There are degrees to it - good science fiction finds a good balance to what is believable/logical, has some consistency to the rules of its universe, etc. when you are fully into the realm of anything could happen, just make stuff up as you go along as needed, etc. it gets pretty boring as nothing truly has the feel of consequences any more and generally feels contrived.
Snowpiercer | Netflix
- Thread starter Glanza
- Start date
There are degrees to it - good science fiction finds a good balance to what is believable/logical, has some consistency to the rules of its universe, etc. when you are fully into the realm of anything could happen, just make stuff up as you go along as needed, etc. it gets pretty boring as nothing truly has the feel of consequences any more and generally feels contrived.
I'm more curious to see what you've seen on Snowpiercer that is beyond illogical.
- A single train track that goes around the circumference of the earth
- The fact there's a 1001 carriage / 10 mile long train
- The fact the train never needs to stop, implying an unlimited amount of fuel / food / water / medical supplies
- How you can fit what appears to be some very big rooms into small carriages
- How some of the carriages have things like underwater aquariums, or iirc i think there was an orchard in one carriage
Those were a quick few i could potentially think of.
With anything like that the premise is key.
They've alluded to and shown some of that stuff. Water shouldn't pose much of an issue, the food is grown, waste recycled (when the cows were killed they mentioned the methane lose could be an issue). A self contained eco system isn't beyond belief, especially when you can externally source air, water and light.
The Tardis like carriages are a bit of a puzzle.
How you build a track around the world? What powers the thing, and why can't it stop? (slowing down causes power issues)
It would be nice if they could muster up some explanation for those questions.
I'm still watching this, but the lack of an explanation for the basic premise bugs me!
Soldato
As a non physicist. I assumed it was something like they've created perpetual motion as it goes around the world. I know it's not actually possible. Then as the train stops, they have to move power from the carriages to the engine to recover power lost through going slower.
I'm happy switching brain off on shows like this though
Yeah i guess that's kind of where i was going with my responses to Rroff. It's still a bit early in the show for them to do a reveal all.
As a non physicist. I assumed it was something like they've created perpetual motion as it goes around the world. I know it's not actually possible. Then as the train stops, they have to move power from the carriages to the engine to recover power lost through going slower.
I'm happy switching brain off on shows like this though
Building a track around the world i guess wouldn't be too unrealistic. It doesn't necessarily have to be a direct circumference, and could instead be a route covering as much land mass as possible, crossing between countries where distance is minimal.
The non-stopping of the train, i would think seems obvious. Imagine how much energy it would take to get a 10 mile long train moving, it's much easier to keep it moving whilst it's moving. The use of Nuclear to power engines could pretty much supply it with infinite fuel, although i agree there's nothing mentioned on how the train works, so we're left to our own imagination.
you could go on forever
you forget the carriages seem to have an underground as well :S
how to the tail enders manage dreadlocks and get haircuts? why arent they all looking like holocaust survivors with dirt, blood, puss, sweat, excrement etc all over them?
some of the carriages are big enough to fit cows inside like wtf cows are huge, okay some trains have pretty big carriages.
the double decker carriages in Switzerland are huge in length but they are still narrow as anything.
how would a train without universal carriage widths be able to travel around the world, who built the track, does the track go across the frozen oceans? how does the track not get pulled apart by the eaths plates moving around.
you could go on for almost forever, even about series you think are "good" you might as well just get the popcorn out and believe
the only place this train would be believable is like mars or somewhere where gravity is different
the train should probably be about 50 cars long with how many people weve seen on it, first class is like 8 or something...
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Yep precisely. I think of some of the less sci-fi element stuff and more general real-life drama that i watch. Even i could pull them apart with things/events that clearly aren't real, or have clearly been over-dramatised.
Soldato
Why do people not bother to watch and listen to the show they're watching, it's been quite clearly stated numerous times in the show that it's a perpetual energy device that powers the train. It's even shown in large letters alongside a blueprint of the engine during the title sequence.
That is something that is perfectly possible to assume they've engineered a solution - we have vast rail networks today that deal with all kinds of issues in respect to things like track expansion (i.e. thermal) and so on.
Some of the other aspects that actually needed at least a little more development to make the idea believable are lacking it though.
don't train tracks get a lot of maintenance though?
I lived near a main train line for a couple of years and every year there would be the noises of machines doing something on the line.
I dunno what they use but I'm not talking some small machine it sounded like it was grinding along the track or something
Under ideal conditions especially if you are moving people then a much higher level of maintenance is going to be involved - but it isn't 100% essential for the track to be usable over a long period of time.
I went on IMDB to look who someone was and showed 20 episodes for some characters.
Soldato
Ah, probably including a second season then. My TV guide show Episode 10 has being the last one.
Soldato
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not reading any of the above for fear of spoilers 
have this on my to watch list, it's the sort of mad scenario i love in sci-fi
is there a film then? should i watch before the series? whats it called?
have this on my to watch list, it's the sort of mad scenario i love in sci-fi
is there a film then? should i watch before the series? whats it called?
Soldato
More than that, it's explicitly shown that the engine generates power for the train by continuously moving. If they have to slow down, they get power cuts. It's impossible in the real world, but I'm okay with accepting it as a central conceit of the story. How is the track maintained? Don't know, don't really care. The train is just an interesting setting for a story that has little to do with the train itself.
I think the engine itself is plausible, assuming it's a fusion reactor that runs off of hydrogen extracted from the constant supply of snow/ice on the track, of course there'd need to be a way to do this without negating the output energy. However considering the year it's set in, it's a bit jarring without accepting that it's simply a different universe seemingly further along technologically due to necessity.
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you could gain power from slowing down if it was as advanced as it's supposed to be especially if you were going down hill
but anyway they should have just said its powered by a small reactor and never show it or talk about it again and not have the slow down power cuts..
I guess technically the earth is frozen so nothings supposed to be moving on the continents and everything magically stays as it was.
does the train have heating or insulation? I get the impression it's just like a regular train in most of the carriages.
like the tail end carriage is just a metal box? I bet most of the fluids in a train wouldn't work if it was so cold outside, most of the metal would be really brittle and probably crack under stress easily?