Prometheus - Alien Movie Prologue

I admit it I'm a die hard SciFi fan.  I enjoyed Prometheus immensely while simultaneously wanting to throw tomatoes at the screen.  Unfortunately writers of Science Fiction don't have to have science backgrounds.  They aren't required to have backgrounds in the fields of study they write about either.  Prometheus, as do many SciFi movies, demonstrates a common flaw in many good scifi stories, the lack of commonly used science protocols.  I know, the story wouldn't have a plot if everyone was doing the correct thing all of the time, but in Prometheus there isn't even a pretense to following any kind of common sense safety protocols, or decontamination protocols, or honesty that stems from concern for fellow crew and spouse.

First the plot is in 2093 which at the slime mold pace of the space program over the last 30 years (From 1950 to 1982 mankind went from sputnik to orbiting the earth to landing on the moon and to flying in the reusable Shuttle craft to an orbiting space station.  Since then progress in manned flight has essentially been in cryogenic sleep.  How then do we make the leap to interstellar space flight traveling at speeds that mean, well two years of suspended animation traveling at nearly the speed of light you would travel two light years.  Hey the Alpha Centauri is 4.2 light years away so at the minimum they would've had to been traveling twice the speed of light or faster.

Okay, the story already is full of holes on the science of space flight, but then they arrive in a planet that has obviously been inhabited life forms and they pile willy-nilly into cool looking off-road vehicles and dash off to the nearest feature.  There they proceed to climb out and on-foot begin to "explore."  One has to assume all of the real scientific work surveying, recording, cataloging, and ensuring safety and contamination protocols are followed must be left up to automation because the humans show no acknowledgement of any of those things.

Then of course the cliche', oh look the air's breatheable lets yank off our helmets and do a sniff test, scene ensues.  No one, anywhere, t any time would be so stupid as to do this without first breaking out a plethora of air testing apparatus and exposing a zoo of test subjects first.  A mistake would be deadly from any number of chemical and biological causes, which would not necessarily have immediate effects.  Imagine the potential for viruses, fungi spores, bacterial spores, trace gases with delayed side effects, etc.

Then there's the scene of, let me touch it, 3 year old mentality that apparently anyone who dons a space suite is imbued with, since so many scifi movies use that.  Now I get that to move the plot and create the dramatic sequence someone has do something that increases risk to a dangerous degree, but SEALs go on mission full of safety protocols and still risk death.  Why can't scifi scientist go on missions and follow a set of common sense safety protocols and still face death?  You want to have the character touch something then just say, "Okay all the automated safety protocols are completed, go ahead and touch it, its safe."  Then let the hidden creature bite the hand off.

I love the special effects, the technology (somewhat dated in certain aspects), and the creatures and aliens.  I loved the concept of meeting humans ancestor, The Engineers, the vehicles and such.  I love the protagonist and her "surprisingly well developed survival skills."  I loved how she continued to pursue her quest in the end and the first sight of the fully matured alien popping out of the last surviving Engineer's body.  All of that was very cool.  The mix of ancient, retro and modern was also fun.  But guys you can write your plots without making the characters look like scientific blithering idiots which insults the intelligence of the audience.  Give it a go mate, try it just once.  If you keep the pacing and all the other aspects of a good story the accuracy of following good science and protocols will not kill the story.