Sci-Fidelity

[Fretless]

Aargh !!!

Going to watch that NOW !

[slinger]

Please put me in stasis and wake me when season 3 starts.

[slinger]

Please put me in stasis and wake me when season 3 starts.

The bad news is, because of the writer's strike in America, we're not likely to see s3 before Q4 of 2024, and it might even be as late as Q1 of 2025.

[slinger]

There is also a 'possibility' that future seasons will have more episodes - Maybe as much as 20.




But it is going to be a looooooooong wait.


If only we could fly off at near-light speeds for a week or 2, with the relativistic time-dilation we would then be back just in time for S3.

[Lindsayt]

I watched Voyagers tonight. Not the trashy Star Trek cash-in series, the 2021 film version with that boring git from Game of Thrones.

The first third was interesting. But then it descended into a copy of Lord of the Flies, High Noon, Alien.

Why do Hollywood space ships have so much internal room and wasted space in them? Such as cargo holds with just a few containers scattered around the floor.
And why does the gravity in the ships make no sense?
https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/2638
Why do huge interstellar space ships that grow their own food never get cobwebs in unused sections?
Why was there an airlock made from a rectangular door? What about the difficulty in getting reliable airtight seals at the corners when compared to a circular door?

Do these film makers think that we the audience are stupid and won't notice all their scientific and engineering gaffes?
Is it just laziness and lack of professionalism from the film-makers? With them being like a bunch of kids playing at making a movie?

Oh and what about basic electrical safety? The sort employed by every electrician in the UK. Like having a physical switch to isolate an area when doing electrical work.

[Fretless]

Not seen 'Voyagers' myself, yet. Will have a look.

If you want that sort of 'Hard Sci-fi' then try 'The Expanse' series or a film like 'The Martian'. Those are far more based on technology that is currently known and paint a fairly 'realistic' view of how survival in space should look like.

Much Sci-fi - and certainly what comes out of Hollywood - is more fantasy-created with an emphasis on visual design. Not so bothered about the physics or how to change a fuse in a spaceship.



That said, Sci-fi fans really should have a read of Andy Weir's ('The Martian') latest novel 'Project Hail Mary'.
It's brilliant!



A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this incredible new science-based thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian. Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.





EDIT: checking out the IMDB reviews for 'Voyagers' reminded me why I haven't bothered with it.
It is generally panned as being exactly as Lindsayt describes.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9664108/re ... ef_=tt_urv

[slinger]

I avoided "Voyagers" too. Sounded like a very poor take on one of my favourite films, Event Horizon.

[Lindsayt]

Voyagers isn't really a take on Event Horizon.

Voyagers would be a fine film if it had stuck to keeping things subtle instead of it descending into a good guys vs bad guys action film.
As well as it nicking too much stuff from other films. If you haven't seen the other films its' copied you'd think Voyagers is a great film.

Voyagers would have been a better film if a crisis had hit the ship and the crew hadn't coped well with it because they were all too goody goody and lacked the ability to think independently or to take swift instinctive decisive action.
But no, corporate Hollywood doesn't want to make such a subversive film these days.

I think there's scope for a vaguely technically correct interstellar sci-fi film that doesn't resort to cliches, nor copying bits of other films, nor having weird annoying sections (eg the end of 2001). The CGI tools are there to make it happen.

Maybe there hasn't been up till now because hollywood film makers are arty types and don't tend to be technical / scientific / engineering enthusiasts?

[slinger]

The American actors strike is over and production has immediately begun on Star Trek 'Strange New Worlds' season 3. After episodes including a fairytale adventure, a Space-opera musical and a crossover with the animated 'Lower Decks' crew there is a rumour that a Muppet-orientated story is under consideration (no, not 'Pigs in Space'!).

SNW has broken so many boundaries and preconceptions that anything is possible !




And I am currently binging the entire 'Lower Decks' series which is utterly hilarious and, like, the most 'Trek' Trek series ever, really! Seeing is believing and it helps if you are a complete nerdy geek like me.

[Fretless]

On a (slightly) more serious note ...

Fans of 'hard' Sci-fi should check out Cixin Liu's 'Three Body Problem' trilogy, this is a huge concept that travels from the 20th century to the end of the universe. Liu, a professional scientist, is comparable to the great names of the genre like Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov.

A stunningly-constructed tale of man's search for contact with other civilisations and the trouble that can bring..

One for the Christmas-stocking list.




Due to come in 2024 as a major TV series.