Season 1 Episode 9 Up! (May 31st) · 10:21pm May 31st, 2021
Hello my lovely viewers! Episode 9 has now been posted for your viewing pleasure.
There’s a lot to say about what sort of planning went into this, including the end results and why I used Generations the way I did, but I said all of that in the author’s notes. Instead, I’d like to dedicate this blog post to something else, something that’s been concerning me just a bit when it comes to this story.
Let's be real: Star Trek, as a setting, is not that scientifically plausible. Faster than light communications, warp drives they can easily control that don't require negative mass or negative energy in the quantity of an entire Jupiter (or wherever that calculation is at these days), transporters that can somehow disassemble you and reassemble you within seconds over massive distances, replicators, and so on and so forth.
For that matter, MLP: FIM is even less scientifically plausible. Equines capable of flight with puny wingspans and solid bone structures? Mouths so flexible they can handle objects like pencils? Magic? Etc. It's fantasy. It's fun fantasy, but it's still just that: fantasy. Lots of impossible things.
Why do I bring this up? Well, the reason is that it can be very easy to forget we're dealing with science fiction when we read a story like this. I will be just as honest with you: I am not a scientist. I'm not a physician, nor a biologist, an astronomer, or a physicist... I'm none of these things. Everything I know about science comes from public education, half remembered college courses, and what I absorb online from things like PBS Spacetime. In short, I'm going to get things wrong. I'm not going to be perfectly scientifically accurate.
And that's okay. Why? Because the setting isn't accurate. It's not hard science fiction. It's soft sci-fi with a dose of fantasy.
Over the course of the nine episodes that have been posted of Phoenix so far, I've had to go back and do many corrections due to mistakes with the science. Now so far these corrections have been not only understandable, but ones I've agreed with, such as my mistake with orbital mechanics, or the whole meat/fish issue.
But... if I can also be frank with you, my readers? It's pretty frustrating too, as an author, when I'm constantly getting complaints about getting this bit of science wrong or that bit of science wrong. It also hurts my enthusiasm to keep writing.
That's not to say I have a problem with scientific discussion in the comments. It's quite fascinating to read, even if I don't understand all of it. Like organic chemistry. I barely know how to balance a basic chemistry equation, let alone know anything about how actual organic chemistry works. Hence the mistakes when it comes to fish versus other meats. I didn't have the knowledge to understand I was making a mistake until it was pointed out as a mistake and why.
Up till this point in the story, we haven't seen too much of the crazy fake science that Trek can produce, because we've been following the character journey of Sunset and Twilight as they grow up and join Starfleet. But as we move on, we're going to see more and more Trek style journeys. This does also mean we'll see more things that are, well, scientifically wrong. Some of it will be canon Trek stuff that I'm bringing in and using, but other things will be my own invention, stuff I write because it makes for an interesting and entertaining story.
Because that's what this is. This is a story. Not an expose or a treatise on particle physics or quantum mechanics or any other subject. A story.
Please try to remember that when you comment on it, and be understanding of the fact that sometimes, artistic license and story fun can trump scientific accuracy. Even hard science fiction will bend a scientific rule or two for the sake of a good story. (Just see Stephen Baxter’s Flood novels.) You're already accepting so many impossibilities with the main characters, with the setting itself. Please don't be too harsh on the things I create just because they're just as impossible.
And thank you once again my lovely readers. I appreciate all of you, and I hope you have a great day. 
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
You're doing good, lovely! Now, to read the chapter!