Alelou wrote:wouldn't the ability to tell stories anything like what we're used to -- with weekly episodes set in different systems with different species, and back-and-forth relationships among them -- be utterly crippled by any serious attempt at real astronomical and scientific reality?
Yes, if by scientific reality you mean no warp drive and relativistic speed limits. But if you allow for the fictional elements of science fiction, then the answer is no. You COULD have a science fiction TV show with weekly episodes set in different systems with different species, and back-and-forth relationships among them, WITHOUT all the bad science. I can easily imagine tense space battles WITHOUT boulder-crushing asteroid belts or pea-soup thick nebulas. I can easily imagine interpersonal relationships set on a world orbiting a REAL star that's every bit as gripping as if it were on a made-up star. So you'll have to do a little math to calculate distances and transit times? So you'll have to pay attention to previous episodes to avoid continuity errors (something ST was horrible at)? So you won't get to write that story where mysterious Zeta radiation zaps your DNA and turns you into a telepathic nematode? So you'll have to get some science-literate people to review your scripts and catch your errors? (Or--here's an idea--maybe hire some writers that have some science training themselves.)
Am I really asking too much?