How is Lost scifi??

[ShadowMaat]

This seems to be the major question these days, particularly from non-Lost fans. I can think of at least four other times it's been asked and at least one of them was in a thread titled pretty much the same as this: "How is Lost scifi??"

I'm guessing people keep asking because of the rumors of a "monster" on the island. I'm also guessing that no one asking has ever read/seen Island of Dr. Moreau, Lost World, or any one of hundreds of staple scifi classics dealing with mysterious things on mysterious islands.

Why is Lost scifi? Because the series creator says that there is a scientific explanation for everything that happens.

And in case folks have forgotten, scifi means SCIENCE fiction.

Lost sounds like scifi to me.

Sorry. And I know this thread is redundant, but I'm getting a bit sick of the question and I'm tired of the implication that Lost somehow doesn't deserve a folder because it "isn't scifi".

[Mr Prophet]

Speaking as someone who will argue that Around the World in Eighty Days - the original - and The Travels of Sir John Mandeville can be considered SF, I'll just mention that Science Fiction has also always had a social aspect. The idea of a bounded community qualifies, particularly if it deals with the impact of reduced technological access.

This was what made Red Dwarf SF, after all, more than being set in space.

[Col. Newman]

This seems to be the major question these days, particularly from non-Lost fans. I can think of at least four other times it's been asked and at least one of them was in a thread titled pretty much the same as this: "How is Lost scifi??"

I'm guessing people keep asking because of the rumors of a "monster" on the island. I'm also guessing that no one asking has ever read/seen Island of Dr. Moreau, Lost World, or any one of hundreds of staple scifi classics dealing with mysterious things on mysterious islands.

Why is Lost scifi? Because the series creator says that there is a scientific explanation for everything that happens.

And in case folks have forgotten, scifi means SCIENCE fiction.

Lost sounds like scifi to me.

Sorry. And I know this thread is redundant, but I'm getting a bit sick of the question and I'm tired of the implication that Lost somehow doesn't deserve a folder because it "isn't scifi".

I think it is Science and I also kind of agree with Lock. Everything has a scientific explanation most things we just don't understand yet, I guess I will have to make an Example: Like the existences of God could be proven scientifically. I think it is destiny that they all wound up on the Island, but what is destiny but the will of a High Being, I not saying it is God’s will or anything just a Higher Being or Force

Hopefully you get my point if you don't I will try to explain better

[Spimman]

I would say Lost falls into the "Sci-Fi" catagory, but in a less dramatic sense that Stargate. It is less "Sci-Fi" because our culture has a different image of "Sci-fi" than most of us do, and lost is Very socially acceptable...others shows are considered "nerdy"

I think there is the reason for the debate among non-"Sci-fi" fans!

[Lightsabre]

This seems to be the major question these days, particularly from non-Lost fans. I can think of at least four other times it's been asked and at least one of them was in a thread titled pretty much the same as this: "How is Lost scifi??"

I'm guessing people keep asking because of the rumors of a "monster" on the island. I'm also guessing that no one asking has ever read/seen Island of Dr. Moreau, Lost World, or any one of hundreds of staple scifi classics dealing with mysterious things on mysterious islands.

Why is Lost scifi? Because the series creator says that there is a scientific explanation for everything that happens.

And in case folks have forgotten, scifi means SCIENCE fiction.

Lost sounds like scifi to me.

Sorry. And I know this thread is redundant, but I'm getting a bit sick of the question and I'm tired of the implication that Lost somehow doesn't deserve a folder because it "isn't scifi".

A scientific explanation doesn't make a show sci-fi. By that logic, 24 is sci-fi, since there is a scientific explanation for what's going on.
It's political science, but still science.
Lost, from what I have seen(and I admit, not much) is more like 'Lord of hte Flies' than "The Island of Dr Moreau'.

[prion]

This seems to be the major question these days, particularly from non-Lost fans. I can think of at least four other times it's been asked and at least one of them was in a thread titled pretty much the same as this: "How is Lost scifi??"

