Forked from: Heroes: (Volume Three: Villains) The Second Coming--Season Premiere
We had been discussing Heroes, and I was griping about Mohinder's bad science.
Well, here's the thing - real science can work well at explaining highly unrealistic things, if you bother to put in a little effort.
I am not at all bothered by fantastic science. I don't even mind when they apply modern science terms to it. I mind when they apply modern science terms, and to it wrong - a thing a science-minded editor or even a trip to wikipedia could fix.
Now, the Heroes premier is by far not the worst offender here - when Mohinder is rattling off stuff about adrenal glands, at least he's talking about chemicals that are, in fact, produced by the adrenal glands. They gain a point there.
However, he also goes on about how the powers are not "in the blood", but in the adrenal secretions. Um, guys, how do you think those secretions get around the body? By Pony Express, perhaps?
The absolute best example of what I'm talking about - thoroughly repairable bad science - was seen in The 4400, a character was writing a paper for a biology class, and we see the title: "The Mitosis Phase of Cell Division". Cell division does have phases. But Mitosis is not one of them. In fact, Mitosis is cell division (or, the basic form, anyway).
Ain't no way I'm going to accept "sometimes you have to fudge it" for errors like that. If you're going to do a science fiction show, and earn millions of dollar on it, shell out a few extra bucks for a competent science editor, already, and stop making excuses.
We had been discussing Heroes, and I was griping about Mohinder's bad science.
Felon said:Been said before, but it bears saying again: real science is great and all, but it just doesn't work too well at explaining highly unrealistic things. Sometimes you gotta fudge it, y'know? Can't always just say it's magic.
Well, here's the thing - real science can work well at explaining highly unrealistic things, if you bother to put in a little effort.
I am not at all bothered by fantastic science. I don't even mind when they apply modern science terms to it. I mind when they apply modern science terms, and to it wrong - a thing a science-minded editor or even a trip to wikipedia could fix.
Now, the Heroes premier is by far not the worst offender here - when Mohinder is rattling off stuff about adrenal glands, at least he's talking about chemicals that are, in fact, produced by the adrenal glands. They gain a point there.
However, he also goes on about how the powers are not "in the blood", but in the adrenal secretions. Um, guys, how do you think those secretions get around the body? By Pony Express, perhaps?
The absolute best example of what I'm talking about - thoroughly repairable bad science - was seen in The 4400, a character was writing a paper for a biology class, and we see the title: "The Mitosis Phase of Cell Division". Cell division does have phases. But Mitosis is not one of them. In fact, Mitosis is cell division (or, the basic form, anyway).
Ain't no way I'm going to accept "sometimes you have to fudge it" for errors like that. If you're going to do a science fiction show, and earn millions of dollar on it, shell out a few extra bucks for a competent science editor, already, and stop making excuses.