05-17-2019, 12:17 PM
I would suggest that the issue of 'overly fast travel' with a lot of TV and film SF has more to do with a psychological quirk or blind spot that seems to be quite common in RL, at least in SF circles (it even pops up in OA discussions from time to time
).
Specifically - the idea that travel must be ultra fast because doing things ultra fast is an inherent good in itself. This is both untrue and also something that both TV and film can and do sidestep when they want to - leading to the conclusion that when they don't do it, it's because they don't want to.
For examples of this see Star Trek (TV and films) in which a ship takes off to some distant location, we cut to a commercial, and come back to either have the ship arriving at it's next point of adventure (presumably anywhere from hours to days later, at least) or en route with it virtually guaranteed it will arrive by the end of the next commercial break. Film handles this a little different, usually by cutting from one scene to another, possibly involving a different group of characters.
If we were to actually stop and think about it we'd easily see that hours or days or longer must be going by if the show is being consistent with the performance it claims for its spacecraft - but this stretch of time is just ignored and the audience just goes along with it.
There is no real reason the same couldn't be done for other shows.
On a related note, it is sometimes presented to OA that the comparatively long travel times in the setting would complicate stories or roleplaying in the setting. Unless RPG scenarios literally run as long as a multi-day adventure with no 'editorial' tricks to get around time spent sleeping in the game or the like or expect everyone to suspend disbelief that an entire massive adventure could literally happen in a few hours - I suspect that some amount of 'editorial time travel' takes place and could also easily take place in OA.
Todd
).Specifically - the idea that travel must be ultra fast because doing things ultra fast is an inherent good in itself. This is both untrue and also something that both TV and film can and do sidestep when they want to - leading to the conclusion that when they don't do it, it's because they don't want to.
For examples of this see Star Trek (TV and films) in which a ship takes off to some distant location, we cut to a commercial, and come back to either have the ship arriving at it's next point of adventure (presumably anywhere from hours to days later, at least) or en route with it virtually guaranteed it will arrive by the end of the next commercial break. Film handles this a little different, usually by cutting from one scene to another, possibly involving a different group of characters.
If we were to actually stop and think about it we'd easily see that hours or days or longer must be going by if the show is being consistent with the performance it claims for its spacecraft - but this stretch of time is just ignored and the audience just goes along with it.
There is no real reason the same couldn't be done for other shows.
On a related note, it is sometimes presented to OA that the comparatively long travel times in the setting would complicate stories or roleplaying in the setting. Unless RPG scenarios literally run as long as a multi-day adventure with no 'editorial' tricks to get around time spent sleeping in the game or the like or expect everyone to suspend disbelief that an entire massive adventure could literally happen in a few hours - I suspect that some amount of 'editorial time travel' takes place and could also easily take place in OA.
Todd