Editorial – November 2025 : The Future Is Not Set.
Hello everyone
Let’s hope the word police aren’t watching my editorials after my story, ‘Blind Evidence’, last month. The world is still unsettled but we need to have a look at the future or rather dated futures in Science Fiction.
MSN frequently postulates future film date settings getting it wrong that we’ve since past and weren’t our future as we go past the date that didn’t happen that way. Duh! Of course, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ always comes up, far more than its sequel, ‘2010’. In some respects, it was more advanced than what we currently have with manned flights to Jupiter but in details, not quite what we have.
Back in 1968, when the film came out, the turn of the century 2001 seemed a long time away but, in Kubrick’s eyes, the next century and something to hang the story from. It also meant he saw a future where he agree with Arthur C Clarke that space travel was a regular occurrence. Major events tend to happen at the turn of the century. Remember the reaction that the Y2K virus messing up computers ability to keep time and mess up software in general? Never happened fortunately. It did tend to work against itself as there was no reference that Heywood Floyd’s trip to the Moon alone wasn’t normal. An embargo on American flights to the orbital space-wheel seemed a bit crazy. It would have made more sense for a full passenger flight and then only Floyd to go onto the Moon to be more telling. These days, you would think a team would have gone with him than a solo flight which would have drawn more attention.
Aside from that, people like dates to hang by. Look at historical dates and how you remember what is associated with them. Well, in my day they were. Less sure about the current school kids. Thing is, it was usually down to the start of things and got a little vague after that, hence the Hundred Year War wasn’t actually that long, running at about 80 years. World War Two didn’t actually end where it did because people forgot the fighting in Burma which went on a bit longer. I’m just giving these as examples of events linked to dates and how they are remembered rather than a history lesson that they didn’t.
It wasn’t always done that way. In books, not just in SF, they would give the century ie eg ‘19—’ so the story would remain ageless or you could put in your own date. These days, it’s easy to tell the difference purely by the technology used but, then, who would have thought of a mobile phone or flatscreen pad TVs. Well, that was something Kubrick was accurate about.
You would think future Science Fiction stories wouldn’t have such a problem, except with time travel, hence a need to give a date, mostly in films, for viewers to relate to how far into the future they went. Subtly, there is a subliminal message how quickly the future could change for the worse. The only problem is what might seem a long time in the future catches up on us because we live through those ages. Thing is people want a date to hang things onto. ‘Back To The Future II’ makes the gag of ‘Jaws 19 3D’ as if the shark films will go on forever but it was only 2015, a date since passed and ‘Jaws’ films never got that far. Considering the number of other film series that have gone on far longer these days, it opens up the choice although it’s an in-joke for the viewer that some things don’t change. Its really more about giving anchors to the viewer as to what hasn’t changed or kept going. A film made much later would choose a different set of relatable anchors and another date that we would no doubt pass. Somewhere down the line, the film footage would be flexible enough to update to more up-to-date anchor joke connections.
The point about this editorial is whether or not is it right not to have future dates used in film, TV or book Science Fiction, knowing that, subject to we surviving to that date, used and ridiculed when predictions don’t come true? I doubt if anyone can predict an alien first contact happening in a particular year, let alone decade or century that it will happen simply because the date will pass and not happen. It tends to forget that the point of the story is how we react or what they do which is important. The dates are less important and more akin to seeing the trees and not the forest. There’s also a fair bet that the people who complete these lists are not really Science Fiction fans but just nit-pickers who could surely pick a different aspect to compare if they were more knowledgeable. You rarely see SF lists showing what it got right or encouraged from being used there first of all. Waldos for instance. If nothing else, it is also giving a bad depiction of SF fans as if that’s all we see in our genre. It’s the story, not the future date, stupid.
The geek aspect of our lives means we look at detail and I can’t deny we speak loudly when we find it wrong or missing when the real knowledge is inaccurate. Much of the time its because whoever did the piece of work we are looking at didn’t do their homework correctly. It’s how we tell the difference between SF and Sci-Fi. A lot of the time its tolerated simply because it can’t be changed, like CE3K’s map co-ordinates isn’t actually at Devil’s Tower and you would have thought Spielberg of all people would have used the real co-ordinates. It isn’t like the Devil’s Tower wasn’t already a tourist attraction even in 1978. From a viewer perspective, we watch the film without looking at that detail as there’s just as assumption it was correct. It’s enough to know that a set of co-ordinates was used. We might criticise for not using the correct co-ordinates but I suspect that Columbia the studio was probably covering their own backs even if they do belong to a farm and people wouldn’t look it. Then again, who in their right minds would look up a trivial piece of information in a film that would, at most, be reshown a few times on television and forgotten after a few years? Even film studios aren’t soothsayers when it comes to predictions.
Generally, though, we Science Fiction fans can enjoy our stories, be it fiction, film or TV, without putting it under a fine comb and then think later about some point that needs further interpretation.
