But while that might be the case with films, there is a whole sub-genre of DIY “hard” science-fiction books spawned by Andy Weir who wrote The Martian, authors like Neal Stephenson and Kim Stanley Robinson, that act as a sort of nerdy counterbalance to the “soft” and easily digestible sci-fi you usually get in film and TV. Star Wars and Star Trek are the most obvious examples.
It’s quite an achievement that Ridley Scott not only can bring DIY “hard” sci-fi to the big screen but also make it popular with non-science geeks, and profitable ($13 million in Australia alone, and counting).
NASA came to the party in making The Martian and it shows. The result works because of its plausibility. With most sci-fi you need to suspend your disbelief. The Martian is easily believable. There are no monsters or fem-bots or laser guns. Just a scientist lost on Mars struggling to survive.
There’s an obvious lesson here for filmmakers. Make your film believable and the audience will not be scared away. Indeed quite the opposite is possible. The truth should be out there (to paraphrase the most unbelievable of all sci-fi – The X-Files).
