The steampunk genre gorges on Victorian designs for steam-powered helicopters (yes, there were such things) and the like, with films such as Hugo (2011) and gaming apps such as 80 Days (2014) telescoping the hard business of materials science into the twinkling of a mad professor’s eye.
Always, our imaginations run ahead of our physical abilities.At the same time, science fiction is not at all naive, and almost all of it is about why our dreams of transcendence through technology fail: why the machine goes wrong, or works towards an unforeseen (sometimes catastrophic) end.
Blade Runner (1982) didn’t so much inspire the current deluge of in-yer-face urban advertising as realise our worst nightmares about it.
Short Circuit (1986) knew what was wrong with robotic warfare long before the first Predator aircraft took to the skies.So yes, science fiction enters clad in the motley of costume drama: polished, chromed, complete, not infrequently camp.
This genre takes finery from the prop shop and turns it into something vital – a god, a golem, a puzzle, a prison.
It bites.Sometimes, in this game of “It’s behind you!” less is more.