The most scientifically accurate SciFi Film or TV Series

[david dissadent]

Inspired in part by the Lost thread.

Scifi on screen tends overwhelmingly to veer between really bad science and outright fantasy. So which films or series actually stand out for making the effort and getting some physics right for a change?

For me 2001 A Space Oddessy stands out. No real suprise given the involvement of AC Clarke. It is as close to science as a plot could be up to entering the Monolith. Beyond that I tend to be a bit stumped. Only a handfull of individual scenes in films seem to work.

 

[october_lost]

Havent some of the Star Trek devices come fact, esp anti-matter drive and those medical injectors?

 

[Crispy]

2001 wins hands down. All the way up to the final act, the science and engineering is 100% spot on.

Apollo 13 doesn't really count though does it

 

[Crispy]

Havent some of the Star Trek devices come fact, esp anti-matter drive and those medical injectors?

The writers of star trek admit to just making up the technobabble with no reference to scientific theory.

 

[october_lost]

The writers of star trek admit to just making up the technobabble with no reference to scientific theory.

Dont say its so

 

[Detroit City]

For me 2001 A Space Oddessy stands out. No real suprise given the involvement of AC Clarke.

sorry but i've seen it 20 times and its one of me faves. SciFi as a genre does not lend itself to realism or accuracy. Actually, no entertainment genre lends itself to realism.

COme on! A computer going bezerk and getting all emotional and shit?

and one made by bleedin' IBM no less....i mean, if it was a Mac i could see it

 

[Groucho]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

 

[david dissadent]

COme on! A computer going bezerk and getting all emotional and shit?

and one made by bleedin' IBM no less....i mean, if it was a Mac i could see it

Marvin Minsky was a consultant on the film and that was where many in the AI field back then thought we would be by 2001.

 

[mattie]

To be honest, I'm struggling - I can only think of crappy ones (of which there are many here)

 

[Detroit City]

Marvin Minsky was a consultant on the film and that was where many in the AI field back then thought we would be by 2001.

yes, I think those same people thought we'd have flying cars and fusion reactors by now also

 

[kyser_soze]

2001. The basic principles behind HAL still hold true, the memory core looked to be comprised of some kind of photonic storage, stuff that's only coming about now.

But the real stuff in 2001 is the ship physics, the fact that ALL the external space sequences are completely silent (aside from the music), the way stuff moves around in zero-g etc, all spot on scientifically.

Sunshine has flight physics on a par with 2001 (if you watch it, pay attention to the way the debrid field from the destruction of the antenna stays with Icarus II for example), but obvioulsy the stuff about the bomb and the sun etc is bollocks.

 

[Crispy]

Battlestar Galactica wants to be realistic, but keeps slipping up. Smoke 'trails' from damaged ships is my bugbear. The smoke would carry on moving with the ship damnit!

(In Razor, the destruction of the shipyards has all the fires and smoke drifting upwards fercrisakes!)

 

[david dissadent]

BSG the reboot made an effort with the flight controls and ammunition. Even relying on nucear weapons and not death rays helped.

The real far out stuff was the faster than light stuff. Oh and the rewritting of human evolution.

(Edit bollox crispy beat me to it.)

 

[mattie]

Battlestar Galactica wants to be realistic, but keeps slipping up. Smoke 'trails' from damaged ships is my bugbear. The smoke would carry on moving with the ship damnit!

(In Razor, the destruction of the shipyards has all the fires and smoke drifting upwards fercrisakes!)

Would it? I would have thought that it would have been ejected and the particles that make up smoke would have just continued along whatever path they were ejected along.

Certainly wouldn't have gone upwards though, what's upwards in space?

 

[david dissadent]

The Abyss also made a fair old effort to be realistic right up to the cringworthy ending.

 

[Detroit City]

I thought the first Alien was fairly realistic.....of course I'm speaking relatively

my favourite scene is when the huge shuttle craft lands on the planet...with all teh landing lights and fog and shit. totally awesome.

