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Sci-fi characters don't watch enough television.

If they did, they would solve mysteries much more quickly. For example, if there is a room full of dismembered humans, a cage full of cute and cuddly critters, and a large, vicious creature roaming free in the room, what happened? The sci-fi characters haven't seen hours and hours of science fiction programming. They don't have the benefit of seeing this same plot (or any other number of plots) repeat endlessly. As a viewer, I instantly know that it was indeed the cute creatures who ate the people, and the predator ate the cute creatures to keep them in check. This was a recent Sanctuary plot. But these characters had not seen Gremlins or the "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode of Star Trek to know that cuddly creatures can be vicious and almost always breed uncontrollably.

In addition, my years of viewing has lead me to understand that whatever first seems very likely and obvious is not the case. The big vicious creature is just too obvious. It must be something else. This applies to life as well. If you're in the forest and it appears that a bear attacked someone, because a bear is present with the dead person, it must not be the case. Instead, look for something smaller, less predictable, like a rabid squirrel.

Sci-fi has a complex relationship to black leather.

This lesson is hard to explain, as it is nuanced and complex. Often, the longer a sci fi show has been on the air, the black leather involved. John Crichton (Ben Browder) on Farscape began the series in U.S. space suit. However, he gradually wore more and more black leather as the series went on until he was completely in black leather by the end of the series. Similarly, Jeremiah (Luke Perry) in Jeremiah was eventually in black leather pants. It is another question how those black leather pants were made in this post-apocalyptic world. In Stargate Atlantis, Dr. Jennifer Keller (Jewel Staite) wears a black-leather fitted jacket, almost at all times. These are all "good" people (if sci-fi teaches anything, it's that it's very easy to tell the difference between "good" and "evil") and also "hot" people. Only good characters played by hot people are eventually wardrobed in black leather (they weren't wearing black leather previously but are costumed in it later). A non-hot person in black leather is a strong signifier that the audience should consider that character a "bad" person.

There are also plenty of "bad" people who wear black leather. While the hero in Farscape eventually wore more and more black leather (perhaps he became badder and badder and also hotter and hotter), the villains or potential villains came decked out in it, such as Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) and Scorpius (Wayne Pygram). However, Aeryn Sun was also a hot person, not just a bad person. Therefore, the relationship between goodness, badness, hotness, and black leather becomes even more complicated. The Wraith, the first villains in Stargate Atlantis, wear head-to-toe black leather. They're very bad, and not very hot. So I'll summarize this complex relationship with the following equations:

Black leather + not hot = bad.
Black leather + hot = good or bad.
Good + (now in black leather but not previously in black leather) = hot