In any vast bureaucracy, you’re bound to find obstructive bureaucrats and professional butt-kissers. But if you look long and hard enough, usually somewhere towards the bottom, you may be lucky enough to find one of the Last DJs. The Last DJ is a man with integrity, who often puts honor before reason and cannot be… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: The Last DJ
Tag: tvtropes
Trope Tuesday: Worthy Opponent
Sometimes, it’s not the Big Bad the heroes are fighting against, so much as an almost friendly opponent who is not so different from them after all. That’s what this trope is all about. The Worthy Opponent is no mere redshirt or mook–quite often, in fact, he’s the Dragon of the opposing side–but unlike the… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Worthy Opponent
Trope Tuesday: Schrödinger’s Gun
The world of a fictional universe isn’t fixed beyond what the author has revealed to the reader. This is what happens when Schrödinger’s cat gets hold of Chekhov’s gun. There are a whole lot of interesting and potentially useful plot points lying around, but the writers are pantsing it as they go, playing a game… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Schrödinger’s Gun
Trope Tuesday: After the End
It’s the end of the world as we know it … so why do we feel fine? On the apocalyptic scale of world destruction, when the thing that wipes out civilization doesn’t quite kill everyone, we’re left with an After the End type setting. Depending on where the writers fall on the sliding scale of… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: After the End
X is for Xenocide
This post isn’t just about the third book in the Ender’s Game series–it’s about the genocide of an entire alien race, which is actually a fairly important trope in science fiction. Of all the evils of our modern era, perhaps the most heinous is the systematic extermination of an entire race or ethnicity. These acts… Continue reading X is for Xenocide
W is for Wagon Train to the Stars
When Gene Roddenberry pitched the original Star Trek series back in the 60s, Westerns were all the rage. Consequently, he pitched his show as a “wagon train to the stars,” where a bunch of quirky characters on an awesome starship travel from adventure town to interstellar adventure town, exploring and pioneering the final frontier. Sound… Continue reading W is for Wagon Train to the Stars
T is for Terraforming
[NOTE: this post is a reprint of an earlier post from the Trope Tuesday series, which you can find here.] One of the problems with interplanetary colonization is that Earth-like worlds are fairly rare (though possibly not as rare as we once thought). In our own solar system, the only other world that comes anywhere… Continue reading T is for Terraforming
S is for Space Station
Planets are not the only setting for science fiction stories–space stations are common as well. From the Death Star (“that’s no moon…”) to Downbelow Station, the Venus Equilateral to ISPV 7 to the Battle School in Ender’s Game, space stations are a major staple of any space-centered science fiction. The reasons for this should be fairly… Continue reading S is for Space Station
P is for Planets
Gliese 581 by ~arisechicken117 on deviantART One of the best things about a good science fiction story is that it can take you to another world–literally! Well, not in the sense of actually physically taking you there, but if you want to experience the thrills of an alien world from the safety of your favorite… Continue reading P is for Planets
M is for Merchanter
If space is an ocean and interstellar colonization is happening on a grand scale, then it should come as no surprise that so many starship captains are intrepid merchants, traveling the galaxy in pursuit of a good business deal. Whether they’re doing it legally as entrepreneurs or illegally as smugglers, you can find these guys… Continue reading M is for Merchanter