Whedon’s Med Cred DOA

Dr. Grasshopper’s blog How to Kill Your Imaginary Friends isn’t on a crusade to restore the preeminence of hard science fiction, but anyone longing to see that happen should feel encouraged to see an sf-writing medical student chastising producers who disdain scientific accuracy in pursuit of gaudy effects.

The genre’s most popular tv producer was the target of the doctor’s recent post titled “Joss Whedon, I’m calling you out!”

I was watching the Dollhouse episode entitled “Hollow Men” (2×12) the other day. And there was this scene. You probably know the one I’m talking about. It involved lots of needles. It involved cerebrospinal fluid. And it involved absolutely indefensible pseudo-medical ridiculousness.

[Via David Klaus and SFWA.org]

Update 3/8/2010: Took a hint from Gary Farber and corrected the spelling of the name.

6 thoughts on “Whedon’s Med Cred DOA

  1. Hollywood doesn’t care. I once interviewed Stephen Cannell about a new series set in Chicago where Robert Conrad, playing a retired boxer turned private detective, goes to City Hall to get his license. When I pointed out that , in real life, the license comes from the State of Illinois and the boxer would have to work under another licensed detective for three years, he smiled at me and said “Hey, Kid. We’re not making a documentary.”

    It was an important lesson. In television, most of the audience doesn’t know these things and wouldn’t care anyway, so never let facts get int the way of good story. It’s entertainment not education.

  2. I remember in the ’70s when every L. A.-based t.v. private eye, in Stephen J. Cannell shows, in Quinn Martin shows, etc., carried a .38 Special, at a time when it was impossible for anyone in either L. A. City or County to get a concealed weapon permit unless you were a reserve police officer (which certainly would leave out William Conrad and Buddy Ebsen as Cannon and Barnaby Jones, respectively.

    Which reminds me: someone at some press conference recently asked Clint Eastwood if he was going to make another Dirty Harry movie. He replied, “I’m 78 years old. What department do you think is going to have me working for them?”

  3. Lots of PI’s in Los Angeles County are Reserve Police Officers or Deputy Sheriffs. (I used to work for one in the 1980s as an investigator). Others simply ignore the law, saying “I’d rather be tried by 12, than carried by six.” And some simply don’t need to carry a gun. I didn’t. But the CCW applies state wide and there are counties where you can get one simply by taking a short course of instruction. I had a CCW in Iowa for awhile and actually carrying a gun is simply a hassle most of the time.

  4. > But the CCW applies state wide and there are counties where
    > you can get one simply by taking a short course of instruction.

    Oh, I know. Before the “shall issue” laws came into effect, I recognized a very obvious silhouette, I won’t say where, on someone at the clubhouse and asked about it — I wouldn’t have asked except that the silhouette was so damned obvious that it made for virtually no concealment at all for those who already knew what it was and where to look. I phrased the question quietly, politely, and professionally and got an answer. Neither the L. A. City Police nor the L. A. Sheriff’s Depts. would issue permits. This person owned rental property in Orange County, where the sheriff there wouldn’t issue a permit, either. But the city of Buena Park, which the property was within? No problem, fill a form, pay a fee, and you had a statewide CCW permit which all other police agencies had to honor regardless of their own policies.

    So maybe some of those t.v. cops had a second line in real estate somewhere — Mike Connors as Mannix always seemed like a guy who you’d have to harass to get your water heater fixed; on the other hand there was Jim Garner’s Jim Rockford. I still can’t figure out why the cops never hauled him in for his gun.

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