i.e do you prefer:

  • technically grounded and plausible science elements (e.g The Martian)

or

  • stuff so fantastical that it doesn’t even warrant trying to explain it (Dr Who, some Marvel/DC stuff, Star Wars)

Another way to look at this would be Sci-Fi versus Science Fantasy, perhaps.

  • Old-School Sci-Fi like HG Wells centers around a core scientific idea and the consequences arising from that,

whereas

  • Science Fantasy (more prevalent nowadays) only looks to science - or the impression of some science - to serve the fantasy devices it uses.

So which is better?

  • quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    4·
    5 days ago

    If it is too technically grounded and plausible where the more fiction part is that they got their shit together and actually did it, like The Martian I see it more akin to the adventures genre.

    Also the opposite, with Star Wars or Dune more closely related to fantasy, but in space.

    I like science fiction that requires technologies that don’t exist that make the story possible, I don’t care if it not based in reality and it is not well explained how it supposed to work, I care more about what it does and how it shapes the lives of those around it.