Scenes in space without any sound

[The Wormhole]

BSG did try soundless space scenes in the mini series, but the test audiences complained about it, so they changed to the muted noises.

Anyway, for the most part I accept sound in space as artistic license. The only time sounds in space bothered me in anything is when the characters are in space and they actually react to the sounds. Like in Enterprise Minefield, Malcolm Reed is out on the hull when the Romulan ship decloaks behind him. He hears the sound of the ship decloaking, and turns around to look at it.

 

[Henoch]

Does the deflector screens/shields provide a medium around a ship that transmits sound? Does disturbances of subspace with technobabble weapons and their effects generate subspace sound?

 

[Tim Thomason]

The sound is a dramatic flourish for our benefit. It doesn't "exist" in the Star Trek universe, mainly because there's no one in the vacuum of space to hear that sound. It's like the music we hear during dramatic scenes or the twang before we go to commercial sometimes.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Or on BSG when a piece of debris hit the nonexistent camera.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Some early TOS effects were played silent with only the music carrying the drama, but they added sound effects to them in the -R versions. Boo.

Boo to a lot of the Remastered version!

 

[nutshell]

There shouldn't be added sound effects in space scenes, quite simply because there is no sound in a vacuum.
Artistic license doesn't cover it.

Of course artistic license covers it. It’s science “fiction.” Ever heard of an artist drawing “outside the lines”?

 

[Maurice]

We also don't have musical accompaniment playing over dramatic moments in our lives (weddings and the like aside). Sound in space is like that. It's artistic license, sure, but it's too often used without thinking of if it's the correct answer for all circumstances. No space shot in 2001 would be better with sound effects. The lack of them (and the diegetic sound of breathing to put us into the spacesuit with the astronauts) does wonders for selling the emptiness of space.

 

[Henoch]

I wonder where the orchestra was hiding while the space shuttle docked with the spinning space station in 2001.

 

[Delta Vega]

Of course artistic license covers it. It’s science “fiction.” Ever heard of an artist drawing “outside the lines”?

Yes, it is science fiction
But it's an undeniable scientific fact that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum

 

[Christopher]

But it's an undeniable scientific fact that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum

As several of us have pointed out already, there isn't an orchestra on the Enterprise bridge either. Just because the audience hears a sound, that doesn't mean the characters would.

 

[Tosk]

Yes, it is science fiction
But it's an undeniable scientific fact that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum

Who says the sound is actually traveling in a vacuum? You aren't personally floating out in space trying to listen to it, you're watching a dramatic presentation. If you need to, just pretend the sounds are what the microphones pick up while filming on board the spaceship.

 

[Christopher]

I liked the bit in the Star Wars radio adaptation by Brian Daley where it was explained (IIRC) that the X-Wings' cockpits created simulated sound effects as audio feedback to inform the pilots of incoming ships or weapons fire that was out of their line of sight. That was pretty clever.

 

[Henoch]

I liked the bit in the Star Wars radio adaptation by Brian Daley where it was explained (IIRC) that the X-Wings' cockpits created simulated sound effects as audio feedback to inform the pilots of incoming ships or weapons fire that was out of their line of sight. That was pretty clever.

They definitely need theater surround sound.

 

[Christopher]

They definitely need theater surround sound.

I think the stereo mix and the directionality of the sound effects was part of what was being touted in that sequence.

 

[-Brett-]

Many people here, if not all, know that sound can't travel in space.

I think you're overestimating Star Trek fans. Honestly it's one of the dumber fandoms out there.

 

[MAGolding]

Of course artistic license covers it. It’s science “fiction.” Ever heard of an artist drawing “outside the lines”?

That's "coloring outside the lines". "Drawing outside the lines" creates new lines in new positions and so is an oxymoron.

 

[JesterFace]

Honestly it's one of the dumber fandoms out there.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I think you're overestimating Star Trek fans. Honestly it's one of the dumber fandoms out there.

And that's too dumb a comment to even take seriously as trolling.

 

[Prax]

It's possible that that having no sound in space on ST would ironically have an opposite effect on audiences, and break the illusion/4th wall. It doesn't mean the audience is dumb; it just means there's an inherent, conditioned expectation that when you see a phase, or torpedo, or space ship accelerating, etc in space, that it's going to make a specific sound.

And when the illusion of a TV show or movie is broken, the consequences are devastating. You suddenly see a bunch of weirdos in weird costumes play acting and trying really hard to be serious. Awkward...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

There shouldn't be added sound effects in space scenes, quite simply because there is no sound in a vacuum.
Artistic license doesn't cover it.

Of course it does. It gives most scenes some extra dramatic heft, so therefore it's justified. It serves the same function as music within scenes, or Kirk's log entries having him comment on information he isn't privy to, or the uniforms ripping during fight scenes, or people dodging phaser blasts, or being sexually compatible with aliens, or matter teleportation, or reaching the other side of the galaxy in hours instead of years, or matter and anti-matter mixing to create propulsion, or...

If you're going to start picking apart scientific inaccuracies like that, you're going to completely ruin Star Trek for yourself.

 

[Christopher]

It's possible that that having no sound in space on ST would ironically have an opposite effect on audiences, and break the illusion/4th wall. It doesn't mean the audience is dumb; it just means there's an inherent, conditioned expectation that when you see a phase, or torpedo, or space ship accelerating, etc in space, that it's going to make a specific sound.

As I've said, I disagree. Real-life news footage is often silent, taken from security cameras or the like. Real-life events that we watch from a distance are often inaudible. So lack of sound can make something feel more real. Having every sound perfectly clear and perfectly audio-mixed just makes it feel more staged and less like real life.