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Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness/Science in Genre Only (view source)

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{{tropeUseful Notes}}
'''[[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness/Science in Genre Only|Science in Genre Only]]:''' The work is unambiguously set in the ''literary genre'' of [[Science Fiction]], but ''scientific'' it is not. [[Applied Phlebotinum]] is the rule of the day, often of the [[It Runs Onon Nonsensoleum|Nonsensoleum]] kind, [[Green Rocks]] gain [[New Powers Asas the Plot Demands]], and both [[BellisariosBellisario's Maxim]] and the [[MST3K Mantra]] apply.
 
{{examples|Examples}}
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'': Stuff happens. [[MST3K Mantra|Don't think too much how]]. Characters breathe in space on at least two occasions. [[Instant AI, Just Add Water|Artificially intelligent robots]] built entirely out of random spare parts. A VW Microbus converted into a spaceship. As the theme song says: "It's just a show. You really should relax."
 
* ''[[Futurama]]'': Chock full of every single popular science fiction trope, often with [[It Runs Onon Nonsensoleum|intentionally silly]] [[Reverse the Polarity]] style answers to justify them. Only "harder" than ''[[MST3KMystery Science Theater 3000]]'' because there's no [[MST3K Mantra]] in the opening and the occasional legitimate maths and science appears as a [[Genius Bonus]]. Just for starters, there's a ship that once made the entire universe move around it, while the ship itself lay still, making the ship work at triple capacity.
 
* ''[[Mazinger Z (Anime)|Mazinger Z]]'': The show has elements of ''[[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness/World of Phlebotinum|World of Phlebotinum]]'', since it tries to be consistent with the rules and physics of its own world, but often real world physics are overruled by [[Rule of Cool]] and [[Rule of Fun]]. And thus, you have eighteen-meters-tall robots are surprisingly fast and agile for its size, run on Phlebotinum and are [[Made of Indestructium]].
 
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'': The universe is not run not by the laws of physics, but by the [[Rule of Cool]]. While the show remains ''relatively'' non-screwing with physics in the first arcs, the latter one more than makes up for it.
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* The ''[[The DCU|DC]]'' and ''[[Marvel Universe|Marvel]]'' universes, which in some ways resemble sci-fi versions of the [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], will occasionally make [[Hand Wave|weak, palsied gestures in the direction of verisimilitude]] and then follow that with a [[Splash Panel|two-page spread]] that violates every rule of physics yet discovered, except the [[Rule of Cool|most important one.]]
 
* ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'', which in spite of the fact that the power source, Mantra, is similar to using [[Minovsky ParticlesPhysics]] to power robots and machines, still has many of the characters breath in space, are several hundreds of thousands of years old, and fight against beings that come from the planet itself, as well as being more of a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] in this way.
 
* ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'': Packed full of all kinds of bizarre nonsense -- for example, the fastest mode of travel through the universe is by ''bistro'', as in "place you eat in" or "second most overworked word in food marketing after '''new'''"<ref>Or more appropriately, the [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|creative mathematics]] used to calculate bills in such establishments</ref>, and the second fastest mode is a drive runs on the power of improbability -- but the stories are fully aware of how absurd it is, and the reader ''is'' encouraged to think about it. [[It Runs Onon Nonsensoleum]] was clearly a favorite, if not ''the'' favorite, trope of creator [[Douglas Adams]].
 
* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'': [[Chainsaw Good|Chainsaw swords]], psychic spacemen, elves in space, orcs in space, undead robots, planet-eating bugs, three-hundred-metre-tall millennia-old walking battle cathedrals, soul-eating space stations and vehicles that travel faster because they're painted red ([[Justified Trope|justified]], [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|Sort Of...]]), and that's just scratching the surface. The primary means of FTL is flying through Hell. In 40k, [[Rule of Cool]] is physics. As is [[Rule of Scary]].
 
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' in its more scientifically themed seasons (more magical seasons usually make a token gesture towards this with giant robots, but aren't close enough to trying to qualify). Even when they get their powers from a government research lab, the morphing is still a mix of phlebotinum and handwaves, the sources of energy are either phlebotinum or not mentioned at all, faster than light travel and humanoid aliens are the rule, [[Made of Explodium|sparks shoot out of weapons and struck objects entirely at random irregardless of object composition and the kind of weapon in question]], there's never an equal and opposite reaction for most actions, and the square-cube law is in the corner rocking back and forth in the fetal position muttering about giant robots, giant monsters, and the impossibilities of the human shape on the kaiju scale.
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* ''[[The Giver]]'': We never get any scientific justification whatsoever for...well, anything, really. Not the psychic transmission of memories, not the total control kept over every aspect of the Community, {{spoiler|right down to its climate and color—or, rather, lack thereof.}} The focus is more on human nature.
 
