Space Western: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"In a matter of seconds, the plaza had gone from a ghostly quiet to a shoot out that would have been at home in a holodrama about the Old West."''
[[The Western]] '''<small>[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]]</small>'''. Basically [[The Western]] [[X Meets Y|Meets]] [[Wagon Train to the Stars]]. The actual extent of this varies from series to series, as the term is often synonymous with "Science-Fiction Western." The idea is that the vast distances of space have formed barriers and difficulties similar to those faced by American settlers as they crossed and developed the continent, forcing the people to become independent or even insular, with help from whatever central authority (if any) that laid claim to the land long in coming, and immediate protection once again becoming a personal matter. Technology will vary, usually being less and less high-tech the further out you go from the center of civilization. This causes a [[Anachronism Stew|curious mix of seemingly anachronistic elements]] such as robots and horses being used at the same time (of course, ''[[Mechanical Horse|robot]]'' [[Mechanical Horse|horses]] are a common option too).
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Many settings end the similarities there, in spirit, while others seem to have the people [[In the Style Of|deliberately aping the style]] of [[The Wild West]] in response to the situation. Basically, the question is when the hero(es) comes riding/flying into town, how many of them are wearing cowboy hats.
Depending on how epic the story is, a
Compare [[New Old West]], [[Cattle Punk]], [[Samurai Cowboy]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] ==▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'', also played with in the episode cowboy funk.
* ''[[Outlaw Star]]''
* ''[[Trigun]]''
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Many of the ''[[2000 AD]]'' strips set in the [[Judge Dredd|Cursed Earth]] play out like [[Spaghetti Western
** The batch of early ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' stories set on Luna 1 were modeled especially as a western set on Earth's moon.
* ''[[Just a Pilgrim]]'' is explicitly based on Western tropes.
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* ''[[Fear Agent]]'' hits this trope pretty square, with its big-buckle toting, hard-drinking, down-home wisdom spewing, alien exterminating protagonist.
* Jack T. Chance, the [[Green Lantern]] of Garnet, was a gunslinger-turned-lawman, tasked with with cleaning up the [[Wretched Hive]] of garnet, armed with his power ring and trusty six-shooter.
* The ''Star-Crossed'' story cycle of ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' features a pair of strangers arriving in a frontier settlement, both trying to escape their pasts—until a lawman with a vendetta finally catches up to them. Of course this frontier settlement is on a ''[[Halo]]'' orbiting a gas giant, and the lawman is actually a [[Lovely Angels|Lovely Angel]].
== [[Film]] ==
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*** Tatooine is pretty much the Wild West of Star Wars, with little law enforcement, savage natives wanting their land, farms, shady saloons, smugglers, all set on an endlessly sprawling desert.
*** It's like a [[Louis L'Amour]] novel...'''[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]] !!!'''
* [[Peter David]] wrote a
* ''[[Moon Zero Two]]'' (a movie mostly known these days by having been featured on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'') was actually advertised as "the first Moon Western"
* ''[[The American Astronaut]]'' is a
* Ironically, ''[[Space Cowboys]]'' wasn't a western at all. Despite the presence of Clint Eastwood.
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* [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s ''[[Battlefield Earth]]''. Kinda sorta.
* [[Poul Anderson]] and [[Gordon R. Dickson]]'s first [[Hoka]] story features the Hokas cheerfully recreating the Wild West.
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'' has a story,
* Parodied in ''[http://www.spacewesterns.com/articles/1/ Bat Durston, Space Marshall]'', a short story by G. Richard Bozarth.
* ''Dragonfall 5 and the Space Cowboys'', one of the sci-fi juveniles by Brian Earnshaw.
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* [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''[[Bill the Galactic Hero]]''.
* [[Andre Norton]]'s ''Beast Master'' and its sequel ''Lord of Thunder''.
**Andre Norton does this several times. Certainly the Solar Queen series has this air with it's grungy planets and thinly spread law. And if the Queen is a tramp ship rather then a wagon, well America's [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men|great days of merchant sailing]] were at roughly the same time as the Wild West and often overlapped geographically(as when a ship put in to a West Coast port or stopped for fur before heading to China).
* In ''[[Honor Harrington]]'', the planet of Montana has settlers that have deliberately recreated the Old West. Naturally their chief industry is cattle.
**The Planet of Sphinx is much like the Pacific Northwest and it's people are rural frontier folk. The people are more or less law-abiding but nature is a threat.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* Gene Roddenberry pitched ''[[Star Trek]]'' to the networks as a "[[Wagon Train to the Stars]]" (naming that trope.)
** Almost every [[Star Trek]] series had at least one Western episode: ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' had "North Star", the original series had "Spectre of the Gun", and ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' had "A Fistful of Datas".
** Although not a
*** The producers stated that ''Deep Space Nine'' was ''[[The Rifleman]]'' [[In Space]].
*** ''Gunsmoke'' would work just as well.
* ''Earth 2'' is a pretty straight Wagon Train ripoff, just one set on a different planet.
* ''[[True Jackson, VP|True Jackson]]'' has a
* [[Red Dwarf]] episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse"
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S8
== Music ==
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== Toys ==
* ''[[
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Rifts]]'' features a number of
* The D20 game ''Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex'' is a space western on an alien planet with dinosaurs.
* ''[[Traveller]]'': The default setting is The Spinward Marches, a semi-civilized place with constant low-key mayhem going on in between wars. Traveller has plenty of room for [[The Epic|epic]] [[The Quest|quests]], gigantic [[Space Battle]] s and secrets that [[Man Was Not Meant to Know]]. But it also has low-key adventures for when the players are in a lighter mood.
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* The old Mac-originated lightweight [[4X]] game ''Spaceward Ho!'' is notable for it's cutesy æsthetic, including the distinctive be-Stetson'd planet pictured at the top of the page.
* Also ''[[MULE|M.U.L.E.]]'' to some extent.
* Blizzard's popular ''[[
** Notably, this trait increases in ''[[
*** Not to mention [[Crowning Music of Awesome|Free Bird]].
* ''Billy Frontier''
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** Not to mentioned the cowboy hat-clad parallel universe.
* ''[[Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa]]'' features alien [[Funny Animal|"cattle" men]]. The tie-in merchandise stated that the characters were the result of a weird radioactive meteor mutating Earth's animal life.
* ''[[Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors]]'' combined
* An episode of the ''[[Superfriends]]'' from the 4th
== [[New Media]] ==
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[[Category:The Western]]
[[Category:Show Genres]]
[[Category:
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