Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

            In media, we tend to misrepresent how physics truly acts in order to attempt to tell a story in the most efficient and entertaining way that we can. This is most apparent when film makers are telling a story that happens in space, in which their fictional version of space does not have the same properties that space actually does in real life, and therefore objects within that space react differently than they would be expected to react. Among the way these objects react differently a few prime examples are, their movement in space, sound, and the explosions. These examples of fictional space reacting different than normal space in media can be cited in movies such as the Star Wars saga, Star Trek (for the purposes of this essay we will be citing the franchise as depicted in J.J. Abram's films), and in the video game, Halo.

            The most infamous of examples that occurs commonly in media dealing with space is the way that objects move while in said space. Often times flight or even just basic movement in space is depicted as how the object would normally move in our Earth's atmosphere. However, unfortunately this does not actually work due to the properties that exist on Earth simply do not apply in space. As much as it pains me to say it, I would like to cite or rather "blame" Star Wars for bringing about the common misinterpretation of flight in space because of the way George Lucas wanted the starships to fly, and based his space fight sequences off of old World War II films (more specifically the film, "The Dam Busters"). However, this was done for good reason, as it brought a sense of familiarity into the film, making the sequences interesting and appealing to see, albeit the scenes are incorrectly shot. If this were to be fixed, one would have to attach more engines, and develop a way to turn as sharply let alone maneuver as easily as the fighters in Star Wars can, this is because of the way space works, more than likely in a real life situation the star fighters would in actuality take ages to even turn, due to the environment that they're in. Because of the choices and widely accepted depiction of this kind of space flight, it has been used as an example of the prime example of flight in space for today's media. On a positive note however, this is not to say that more recent media examples haven't tried to introduce more realistic designs and flight trajectories into their films. Examples like Star Trek and Halo, demonstrate their attempt of getting closer to how physics in space really works by incorporating ways to balance out the physical problems that are presented in the vacuum of space.

            Another continually occurring problem in media is the fact that in the vacuum of space, there is no way for sound to be heard ("In space no one can hear you scream" "Alien"). However, despite this, sound is still ever present in films that take place in space. Meaning most of the sounds that are heard are all made up sounds that were made on Earth. For instance, the sound of the Star Destroyers in Star Wars flying overhead is actually the sound of a fan slowed down afterwards (try it it's actually really cool to hear!) or the sound of a TIE Fighter flying by is the sound of a race car and the cry of a baby elephant. Sounds in science-fantasy have to be crafted in such a way that we can believe that this kind of future is real, whether it is the roar of the Millennium Falcon or the engines of the Enterprise. However, on the flip side, how would it be to watch a film or play a game and during the flying in space scenes, all you heard was silence or just radio chatter. Not exactly an appealing image for the audience. However, other forms of media have been trying to figure out a way to balance realism with fantasy, for me I like to cite Halo when it comes to sound, because of the few times that you are in space, the developers decided that the best way to approach the sound problem would be to muffle all the sounds, to a point where you can still hear but it's really only an inkling of what it could sound like. For an entertainment view standpoint, I believe that this is so far the most successful of at least trying to incorporate real science into a form of science-fantasy entertainment.

            Of course with sound in space, typically something that follows closely afterwards, is explosions. Explosions is what people like to see in a science-fantasy story, the action of it bringing in the intensity of the scene. Unfortunately, as with the other two examples, explosions in space are often shown to look to similar to explosions that we expect to see on Earth, mainly meaning that they have enormous flames coming out of the ships or explosions acting in a very terrestrial manner. The prime example of this is the Death Star exploding in "A New Hope", the shot of course done in real life with real models and then edited into the film, or the star fighters blowing up with fire. A lot of the times, the explosions act like they would normally do with oxygen, however in space there is no oxygen, making it so that the objects blowing up can still explode, however fire probably will not exist in the resulting destruction. Halo also suffers by including unrealistic space exploding dynamics in the game. However, a film that does seem to have a relatively good grasp on realistic explosions in space is Star Trek, where the explosions seem to fit the description of what should be happening in the given situation.

            Science fiction in today's media is represented in a way that is designed to be supposedly exciting, giving us movement, sounds, and explosions to make us get into the moment. However, certain titles take their own liberties at trying to incorporate true physics in space into their media. In creating their own unique way of showing how their science-fantasy universe operates, we as the audience are introduced to a wide variety of interpretations of what space could look and sound like, inspiring us and taking us into far off worlds with our imaginations. While true science isn't entirely represented, each director tries to incorporate something new that will add to the realism of their piece, creating an entertaining experience for all.