Sci-fi Surveillance

Life in the future will be a lot simpler if surveillance systems are properly installed.

I draw this conclusion from my research with Babylon 5 and Crusade, Star Trek (Original, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, movies I – VI, Generations and First Contact), Blake’s 7, Dr Who, Earth 2, Star Wars (five movies), V, fifty-odd other sci-fi movies and (sadly) Space 1999.

A common thread in these stories is the lack of security cameras aboard the good guy’s space ships. The bad guys sometimes have security cameras, but only if the good guys can work around them.

If I were in charge, I’d be deploying surveillance in the form of hundreds of small packages – less than a millimetre on a side – each containing a video camera, and a microphone, as well as sensors to measure magnetic fields, radiation, gravity, and the passage of time. Each corridor and public area would have a few dozen sensors glued to the walls and floor. The sensors would form a self monitoring network, always on the lookout for temporal anomolies, injuries, covert meetings, unexpected structural weakening, and bad-guys. The surveillance recordings would also be available to the captain for review whenever nescessary.

I’m sure the script writers can come up with other ways to make life interesting for their characters, but a captain should know what has happenned on his own star ship or military base. Especially when they should have learnt to expect the unexpected.

I have also concluded that far too many sci-fi TV shows have numbers in their names.

PS: Two upcoming episodes of Star Trek Enterprise will explain why Kirk-era Klingons don’t have much makeup forehead ridges, bulging muscles and long hair. Cool.