It is not so much about the year the story plays at but also about shying away from some stories nowadays.
A story where humans are Cool Bastards and the Aliens just Plain Evil?
Can’t have that. It wouldn’t be social critic enough.
Humans being smart and solving problems without crying and discussing their feelings in face of impending doom?
Naaah… would alienate the audience.
c/HFY and r/HFY show how to do it different… (shameless self propaganda, noteworthy The Typo which saved humanity, Day of the Fat Man, Deterrence)
Humans being smart and solving problems without crying and discussing their feelings in face of impending doom?
We Need More Mary Sue Protagonists!
I would be good if at least not every single lead protagonist was either an asshole, an idiot or an obvious traitor.
Retrospectively, wasn’t a lot of the space-exploration-based SciFi from the 50s 60s 70s serving the purpose of justifying massive government spendings in big rockets, mainly used to build ICBMs, to justify imperialist policies and the cold war?
were we (the scifi afficionados) the useful idiots of this missile race?
