# What movies/TV shows qualify as "hard" science fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2018, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-tv-shows-qualify-as-hard-science-fiction/806795 "2018-01-17T03:11:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-tv-shows-qualify-as-hard-science-fiction/806795/181 "2018-01-31T00:07:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, that was the only movie made of his works that Heinlein ever approved of. He wrote in one of his mixed fiction-and-nonfiction books of the extreme difficulty that getting everything right actually required, all of which required extra expense, and which resulted in very few ticket sales. Personally, I think he ought to have spent a little less effort on making it right and more on making it entertaining: A lot of times, it ends up feeling like a lecture, not a movie. > > As for “weird”, remember that science fiction at the time was often published in magazines with names like “Weird Stories”. Well, [IMdb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042393/) says it made $5,000,000 which wasn’t chump change back then. It wasn’t a cosmic shoot em up, to be sure, but certainly fits my definition of hard SF. The article you refer to was published in Astounding about the time the movie came out. They worked hard on getting everything right. As for the magazine, I suspect you are referring to Weird Tales. My Day Checklist shows there was a Weird Stories magazine, but it was British and only lasted two issues. Weird Tales published Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, but it was horror and fantasy mostly - I can’t think of a lot of science fiction that ever ran there. I’m sure “Weird” was used by the marketing people to try to space up the not very spicy movie. Or maybe in 1950 that going to the moon stuff was considered weird by the masses. Destination Moon is about as far from weird as you can possibly get. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-tv-shows-qualify-as-hard-science-fiction/806795/182 "2018-01-31T00:15:44Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Okay, that’s…weird. 😃 > > But how did people understand that word in this context? “Weird Stories” I can understand a little more, because I might imagine a really bizarre scenario with tentacled creatures and glowing purple and orange trees, etc. But this is a straightforward near-future story of engineering, political maneuvering, and adventurous exploration. > > My mom was eight when that movie came out, and I asked her about it. She thought the use of that word was…weird. Your mom is right. Science fiction was not published in Weird Tales - except perhaps in rare instances, none of which I can think of at the moment. I don’t own any copy of the original magazine, but I have an anthology from 1965 with some stories. There is a non-Conan Robert E. Howard story. The introduction quotes August Derleth as saying that a small but devoted following keeps Howard’s name alive. That has sure changed! The rest of the stories are fantasies also. There was a revival of Weird Tales from 1988 or so to 1991. Some fantasy, a lot of horror, no SF I can recall. (I have a lot of that run.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-tv-shows-qualify-as-hard-science-fiction/806795/183 "2018-01-31T01:18:24Z")
I don’t think that there’s anyone at all who would disagree with _Destination Moon_ being “hard SF”, by anyone’s definition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-tv-shows-qualify-as-hard-science-fiction/806795.md?page=9)