I feel a Genre Discussion of Doom coming on, but by this definition The Lord of the Rings is SF.
I would say that the wormholes in Farscape, while superficially susceptible to rational enquiry on the part of one of the characters, are made up as they go along, gaining and changing abilities as it suits the writers. This is arbitrary magical science of the kind in which Doctor Who specialises.
I think for me the only thing that may make Farscape proper SF and not just Fantasy in Space is the way certain ideas are developed: the duplication of Crichton and the ideas about identity it throws up; the semblance of discussion of alternative timelines and roads not taken in an SF way; the contemplation of a Doomsday Device and the consequences of using it - or not using it - once it exists. But really these things are handled in a fairly Fantasy way so it's touch and go for me. Doctor Who touches on some Big Ideas about the future of humanity and doomsday devices too, and Farscape isn't noticeably more rigorous in its handling of such things. It's better at story logic, though, and at faking internal consistency.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-26 07:49 pm (UTC)I feel a Genre Discussion of Doom coming on, but by this definition The Lord of the Rings is SF.
I would say that the wormholes in Farscape, while superficially susceptible to rational enquiry on the part of one of the characters, are made up as they go along, gaining and changing abilities as it suits the writers. This is arbitrary magical science of the kind in which Doctor Who specialises.
I think for me the only thing that may make Farscape proper SF and not just Fantasy in Space is the way certain ideas are developed: the duplication of Crichton and the ideas about identity it throws up; the semblance of discussion of alternative timelines and roads not taken in an SF way; the contemplation of a Doomsday Device and the consequences of using it - or not using it - once it exists. But really these things are handled in a fairly Fantasy way so it's touch and go for me. Doctor Who touches on some Big Ideas about the future of humanity and doomsday devices too, and Farscape isn't noticeably more rigorous in its handling of such things. It's better at story logic, though, and at faking internal consistency.