As far as science fictions and technology goes, its very funny, but truth is stranger then fiction..
Remember in the original Star Treck? There ships were powered by anti-mater reaction.. and the one episiode were they had meat two explorers they thought were the same person? the evil guy that had a gotee and the good guy that didn't (although the starship crew didn't seem to notice). look at the weirdness that the theoretical science community is thinking about: actual sort of parrallel universe/dimensions that they could pull anti-matter from as a source of an incredible power, that's one of the reasons I beleive ... and they think they've created a small amount of anti-matter in labratory settings..
Remember phasers? The US government has made those years ago.. And they have chemical-powered lasers that they can fit in 747's they plane on using to shoot down land-to-air missles? Energy-weopons... stun guns, emp pulse generators, using massive electronic feilds to distrupt mobs. Sound weapons...
hell TVs, radios, submarians, space flight, electronic computers, flight, nuclear power, etc etc were all have there origins in popular fiction Hell the term "robot" as a autonomous automation device that can imitate human movements was first made a popular term 1921.
the human mind is freaking weird, we think in terms of what know about the universe so when we our imagination we create, we create new possibilities for us. All that remains is the details on how to create it, I think that subconsious will even create clues on how to design something....
What happens in the original star treck or most other science fiction movies when a actor trys to touch or force there way thru force feilds. They get a huge electric shock! Who else thinks that it would be possible to create a focused static electronic feild in thin air once we figure out on how to make focused magnetic fields? They can use magnetics to contain and control very small nuclear reactions, force materials together, create efficent and small colliders.. etc etc...
so why not static electric force feilds?