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8/9/2014 11:49:10 PM
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Does Sci-Fi lose its allure when it can't happen?

I'm a Science Fiction fan. You're a Science Fiction fan. We're all Science Fiction fans of some sort if we wound up in this forum. Over the last two days, I've been watching the reboot of the show 'Doctor Who,' one I'm sure most of you are familiar with. I've never seen it before, nor do I know a thing about it aside from what I've already watched and the fact that the Doctor comes back each time he dies. But the thing is- some of the stuff in this show... can't happen. In one of the early episodes, in 2005 or 2006 (I believe it was) there was a mass panic attack in London over an alien ship crashing. Those were two really entertaining episodes. But the thing is, the entire time I was watching them I was aware of the fact that it cannot happen. Why? Because we are already past that point, as it is 9 years later. So the entire time I'm watching these episodes (I'm on episode 9 as of now), while I do find them funny and entertaining, I am aware the entire time that I am watching a television show. I compare this to shows such as Stargate SG-1. In that show (my personal favorite of all time), due to the very nature of the show everything in it is kept secret from the public. So it is conceivable that the stuff in the show actually happens (aside from different political leaders and the likes... I'm focusing on the Sci-Fi bits, here). I haven't watched it, but Battlestar Galactica also takes place far, far in the past, right? So it could conceivably happen. Meanwhile you have shows like Doctor Who, or even the movie Back To The Future which says we should all have hoverboards by next year. Clearly that isn't happening, so we're very aware of the fact that it is a movie. Now, what we have to keep in mind is the distinction between Science Fiction, and Sci-Fi/Fantasy. A series like Star Wars could obviously never happen, but it is not solely Science Fiction so that is acceptable just like any other fiction. The same even goes for Destiny. I can get drawn into a fantasy world because I go in not expecting it to be possible. But Science Fiction... well, what defines Science Fiction is largely the fact that it has futuristic technology that can conceivably be created at some point in the future. So I'm curious if anybody has any thoughts on this matter. Looking back, even if you didn't at the time, do you see that maybe when you are actively aware a piece of Science Fiction cannot happen it made you less attached? Does this distinction exist at all to anybody else? I'm curious.

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    it's a question of circumstance, at least to me. if you have something like, say, stephen baxter's work which is [i]obviously[/i] outlandish as all hell and basically has no hope of ever coming to fruition [i]but[/i] is tonally grounded in a "future where this stuff is possible" type thing, i don't think it loses its allure at all. basically as long as it has a solid and "grounded" backing for the impossibilities within the story, and it [i]embraces[/i] them, i don't think it usually loses its allure. look at john carpenter's "the thing." it's actually a silent middle finger to thermodynamics as the titular creature is able to assimilate every cell of a body within seconds [spoilers(?): see when windows is transformed], but even though i realize that something like that could never happen, the fact that it's an alien creature means that it's something that may have an explanation, but is something that can have one. the trick, then, is not to rule out impossibilities, but to introduce them in a way that plays up the fact that we can't possibly understand the way that they've been brought to the realm of possibility within the context of the universe. call it an advanced suspension of disbelief. and then there's proper tone. like, if you brought magic into the realm of sci fi it'd look stupid, as magic is something that's simply impossible. treating it as an element of the story without contextualizing it within the grounds of reality and science would undermine the suspension of disbelief that sci fi requires. but if you take the same exact abilities that magic grants and contextualize them in a way that plays up on how science itself would react to discovering the ability it sounds fine. because as impossible as it is, it still gives off the tone that the mechanic in the story has indeed gone through a scientific process of discovery within the bounds of the story. take a look at biotics in mass effect. "what the hell is element zero? eh, who cares, it's obviously something scientific." and even then i believe that the greatest sci fi works are usually based more on philosophical conflict lying at the core of the story. jurassic park has always been my favorite piece of fiction ever created, and i can tell you that when the inevitable discovery that DNA can't be readable after 1.5 million years showed up the novel didn't lose [i]any[/i] of its appeal to me.

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