Yes, they do. Anytime a bullshit Star Trek solution actually works without the writer earning it, it bugs me. For instance, it's one thing to have a character spend an episode (or several episodes) building credibility with someone and then convince them of something at the end. It's another to have everything fixed by one bullshit speech.
Honestly, authors can usually work around this with vagueness. Star Trek once did things this way; we know about the society, but we didn't used to know where that society came from, so it was hard to say how unrealistic it was. That's a common trick, and it's a good one. Don't want to explain how your FTL drive works? Don't! Who cares? The important thing is the effect. Obviously you have to strike a balance there so that people can make some kind of connection between their current state and the state in the story, but you can definitely get away with not explaining a few important plot elements per story.
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Date: 2008-06-22 02:37 am (UTC)Honestly, authors can usually work around this with vagueness. Star Trek once did things this way; we know about the society, but we didn't used to know where that society came from, so it was hard to say how unrealistic it was. That's a common trick, and it's a good one. Don't want to explain how your FTL drive works? Don't! Who cares? The important thing is the effect. Obviously you have to strike a balance there so that people can make some kind of connection between their current state and the state in the story, but you can definitely get away with not explaining a few important plot elements per story.