8 'Yeah, Science!' Moments In Film And TV

2. Space Is Massive - The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy might not seem the obvious place to look for hard science but, beneath the gags about Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, there is a specific underlying message that threads throughout the entire franchise, one that is often trampled on by other sci-fi, and it's right there in the Guide's introduction:

"Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space."

Something that is always super irritating in sci-fi is the wild miscalculations of the scale of the universe. Whether it's a ship dodging through a packed-out asteroid field, or nipping between star systems or even sending and receiving instant communications over vast distances, filmmakers tend to forget that space is generally a whole lotta nuthin'.

Whilst the Hitchhiker's universe is teeming with life, ships, planets and small furry creatures from alpha centauri, it is constantly acknowledged that space is mainly a big, black void. The Total Perspective Vortex (featured in The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe) is even a device with the sole purpose of showing you how small you are in relation to the vastness of the universe.

Sure we still have people nipping around in hyperspace, it is much more practical for compelling storytelling I guess, it's nice to at least have it acknowledged.