Sci-fi setting

>what is the Culture
you fucking weeb

Really not space opera.

I mean, you COULD classify it as space opera? But it's not really the right sort of aesthetics for that.

Wasn't this one of the problems some star trek seasons suffered?

Any "hard" SciFi setting that seriously discusses the ramifications of most technologies that exist in such a setting would result on a world that is so entirely alien and incomprehensible to ours, that it'd be very hard to make any compelling story about it all. The further into the future you go and the more technological marvels you introduce, the worse this gets. Most authors also completely forget or severely underestimate the thousands of small changes and inventions that will completely alter the way society works. Fourty years ago, nobody could have imagined western society as it is today, with near perfect connectivity and the countless consequences of everyone having a supercomputer in their pocket. Hell, forget fourty, let's say 18 years ago when PDAs were still complete shit.

If you want to tell a compelling story, it's reasonable to draw a line in the sand and try to explain the rules and concessions of your setting in a reasonable way instead of chasing the dragon of "realistic hard scifi"

if she's in zero gravity, why are her tears running down her face

This is why I had trouble caring about characters in the ring world books

You don't use up nitrogen. It rarely needs replaced.

Not to mention that most scifi/space opera is an encapsulation of the values of a certain decade.
Star Trek reflects the rapid social progression of the 1960s, Alien and the original Star Wars trilogy depict a rusted beat up future where resources are scarce for many, a reflection of the 1970s fuel crisis, the Star Wars prequels reflect the proxy wars of the 2000s, and like it or no the Star Wars sequels represent the rise of neo nazis with the First Order and "dangerous white men" with Kylo Ren.

Didn't watch episode 8, but I saw the far left in episode 7's casting.

>there's constructed servitors running all menial tasks including the military
>they're not miniaturised gynoids in pretty dresses

For what purpose?