Sci-fi (planetary adventure) archetypes

I am not talking about sci-fi as we often picture it today as anything containing space-travel, advanced technology or aliens, rather it often doesn’t feature aliens at all.

Separating out first future fantasy which contains Star Wars, Star Trek, Valerian, the works. Simply having a futuristic backdrop for your story does not qualify it for the sci-fi label even if it often ends up being used.

Traditional science fiction usually circles around a specific what if? scenario.

I think these inventions aren’t based on exact science, that’s not their focus (for that you can read Project Mars: A Technical Tale), what they do is follow a single sidestep to its scientific conclusion. We violate one law from our known world and think about what that might cause.

Planets work for this perfectly, as they allow for a theoretical isolation of that concept in a larger overarching world, this trope being so common it has a name, it’s called Planet of Hats. Indeed we may write stories like professor Asimov, as one-shot isolated narratives, however I prefer when there’s a guide one can grow close to, learn to love and enjoy seeing the world through their eyes.

It is simply more comforting following Aladár and his dog or Алисы and her family than having to align with a vast array of new protagonists every episode without even having the comforting words of our favourites to introduce us to them.

This leads to a working monster of the week pattern in this type of media, every episode/chapter we travel with our favourite well-known crew, to a planet that is isolated from the others, to explore its specific quirk.

Especially in children’s media this is useful, as it combines important lessons:

For example Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai is a children’s space adventure, subtly teaching us about war, sloth, obsessing over work or efficiency, and much more by simply exploring planets where that concept was taken to its limit.

As we grow older these themes will obviously shift, however I’m sorry to see as much of the educational aspect leave the scene. As we get older our media shifts almost entirely to purely fantastical, there are few mentions of which planets they’re passing, what gods the planets are named after, physical laws that make the plot happen. Not to forget the magnificent language used throughout some of them, long flowery sentences, words that are useful but people don’t use them, fatalist, utilitarian, vercajk. The language isn’t over the top formal, that’s not the point, just that rather than shortening everything, the characters speak with full phrases and aren’t afraid to adorn them with filler words that add emotion or emphasis. People forget, people miss, I would be happy to see things like these mentioned in media targeted at adults as well.

Archetypes