I sometimes think that science fiction depicted audiovisually, such as in film or television, will have come of age when anyone – anyone – has the guts to show scenes occurring in space without sound. No engines, no collisions, no phaser blasts – just the accurate nothing. Not even Star Trek ever dared that.

I suppose you could attribute this to conceits of the medium, presuming these sounds are what you might hear if you were onboard the ship during the events of the exterior angle. "So it's okay."

At what cost has that unspoken tradition endured?

Even as a conceit of the medium, the first assertion of soundlessness in space would strike viewers as a statement. "Forget what's cool in TV shows, in entertainment. This awkwardness you feel at the lack of noise in these exterior shots? That's the awkwardness you'd feel if this were real."