Ummm.... Farscape?

[Horacio]

So that website says it will be release on August...
Anybody from AEG reading this could confirm/deny it, please?

 

[Psion]

Now if they keep coming up with that reason, it will be come an excuse.

Sorry, it already struck me as an excuse.

At least they didn't try to techno-babble it away, like in the Braga-verse.

 

[Voneth]

Sorry, it already struck me as an excuse.

At least they didn't try to techno-babble it away, like in the Braga-verse.

Well, if you are not doing hard SF, you don't have many alternatives. You can either skip the explainations (organic ships that have evolved FTL flight) or you can techno-babble away.

Real life, however, still has occurances where current science can't explain what really happened. And in the past, even more so.

I mean if you really wanted to get into excuses, you could discout a lot of SF's current topics as more technobabble of how things get done in the story. (Now it's all organic or nanotech, in the 90s it was cybertech, in the 80s it was DNA, in the 70s it was experimental drugs, and in the 60s it was radiation, etc.)

So considering the other ways to "excuse" the odd technology, the "Well, you can't explain it all with what you know in science, can you?" was a refreshing change. It also allowed for some character evolvement as well.

Of couse with a fantastical show like Farscape, they sometimes cross that line of "Suspension of Disbelief." My brother hates the show because too many people wear make up and it has puppets. He's more mundane and he perfers no aliens if he can help it. I think it's a message Joss Wheldon has gotten since his upcoming Firefly has NO aliens in it. He is shooting for as broad an audience as possible, which is fine. Me?, I perfer a little more sugar in my cereral, thank you.

 

[Psion]

Well, if you are not doing hard SF, you don't have many alternatives.

Sure there is. Stick to things that only stretch credibility (like a nanovirus that translates languages for you) instead of things that flat out shatter it.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

Personally I'm not overly concerned with how close they stick to acctual science. I'm more interested in the characters. They are such complex and interesting people. Seeing how they react to the strange and bizzare events is what makes the show interesting.

The show has never really seemed like it was overly concerned about real world science either. Just about telling interesting stories and avoiding the use of technobabble. To each their own.

 

[Voneth]

Sure there is. Stick to things that only stretch credibility (like a nanovirus that translates languages for you) instead of things that flat out shatter it.

Psion, for a guy who like to paint in broad strokes (i.e. sf psionics is fantasy magic), I am surprised that a little shrinkage would bother you. If anything, I thought our roles would be reversed in this.

So what you are really saying is not that you found the Reigal discussion done/not done well, but that your threshold for the “Suspension of Disbelief” was crossed with the technology used.

As I had commented before when I mentioned about my brother, that is essentially a tricky spot. Depending on how mundane an audience is who watches the show, the whole “Babel Fish” nanovirus is down right unbelievable as well as the aforementioned living FTL ship.

I guess for that my personal taste, if I am going to start enjoying a show that includes such non-items as nanoviruses (viruses can already be measured in nanocentimeters, so that is redundant. If they mean nanomachines, then the virus part is irrelevant because viruses are a life form- of sorts- and not machines. Now if they meant programmed viruses or cyberviruses that would make more sense.) Then I am not going to quibble about “shrinking technology” because there is no way the writers are going to know the “average” limits of Disbelief and if you start questioning what is “shattering,” the writers are going to focusing more on doubting themselves than on just writing a good story.

There is a reason the new Enterprise show has a Temporal Cold War. It’s so that they can write good stories that bend the 30 years of conflicting continuity of the Star Trek universe without making a headache out of it.

 

[Psion]

Psion, for a guy who like to paint in broad strokes (i.e. sf psionics is fantasy magic), I am surprised that a little shrinkage would bother you.

Why would that be? AFAIAC, fantasy is inherently more unbounded than SF. That is why psionics is not out of place in fantasy (and futher, why it in fact fits better in fantasy than in SF.) So trust me, my view on this is perfectly self consistent.

So what you are really saying is not that you found the Reigal discussion done/not done well, but that your threshold for the ?Suspension of Disbelief? was crossed with the technology used.

Rygel's discussion made it worse, becane it drew attention to the fact that shrinking as a technology is nonsensical. They would have been better off without the discussion, then the show could have moved on and the viewers can say "oh yeah, plot device." But that discussion really made it stand out like a turd in a punch bowl.

For me the big problem with that part is that it really broke the fifth wall for me, because in essence, Rigel was talking to the "intelligent viewers in the audience" via Shizoku. I could almost see the authors saying:

"y'know, there are going to be fans out there who balk at this."
"We'll, will technobable it away."
"No, no, we can't do that. That's why half our fans hate star trek."
"Okay, how about if we chastise our fans for overanalyzing the show instead!"
"Yeah, that's the ticket."

Only half kidding.

There is a reason the new Enterprise show has a Temporal Cold War. It?s so that they can write good stories that bend the 30 years of conflicting continuity of the Star Trek universe without making a headache out of it.

That they are good stories is debatable. Braga just loves his esoteric surreal little stories and doesn't like things like plausability getting in the way. He should have tried his hand at the outer limits, which has a format more accomodating to such strangeness, instead of running the ST franchise into the ground.

 

[Voneth]

Why would that be? AFAIAC, fantasy is inherently more unbounded than SF. That is why psionics is not out of place in fantasy (and futher, why it in fact fits better in fantasy than in SF.) So trust me, my view on this is perfectly self consistent.

I would hope they would be self-consistent, internally consistent may be a different matter. And while I agree that psionics can fit in fantasy, lets just agree to disagree on the rest, shall we.

Rygel's discussion made it worse, becane it drew attention to the fact that shrinking as a technology is nonsensical. They would have been better off without the discussion, then the show could have moved on and the viewers can say "oh yeah, plot device." But that discussion really made it stand out like a turd in a punch bowl. For me the big problem with that part is that it really broke the fifth wall for me, because in essence, Rigel was talking to the "intelligent viewers in the audience" via Shizoku. Only half kidding.

So you do agree with one of my alternatives, which is to gloss over the explanations such as nanoviruses and the like. My reaction was evidently different than yours. Perhaps it is from my own tendencies that there should be some mysteries left in the world and Science needs a good kick in the teeth once in a while to be reminded that not all things can fit neatly in a box.

That they are good stories is debatable. He should have tried his hand at the outer limits, which has a format more accomodating to such strangeness, instead of running the ST franchise into the ground.

Some are hit and miss, but I bet more would be miss if they had to waste more time double checking “facts” to keep some FANatic happy. Personally, I like strange. Life in space will be pretty boring if its not going to be strange. I think your lumping Braga into Outer Limits is a little broad. I’ve found OL to be leaning towards horror than strangeness and I haven’t seen Enterprise be that dark, really.

In retrospect, to think that a show that was breaking a lot of rules when it first came out so many moons ago can not accommodate strangeness anymore is sort of sad.

Instead of "shatter" this and "turd" that, how about just saying you found the shrinking incident too silly and be done with it It will make you feel better.

 

[Aaron L]

I though that Rygel explaining things to Sikozu was a good way of showing that Sikozu thought that she was smart, but Rygel showed her what it really means to be intelligent.


I thought it was a good way of showing Rygel's intelligence.

 

[jhilahd]

Can we get a GenCon confirmation?

Anyone know of anyone at the show they can holler at?

I've called some friends of mine, but alas, they're out eating at the King and I(mmmm Tai food) and won't gimme the time of day. Or at least, they said until they've finished eating.

Snobs...


Anywho...


Theoretically, it should be out this weekend, right? Right?

-Jhilahd