"Yes, it would appear that I know what the common definition of scifi is."
It depends. Scifi is commonly associated with the cable channel. Which specializes in rubber monster movies and the occasional gem like the new Battlestar Galactica.
Now, science fiction, or SF is a genre that spans everything from space opera where spaceships grapple to each other and the occupants go at each other with swords, to "hard" science fiction where recent scientific developments are often used to drive the plots. Some of the authors of the latter are actual, practicing scientists, like Robert Forward and Gregory Benford, others, are not. In "hard" science fiction, the science is usually at least plausible, if not actual cutting edge. Still, the good stuff is character driven and doesn't have the characters standing around lecturing each other on the science behind the events. At least that has been true ever since Harlan Ellison and company trumpeted their movement with the vaguely aquatic name back in the early 1970s. Note, they didn't cause the changes, there were good authors before then that wrote actual fiction instead of thinly disguised speculation, but after it, it became a lot harder to get the geeky speculation published unless there was at least some literary merit. But that was only the written form, movies and TV were stick stuck in the groove exemplified by Star Wars and the original Battlestar Galactica. Things like the excellent Gattaca in movies or Babylon 5 or the new BSG are more the exception than the rule, even after all these decades.
Regardless though, science fiction is a very big tent. Some of the best authors aren't particularly technical and the science is nothing but a handy hanger to extrapolate a different society so they can comment on our own. Harlan Ellison is a good, although not unique, example of this. Strazenski is in the same mold as Ellison, which is probably why he credits Harlan as a creative consultant on B5. Another would be Joss Whedon when he did Firefly. Others flesh the science out a bit to provide a realistic backdrop for their characters. Robert A. Heinlein is the old man of that part of the genre. Star Wars, well, it has really good special effects. |
