Startrek mixes the fantasy and Sci-fi gender.

[Urge]

Many elements in Star-trek are more fantasy then Sci-fi innspired I feel, and this mix takes some time getting used to, and is perhaps a minus for some people since startrek claims to be based on science on one hand, but have fantasy-style creatures in it that are scientificly absurd on the other.

Examples:

All the different species that seems to be humans with a twich are somewhat more fantasy then science fiction. The Vulcans are elf-like, the Ferrengi are dwarf-like, The Klingons are orge-like. Also some of the monsters they meet seems to be fantasy innspired - such as the black-tar monster in the TNG episode "skin of evil". As with some other beings they meet, it seems like it required magic in the prosess of creating this monster, according to counsolar Troy (that has magic telepatic abilities) it was created when a unknown race "took of" their evil, and left it as a black-tar monster on the planet. The monster in the center of the milkyway that presents it self as god, and asks for a space-ship is another example of a fantasy/magic like creature that does not follow the ordinary laws of physics, evolution or science as we know them.

I used to be sceptical about StarTrek, saying that "this and this is not realistic" - but I still found the episodes somewhat fascinating, and now that I am watching thorugh TNG on DVD (missing out all those wonderfull commercial breaks that turn all TV-shows into rubbish) I find a lot of it realy good, but its important to accept that magic (in my definition of the word) and science-fiction is integrated into each other in order to enjoy it.

 

[Anwar]

Hey, Star Wars is Sci-Fantasy and no one complains. Trek's always been on the soft-side of scifi.

 

[Urge]

Startrek is more scientific then starwars, but it also has a lot of fantasy-elements. Nothing to complain about - just a observation. Lots of real science in the technology (much more then starwars), not so much on planets and the lifeforms.

 

[backstept]

maybe 'genre' would be a better word than 'gender'

 

[Myasishchev]

Oh, God, yes. Almost all of the technology in Trek is totally preposterous. It's very soft science-fiction, and could use a lot more rigidity--but ultimately, the science isn't the point of the show.

The trouble I have with Trek is actually less that the technology can't work, but that it works in very inconsistent ways.

 

[kv1at3485]

Scifi is predominantly about the implications of the science and tech. It is perfectly ok to have implausible science and tech in scifi ("soft" scifi). Soft scifi is extremely difficult to make.

ST is tech fantasy, not scifi. It has the superificial trapping of soft scifi, but it lacks the brains to be true scifi. Playing fast and loose with the setting is a sure sign of things going wrong.

 

[Urge]

Re: Startrek mixes the fantasy and Sci-fi genre.

Okay, Genre not gender - my mistake.

A science fiction space-series that is "hard" compared to all the "soft" ones would be cool - but I suspect that it will be about a bunch of people stuck in a spacecraft together, moving from A to B, B being twenty years away. The show will be about growing food, making clothes, couples getting kids together, and so on - all within the hull of a big colony spaceship. Since space is big and empty at any non-warp speed, they wont meet anny cool aliens on their way. I think one scientist said that Warp would take all the energy in the universe, so if one takes him serious and make at sci-fi space-series on light-speed or slower only, things will be.... slow. Nothing exiting will happen outside the hull at least.

 

[kv1at3485]

Re: Startrek mixes the fantasy and Sci-fi genre.

Nothing exiting will happen outside the hull at least.

Got to get to the library more.

Have the ship's crew be put in hibernation/stasis. The journey between stars does indeed take decades or centuries, but nobody notices and these parts aren't covered. The action more or less takes place around planets.

And what's on these planets? Other people descendent from the Great Diaspora from Sol. The show can be set many thousands or so years in the future, plenty of time for people to get around on sublight. Each planet's inhabitants can essentially be aliens (what, you buy the ST shtick that we'll always look like this? That people won't customize their bodies for practical or aesthetic reasons?) with vastly different cultures.

You can visit the same planet again and have the inhabitants completely different because of the extended travel times.

As for the ship: think interstellar merchant. And try wrapping your mind around interstellar politics in a sublight environment.