I'm guessing people keep asking because of the rumors of a "monster" on the island. I'm also guessing that no one asking has ever read/seen Island of Dr. Moreau, Lost World, or any one of hundreds of staple scifi classics dealing with mysterious things on mysterious islands.

Why is Lost scifi? Because the series creator says that there is a scientific explanation for everything that happens.

And in case folks have forgotten, scifi means SCIENCE fiction.

Lost sounds like scifi to me.

Sorry. And I know this thread is redundant, but I'm getting a bit sick of the question and I'm tired of the implication that Lost somehow doesn't deserve a folder because it "isn't scifi".

I don't see LOST as very scifi. Okay, plane crash, some psychic premonition stuff, but the science is negligible right now. It might fall under fantasy as best, but not scifi.

Of course, I want to know why Skiffy has put Desperate Housewives under fantasy/scifi. Now THAT is definitely stretching the definition.

[Madeleine]

A scientific explanation doesn't make a show sci-fi. By that logic, 24 is sci-fi, since there is a scientific explanation for what's going on.

I think the difference is that 24 asks us to accept that everything that happens and is explained by tech or science is doable within the capabilities of today's science and tech.
Lost has stuff happenning that is not possible in the world we live in at the mo: the invisible monster. (I'm up to ep 1.09, don't tell me if I'm wrong ). That makes it either SF or Fantasy.

The 'or fantasy' bit is relevant, I reckon. Cos whenever I see people here saying "Lost isn't SF!" I don't feel compelled to say "yes it is" (hard to prove), so much as "but our folders are for SF AND FANTASY" (can be proved with a bit of pointing )

[VirtualCLD]

It seems like people are debating between Sci-Fi that has fictional science and Sci-Fi that is scientific fiction. Star Trek, Stargate, Babylon 5, heck even Alias (to the point it upsets me) are fictional science shows where they warp or completely make-up scientific terminology and understanding. It doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong, some of those types of shows had ideas that were eventually implemented in real life (if anyone remembers, SeaQuest DSV had remote drones called "whiskers" that were used to extend the submarine's sensor range. Now the Navy is toying with ideas that are similar in that respect). Basically, what I'm trying to say is, these types of shows played with "what if there really is a way to make a stable wormhole to travel lightyears between planets in mere seconds" even though, based on our current understanding, we have no way of doing that.

Fictional science shows, like Lost, seem to be more like, "what if someone used what we know about science/technology today to take this large island of indeterminate location and make it a labratory to study the effects of this bizarre disease (I'm not saying that's what Lost is about, I'm just making up an example)". It's a fictional story that uses real life scientific understanding as it stands today.

[Arative]

I'm glad Lost is considered sci-fi considering how popular it is. I think it will help change the image in sci-fi viewers from nerdy, glass wearing people to just a mainstream viewer and will help broaden the audience.

[prion]

A definition from a website: "A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background."

LOST stilldoesn't have enough to be classified as scifi, least not in my book. Horror, to a degree (the monster) but the lab underground is standard drama fare and hey, the technology is OLD....

If the guy pulls out a laser pistol, well, then that's something different

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

I'm not a Lost. I don't really care if it is Scifi or not. And if I had to choose one I would have to choose that is it Scifi.

[Osiris-RA]

The Island of Dr Morou certainly was more Sci Fi than Lost. With that invisible monster running around and a rash of kidnapping for unexplained reasons, I suppose Lost is mildly sci fi. It's kind of reality Sci Fi - like X-Files I guess except no Greys or Chupacabras. I recently started liking Lost - it seemed boring at first...still is a little boring, but it's kind of like a soap I guess. They havn't answered the main questions yet and I bet when they do, it'll be something so stupidly boring and simple that I'll be tearing my hair out wondering why I bothered. I guess it's up to me to save Hollywood.

[twiggy]

according to Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary "science fiction" means: a form of fiction that draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation in its plot, setting, theme, etc.

i think that Lost is scifi. mild scifi at best, but scifi none the less.

[walterIsTheMan]

lol who said the alternate universes forum was just for scifi shows?

[VirtualCLD]

A definition from a website: "A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background."

That definition alone, is enough to convince me Lost is sci-fi since that is exactly what Lost is.