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We Shall Never Travel To The Stars
How physics defeats fantasy in the real world
Good science fiction comprises two essential ingredients. The first is the framing of a contemporary issue in a metaphorical universe that enables us to approach the central dynamic with fresh eyes. The second is a foundation in reality. A collaboration between the science fiction author Arthur C Clarke and director Stanley Kubric gave us 2001, A Space Odyssey and this movie was perhaps the pre-eminent example of great science fiction. The science was grounded in reality, with no recourse to fantasy-drives; the story was a vehicle for the exploration of humanity’s past and potential future.
Most sci-fi, however, is banal. Nearly every popular sci-fi entertainment is nothing more than cowboys in space. Instead of encouraging us to look anew on some important aspect of our present world, generic sci-fi merely replays tired old tropes in a tediously predictable manner. Whether it’s the unbearable superficiality of Star Wars and its imitators, or the lycra-centric universes inhabited by costumed superheroes, we have merely sound and fury, signifying nothing. The Enterprise-based Star Trek series do make gestures toward more important themes but the science is absurd, and thus even this hallowed genre fails to qualify as adequate science fiction. In the end, Picard is merely a more…
