The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés/Section I: Overused Plots and Storylines

Section I: Overused Plots and Storylines

 * 1) McCormick Sleep.svg Post-cataclysmic rag-tag armies struggle to kick the Rooskies out of the good ol' US of A.
 * 2) McCormick Sleep.svg Post-cataclysmic rag-tag armies struggle to survive against gangs of bandits, Mutants, cyberpunks, bikers, etc.
 * 3) Green tick.svg The rag-tag rebel army/fleet struggles valiantly to overthrow the Evil Empire.
 * 4) Bull icon 05.svg The Good Guys travel through time to stop a historical Bad Guy, usually Hitler.
 * 5) Bull icon 05.svgDelta-shield.svg The Bad Guy travels through time to kill the Hero in his childhood, or to prevent him from ever being born.
 * 6) Green tick.svgDelta-shield.svg The Chronocops travel in time to catch a Bad Guy who escaped into some other era.
 * 7) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg Scientists work feverishly to develop a cure for the Supervirus or a weapon to stop the Invincible Bad Guys.
 * 8) McCormick Sleep.svg An alien:
 * 9) Is stranded on Earth;
 * 10) Befriends a human child or falls in love with an Earth gal;
 * 11) Is pursued by shadowy malevolent Pentagon officials under the pretense of national security;
 * 12) Uses his/her/its alien powers to defeat the shadowy malevolent Pentagon officials, making them look foolish without really harming them;
 * 13) Makes teary farewell and returns to its home planet.
 * 14) Bull icon 05.svgDelta-shield.svg A virtual reality program is activated, and the distinction between reality and the program becomes confused or indistinguishable.
 * 15) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg People connect their brains directly to computers and get dependent on them.
 * 16) Vraagteken.svg Aliens travel a zillion miles to loot the Earth of resources which exist in far greater and much more easily exploitable quantities on the many uninhabited bodies they pass on the way to Earth.
 * 17) Green tick.svgDelta-shield.svg A complex computer system spontaneously becomes self-aware.
 * 18) McCormick Sleep.svg A couple files an application to the government for permission to conceive a baby.
 * 19) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg A human falls in love with a robot.
 * 20) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg A robot falls in love with a human.
 * 21) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg UFO abductions.
 * 22) Vraagteken.svg Brain-controlling parasites attempt to wrest control of human race.
 * 23) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg Aliens put someone on trial for the sins of humanity.
 * 24) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg A high-tech amusement park goes lethally berserk.
 * 25) Green tick.svg 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.
 * 26) McCormick Sleep.svg A great hunter decides that humans are the most entertaining prey of all, and visits Earth to bag a few.
 * 27) Bull icon 05.svg Psychedelic drugs give somebody magical power over space, time and reality.
 * 28) Green tick.svg Aliens with completely incomprehensible motivations make war on the human race/invade Earth.
 * 29) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg The bureaucratic/reactionary mindset stands in the way of scientific progress. A (young, maverick) researcher overcomes it through ability, purity of heart, and use of the scientific method. Or not.
 * 30) Vraagteken.svg Two hostile factions colonize a planet within walking distance of each other.
 * 31) Vraagteken.svgDelta-shield.svg The government ships criminals off to other planets.
 * 32) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg A human male becomes pregnant.
 * 33) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg An android discovers emotions and loses control.
 * 34) McCormick Sleep.svg A young researcher follows the following steps in roughly this order:
 * 35) Gets a job at a Mega-huge Corporation or Ultra-secret Government Agency;
 * 36) Learns that the employer's latest discovery has a Nasty Side Effect or involves some obvious human rights abuses;
 * 37) Confronts the employer, who casually dismisses the researcher's concerns and chides her/him for not being a "team player";
 * 38) Tries to blow the whistle to avert disaster;
 * 39) Gets hounded by Shadowy Malevolent Goons;
 * 40) Attempts to meet with inside sources, and finds them either dead or with just enough life left to utter a cryptic clue;
 * 41) Watches the disaster overtake the CEO;
 * 42) Testifies before Congress, or whatever the equivalent government body is;
 * 43) Enters the Witness Protection Program;
 * 44) Vraagteken.svg Aliens invade Earth in order to eat humans.
 * 45) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg An AI turns on its creators.
 * 46) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg A person from the past goes into suspended animation and wakes up in modern times, or a person from modern times goes into suspended animation and wakes up in the future.
 * 47) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg A person travels back in time to meet a major historical personage and winds up either becoming that person or taking that person's place at a critical juncture.
 * 48) Green tick.svg The rightful monarch or long-lost heir is restored to the throne.
 * 49) McCormick Sleep.svg A sexually selective plague kills off or sterilizes almost all of the men, or almost all of the women.
 * 50) Green tick.svgDelta-shield.svg A human discovers that the human race is being controlled by aliens.
 * 51) Vraagteken.svg The Alien Invasion that flounders because their technological advantage is perfectly neutralized by their lack of resources, compared to the humans.
 * 52) McCormick Sleep.svg Earth is threatened by an asteroid, and a space mission is mounted to save the planet.
 * 53) Vraagteken.svg Humans are seen as a menace to galactic society, having developed technology over a few short centuries compared with the thousands it took the other races.
 * 54) McCormick Sleep.svg The government bans music, painting, dancing, or some other art form; only the hero seems to care enough to do anything about it.
 * 55) Vraagteken.svg A technological innovation prompts a large portion of society to violently suppress it.
 * 56) Pig icon 05.svg "Single female monster ISO single human male. Object: Mating."
 * 57) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg An entire society is run by a computer. Maybe it goes berserk.
 * 58) McCormick Sleep.svg An alien being is sent to Earth on a mission of assassination or genocide; it changes its mind after getting to know (and perhaps falling in love with) one or more humans.
 * 59) Vraagteken.svgDelta-shield.svg The crew's memories are wiped. As they recover, they discover that they are Unwitting Pawns, helping the guy who did it to them.
 * 60) McCormick Sleep.svgDelta-shield.svg A man escapes a VR simulation, and later discovers that he has escaped into another VR simulation.
 * 61) Vraagteken.svgDelta-shield.svg An alien that is substantially like us doesn't understand love, and visits humans in order to learn. The lesson is completed after the alien gets a Dose of Good Luvin'.
 * 62) Bull icon 05.svg A Bad Guy captures the Hero, and instead of killing him, attempts to brainwash him into thinking that his powers aren't real.

Tropers' additions to this list

 * 1) Council never believe the protagonist (usually a commander of a starship), even when evidence is staring them at the face. If the first danger passes, the council will gain Laser-Guided Amnesia and...not believe the protagonist about the second impending danger. They're either corrupted or carrying one massive Idiot Ball.
 * 2) Delta-shield.svg A human or crew of humans through some kind of experimental technology or wormhole become stranded in a new galaxy or undiscovered part of space and the plot centres around them trying desperately to get home.