Five Ways to Make Sure Technology Doesn't Get in the Way of Storytelling

[james_davis_nicoll]

Another Torrific essay, delivering exactly what it says on the tin.

Five Ways to Make Sure Technology Doesn't Get in the Way of Storytelling

Comments

[james_davis_nicoll]

Tor dot com article 361, 2023 article 8

[dewline]

Much appreciate this reminder!

[kedamono]

Re: Transporters. I think the main reason for the Transporter was that Roddenberry used to write for cop shows, and was used to having a short scene of the cop car on the road. But not all cop shows did that. Dragnet would only have scenes in a car if there was plot relevant info to be delivered. Otherwise Friday would say "Let's go to X" cut to a short shot of X, and Friday and Gannon walk into shot.

That would have worked for Star Trek. Kirk says "Let's go the planet's surface, cut to a stock scene of the Shuttle passing in front of a planet, cut to Kirk and crew getting out of the shuttle on the surface. You only worry about showing the shuttle leaving the Enterprise once every 5 episodes of so. Would have solved the Get Out Of Jail Free problem with the transporter.

[(Anonymous)]

Heck, they could have just filmed about three different angles of a shuttle leaving the Enterprise's shuttle bay in front of a starry background and used one of the three stock clips every time, and run them in reverse for the shuttle returning.


--
Nathan H.

[austin_dern]

It would've been okay, but you'd still have to set up the big shuttle prop in the not-big-enough soundstage for your planet surface (or a small prop set up for forced-perspective stuff that doesn't work as well as anyone likes), at least every couple episodes. Plus you have to write in the transit time from ship to shore and vice-versa into the stories. And you can't do any last-minute escape from the big explosion except by doing a shuttle-taking-off shot that's going to be difficult model work.

I think they made the right call with the Transporter. It's narratively quick, it's not too expensive or difficult an effect, and it's some imagination-catching spectacle for the viewers. And the limits are vague enough that no writer (or fan) can definitively say that it wouldn't work like that.

If they really wanted to avoid the 'Get Out Of Jail Free' problem they could have tossed in a line about how the transporter needs 18 hours to recharge so when they go to the Planet of the Week they're stuck there. Or that beaming too soon since the last time risks giving you Space Apoplexy. It'd even be a free tension scene as the crew decides whether to beam Kirk even though it won't be safe for 45 more seconds. But there's many things done for the sake of narrative economy that don't make real-world sense, like almost all the operations of the ship, when you get down to it.

[petrea_mitchell]

Would "magic keeps tech beyond some arbitrary level from working" be a subcategory of subspace storm? I'm still waiting for a fantasy story where someone realizes that this effect can be used to build, at minimum, a rudimentary magic detector.

Another thing you can do is have power structures restricting use of technology. This can range from "our quaint local customs require that you leave your extremely useful devices behind while operating in our territory" to shadowy cabals ruthlessly suppressing its development.

[bolindbergh]

I'm still waiting for a fantasy story where someone realizes that this effect can be used to build, at minimum, a rudimentary magic detector.

Peter Grant does exactly that in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.

[petrea_mitchell]

Thanks, I'll have to check that out.

[(Anonymous)]

It's introduced in "Foxglove Summer", but a lot happens in earlier books, some of it pretty bad for female police officer Lesley May. And for other people. And Peter doesn't find it easy to keep off women. I mention these concerns in case you'd be sorry to invest in a series with these elements. And I think I can sum up that element as "Find My Phone Isn't Really A Phone Any More".

The series also include graphic novels which usually appear as comic magazines and then as albums, with sometimes-varying bonus features in each.

Robert Carnegie

[roseembolism]

I used that cabal explanation in an SF game that was intended to be "Sword Dueling on a Space Station." I defined modern smart weapons as being incredibly effective killing devices, the station management REALLY not wanting them to be used, and being very aggressive in enforcing that policy. The upshot being "OK, you can use your futuristic gun to headshot your enemy. And now your head has exploded. Make a new character."

[roseembolism]

It also occurs to me that Mage the Ascension can be defined as a shadowy cabal keeping a technology in the form of magic from the public.

[(Anonymous)]

"magic keeps tech beyond some arbitrary level from working"

Jim Butcher did that in the Dresden Files, of course, but that was also the explanation in Harry Potter for why wizard dwellings, including Hogwarts, had no electric lights. No explanation is given about what Hermione's parents did while she was home for the summer. Unplug everything more complex than a toaster and put it in storage? I wonder how many TVs they went through while she was growing up.

-Awesome Aud

[bolindbergh]

Hermione was more disciplined and suffered fewer provocations (dreadful old relatives, "helpful" house elves, etc.) and so had no problems complying with the prohibition against performing magic in muggle territory.

[(Anonymous)]

A teenage girl who's been through multiple life-threatening situations, and isn't throwing off some major accidental magic? Hermione is indeed the Queen of Cool!

-Awesome Aud

[rwpikul]

A fic I just read¹ had it as an effect of some of the magics used to make wizarding locations hard to find. Even then, they were wrong about what it disabled. They never bothered to check anything beyond 1940's electronics and thus never discovered it was specifically a problem with vacuum tubes.


1: "Harry is a Dragon, And That's Okay" by Saphroneth. It's a crackfic premise, (Harry turned into a dragon when he was 5, muggles don't notice), done seriously. Even the part about Ron flying to the moon as a squirrel makes sense.

[(Anonymous)]

Harry is a Dragon, And That's Okay" by Saphroneth.

Okay, I just looked it up on AO3.....700,000 words?!?! This person must have seriously sore fingers!😉

Is it worth the time investment?


"They never bothered to check anything beyond 1940's electronics and thus never discovered it was specifically a problem with vacuum tubes."

Yeah, that tracks. 🤨

-Awesome Aud

[alexey_rom]

This is only mentioned in the books for Hogwarts in particular as far as I know, and even fanon only generalizes it to places where a lot of magic happens.

There was a lot more magic done in Dursleys' house than in Grangers', and nothing happened to their TVs or Dudley's toys.