Cute: a Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés. I think the ratings (indicating whether an item can be done well or is irretrievably bad, among other things) are a little arbitrary, and a fair bit of the list is really just a goofy-science-in-Star Trek list, but it's still kinda fun, and lists some things we should probably add to our plots we see too often page.
“Abysmally stupid for some other reason” is way too vague of a catch-all.
As usual, I find myself looking at a list like this as a challenge. 🙂 A good third of the “overused settings and characterizations” might actually make interesting premises for stories if you were to think through both their internal contradictions and their (usually ignored) logical consequences.
For instance, Suzette Haden Elgin made good use of “aliens whose thinking is so different from ours that no communication is possible,” in Native Tongue — though the book had other problems. Ted Chiang’s “Understand” could be taken as a very clever treatment of “all genetically superior humans have an innate drive to rule, conquer, or kill everyone else.”, except for the “genetically” part. And Vernor Vinge’s Fire Upon the Deep is, on a certain level, one big explanation for “All of the spacefaring races have roughly the same level of technology.”
Hey, I think I’ve written some of these in my, uh, early work. Yes, early work, that’s it.
Somebody just banned all of my best ideas!
Damn.