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Overused plot lines:

To: mgs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Overused plot lines:
From: Paul Hunt <paul.hunt1@virgin.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 20:14:30 +0000
1. Post-cataclysmic rag-tag armies struggle to kick the Russkies out of 
the good ol' US of A

2. Post-cataclysmic rag-tag armies struggle to survive against gangs of 
bandits, mutants, cyberpunks, bikers, etc.

3. Rag-tag rebel army/fleet struggles valiantly to overthrow the Evil 
Empire

4. Time travel by Good Guys to stop a historical Bad Guy, usually Hitler

5. Time travel by Bad Guy to stop Good Guy from ever being born

6. Time travel by Temporal Policeman to catch a Bad Guy who escaped into 
the past

7. The race to develop a cure for the Supervirus or a weapon to stop the 
Invincible Bad Guys

8. An alien who:
Is stranded on earth
Befriends a human child or falls in love with an earth gal
Is pursued by shadowy malevolent Pentagon officials under the pretense 
of national security
Uses alien powers to defeat the shadowy malevolent Pentagon officials, 
making them look foolish without really harming them
Makes teary farewell and returns to home planet

9. A virtual reality program is activated, and the distinction between 
reality and the program becomes confused or indistinguishable

10. People connect their brains directly to computers and get dependent 
on them

11. Aliens travel a zillion miles to loot the earth of resources which 
exist in far greater and much more easily recoverable quantities on the 
many uninhabited bodies they pass on the way to earth

12. Gang of cute and/or misfit kids rescue the universe, where a large 
group of competent, organized and well-armed adults failed

13. A complex computer system spontaneously becomes self-aware

14. A couple files an application to the government for permission to 
conceive a baby

15. A human developing a romantic attachment to a robot

16. UFO abductions

17. Brain-controlling parasites attempt to wrest control of human race

18. Aliens put someone on trial for the sins of humanity

19. A high-tech amusement park goes lethally berserk

20. Death from old age turns out to be due to some simple, single cause, 
leading to an easy immortality treatment, with consequent catastrophic 
social implications

21. A great hunter decides that humans are the most entertaining prey of 
all, and visits Earth to bag a few

22. Psychedelic drugs give somebody magical power over space, time and 
reality

23. Aliens with completely incomprehensible motivations make war on the 
human race/invade earth

24. The bureaucratic/reactionary mindset stands in the way of scientific 
progress, but is overcome by the researcher through ability, purity of 
heart, and use of the scientific method

25. Two hostile factions colonize a planet within walking distance of 
each other

26. The government ships criminals off to other planets

27. A crass sexist male becomes pregnant

28. An android discovers emotions and goes beserk

29. A young researcher who:
a) Gets a job at a Mega-huge Corporation or Ultra-secret Government 
Agency
b) Learns that the employer's latest discovery has a Nasty Side Effect 
or c) involves some obvious human rights abuses, but the employer is 
moving ahead with it anyway
d) Confronts the employer, who casually dismisses the researcher's 
concerns
e) Tries to blow the whistle to avert disaster
f) Gets hounded by Shadowy Malevolent Goons
g) Watches the disaster overtake the CEO
h) Testifies before Congress and enters the Witness Protection program

30. Aliens invade earth in order to eat humans

31. An android turns on its creators


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