Fan of the Past: Difference between revisions

{{quote|It's grass. I read about it in ancient history.|[[The Jetsons|George Jetson]]}}

Shows set in the future will often have many things we have never imagined, but writers can't resist throwing in contemporary references, or at least references the viewers will understand. How do they accomplish this? Have one of the characters be a self-proclaimed expert of the past, e.g. 20th-century Earth. (Or, for newer shows, 21st-century Earth.)

A common variation (usually played for comedy) is to have [[Future Imperfect|the so-called "expert" be completely wrong about some major aspect of his subject-matter.]] This works particularly well when the subject is contemporary society, something that everybody living today knows about.

{{examples}}

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[Demolition Man]]'', the most popular form of music is 20th-century advertising jingles. Also, Lenina Huxley had such a large interest in the era that her superior referred to it as an addiction.

* Non-futuristic example: Doc Brown from ''[[Back to The Future]]'' was always a fan of the [[Old West]] and sometimes felt that he was born in the wrong era; in the third film, he gets to live his fantasy. He nearly gets killed in the process.

* ''[[Mission to Mars]]'' had a scene early on where a character drove up in a muscle car and was mocked by his electric-car owning colleagues for his antiquated tastes. He defends the internal combustion engine with the air of a modern-day vinyl fan talking to iPod owners.

* In the movie version of [[Michael Crichton]]'s [[Timeline]], most of the main characters are historians of the medieval era. One of them is a lifelong enthusiast who's trained himself in period-era blacksmithing and swordplay. Early on in the film, he describes the life of a knight and concludes with the mildly [[Narm|Narmy]] "The past is ''where it's at!"''

== [[Literature]] ==

* Bethany Lindquist of the ''[[Antares]]'' novels is a historian, and therefore makes frequent references to Earth history. In fact, finding historical parallels to contemporary situations is supposed to be her ''job''.

** The ancient and honorable art of Grayson swordfighting is ostensibly based on ''The Seven Samurai'' - the founder of the colony was a fan. Naturally, they've filled in some of the blanks over the centuries.

* In the novel ''The Shadow Runners,'' the characters are in Australia, now a prison area in 2176. Rich young scions thrown into Australia are pretty much running the joint, while on loads and loads of drugs. They call themselves "Parliament" and are running around in waistcoats, calling themselves Lord Whatever, and pretending it's [[Victorian Britain]].

* Asimov tends to subvert this by having most of Earth's history long lost in the past in most of his novels. Characters have been known to [[Future Imperfect|lump unicorns, orcs and tigers into the same fantasy grouping]]. Nonetheless, there are a few odd examples of fairly accurate history that pops up in unexpected places.

** Perhaps the biggest subversion, though, is in ''[[Foundation]] and Earth'', where a archaeologist is seeking to find the mythical origin planet, Earth, and ends up following absurd myths about a planet with a massive moon, in a solar system with a planet with a massive ring system, and so on. The bizarre part is that, despite continually going on about how much these things get exaggerated and altered over the years, the actual source material they're working from seems more or less correct, even when it shouldn't be, and they still don't believe it.

* Jherek Carnelian of the ''[[Michael Moorcock|Dancers at the End of Time]]'' series is his society's foremost expert on the 19th century, [[Future Imperfect|which depresses a time traveler he encounters.]] He believes that "19th century" is one language with several dialects, though he does, at least, sort of grasp the concept of trains.

* Acts as a [[Chekhov's Gun]] in the ''[[Council Wars]]'' series. The re-enactors who're so very interested in the medieval era? Rachel's father, whom she mocks for his unusually ''intense'' interest (though not to his face)? {{spoiler|They keep the world from sliding into complete barbarism, and have the tools - and skills - needed to keep the refugees from starving and succumbing to the elements, and later the skills needed to keep the [[Complete Monster]] [[Dragon]] from making things even worse.}} For extra points, Rachel's father? {{spoiler|He's actually Charles the Great - a ''legendary'' hero who brought peace to Anarchia for ten years and then vanished, using the name of his [[Dead Little Sister|brother]], Edmund, as an alias.}}

* The obsession with ''Earth's'' past is something of a big deal for the people in the titular world of ''[[Tranquilium]]''. It doesn't help that Palladia is basically the Russian Empire <small>[[Recyled In SPACE|On Some Islands!!!]]</small>, while Merryland, the other big power, is a mix of [[Victorian Britain]] and 19th century America.

