Believable Science Fiction - Part 1

Science Fiction properties are a dime-a-dozen. You can walk into any book store, or any shop that sells DVDs and Games, and you’ll find a vast array of Science Fiction universes to immerse yourself into. Aliens attacking the planet, humans attacking aliens, robots taking over the world, humans fighting humans with unheard of technology, humans and/or aliens exploring the universe, and any number of other combinations that you could imagine.

The following feature (to be spread out over the next few days) is a list of, what I’d say are, the most believable Sci-Fi universes around, but first to go into what my criteria are.

Science – Is the Science used in the Universe believable? Is it justified, do they explain how it works within the context of the Universe itself, or are we looking at something that works “because it does”?

Characters – Are the characters believable? Are they more than just the two-dimensional perfect examples of the human race? Are they more than just a guy painted half black, and half white? I’m looking for a fleshed out character here.

Alien Species – Do they make sense, or are they all just humanoids? How many of them are there? Do they all share similarities with various cultures from Earth, or are they unique and interesting? Are there any aliens at all?

History & Events – Does it all make sense? Would that history have made this universe, do those events make sense, would these things really be happening in this universe, etc?

Does it work? – The biggest criteria, in my opinion at least, is whether you could see this universe as being real...is it just fantasy, or has the creator predicted a possible future?

So, with that out of the way, here’s Part One of what I see as the most believable Sci-Fi Universes I’ve encountered so far. This list will be in no particular order.

Mass Effect



BioWare’s story driven action-adventure RPG (genres are getting quite messy now aren’t they?) started off as just an interesting romp through the galaxy, fighting Rogue AI, saving colonists, and meeting blue people...but then the universe just expands, and wow is it detailed.

It meets pretty much every one of my criteria, BioWare fleshed out not only the history of Earth (or the future), they created a history for each of the alien races you can meet, along with several dead civilisations, and loads of the planets and systems that you can explore.

There are currently seven races within the games that players can interact with, each has their own history, along with culture, customs, styles, nutritional needs, and many other extra tidbits, all of which can be explored through the in-game codex, through dialogue options, and through the books and comics slowly being released to the public.

With the discovery of ancient alien ruins on Mars, the Human race is able to develop new technologies that help them travel the galaxy, settle new planets, and meet these extra races. There are conflicts within the histories, there is political intrigue and messy relationships to get your head around, and it all feels like it could happen.

Whilst the technology within the Universe is a bit iffy, it does seem like it would work. Once again all the bits and pieces are explained within the codex, with most of the fictional technology working on the Mass Effect fields that the series is named after. Guns work by firing small chunks of metal through a mass effect device that speeds it towards the target, ships are hurled through space using giant mass effect relays, long distance communication is done using mass effect communication buoys, etc, etc. I have no idea if any of this is even possible, but it does make sense and it remains fairly consistent throughout the series.

Sadly, the only place the game really falls is on Characterisation. BioWare have fleshed out all of the characters, every person you can talk with has their own personality, and most of them have fairly extensive back stories that make them feel real, but your character can still feel like a bit of a shell sometimes. BioWare have tried their best, but such a big universe that has to deal with so many options, choices, and decisions, they can only go so far with your character, so I don’t particularly blame Shepard for occasionally being a bit flat or sterile.

Mass Effect makes me want to travel to Mars and search for Prothean ruins, that’s how real it feels to me.