But lately when it comes to movies and TV, it seems like Americans love competence porn, and they love science fiction... they just don't love them together.
For most of the film, their actions constitute the sort of “competence porn” that Charlie Jane Anders recently pointed out used to be very common in sci-fi but has become rarer and rarer.
Turn on the TV right now and you'll probably find an avalanche of competence porn. Think about the fast-talking dialogue and political strategising of the characters in House of Cards, the medical acumen of House, the deductive brilliance of Sherlock Holmes (in any of the recent BBC, CBS or Warner Brothers adaptations), and the ingenious bushcraft of Bear Grylls.
Outlander is a romance that's full of competence porn, a trope beloved of science fiction fans.
2015, Emily Franklin, Last Night at the Circle Cinema, Carolrhoda Lab (2015), →ISBN, pages 84-85:
The clearest reason for loving Olivia wasn't how she looked, although that didn't hurt. The main reason I found her irresistible was how competent she was at almost everything. Yes, she got As and played tennis on a competitive level, and she could sing not just in tune but so sweetly it felt like a pickax to the heart sometimes. If my mother vomited–and she did after the chemo–Livvy just dealt with it. And if Codman suggested hiking Killer Hill one afternoon, Livvy, in no more than flip-flops, would succeed, often beating us to the top. […]
"She's like competence porn," Codman had said, and I'd wanted to object because mentioning porn and Livvy in the same sentence seemed disrespectful, but on the other hand, Codman was right.
Dr. Lewis Dartnell (astrobiologist) for helping to sculpt our characters with sugar sachets and for introducing us to the concept of 'competence porn' when writing dialogue.
