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Standard Sci-Fi Setting: Difference between revisions
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'''Population''':
* [[Humans
* [[Neglectful Precursors]].
* An ancient and hidebound [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|proud warrior race]] who may double as [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]. Their ships will typically be purple, green, or gold. If anyone has an [[Enemy Civil War]] ready to break out, it will be these guys. May experience an [[Enemy Mine]] situation with the [[Humans
* A genocidal alien race that's either [[The Virus]], [[Planet Looters]] from "beyond known space" or a full-on [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]. Rogue robots out to kill all organic life are another common variant. These guys are usually what wiped out the [[Neglectful Precursors]]. Their ships will usually be sleek and angular when they aren't [[Living Ship|organic blobs]]. Either way, their ships tend to be red, purple, black, or other [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|"evil"]] colors. May provoke the other races into [[Enemy Mine|uniting against them]].
* A [[Proud Scholar Race Guy|wise/spiritual race]] decked out in [[Crystal Spires and Togas]]. These are often [[Human Aliens]] and/or [[Space Elves]], possibly the [[Neglectful Precursors]], if they're already extinct. Their ships will be sleek, but more rounded, and usually colored white, silver, or blue (gold or copper/bronze is rare, but acceptable). If there's a metaphysical aspect, these guys will be brimming with it more than any others. Bonus points if they have [[Shadow Archetype|a rival sect called the "Dark" something]].
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* An epic [[Space Battle]] where the future hangs in the balance as a result of it, or leading up to it.
A typical plot involves the humans fighting the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] until one or the other stumbles upon the ruins of the Neglectful Precursor civilization and unleashes the [[Sealed Evil in
Not surprisingly, this setting tends to fall toward the "soft" end of the [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness]]. Examples come mostly from TV, Movies, and especially video games, where scientific accuracy often [[Rule of Cool|takes a back seat to awesome visuals and an engaging storyline]]. Compare [[Sci Fi Kitchen Sink]], which takes a [[Standard Sci Fi Setting]], then crams as many other [[Speculative Fiction Tropes]] into it as it can.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[The Legion of Super Heroes]]'' has a 1000-years-from-now setting that was so close to the [[Standard Sci Fi Setting]] (at least until the threeboot) that you'd think it's clearly based on ''[[Star Trek]]'' had it not actually ''preceded'' Trek by a good 8 years. FTL? Original has warp drive, reboot adds Stargates. Threeboot isn't so stock, as transmatter gates have rendered spacecraft obsolete. The United Planets is [[The Federation]] (it was at least once erroneously called "the Federation of Planets"). Mysticism? Check. Not just psionics, but explicit magic, since it takes place in the [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] [[The DCU|DC Universe]]. Proud warrior race? The Khunds, sometimes specifically based on Klingons. Alien hordes? Check. Space pirates? Check.
* [[DC Comics]]' ''[[Star Raiders (
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' is more or less the [[Trope Codifier]] in modern fiction. While it's far from the first and has its own unique quirks, [[Star Wars]] made the [[Standard Sci Fi Setting]] palatable for the masses.
* Equally important is ''[[Aliens]]''. While the movie lacks other alien civilizations and faster than light speed, it single handedly defined human culture, technology, military, and visual style for Standard Sci Fi Settings for decades to come. ''[[Babylon
== [[Literature]] ==
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* The [[Uplift]] Universe of [[David Brin]].
* Andrey Livadny's ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' series fits many parts of the trope. There's the [[The Federation|Confederacy of Suns]], the late [[The Empire|Earth Alliance]], animal-like [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Forerunners]], [[Casual Interstellar Travel|easy FTL travel]], [[Space Marines]] (although less of the ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' variety and more of the piloting [[Humongous Mecha]] kind), [[Space Pirates]], and several [[Neglectful Precursors]] (many of whom are still around). There's a notable absence of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] and [[Crystal Spires and Togas]]. Rogue robots are the main theme of several novels (one novel deals with a completely automated gigantic alien mothership attacking a small human colony). There is only one race of [[Human Aliens]], and they're blue.
* ''[[
* ''[[Tour of the Merrimack]]'' fits this, with the US as [[The Federation]], Palatine as the [[Proud Warrior Race]] at war with them, and the Hive as the [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] that forces the two into an [[Enemy Mine]].
* The ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' universe, with the titular Commonwealth as [[The Federation]], the AAnn as [[The Empire]] with elements of [[Proud Warrior Race]], scads of [[Precursors]], including the Xunca as the [[Neglectful Precursors]], along with their [[Lost Technology]], and the galaxy-devouring [[Ultimate Evil|Great Evil]] as the [[Bigger Bad]].
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* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' - originally a planet-of-the-week adventure centered around the titular device, with not that much overall continuity - mutated into this slowly, picking elements over time (especially starting with season 6), although it took the addition of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' to complete the transition. The Ancients are the [[Neglectful Precursors]], the Wraith and Replicators are the genocidal planet looters or [[Planet Eater]] (and the former wiped out the Ancients), the Tau'ri (us, modern Earthlings) are the spacefaring humans with grey ships, and the Jaffa are [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] serving the Goa'uld, a race of [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]].
