The Expanse in the first couple of seasons did a decent job of showing that the characters were flawed and not at the center of the world while struggling against a system that is a more realistic portrayal of what monsters exceptionalism really creates.
This aspect of Star Trek the next generation did a pretty good job of contextualizing the fact that the events on the Enterprise were the stories of one of many such vessels.
The Expanse is the first thing that came to mind for me as a counter-example when I read your first comment so I’m glad to see you mention it! It even plays on the exceptionalism idea in book/season 3 and 4 where Holden seems special because >!Miller is appearing to him!< and because >!he isn’t affected by the eye parasites!< only to explain those things away with reasoning stemming from events that already happened in previous books. And any exceptionalism that comes after that is largely due to the reputation or skills characters have built for themselves rather than because they’re “chosen ones”.
If you haven’t read the books, I really recommend them!
I really should. How closely do they follow the show? I like knowing what to expect in general. I lack the human-byte capacity to read into something completely blind and stick with it. With a basic roadmap I enjoy the journey.
I don’t know how long the show went on, but when they did the whole wormhole thing I quit watching. It just wasn’t the same show IMO. Is that a book thing or was that just the show? I mean, I read Dune all the way through the wormy All-Stars game of the last two books by Brian. So I’m not too much of a soft-sci snob, but I’d rather know.
Do you have a good example of a story which doesn’t fall into this trope at all? One which perfectly encapsulates not doing this?
The Expanse in the first couple of seasons did a decent job of showing that the characters were flawed and not at the center of the world while struggling against a system that is a more realistic portrayal of what monsters exceptionalism really creates.
This aspect of Star Trek the next generation did a pretty good job of contextualizing the fact that the events on the Enterprise were the stories of one of many such vessels.
The Expanse is the first thing that came to mind for me as a counter-example when I read your first comment so I’m glad to see you mention it! It even plays on the exceptionalism idea in book/season 3 and 4 where Holden seems special because >!Miller is appearing to him!< and because >!he isn’t affected by the eye parasites!< only to explain those things away with reasoning stemming from events that already happened in previous books. And any exceptionalism that comes after that is largely due to the reputation or skills characters have built for themselves rather than because they’re “chosen ones”.
If you haven’t read the books, I really recommend them!
I really should. How closely do they follow the show? I like knowing what to expect in general. I lack the human-byte capacity to read into something completely blind and stick with it. With a basic roadmap I enjoy the journey.
I don’t know how long the show went on, but when they did the whole wormhole thing I quit watching. It just wasn’t the same show IMO. Is that a book thing or was that just the show? I mean, I read Dune all the way through the wormy All-Stars game of the last two books by Brian. So I’m not too much of a soft-sci snob, but I’d rather know.
Lost in Translation comes to mind. A peek into the intersection of two people’s lives for a few days