* Professor Bernice Summerfield from the ''[[Bernice Summerfield]]'' novels is an archaeologist from the future whose specialist historical period is the 20th century.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

*** Odo and O'Brien both enjoy twentieth-century detective novels.

*** Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien were re-fighting the Alamo and playing fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain. The station's counselor started to get concerned after a while--other than the battle of Britain, all of their scenarios were unwinnable last stands.

*** Not to mention wine making (or at least such is the case with his brother, though considering how steeped in tradition wine making is this may be [[Justified Trope]].)

*** Data and LaForge with their [[Sherlock Holmes]] programs.

*** When Worf, Alexander, and Troi go into a holodeck program simulating a town in the "Wild West" of the 1800s, Troi says that she's always been a fan of the (American) Ancient West as her father used to tell her stories about it as a little girl. Her resulting [[Genre Savvy|genre savviness]] comes in handy.

*** Another example: when Data is in the holodeck trying to learn how to be comedic, he asks the computer to name the funniest comedians in history. It is revealed that the funniest comedian was a man from the 23rd century whose jokes were based in quantum physics.

*** In one of the early Star Trek movies, Kirk receives a pair of "antique" eyeglasses as a birthday present (the explanation is he's allergic to some drug that 24th-century people use to treat bad vision -- funny in hindsight since before the end of the 20th century, we were using [[Technology Marches On|laser microsurgery]] to fix eye problems).

*** There are also some examples from the new series, such as a reference to the (future) reunification of Ireland as a result of terrorism.

*** One episode of TOS established that he collected 20th century fire-arms, so an interest in 20th century technology in general is not inconceivable. Also, he was a starship pilot for his entire career, and had pretty much retired by the time of the fourth movie. Maybe he took up flying old-fashioned aeroplanes as a hobby to pass the time?

** The strangest thing is that these history fans almost never talk about anything that hasn't already happened. Given, this has made them look silly in the past, but it gets to the point where you feel that no great works of art, philosophy or religion was accomplished after the 20th Century. A rather strange state of affairs, considering that's when we achieve world peace and space travel.

*** They also consider everything before first contact 'ancient' history on several occasions, Voyager especially being prone to this.

*** There are actually several examples in the original series where historical figures, literature, and events are created. Just as one example, in the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever," Kirk talks about a book 100 years to come (relative to 1930) that puts forth the idea that "let me help" is stronger than "I love you."

** And also occasionally carries a .38 "slugthrower" which was a gift from his Boston cop grandma.

* Seamus Harper in ''[[Andromeda]]''; he often references culture from our time that confuses everyone else, as he is the only main character from Earth. Examples include comic book references, a desire to learn Gaelic, and surfing (although that seems to still be popular all across the galaxy.)

** Although a lot of the jokes already feel rather dated 10-20 years on.

* ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]''. In the episode "Bounty", former President Sarkoff is a student of 'natural history', which has come to mean the study of things that no longer exist. Thus he has 20th Century artefacts mounted on his wall like heirlooms, including gasmasks and cutlery.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* Taken to ridiculous levels in ''[[Traveller]]: The New Era'' (set in the 57th century, referencing 20th century history and popular culture left, right and centre), but justified in that [[Word of God]] has it that what we're reading is a [[Cultural Translation]] of the 57th-century stuff that's really being referenced.

== [[Video Games]] ==

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Tigerlilly Jones from ''[[Skin Horse]]'' is basically walking personification of [[The Seventies]], displaying nearly every seventies trope at some point or another, but is disqualified from being a [[Disco Stu]] because she was, technically speaking, born in the 1980s. Of course, she ''is'' also certified insane.

== [[Web Original]] ==

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Earlier continuities had the Legion's financier, R. J. Brande, inspired by 20th century heroes like Superboy ([[Future Imperfect|whether or not he actually existed]]). Of course, in some versions of the story, he actually ''lived'' in the 20th century.

** And the post-[[Zero Hour]] comics sometimes cast Cosmic Boy as that team's Fan of The Past (and of Superboy).