Except for the alien tech. The proto virus or whatever it’s called. People talking from the dead. Teleporters to the other side of the universe. Crystals growing out of people’s heads. Alien bug swarms. And a whole bunch of other hand-wavey things.
Yeah, good point. And fuel density and accessibility.
I guess I just really like space physics without fake gravity, but instead being generated by thrust. And the realism of the time everything takes to travel.
Now, how the fusion reactors work is a little more hand-wavy…but they are definitely proton-proton chain, not deuterium-tritium, so any old water will do, and the solar system has a lot of water.
In fact, the main cast were crew on a water hauler before shit kicked off
Yeah they really nailed the space combat. It’s exhilarating to watch. In Star Trek they don’t have any of those things going on because the ships are big and slow during combat, and because they have inertial dampers that cancel the inertial forces experienced by the crew using hand-wavey magic. Heh.
One is a broad base for story telling, the other is one long story about how a single family and their granddad’s hetro-lifemate can fuck over an entire galaxy,
But they’re mostly right about the hopeful part. When it isn’t shown that the Federation is super corrupt and being controlled by evil outside forces, of course.
In 2364, when the USS Enterprise-D was unexpectedly thrust millions of light years into a realm where thoughts became reality, Kosinski described this explanation of the phenomenon as akin to being asked to believe in magic. Captain Jean-Luc Picard felt the explanation made sense, however, as only the power of thought could explain the strange events that were manifesting aboard the vessel, such as his own apparent meeting with his maman, Yvette Picard. (TNG: “Where No One Has Gone Before”)
There’s also a regular invocation of Clark’s Law, producing a rich surplus of “Space Wizards” - from TNG’s Q to Gabrielle Burnham, the Red Angel, in Discovery.
That’s before you get into hyperdrives and teleporters and replicators and holodecks and other very naked violations of established science. Functionally no different than characters casting spells and using magic items in a game of D&D.
kinda makes sense to me
one is an attempt at a hopeful, logical view of humanities future… the other has laser swords and magic.
The Expanse: space will always try to kill you, humanity still sucks, everything still hurts, everything is still dirty.
Far superior option. Mostly because it has real space physics with minimal hand waving.
Except for the alien tech. The proto virus or whatever it’s called. People talking from the dead. Teleporters to the other side of the universe. Crystals growing out of people’s heads. Alien bug swarms. And a whole bunch of other hand-wavey things.
Yeah, good point. And fuel density and accessibility.
I guess I just really like space physics without fake gravity, but instead being generated by thrust. And the realism of the time everything takes to travel.
Fuel’s easy, they have fusion reactors.
Now, how the fusion reactors work is a little more hand-wavy…but they are definitely proton-proton chain, not deuterium-tritium, so any old water will do, and the solar system has a lot of water.
In fact, the main cast were crew on a water hauler before shit kicked off
Yeah they really nailed the space combat. It’s exhilarating to watch. In Star Trek they don’t have any of those things going on because the ships are big and slow during combat, and because they have inertial dampers that cancel the inertial forces experienced by the crew using hand-wavey magic. Heh.
One is a broad base for story telling, the other is one long story about how a single family and their granddad’s hetro-lifemate can fuck over an entire galaxy,
And politics, and wealth disparity, so basically the opposite of a utopia.
And it always sucks no matter who wins.
Magic
Laser Sword
But they’re mostly right about the hopeful part. When it isn’t shown that the Federation is super corrupt and being controlled by evil outside forces, of course.
That article about magic talks about religious ritual and advanced technology. No actual magic, except in one alternative universe.
There’s also a regular invocation of Clark’s Law, producing a rich surplus of “Space Wizards” - from TNG’s Q to Gabrielle Burnham, the Red Angel, in Discovery.
That’s before you get into hyperdrives and teleporters and replicators and holodecks and other very naked violations of established science. Functionally no different than characters casting spells and using magic items in a game of D&D.
Invoking Clark’s Law is saying “there’s no magic, just stuff we don’t understand yet”.
But yeah, no answer on Q’s species, that’s literally magic.