* ''[[Bionicle]]''. The story begins with a [[Patchwork Map]] island in the middle of a [[Single Biome Planet]], inhabited by [[Cyborg]] [[Hobbits]] [[Schizo -Tech|who live like primitive humans]]. They are joined by a [[Five -Man Band|Six Man Band]] of cyborgs with superpowered [[Mask of Power|masks]] and [[Elemental Powers]]. Although many of the initial mysteries have been resolved, and the series went through a drastic [[Doing inIn Thethe Wizard|shift from mystical to semi-sci-fi]], there is almost ''no'' explanation of how anything actually works. Also, creator Greg Farshtey has the [[MST3K Mantra]] in his sig on the fansite [[BZ Power]].
 
* ''[[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'': Even softer than ''[[MST3KMystery Science Theater 3000]]''. Not only does stuff happen and things [[It Runs Onon Nonsensoleum|run on nonsensoleum]] but the depicted reality contradicts what we are familiar with in everyday life. Planetary systems and galaxies twirl around one another, and everything has a near-Earth gravity. The protomatter of stars help you launch from place to place and ludicrous speed travel between the loosely defined galaxies are a must. [[Shigeru Miyamoto|Shiggy]] believes in putting [[Rule of Fun|fun]] before ''everything'' else, including basic logic. Also, [[Batman Can Breathe in Space|Mario can breathe in space.]]
 
* ''[[Asterix]] and the Falling Sky'': In what is usually a mundane/fantasy-ish classical antiquity setting, we have a [[How Unscientific|science fiction-esque plot.]] There are two alien races shown, one of them have tin-can rats as soldiers while the other have [[Superman]] clones. Both have spaceships (one had a rocket while the other had a flying saucer) and came from places light-years away from Earth, only coming to the Gaulish village to fight over the iconic magical super potion that said village havehas. {{spoiler|It turns out that the magical potion is not compatible with the aliens' physiology.}}
 
* ''[[Cloudy Withwith a Chance of Meatballs]]'': Even if you accept the premise of water molecules turning into food molecules via atom rearrangement - this movie will challenge your [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] by throwing anything resembling logic out of the window to replace it by [[Rule of Fun]]. See the main entry for more details. The original book (and its sequel) did this too.
 
* The original 1978 ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic (1978 TV series)|original 1978 ''Battlestar Galactica]]'']]: They cross interstellar -- or maybe intergalactic, [[Sci -Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|even they're not sure]] -- distances in a matter of days. Spacecraft [[Old School Dogfighting|move like airplanes]], unless they're big spacecraft, in which case they [[Space Is an Ocean|move like ocean ships]]. Guns fire [[Frickin' Laser Beams|"lasers"]] that move more slowly than bullets, with [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|Cylons shooting blue and Vipers shooting red]]. A city's stockpile of "Tylium" catches fire, and then blows up the ''[[Earthshattering Kaboom|entire planet]]''. The [[Artificial Gravity]] that keeps them right-side-up doesn't even merit a mention, as it's questionable whether the writers even knew that people on space ships experience zero gee.
 
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' -- at least the films -- tends to run on the [[Rule of Cool]]. [[Space Is Noisy]], there's [[Old School Dogfighting]] between space fighters, [[Artificial Gravity]] is so ubiquitous that it doesn't even bear mention, an Earth-sized planet is blown up with such force that the debris rushes outward faster than the speed of light, etc.. (The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] tries to be a little more restrained, and probably belongs in the next harder category.)
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* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'': stuff was owned by famous people or was present at famous events. Stuff somehow gains -- and exaggerates -- a property associated with said person or event. Don't think about it too hard.
 
* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'': Anything and everything can be [[Hand Wave|Hand Waved]] by either [[Sufficiently Advanced]] technology, [[Rule of Cool]], [[Rule of Scary]], the [[Timey -Wimey Ball]], or some combination thereof.
 
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': There's no explanation for, well, anything. Everything happens in [[Cartoonland Time]] and is run by either [[Rule of Cool]], [[Rule of Funny]], [[Cartoon Physics]], or a mixture of the aforementioned, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|platypi are blue]].
 
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]
[[Category:Science In Genre Only]]
[[Category:Mohs]]
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