Science Fiction and space travel shows take a lot of liberties, we all know that. Especially when the characters have to go to doffferent planets and interact with aliens every week. The laws of physics are tweaked at times to make the story work. I think some shows have or had when they were running, advisors from the scientific community to help out, but I could be wrong.
Anyway I was trying to mentally come up with a list of the shows that were more or less more scientifically accurate. They may not be completely accurate, but at least they aren’t completely making stuff up. My list so far (and granted these are shows I’ve seen…I can’t account for any I may not have):
Space 1999: Ok, the premis is whacko. The moon blown out of orbit by an atomic explosion? the crew of moonbase Alpha trapped on Luna as it hurtles through space, coming within range of planets weekly? Yeah, thats kinda nuts. But the Eagle spacecraft seemed kind of realistic, at least in the 1970’s. They didn’t display any science that in the 70’s seemed to farfetched for 1999. (Hey back then we thought we’d have bases on the moon).
**Babylon Five: **If the series backstory wasn’t that humans got hyperspace technology from aliens that basically discovered us it’d be different. But as far as everything else goes, the technology involved in B5 was farily standard. They didn’t have any technology of human origin that seemed like magic. Of course they did use techno-magic stuff as a deus ex machina by having aliens provide it. (the “Great Machine of Epsilon Five”, the Alien healing Machine, etc) Its interesting to note that the alien races that had space travel before Earth had artificial gravity while the Earth ships had to us rotating hulls to generate gravity. Also B5 had a military that, well, acted like a military organization. *(Yeah, I’m looking at you Starfleet) *
Battlestar Galactica: The BSG universe doesn’t seem to rely on things that work automagically either. But part of that is because of things they don’t explain. They don’t go into what powers the battlestar, but we all know it must be a really great power source since they can make jumps through hyperspacce. but they don’t treat it as something that is done easily. They seem to have access to technology that would make sense for a civilization that has mastered hyperspace jumps.
[bFirefly:[/b Again, what they don’t try to explain helps make things more realistic. You don’t know what actually powers serenity or how fast it can go or even where the planets she visits are in relation to earth. Thats fine. They don’t have fancy lasrer guns either, and frontier planets seem just that…frontier worlds. dangrous, little law enforcement, etc. Firefly takes its liberties but they don’t fall back on easy sci-fi solutions. ('we can escape the Alliance cruiser Mal if we reverse the polarity of the neutron flow on the Oscillation Overthruster!")
Farscape: Well, farscape is pure nuts for the unitiated sci fi watcher. Since John Crichton and his friends are aboard a “living ship”, a ship that was bioengineered to be a spaceship, it automatically earns a technomagic badge. At least though the stories are roller coasters of fun and action and the characters are interesting. So it kind of slips by the pure BS factor of making stuff up.
Blakes Seven: Really cheap special FX. I’m talking struff you can do better with windows 95. But like Farscape B7 had really engaging characters and stories. They did enter the technomagic realm several times, especially when they hit the 2nd episode and they had the equivalent to a Star Trek transporter.
Star Trek the original and “Enterprise”: When the original Trek was made they had all kinds of stuff that seems possible if we don’t kill ourselves before the 23rd century. Warp speed? Maybe possible/ Transporters? Originally only a plot device to not have to show the ship landing, but cool nonetheless. (I wouldn’t get in one…would you?). Alien powers not withstanding, the transporter was the biggest technomagic device or concept in TOS. Enterprise used it sparingly.
Star Trek TNG, DS9 and Voyager: oklet me say that I watch Trek. I have every single episode of all of the series on DVD. So don’t take this as Trek hate. TNG started it, the other kept it going. The way the transporter can do almost anything. Holodecks that create sentient computer constructs. Technobabble solutions to solve problems. So Trek in that wins the BS Technomagic award. It does not mean that trek sucks. As I said I have all of them. But they went way beyond any kind of realism in technology a long time ago. All of the shows mentioned have.
And thats not a bad thing. Its all fantasy, and thats what makes it fun. A;; of this is only my opinion. I’d like to know yours.