Is Star Trek hard sci-fi or soft sci-fi?

Probably closer to soft. Hard sci-fi does only minor extrapolation from our current understanding of the universe, and places the characters and plot firmly within the limitations of that understanding. Soft sci-fi offers flights of fancy, where the writer can ignore previously established limits for the sake of drama. read more

Soft science fiction, or soft SF, is a category of science fiction with two different definitions. It either (1) explores the "soft" sciences, and especially the social sciences (for example, anthropology, sociology, or psychology), rather than engineering or the "hard" sciences (for example, physics, astronomy, or chemistry), or (2) is not scientifically accurate. read more

"Soft" Sci-Fi is more flexible on the rules. Even the fantastical aspects of the story will show a divide — in hard SF, they operate through strict, preferably physical, laws, where in soft SF they work in whatever way suits the story best. read more