Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
Funny you should mention the new Battlestar Galactica as an example.
BG is about as hard sci-fi as it gets in my book. "Hard sci-fi" doesn't equate to "bogged down in technical minutia," nor does it need to be purely extrapolative, based only on real-world physics.
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Correct.
"Hard" SF doesn't require David Weber-style data dumps.
(Which isn't to say some of us don't enjoy them.)
It does require at least a nod to the physics of the real world. Even if it is just to drop in "inertial compensators" or to hint at actual orbital mechanics. Or to have techies actually talk like techies.
Babylon 5 was a show that at least tried to show what might be possible in actual space combat with decoupled manuevers, in-place attitude changes, etc. Unlike other shows and movies that simply took WWi and WWII combat and put it against a "space-like" environment.
SF has rules but they're flexible rules; it's not hard to at least pay them lip service. But it helps if you respect them.
