For those of us who plan on using next month to fix up our sci-fi scripts (or others) and try to rid as much cheesiness from the original draft as possible, any tips? I know with any sci-fi movie comes at least a small amount of cheesiness. Heck, even Star Wars is filled with cliches. But is there any way to avoid it? Or at least keep it minimal?

Personally, I think the oldest and simplest advice is the best--write what you know.

Pick a specific place or situation that you know and describe it. Pick a specific activity or profession that you know well and use it to define how your character would react to a given situation. For example, if you work in a bank and you want to do a zombie attack, have the zombies attack a bank. Use your inside knowledge of the bank to determine how the zombies might get in, how you and your fellow employees would respond and/or fight back. That sort of thing.

You can also do this with heavy-duty research on other times and places.

Writers really only have to rely on cliches when they don't have an inside knowledge of the subject they're using or don't dig deeply enough into what they know.

---
2008: (ScriptFrenzy) Off Season (won!)
2007: Confederation (*so* won)
2007: (ScriptFrenzy) Serpentine (won)
2006: The Definition of a Madman (won)
2005: The Mighty Quinn (won)

As far as dialogue goes. I feel like reading it out loud is usually good enough to keep out the more lactose lines.

http://www.edraid.com
No time for signatures.

There's no reason for science fiction, any more than any other genre, to be riddled with cliches, unrealistic plotting or shallow characters. Once you've established your premise, forget that it's "sci-fi" and just try to write realistic reactions on the part of believable characters.

(Given the title of this thread, I was guessing that you'd written a script about a futuristic game, and didn't want it to resemble chess too closely.)

Sorry about the name of the post. It meant to read "avoiding cheeziness." I was just in a hurry. Thanks for the tips!