you never answered my question about what it’s acceptable for them to change into.

Vic

Rev

2: Only humans can create robots? No other race can develop that technology believably? Klingons or Vulcans couldn’t? Do you discount the androids from the original Star Trek series, which weren’t created by humans?

If those are your personal limits, that’s fine, I’m just a bit perplexed by them and the reasons for them.

Must be the shape changing, then? Granted, not much has been done with the idea of one item becoming something else, but it’s not unheard of. While I’m hard pressed to find many series or writers than have dealt with it, I can safely say that Star Trek’s done it. Or would you not call Star Trek SF? Admittedly, Trek has pushed the limits of SF, but it’s still SF.

These days we have the ability to make machines that could change form. They may not be able to do much more than that, so it may not be practical yet, but we have the ability. We have created robots. They may not be anywhere near as advanced as the ones we see in SF stories, but we’ve got robots. I’ve even seen a video of a real robot that can change shape, though it’s little more than a toy.

The science for two of the elements is there: robots and shape changing. The third, aliens, we don’t have first-hand evidence of, but they’re pretty well accepted in SF, and have pretty much been there from the beginning. So, I’d say alien robots that can change their shape do qualify as science fiction.

Then again, maybe your problem is with the idea that the robots are alive. Did you have a problem with Data in Star Trek? What about the robots from Star Wars? Or were they not considered alive? How about the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica? Living machines, though, are also not uncommon in SF.

So unless that’s where your problem lies, or with one of those four elements I mentioned, I’d say the core of Transformers, living alien robots who change form, qualifies as science fiction.

As for something being an insult to the genre, I’d say the insult is limiting the options of what can be science fiction.

Actually, yes, a good movie based on Transformers could have been done. All they would have had to do it CARE about making a good movie, and treated it as a serious science fiction movie. The problem is too many people, you for example, have a preconceived notion about what Transformers is, and aren’t willing give it credit for being able to surpass it’s origins.

Good writers, and a director who was competent and cared about the final product, could have made Transformers into an SF story that could have stood beside anything Star Trek has done, beside anything Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov has written. All you have to do it look beyond the preconceived ideas that this is “just a bad 80’s cartoon” or “just a kids toyline.”