 

[david dissadent]

I thought the first Alien was fairly realistic.....of course I'm speaking relatively

my favourite scene is when the huge shuttle craft lands on the planet...with all teh landing lights and clouds and shit. totally awesome.

Actualy yeah, again other than an FTL drive it was very very realistic. Really changed how big budget Scifi films could be made.

 

[DrRingDing]

BSG couldn't use less science in it's fiction if it tried.

 

[Detroit City]

Really changed how big budget Scifi films could be made.

well you know, Star Wars did kick off all the SciFi flicks of the late 70s/early 80s. A number of classics made during that time period: Alien, SW-TESB, Blade Runner, et al.

 

[Crispy]

Would it? I would have thought that it would have been ejected and the particles that make up smoke would have just continued along whatever path they were ejected along.

Certainly wouldn't have gone upwards though, what's upwards in space?

If you're moving forwards, and your engines cut out (fire) and start smoking, the smoke would not get 'left behind' like a trail, it would continue moving at the same speed as your ship, just as an expanding cloud. A ship at speed is indistinguishable from a ship at rest, in space.

 

[fogbat]

If you're moving forwards, and your engines cut out (fire) and start smoking, the smoke would not get 'left behind' like a trail, it would continue moving at the same speed as your ship, just as an expanding cloud. A ship at speed is indistinguishable from a ship at rest, in space.

In Space, Nobody Can See You Move.

 

[Idaho]

The 2001 I saw was about a magic stone which was really god.

Gattica was interesting. Have to wait and see on that one.

 

[Crispy]

The 2001 I saw was about a magic stone which was really god.

Gattica was interesting. Have to wait and see on that one.

Gattaca (they're all gene symbols G A T C)

 

[mattie]

If you're moving forwards, and your engines cut out (fire) and start smoking, the smoke would not get 'left behind' like a trail, it would continue moving at the same speed as your ship, just as an expanding cloud. A ship at speed is indistinguishable from a ship at rest, in space.

Ah, see what you're referring to - I thought you meant it would just stay as a smog.

It would gradually disperse (unless the ship is massive and has significant gravitational effect), it certainly wouldn't look like a trail.

I'll quit on the anal comments now.

 

[Detroit City]

I'll quit on the anal comments now.

thank you

 

[Crispy]

It's annoying, because in other respects, the spaceflight is quite good. The ships have RCS for manouevering, they can reorinet themselveswhile travelling in a different direction and so on. Although the fighters aren't really a very good design - the pilot should be at the CoG, in a freely rotating sphere, and the engines should be on outriggers, with multiple nozzles for maximum thrust in all directions.

 

[david dissadent]

It's annoying, because in other respects, the spaceflight is quite good. The ships have RCS for manouevering, they can reorinet themselveswhile travelling in a different direction and so on. Although the fighters aren't really a very good design - the pilot should be at the CoG, in a freely rotating sphere, and the engines should be on outriggers, with multiple nozzles for maximum thrust in all directions.

Unless they are intended for flight in an atmosphere where some basic aerodynamics is advisable.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

the anime starship operators has some nice science bits

the battles take place over hours/days/weeks

lasers don't blow stuff up but are used to overheat the hull

most of the fight takes place in the beforehand with endless computer simulations taking into acceleration, turning speeds etc

notice in the showers about the coriolis force in the rotating part of the ship

 

[david dissadent]

the anime starship operators has some nice science bits

the battles take place over hours/days/weeks

lasers don't blow stuff up but are used to overheat the hull

most of the fight takes place in the beforehand with endless computer simulations taking into acceleration, turning speeds etc

notice in the showers about the coriolis force in the rotating part of the ship

Now you have reminded me of Robotech. But deffo NOT scientifically accurate that one.

 

[rich!]

Marvin Minsky was a consultant on the film and that was where many in the AI field back then thought we would be by 2001.

You know, there's a school of thought in AI that says the only thing Minsky ever did for AI was have a robot in Hitchhiker's named after him.