My first experience with McGuffins was in the The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series. One episode had an infallible lie detector carried in a brief case. Another episode had a telepathy machine carried in a brief case. Each was just something for the characters to fight over. When I tried to summarize the plot of one of these episodes to someone, he interrupted to correct the plot details in the mistaken belief that I was summarizing the other episode, which bore out the point that I was trying to make, that the two devices were interchangeable McGuffins.
In sf, maybe FTL drives are just McGuffins unless an author takes the trouble to incorporate his rationale for FTL into the plot of a novel as James Blish does in They Shall Have Stars?
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul! Your last paragraph, re FTL: or as Anderson did in ENSIGN FLANDRY, rationalizing just HOW a FTL hyperdrive just might work if it had been real. Again, I'm reminded of actual speculations about possibly real FTL drives like that of Alcubierre. I hope something like this will be shown to work and FTL ships soon built! Ad astra! Sean
I like it if the author has worked out the capabilities & limitations of his/her star drive, then make the plot fit those limitations, rather than just having the starship run at the 'speed of plot'.
Jim,
Exactly. Hyperspace became a cliche. PA made a point of devising a new rationale for FTL each time he used it.
Paul.
Kaor, Jim!
Exactly, what Paul said.
Ad astra! Sean
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