** The [[Stargate Verse]] differs from the [[Standard Sci Fi Setting]] in a number of ways. First and most importantly, the characters are mostly modern Americans, and all the high-tech stuff is unknown to the general world simply because of a [[Masquerade]]. Morality is more [[Black and Gray Morality|black and gray]] than in many Sci-Fi settings because the military often has to [[Shoot the Dog]]. This is almost unique in that most of the protagonists are [[Genre Savvy]]. However, by the end of the series Earth basically is playing the role of [[The Federation]], thanks partially to the [[Neglectful Precursors|Very Neglectful Precursors]] and partially to Earth's role in freeing the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] from millenia of slavery.
* ''[[
** It's worth noting that B5 sets the cliches during the first season and then proceeds to [[Deconstruction|Deconstruct]] them in short order. The Narns mellow down considerably, the Minbari demonstrate serious flaws and hypocricy, the Centauri who initially seemed to be ineffectual, comical figures develop a darker edge, and so on. The less significant races keep to their cliches pretty tightly, though - the Drazi for example demonstrate the [[Proud Warrior Race]] traits quite a bit, when the Narn set them aside.
** The dark side of the Minbari is shown almost right away though they always have an attractive side as well as a dark side and the Narns don't really mellow although G'kar does(they simply change from [[The Empire|the would-be Empire]] into [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]]). The Minbari curiously are both a [[Proud Warrior Race]] and a [[Proud Scholar Race]]. The Centauri are a big surprise; no one would expect them to be good enough at fighting to be brutal conquerors anymore. [[Earth Gov]] is a surprise; we expect it to be [[The Federation]] and instead it evolves into a [[Police State]] but with the twist that it is an isolationist and nativist [[Police State]] rather than [[The Empire]] and spends more time supressing internal rebellion then in aggression. Interestingly most of the characters including the command staff and all the main ambassadors, at one time or another end up as [[La Résistance]] to their own government in various ways and degrees. The Vorlons are a real surprise turning out to be almost as evil as the shadows except for kosh. The shadows follow the generic description above almost exactly being the [[Sealed Evil in
* [[Firefly]] is arguably a [[Standard Sci Fi Setting]] adapted to fit closer to the realistic end of the [[Sliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic]]. It clearly has many of the elements, as listed below, but lacks the more fantastic ones like aliens.
** There's no faster-than-light travel, but it's still easy to travel between dozens of inhabited planets and moons.
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** The Asari double as both [[Psychic Powers|psychic]] [[Space Elves]] and an [[One-Gender Race|entire species]] of [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|blue-skinned space babes]].
* ''[[Freelancer]]'' is kinda like a conspiracy story with [[Casual Interstellar Travel]], [[Space Clothes]] to some degree (mostly the LSF uniforms), {{spoiler|and genocidal aliens who come to claim back their old turf}}. There are no Psychic Powers though, and the closest thing to The Federation are the four Houses that are kinda like our countries.
* [[Halo]]'s forerunner, ''[[Marathon
* ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]''. The Trader Emergency Coalition (or TEC) is [[The Federation]], The Advent are [[Closer to Earth]], Vasari are [[Planet Looters]], and there's [[Space Pirates]] and [[Casual Interstellar Travel|easy faster-than-light travel]], by means of "phase jumps" along "phase lines" in "phase space." Most beyond that is uncertain, since the developers decided to drop a campaign in favor of better multiplayer. Reviewers did not take kindly to this.
* The ''[[Star Control]]'' universe does all of the above both straight and with a light-hearted tone.
* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' has a wealth of this, although it plays with a lot of them, like different races using different faster than light drives (all the standard methods are used, but by different races) and a wealth of [[All There in the Manual|background information]] on the different races and their inner workings that would put several sci-fi TV series to shame.
* Lovingly parodied by [[Gratuitous Space Battles]]; the back story is pure fluff, used as a tongue-in-cheek excuse for the eponymous space battles. The main thing it lacks is the wise [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] civilization: the Tribe comes close, but they're [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]], just as violent as everyone else.
* The ''[[Wing Commander (
* ''[[Escape Velocity|EV Nova]]'' is no exception to this trope. The main twist is that ''all'' the major factions are human (no [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|GSSBs]], Greys, or lizardfolk). There's also no Horde faction, and since the game takes place entirely in space, [[Space Marines]] are present but largely ignored. As for the precursors, little remains of their leavings and even less is understood; they're just gone.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [[Zap
* [[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]] takes place in a setting very similar to this, except Humans are relative newcomers to [[The Federation|the Gallimaufrey]] and only become notable due to {{spoiler|their possession of the Winslow}}. Oh, and their invention of the popsicle.
== [[Web Original]] ==
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