To be fair to a science fiction show such as star trek (the original) which didn’t have too much in the way of money or abilities to create many good aliens what they did to show the difference in species was fine. They didn’t have the ability to create ‘alien’ or ‘predator’ and the variety of excellent aliens out there these days.

Also, theories and knowledge change over time. Until Einstein came along, Newton’s laws were believed to all be true. Some, of course, were found by Einstein to not be correct. It is possible to assume that the paradigm caused by Einstein’s research will shift and new theories and knowledge will come to play. If we believe this is possible it isn’t unreasonable to assume that faster than (or equal to at least) light travel is possible.

I know you’re generalizing, but there are exceptions – and Sci-Fi book authors think of this often, as they actually care that their work holds up.

10. Simplicity
eg: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – you’ve got a restaurant at the end of the universe, for one… isn’t that enough of an example for complexity? The book is extremely complex and you really feel like this is what the universe is like – somewhere, at least.

9. Simplistic Planets
eg: the John Carter of Mars books, by E.R. Burroughs – tons of different ecosystems on Mars alone: deserts, tropical forests, swamps, icy mountains and… I dare you to discover the rest if you don’t know it. He did it just so he could make more books and keep them exciting by showing new places and scenarios, never fully and exhaustively explaining of the mechanics of that world and its many societies. And it worked, you accept it and concentrate on the action.

8. Alien /Human Breeding
The evolutionary theory has shown us that, no matter where or who you are in the world, a few elemental characteristics will develop to fit your environment and your class (mammals in our case). For example, all mammals have, or show remnants of four limbs, lungs, intrauterine gestation and, of course, mammary glands which produce milk.
I’m not saying we’ll find humans, but if there’s a planet out there with a similar ecosystems to ours and capable of sustaining carbon based life forms we can communicate with, you bet someone could make a hybrid at some point in time. Just probably not through intercourse.
Hey, they made a Liger …

7. Alien/Human communication
I don’t see any logic about this one. Star Trek had episodes where they communicated with aliens who didn’t ‘speak’ as we conceive it. I don’t remember the episode, but I do know there was one where the crew encountered an alien species they found a way to communicate with by growing something (energy patterns or microscopic structures or something) which enabled them to make themselves understood – yet there was no possible, normal conversation, as the aliens had no way to produce any type of speech. Someone did think of this.

6. Ah… radio waves… what if we discovered something faster? Say…
http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/faster-than-light-radio-waves-could-revolutionize-computer-industries-20090630/

5. See #8 –similar environment, similar responses to evolution within the same class, even if with slight variations. ‘Humanoid’ is just a four limbed creature walking on two of its limbs.
Oh, wait, a kangaroo can do that…in a way.

4. There CAN be explosions in space – we just don’t see any flames. Explosions can be conceived in terms of sudden space expansion, rather than combustion (like the big bang, for eg). Ok, you got a point on this one, we all know it and it’s the second thing we think of in terms of ‘movie space blunders’. First is sound, of course.

3. Maybe you can travel without moving. Like in Dune (wasn’t that turned into a movie as well?)

2. The only reason astronauts in orbit don’t feel the earth’s gravity is because they’re moving along the earth’s curve. When you speed down a hill, after you gain enough speed you’ll loose the feeling of your own weight for this very reason. Centrifugal forces will make you ‘lose’ your weight, pushing you against the arch of your trajectory. If an astronaut is walking around in a big-BIG-ass ship (say, approximately the same mass as Earth), you bet he/she’s going to be pulled in by its mass. If there was no gravity in space, we wouldn’t have a solar system.

1. Most movies are clever enough nowadays to restrict the sound to the breathing sounds inside the helmets of the astronauts, the strain of motors (preferably from the inside of the ship), or simply, really exciting music. But it IS the #1 and ever present mistake in movies.

I like the list, though. And you are right; movie makers have a long way to go. This is why so many people don’t like Sci-Fi and think ‘it’s stupid’. The stuff is just there, and when it gets too technical, people stop caring. Futurama has found a deliciously silly way to handle all of that by, well, being straight-forwardly silly. Like they say ‘It COULD still happen, how will we know?’

Firstly as has already been pointed out in the comments, explosions are possible when there is a source of oxygen.
Secondly the sun doesn’t burn at all it creates light through the atomic fission of hydrogen, and transmits it’s light and heat energy throygh radiation, ie. without the need for a medium. if the sun was a giant flame ball we wouldn’t get any heat due to the vacuum seperating the earth and the sun.

“120 filipinoknight
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Also forgot to add SG also stated many Theroys, such as mulitverse and multidimentions, are these not plausible because we can’t find it now? But it is a major plot device for many sci fi shows and movies. I guess we just need to keep an open mind”

According to M-theory, multi demensionality is indeed possible and is the subject of scientiffic study and speculation today. Basically it suggests that our perceevable universe is one giant high entropy energy soaked super string blown and expanding through massive proportions,this is called a membrane or brane for short,
due to some theorys develloped as a consequence of string and M-theory it has been speculated that all particles are some form of vibrating string fragment with particles such as quarks and leptons existing as loops that are open ended and attached to the super string brane of our universe, and bosons such as weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force existing likewise, however through research it has been observed that the force of gravity is exponentially weaker than the electro magnetic and weak and strong nuclear forces. scientists speculate that the reason for this may be that the graviton is a closed loop of string like and “0″ shape and due to this it is pulled through multiple branes as it can’t latch on to any particular super string.

In conclusion scientists think alternate dimensions exist, interestingly the super strings would be as close together on a quantum level as two strings in contact on any one brane.

And BTW, Star Trek is set in 22nd, 23rd, 24th centuries. NOT the 21st.