Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
Travis S. Taylor made an observation in a video interview. He noted that a good deal of 'sci. fi' was more magical than science based. To me science fiction has an element of actual science in it.
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Literary SF has enough of a fan base that there will always be a market for complex and thoughtful stories, and even the "Hard-SF" subgenre.
However, when it comes to movies and TV, where they require mainstream audiences to pay for them, not just fans, then we see this dumbing down carried to an extreme. Thus "it's only sci-fi, of course it doesn't make any sense" if you mention any stupidities in the story. So that's the audience most writers and producers pander to: one that doesn't want to think.
There is barely a handful of actual SF, as opposed to magic with tech, made each year. Recently on TV "The Expanse", which of course was based on a book series.
Movies: "The Martian" (also an adaptation of a successful book).
Star Trek (all series) and Doctor Who long ago gave up even trying to be SF.
Black Mirror is very thoughtful, but mostly fantasy.
I don't really expect to see any adaptations of Greg Egan, Kim Stanley Robinson, Iain M. Banks. The more mystical stuff, the "X in space" stories is where the money is.
Fantasy is considered of more inherent worth: Game of Thrones is taken very seriously, with endless discussion of the plots and characters. Though since they ran out of books to adapt it's sliding into fan service.