The Dark Side of the Earth: February 11th, 2011

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I shall discourse upon a matter I like to call “Doctor Who Science”.
I have always described The Dark Side of the Earth as a fantasy film, but technically it’s science fiction because it purports to provide scientific explanations for all the extraordinary goings-on. Some science fiction, typically “hard” sci-fi, as it’s known, is fairly realistic in this regard, basing its technology on projections by futurists. At the other end of the scale comes Doctor Who Science. Don’t get me wrong – I love Doctor Who and have done since I was eight – but the technobabble rarely stands up to any scrutiny. Commonly the Doctor uses a metaphor, ostensibly to clarify things for the companion, but the real purpose is to say, “Here is a chain of logic which you know from your everyday lives. Since it works in your everyday life, it must also work when applied to a random bunch of crazy space things.”
The Dark Side of the Earth, for better or worse, subscribes to this methodology. It’s a delicate balancing act, trying to come up with science which you know is bollocks, but has just enough truth in it to (a) suspend the viewer’s disbelief and (b) help the viewer understand the rules of the world you’re creating. You’re relying on people’s ignorance to a certain extent, which is something that can work both for and against you.
Way back in my very first posting on this blog I talked about the popular misconception that gravity is caused by the earth’s rotation. I have no doubt that, if the film does get made and widely released, many ignorant people will brand it unrealistic because gravity doesn’t disappear when the world stops spinning. (Indeed, one script report has already done exactly this.) So there it’s working against me.
But in other places it might be useful. For example, the script offers its own explanation of why the earth spins. In reality, it spins because of the way gravity drew the cosmic dust together when the solar system formed, but a lot of people don’t know that, and I think I’ve put just enough real science into my fake explanation that those people will buy it, and hopefully everyone else will suspend disbelief enough to accept it and enjoy the film.
And as for the people that think time will stop if the earth stops turning, well… you really didn’t understand Superman: The Movie at all, did you?

The Dark Side of the Earth: February 11th, 2011