Trollheart

It's not, true. Maybe I misspoke there. I'll have to reconsider.
The key word is rooted. As far as I've read, and science fiction fans seem to agree, at least SOME of the science has to work, or be expected to work. It just means that you can't have, as I said, a ship going through space powered by love or fairy dust. If those fairies, however, are genetically-modified life forms and the dust they give off can be used as a propellant, maybe. It's just my way of trying to separate science fiction from fantasy. It's not that terribly important; most of us know the difference. But there is, for instance, raging and quite vitriolic debate over whether Anne McCaffrey's Pern cycle is science fiction or fantasy.

The word "workable" may be a bad choice; basically I mean the science has to be, on the face of it, something that could work. You can't just make it up, or indeed, as in fantasy, most often ignore it entirely. Some definitions:

https://www.masterclass.com/articles...on-and-fantasy

As should be obvious by now, science fiction and fantasy overlap quite a bit. There are even subgenres like science fantasy that explicitly blend the two:

Plausibility: A science fiction story generally extrapolates elements of the modern world and attempts to predict how they could possibly develop. Fantasy, on the other hand, uses supernatural elements that have no link to our contemporary world. A useful way of thinking about the differences between the genres is that the fantasy genre traffics in the impossible, whereas science fiction can be thought of as speculative fiction that draws its internal logic from the real world.
Setting: Generally speaking, science fiction stories often take place in a dystopian, hyper-technological future. Fantasy stories are traditionally set in worlds populated by mythical creatures and supernatural events. The world itself can look quite similar to our own, but it has fantastical elements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fantasy

In a science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientifically possible, while a science fantasy world contains elements which violate the scientific laws of the real world. Nevertheless, the world of science fantasy is logical and often is supplied with science-like explanations of these violations.

https://www.nownovel.com/blog/differ...ience-fiction/

Science fiction deals with scenarios and technology that are possible or may be possible based on science. Some science fiction such as far-future space opera or time travel stories may seem implausible, but they are still not beyond the realm of scientific theory. On the other hand, fantasy general deals with supernatural and magical occurrences that have no basis in science.

https://www.writersdigest.com/writin...-needs-to-know

How then, can a screenplay with super-powered characters remain science fiction? Simple, create a scientific reason for the powers to exist. Yes, this is possible. Take The Matrix for example. By the film's end, Neo can fly, stop bullets in mid-air and move with superhuman speed. The real question is, how? We learn that Neo's world is a neurally based interactive simulation-basically a virtual reality video game in which the entire population of Earth lives out their lives. As we all know, rules in computer simulations and video games can be broken, allowing characters to fly and have other god-like powers. Science rules the world of The Matrix, a perfect example of superpowers within the realm of pure science fiction.

Basically, if the fantastical elements in your story can't be explained by science, then it's not pure science fiction. And if you're not writing strictly science fiction, then you've got a whole new ballgame called fantasy.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018