Science Fiction and Science

I’m going to be straight here. I love science fiction. Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate Universe, Doctor Who… I don’t know why, but I am hooked. And most of the time, I’m absolutely absorbed in a strange world where no man has gone before.

I have went without food, fresh air or sun light for the better part of a day on several occasions, because, dammit, I was going to- I had to- finish this season of Doctor Who or Star Trek in the next three days!

But sometimes, something just completely snaps me out of this hypnotized staring at a screen. 
Sounds in space, characters dodging lasers, explosions in space, aliens who have never encountered humans before, but speak perfect English, or FTL without even an attempt at explanation. One of these things, and BAM! my brain kicks in and screams "This is rubbish! This couldn’t possibly happen! This is not scientifically possible! Let's watch something else"

I used to try and defy my brain.

I used to lean back in my chair, hit pause, and glare at the screen. And then I’d try to come up with a reason why things in science fiction are the way they are.

And every single time, I’d fail. Because I just can’t come up with an explanation, no matter how much I twist it, that doesn’t cause my brain to call B.S.. I don’t know if that’s because the screenwriters have absolutely no idea of physics, or because I have too little idea of it to come up with some decent explanation.

But either way, I don’t try anymore. I have given up. I try to accept the errors, to tell my brain to shut up, to forget about these mistakes as soon as I’ve seen them flitter across the screen. I try to pretend that somehow, magically, it all makes sense.

But that's the point. That's what still drives me crazy when I see aliens that look just like humans, except with green skin or an enourmously bulged forehead, or when someone explodes in vacuum. It’s not magic that's supposed to make everything work in the science fiction universe, or is used to explain everything, but science. Hard, fast science and facts.

I don’t complain in the scientific errors in Harry Potter. I don’t complain that every second page, at least one fundamental law of physics is broken. I don't complain that it makes absolutely no sense that according to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration, it is impossible to create food out of nothing, but that a simple spell can create birds out of thin air which could then, in turn, be killed, roasted and eaten.

No, I simply accept that this makes absolutely no sense. Because it is magic. It doesn’t have to make sense, and especially does not have to obey the laws of physics, because the magical world in which all these atrocities take place is not based upon science.

Science fiction, on the other hand, relies on science to explain almost everything that makes the story interesting – enemy robots, space travel, sonic screwdrivers and laser weapons.  And then it completely cocks it up.