Thank you, take care, good night and nit-pick only where it counts.
Geoff Willmetts
editor: www.SFCrowsnest.info
A Zen thought: Did you get mine?
What Qualities Does A Geek Have: We seek accurate knowledge.
The Reveal: We might make the end of the year.
Observation: Do you ever think you get the wrong idea from TV adverts. Without naming products, I think I would worry about turning into a rubber balloon if I bought a certain insurance product in the UK.
Observation: Now here’s a thing. ‘Who watches the Watchmen?’ Their American President must have or how would he have picked the Comedian to be his amoral agent?
Observation: I’m always puzzled by horror film serial killers. I mean, when did actor Bill Shatner wear a hockey mask so he was used as a disguise?
Observation: In the film ‘Alien’, LV426 is ten months travel from Earth by Lambert’s estimate. 80 years later, the Suloco does it in a fortnight which shows how much speed has improved in that time. Even so, you do have to wonder how LV426 was picked out from all other choices as a good choice to build a better new world?
Observation: For those of you looking for the voice actors from the Anderson shows doing physical acting might want to lay their hands on ‘The Protectors’. Not the Anderson production but a 1963 black & white series based around a private detective agency. The third episode in, ‘Happy Is The Loser’, and a Lady Penelope coiffeur as a Mayfair lady of the night is actress Christine Finn, the voice of TinTin and Grandma Tracy no less.
Feeling Stressed: There’s always tomorrow.
Submissions:-
Surely some of you want to review books?
If you think having free books to review isn’t enough, how about reading them months ahead of everyone? I mean real months. Beats a time machine.
I did think that having a lot of text about submitting material to SFCrowsnest would attract those with a compulsion to read and understand things the geek way. The main problem with the Internet is that it tends to encourage less reading, so time to take a different approach. The original notes will be left on July2009 editorial although the links aren’t likely to work.
With your cover email, tell me something about yourself so I don’t work in a vacuum. The boss in the tower, also called Stephen Hunt, describes me as a ‘Dutch Uncle’ in that I’m good with advice and can explain when I see something that is wrong. Egos should be left at the door as I’m only interested in your talent and how to improve it.
Reviews:-
I always have a clarion call for new reviewers and if you have the yen to learn, you’ll quickly get the ropes if you’re never done it before but you must show me a sample, especially if you can follow my guidelines. We can usually get paper-based books in the UK but if you live abroad, then you might have to stick with ebooks. If you’ve picked a book we haven’t reviewed, then it stands a better chance of being used so use the SFC search engine to see first but I need to see how you would write for us.
The obvious qualification is a desire to read regularly and like to tell others about the book without giving away too many spoilers. The benefit is access to free books for the price of a review.
I want to give you the opportunity to get things right so look up the Review Guidelines link: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-want-to-write-reviews-for-sfcrowsnest-what-you-need-to-know-by-geoff-willmetts/
Fiction:-
Although we can’t pay for submissions, what we do make up for is exposure. Only the Sci-Fi Channel gets more hits than us so it’s worthwhile getting us on your writer’s CV. Please avoid samplings from book’s you might be writing or have had in print elsewhere as I do check. New original work is best and whether I accept or reject, you will be told of any problems I see so you look your best and a grammar check that is equal to the pro-world. Even the boss finds me scarily accurate.
Flash or One-Page Fiction:-
Speaks for itself. The shortest fiction possible is also the toughest to write as no word must be wasted.
Link here for details: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/one-page-stories-or-flash-fiction-submissions-instructions-by-gf-willmetts/
Short Stories:-
The definition of a short story is anything up to 30 pages and then it becomes a novella. Bear in mind you want other people to read it on-line, stay somewhere between 5-20 pages. At least digitally, you don’t have to go double-line as HTML will do that automatically but think about being concise. If you want to send an attachment with these, then ask first and send as a TXT file as it removes most tetchy virus codes.
Look up the Short Stories Link by linking here: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-really-want-to-write-an-sf-story-an-update-by-gf-willmetts/
Finally:-
The worse problem I see any samples is poor grammar. Although I don’t want you to think I seek perfection, the less work I have to do, the easier it is to focus on other problems you might have. It will also serve you in good stead if you ever approach paper-based publishers because they will send back any bad grammar samples because it’s not worth their time.
Good grammar is the tool of any writer. Don’t just depend on what you remember doing at school. There are plenty of decent grammar books out there, so remind yourself of the rules. If you think there are far too many to remember, get the major ones right before moving to the next so it becomes second nature.
This link, www.sfcrowsnest.info/the-guide-to-better-grammar-from-the-harrowed-hand-of-gf-willmetts/ will show you the common problems.
To submit, use our email address by joining the spaces as shown here: letters @ SFcrowsnest.info and use the subject matter as to what you’re submitting.
If you have any pastimes that can be used to pass the time in captivity, let me know and we’ll see if it can be turned into an article.
Comments directly to reviews should still work as before.
Good luck
Geoff
