(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Random thing which really pisses me off on sci fi TV and film: sound in space. Listen up, children: sound waves do not carry in space. It is not possible, since there is no medium (air/atmosphere/brick/water/ANYTHING, there is no NOTHING, it is a VACUUM) for it to travel through. However, as you all know, SF shows have sound in space all the goddamned time. Stargate does it all the time - in fact, my favourite thing about the leaked episodes? Because there was no background sound at all, the EVA sound was perfect. The only sound people should hear in EVA is the stuff that's coming over the comm. That bit in Adrift, where John and Radek turn around when they hear the microasteroid? Yeah. BAD SCIENCE. There's no way they could have heard that - maybe felt the vibrations through their feet, I guess, but that's it. ANYWAY. For all its flaws, it hits the mark sometimes. I jumped around screaming happily this afternoon when watching an old SG-1 ep, Failsafe.

So Jack and Teal'c are wandering around on the moon. Rocks are falling all around them - soundlessly! I was thrilled, but it got even better. They return to the cargo ship and find its atmosphere vented. They find Sam and Daniel in the life pods and - here's the awesome - to check, Jack kicks the pods and puts his hand out to touch the pod to feel the response!

I nearly fell out of bed in my joy paroxysms. Go, SG-1, and whoever was responsible for that little detail! You are people who get science right! I don't know why you don't do it more often.

Comments

[jessikast]

Oh, the science in the first ep of S4! I'm usually happy to go along with the weird and bad science for the sake of my beloved show (exploding tumours!) but that ep had me saying things like "Use the jumpers! The jumpers!" (They've towed things before with the jumpers or other awesome space ships - couldn't they have knocked Atlantis out of its path with the asteriod belt?)

And even before the characters bought it up, I was all "No shields? Lots of rocks? Even small ones? Really bad idea!"

And laputain is still asking me why Zelenka's suit didn't depressurise when it got a hole in. I said, "Well, maybe there's some kind of fail safe? Like emergency filling foam?" And she said "Why did his blood still come out, then?" And I said "..."

I still love that show, though. Bad science and all. (I haven't seen that S1 ep of which you speak - I have seen shamefully little of SG1 and need to catch up on lots.)

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

I was wondering why they had no spacesuits when they needed to get John to the control room to fire drones and so had to resort to the (admittedly heartwarming) use of the jumpers, and yet, half an hour later, John and Zelenka are kitted out in spacesuits and going off to fix stuff. It was kind of a major continuity flaw, and all it would have taken was a line of explanation about how the spacesuit would interfere with John's connection with Atlantis, or...whatever. Something.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, I know. I adore it and I forgive much, but really, show. Sciiiiiience. It's not just the first half of "science fiction"!

[kitsunerei88]

There is one way sound can 'travel' in space, except it's kind of a cheat-y method. You bonk your space helmet thing against someone else's, and I think you both hear it because there's air inside your space-helmety-thing. xD.

Sci-fi shows would be that much more boring if they portrayed it accurately though. I like hearing explosions xD.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah - which is exactly the kind of science exhibited AWESOMELY in the abovementioned episode.

I am choking and spluttering at your last two sentences. SCIENCE /=/ BORING, YOU HEATHEN. <3

[kitsunerei88]

xD

But see, normal people who aren't science geeks think its boring.

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

Well, for perspective, at least SGA uses accurate physics in Adrift, with the throwing-across-the-abyss thing. In an old episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor is floating in space and throws a cricket ball away from him for momentum. Does he go as fast as the cricket ball is going, but in the other direction? Oh no. He waits for it to hit the side of the ship he's just let go of-- it makes a little 'ping' noise-- and when he catches it, both he and the cricket ball go floating to safety.

Of course I guess I shouldn't compare early 80s sci-fi with Stargate anyway, but um yes.

I HATE SOUND IN SPACE TOO. Firefly is the only show that has ever done that right, and in Serenity even they abandoned silence.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, that is a hilarious image, though. XD

God, I was SO ANNOYED when I watched Serenity and in the OPENING SHOT there was freakin' sound in a vacuum. I really adored the way Firefly managed it, like, beyond compare (it is still the show I mention every time I rant about this IRL which is, um, embarassingly ferequently.) It's like, what, now that you're making a feature film you forget the meaning of science?

[kuril.livejournal.com]

As a film, 2001: A Space Odyssey did it right at least -- but maybe more as a dramatic touch than anything else. Quite effective. There might be others but that's the only one that comes to mind.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

There are some others, but yeah, it's sadly poorly understood. I mean, where do people think "In space, no-one can hear you scream" comes from? Tsk tsk.

[semiramis.livejournal.com]

I've always assumed that characters in scifi movies have magical space ears that telepathically detect when something vibrates! Or, or, that in scifi movies, outer space secretly has an atmosphere! Or, or or--*gets pwned by Occam's Razor*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*laughing* Yeah, I guess I just don't have that kind of suspension of belief going for me. XD I admire your creative thinking, though...

[kuril.livejournal.com]

I just watched Dr. Who: The Ark in Space (Tom Baker) and there is space scene with complete silence. It's at the very end. Good series, by the way.