How much Sci Fi on TV is based on real life?

Have you ever thought that science fiction shows have a basis in real life? For example, what about the X-Files? Do you think that some of what was on there about aliens is actually true and we are just being prepared for aliens actually showing themselves?

Comments please.

I believe that some episodes of the x-files have come from some actual or documented cases of the supernatural and unexplained events or sightings such as alien abductions, ghosts, etc. MUFON has even been mentioned in a few episodes including the creature known as the jersey devil. I've heard scully mention the mysterious aircraft known as the Aurora on one episode as well. Some people think that an actual stargate is known to exist in the middle east somwhere and I have absolutely no idea what that's all about.

I think the answer to that question depends on just how gullible you are.

oh, yeah...and your definition of real life would be applicable to that as well.

[Edited on 1/27/2004 by JuanBond]

Originally posted by JuanBond
I think the answer to that question depends on just how gullible you are.

Anything's possible.

Alot of the X-Files is based on actual fact. Chris Carter read hundreds of books on aliens and UFO's. That how he came up with alot of ideas for the series.

well..it is science FICTION...some maybe based around events that supposedly happened, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Originally posted by Shoktek
well..it is science FICTION...some maybe based around events that supposedly happened, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I'm not telling you what I think, I'm just telling you what I've heard Chris Carter say. I no not all of it is true but for example stuff like Roswell and the Tuskegee experiment have been mentioned and used in the series.

Originally posted by mrmulder
I'm not telling you what I think, I'm just telling you what I've heard Chris Carter say. I no not all of it is true but for example stuff like Roswell and the Tuskegee experiment have been mentioned and used in the series.

Yes, I'm sure much of it maybe has something to do with unexplainable things in the real world...still, most of these alien stories are fabricated to begin with, then when they get turned into science fiction of course they are made more exciting and interesting to the viewer

im just saying that the themes of some episodes or books or whatever sci-fi your into might be related to events that really happened, but not so much that the actual storyline would be realistic

I think it's the first X-Files with Billy Something (that later becomes a Deputy in another episode) who is paralyzed but running teens to abduction sites (naked) that started the 'based loosely on actual accounts" myth of X-Files. That episode actually says that.

So even those based on accounts aren't based on real life, but accounts. You'll notice ALOT of the stories center on a) a group of teenagers b) drinking or doing drugs, then c) seeing something weird.

That's about as much 'real life' as the X-Files is based on. I spoke with an FBI agent at a convention once that said he just HATED, HATED the stupid people that come up asking questions about that ridiculous show. I was apparently one of those people.

I think that it's the reverse. Life follows Sci-fi. Take the original Star Trek, their communicators,now look at your cell phone. We don't have phasars, are lasers close enough?

I don't really know about X-Files, but as intrepid said some ideas in StarTrek and other Sci Fi stories have become reality like Transporters (to some extent, scientists have succeded in transporting a photon or something else, soon aliens).

But those stuff in X-Files and Sci-Fi stories are made up to be more interesting and than based on reality.

I have had the pleasure of talking to movie producers, actors, etc. They seem to feel that getting the information out to the public about ETs and UFOs is best done by calling it "fiction", even though it is based on fact. They say that the public (or the government) won't go for it if it is labeled as FACT.
From my own experience, I know that some events in shows like the X-Files are real, but not as horrible or violent as TV portrays. In order for shows to be interesting to the public, they have to have a lot of action. Otherwise, the audience will fall asleep!

Also, some people in the movie industry HAVE HAD EXPERIENCES with ETs. That is why they are so good at what they do. I recall seeing one man on TV who makes creature figures for movies. He said that he has been abducted himself!

throw a bit of truth in with sensational sci fi (independance day- roswell etc) and it moves it to the realm of fantasy
now if you discuss roswell you get ah so you watched independance day! dude it was only a film etc
i think people are very clever at doing that now you have generations of people who think its all just sci fi and no basis of truth. THe first x-files was a classic example of this.

Well that's true make an industry out of it and a lot of money telling the truth in a back handed way.

I still think that Star Wars is a true story too even if it was in our distant past or even from the future.

I think we can comfortably say that this is false by definition

Originally posted by intrepid
I think that it's the reverse. Life follows Sci-fi. Take the original Star Trek, their communicators,now look at your cell phone. We don't have phasars, are lasers close enough?

Thank god the Battussie or whatever Batman's dance was called never caught on.