Genre Breakdown: What is “Elevated, Grounded Science Fiction?”

Thought I would start a series on this blog while I evaluate a couple of other longer articles/videos I wish to create. This one came from the new Impact x Skydance Partnership Contest Thingamabob. 

So let’s see how they define it:
“…60-minute science fiction series that feel grounded in a realistic, contemporary world. Tonally, they should feel like premium, elevated shows that could air on any premium cable network or streaming service. Shows like Westworld, The OA, Devs, Lost, or Counterpart.”

Seems simple enough, but let’s break each part of the phrase further.

Not quite.

Elevated

A few different sites suggest that the addition of this word means that the story elevates humanity to what it could possibly become in our ever-changing, ever-advancing world. I think about my grandfather’s life and all the changes he saw, from cars being an extravagance to selling one on craigslist for five bucks. Just last night my wife and I were discussing the fact that we’ve traveled more in our lives so far than people would have in several lifetimes just 100 years ago.

So for films think of the following:
Blade Runner 2049
Interstellar
Children of Men
Her
Ex Machina
Minority Report

For TV, I look to these:
Mars
The First
[maybe] Lost in Space (the new one)
The Expanse

Grounded
This one can be a little tricky, as the history of ‘hard science fiction’ versus ‘soft science fiction’ is still hotly debated to this day and the lines there are many gray areas where the line moves one way or the other.

To put it plainly, there’s a strong difference between Stars Wars and Star Trek, where Star Wars relies heavily on the magic of the force, and Star Trek relies more on the magic of technology. As time has gone on, people have done a better job of explaining the possibility of most of the science behind everything from the warp drive engines to the way we would meet and greet aliens. Still, you’ll never find me in a transporter…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW-NiGp1gy

Simply put, the grounded part focuses more on what’s actually possible versus what we wish was possible. Most of the science behind something like Interstellar is grounded in actual science, whereas something like Doctor Who is a lot more magical and fantastical and not needing hard theories or explanations to explain the science of the show.

The partnership mentions Lost because the idea of people surviving a plane crash isn’t fiction; it’s happened a number of times in the past and several stories from a quick google search show people who’ve ended up on an island. To remove the grounded aspect, add a fantastical element like ‘the plane popped off of the sky and was suddenly standing still on a space station.’ A horrible example, but you get the point. I would say most of the story matter in the first 3 seasons is fairly grounded in reality; perhaps a load of coincidences, but reality.

But then I hear you ask…

Can aliens be in a grounded science fiction piece?

I would say yes! Contact, Arrival, Stranger Things for the most part all have creatures outside of our understanding, but the way in which we arrive at them are grounded in actual scientific theories and hypotheses. 

Long story short, go for Star Trek over Star Wars when looking to grounded sci-fi.

Best of luck to anyone who goes for the partnership. I hope this post helped and if you think I’m wrong or have your own suggestions, please add them in the comments!