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So I'm having a problem with some parts of Splintered again and in trying to find plausible science to explain somethings I had this realization that deep down inside, one of my biggest bet peeves with Bayformers was a minor science quibble.

Now sure, the majority of science fiction quite often requires the audience to accept a few completely illogical "facts" for the sake of moving the story forward. Hell... for even telling the story to begin with!

I'd say the #1 thing we buy into usually is the whole faster-than-light space travel thing. Without it, there could be no Star Trek or a hundred other series.

But in trying to find even remotely plausible anthropological reasons for much of Cybertronian culture and "biology" to have evolved, I keep coming back to one of the things that annoyed the hell out of me as a kid... and even more so in Bayformers.

Yes. That thing is inherent space travel capabilities!

Back in G1, there were several Cybertronians that for sake of story simplicity could just "travel through interstellar space" like it was walking down the street.

I hated the fact that Skyfire and Starscream just happened to be flying around and then Skyfire crashed on Earth.

Hell... Starscream was shown flying in a vacuum on many other occasions. My worst favorite one has to be with Shockwave riding on his topside in the 2nd part of the Bruticus' revenge story.

There is absolutely no plausible way that I can see for Starscream, or any standard-sized Cybertronian to possess a biological adaptation for unaided movement in a vaccuum.

I'll give Omega Supreme, in rocket mode, the benefit of the doubt and say he can at least travel a few million miles in space at most and even that's pushing it. Fortress Maximus and many later bots, as portrayed in Headmasters and beyond, require a whole separate discussion.

As jets, the Seekers, Skyfire, the Aerialbots, and a host of others can theoretically only fly in an atmosphere because their transforming biological adaptations mimic jet turbine engines. Jet engines require an atmosphere to work. That is an engineering and physical fact.

A Cybertronian's reformatting to mimic another species or species' technology goes beyond mere mimicry. We have to assume that it also duplicates functionality as well or else the disguise is limited.

Now in Bayformers, the writers chose to go the route of having space travel apparently be an inherent property of Cybertronian life.

It is shown, at least with the Autobots, that they have their primary robot form, their mimic form, and then their spermy rock space protoform.

No. I didn't read any of those movie comics so I have no idea if IDW tried to explain the spermy mode at all.

I cannot for the life of me figure out the biological adaption that would have come into play allowing for the spermy spacefaring form much the same way I cannot see how G1 Starscream can remotely achieve any form of interstellar spaceflight.

Why do I bring this up?

Goddamn it! It is bugging the shit out of me not being able to even find a remotely scientific answer that can address the possibility of this adaptation!

I will not go the route of magic here! I just can't do it!

Grrrrr.... why does a silly poorly written 1980s children's toy commercial cause me so much pain!

Someday....

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I went to Better Than Mediocre China Buffetâ„¢ today for lunch with Evebird and the Jack Of All Geeks.

We got to talking and I went off on a tangent about more background parts of Splintered, my magnum opus Transformers novel I've been working on for the past 4 years or so.

I'm actually making substantial progress with both the main story, and fleshing out the continuum that I'm writing the story in.

For me, the real love has been in fleshing out utterly useless geek concepts in ways that are both plausible, and yet satisfy to my adult expectations of science fiction.

Part of the problem in developing the main story has been that the more I delve into the psychological issues of Hot Rod's transcendence, the more ideas I get for rationalizing the entire universe I'm trying to create.

I'm finding I've gone 180 degrees in some areas and have totally abandoned some plot ideas I spent months fleshing out before. A trivial idea I had for Metroplex has turned him into one of the most classically tragic characters that has ever graced comic book fiction and yet it has absolutely nothing to do with Splintered in and of itself.

I thought about going back and releasing this as an old school Dickensish/Hugoish serialized story with a chapter or so a month being posted. I don't know. Maybe.

Someday, it be nice to have someone come up and say they made customs of The Dirae, Metro, or Theros. That would amazing.

Just remember... just because it is based on a silly kid's toyline and cartoon doesn't mean it has to be shit.

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