Science fiction pet hate

[Temis the Vorta]

Oh that's something else altogether. Not reading science fiction, I just wait to be presented with something on screen. I think I'm happier than people who read sci fi.

I read sci fi as well, but it's entirely different. All the sci fi novels in the world won't compensate for their being no space opera on TV and not much intelligent sci fi in movies either.

For instance, I enjoy seeing really good actors act, as well as the craft and skill that goes into great SFX, not to mention music. You can't get any of that from a novel.

 

[hyzmarca]

Well, they could ignore the difference except when its a plot-point, like every other science fiction program ever. Or they could just film it on Mars.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

They could do Red Mars with the same techniques. It just boils down to color correction, atmospheric effects, and not accidentally getting any plant life in the frame/shot.

Yeah, and somehow reducing the local gravity in the filming area by 62 percent...

That's one reason to animate it. Let the computers figure out the physics.

A show about the early days of Mars colonization would probably be a combination of tunnel environments and exterior shots in shielded suits on in heavy equipment, so maybe you could fudge on the gravity a little.

 

[Cicero]

The new Trek movie does seem to follow this line of thinking though, the Enterprise looks like an Apple Store with neon lights and the mining vessel looks like it's a mile underground. Maybe that's a conscious choice given that it's supposed to be a mining vessel, but they don't work underground, they work on a space ship.

The Kelvin is quite dark, too.

 

[Warped9]

Not reading science fiction, I just wait to be presented with something on screen. I think I'm happier than people who read sci fi.

Settling for mass-media sci-fi? With all its limitations and narrowness and absurdities? No, I don't think you're happier by a long shot. More like you don't know what you're missing.

I very much agree. Reading SF lit you get the real deal and quickly realize how often and how much we miss out with "sci-fi" on film and TV.

 

[stj]

Rees' Just Six Numbers was published in 1999.

I remember reading about cosmology and noticing that the actual evidence did not support a closed universe, or even a flat one. Lo and behold, two independent studies managed to break the spell and it was agreed the universe's rate of expansion is increasing. (Emphasis on "is.") The fine tuning of the cosmological constant comes from not observing one, leaving the possibility there isn't one.

As far as the standard model is concerned, the rest mass of the electron and the ground state of the vacuum are still problems. The recent experiments setting upper bounds to the mass of the Higgs are preliminary evidence there is no such particle. I think Rees skipping from the 26 parameters of the standard theory to just six numbers was a shrewd judgment.

 

[Myasishchev]

Science Fiction pet hate? Religion. For some reason, SF writers create these alien worlds where every member of the species has the same religious preference. Klingons, for example, all have the exact same belief. Bajorans all have the same belief system.

Yet we have hundreds, if not thousands (or more?) of various religions here on Earth. Why would any alien culture all have exactly the same belief system? The only way it makes sense is to think of the writer as lazy.

I dunno, I argued once that we have only two or three--Judaism, Hinduism, and Chinese spirituality--with the other being marginal cults that you wouldn't be that likely to deal with on a personal basis.

Yeah, and somehow reducing the local gravity in the filming area by 62 percent...

I guess gravity gets my vote. It bothers me that 1G is apparently a universal standard, including on Mars and Luna and Titan and Vulcan and Radioactive Earth and even Pandora (they even say it wasn't, I think, but they lie). Even luminaries such as Moon fail this test, and fail it badly by mixing slo-mo falls for the harvesters' gravel spew with water that runs at 9.8m/s^2.

Of course, it's not because the filmmakers don't know, but because microgravity is the most expensive effect ever, so I guess this is sort of raging at the rain.

What gets me - even worse than humanoid aliens and alien/human hybrids - is the assumption that aliens have genitalia that would be even remotely enticing to a human!

Or even fit. Ever seen marsupial machinery? And these are close relatives.

I mean, yeah, the aliens will have dicks, but not as we know it.

 

[Deckerd]

Yeah, and somehow reducing the local gravity in the filming area by 62 percent...

I guess gravity gets my vote. It bothers me that 1G is apparently a universal standard, including on Mars and Luna and Titan

Not entirely, remember the early morning low gravity piss on Red Planet?

and Vulcan and Radioactive Earth and even Pandora (they even say it wasn't, I think, but they lie). Even luminaries such as Moon fail this test, and fail it badly by mixing slo-mo falls for the harvesters' gravel spew with water that runs at 9.8m/s^2.

Now that's crazy talk.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

A show about the early days of Mars colonization would probably be a combination of tunnel environments and exterior shots in shielded suits on in heavy equipment, so maybe you could fudge on the gravity a little.

I could go for that. Something weird and claustrophobic. Show us the surface every so often so the audience remembers where the show is supposed to be happening.

 

[milo bloom]

I mean, yeah, the aliens will have dicks, but not as we know it.

That's a caption contest winning entry if I ever saw one...

 

[Myasishchev]

and Vulcan and Radioactive Earth and even Pandora (they even say it wasn't, I think, but they lie). Even luminaries such as Moon fail this test, and fail it badly by mixing slo-mo falls for the harvesters' gravel spew with water that runs at 9.8m/s^2.

Now that's crazy talk.

Whatcha mean? All the scenes inside Sarang Station are at 1G--even accounting for Sam's atrophied muscles, objects without mechanical support (like the hammer he drops into the Forbidden Basement of Mystery) still fall at the accustomed rate... almost like they were on a soundstage on Earth.

That's a caption contest winning entry if I ever saw one...

Awesome avatar, btw.

Shame that it's going to release Gulf methane stores and kill us all, Permian style.

Well, probably not.

 

[Deckerd]

Gravity mistakes don't bother me so much because the film makers are kind of stuck with Earth's gravity. All space science fiction films invite you to ignore the basic limitations of trying to depict space and alien worlds, all filmed on one very well-known planet. It's more bothersome that they ignore the problems of human physiology in living in a low gravity environment.

 

[JarodRussell]

I still remember Connie Nielsen's perfect hair in a zero G environment in Mission to Mars.