Galaxies in fiction

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Galaxies other than the Milky Way are popular settings for creators of science fiction, particularly those working with broad-scale space opera settings. Among the most common settings are the Andromeda Galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds, and the Triangulum Galaxy, all part of the Local Group close to the Milky Way.

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[edit] Andromeda Galaxy

Andromeda Galaxy, a spiral galaxy in the local group, imaged in ultraviolet light.
Andromeda Galaxy, a spiral galaxy in the local group, imaged in ultraviolet light.

The Andromeda Galaxy has appeared in a number of science fiction works, as a source of alien life forms that invade the Milky Way galaxy, or as a setting for alien worlds and territories. Examples include the following:

[edit] Literature

[edit] Comics

  • In Marvel Comics, the Skrull empire consists mainly of "about a thousand worlds" in the Andromeda galaxy.

[edit] Film and television

  • In the 1968 Star Trek episode "By Any Other Name", the starship Enterprise is hijacked by Kelvans, aliens from an empire spanning the Andromeda Galaxy; their home galaxy was approaching an uninhabitable state and thus they aimed to conquer our own.
  • The second season of the 1970s anime series Space Battleship Yamato (known as Star Blazers to Western audiences) featured the Comet Empire, a massive empire contained in an artificial comet, which sought to conquer Earth after having enslaved the entire Andromeda Galaxy.
  • The television series Blake's 7 included a battle between Blake's ship (the Liberator) and invaders from the galaxy.
  • In the BBC television series A for Andromeda, co-authored by astronomer Fred Hoyle, a radio signal is received from the direction of the Andromeda Galaxy. The signal contained instructions for building a super-computer, as well as the code needed to make it run. A year later the sequel series The Andromeda Breakthrough was released.
  • An episode of Doctor Who contains an indirect reference to this galaxy. The "Face of Boe" was the oldest inhabitant of the "Isop Galaxy", and he was around when the stars of the Andromeda Galaxy were still dust. Also, in the Doctor Who episode The Ark in Space, the Wirrn said that they came from Andromeda (although whether they meant the galaxy, the constellation or even a planet by the name of "Andromeda" is unclear).

[edit] Games

  • In the Sega video game series Phantasy Star, the instruction booklet of the first game states that the Algol Solar System is located deep in the Andromeda Galaxy (while the real Algol is only about 90 light years away from us).

[edit] Other uses

  • The name of this galaxy (from the constellation Andromeda in which it appears, when viewed from Earth) has also been employed to provide a science-fictional tone. The novel and film The Andromeda Strain, for instance, concerns an atomic-sized alien life-form that is brought to Earth after an Earth-orbiting satellite malfunctions, although it is not made clear from where this life-form originated.

[edit] Large Magellanic Cloud

  • In Battlestar Galactica's season three finale, the location of the fleet is for the first time shown to to be within the Local Group. At the very end of the episode, a dramatic zoom-out appears to place it within the Large Magellanic Cloud while it is searching for Earth, the existence of which is only rumoured by the beleaguered members of the fleet. Several seconds later, the shot zooms in again, this time focusing on the Orion Arm region of the Milky Way, and up to the orbit of our planet.
  • The Large Magellanic Cloud is the destination of the spacecraft Yamato in the first season of the 1970s anime series Space Battleship Yamato (known as Space Cruiser Yamato or Star Blazers to Western audiences). The Yamato must use an untested faster-than-light drive to make the 296,000 light year round trip in one year.
  • In the Robert Silverberg novel, Collision Course, a wayward space ship trying to fly back to Earth gets lost in "null-space" and ends up emerging into normal space within the Large Magellanic Cloud; the captain suggests they find a permanent home there as their chances of getting home are extremely remote and they are fortunate to have dropped into normal space within a galaxy. Ultimately, they are returned to the Milky Way by sympathetic, superior aliens. The Milky Way galaxy is easily visible, evoking a feeling of loneliness and separation when the crew realize they're looking at their home galaxy.
  • In Scientology, these are said to be literal clouds. They are involved in the fictional story of Helatrobus.
  • In Marvel Comics, the Magellanic Cloud is home to the Kree empire. Whether this territory occupies the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud or both is not clear.

[edit] Small Magellanic Cloud

[edit] Triangulum Galaxy

  • In Stargate: Horizon (a virtual series of Stargate written in script form), the Horizon Gate system connects to the Triangulum Galaxy; its gate system is different from Earth's and Atlantis's.

[edit] Pegasus Galaxy

[edit] Fictional Galaxies

[edit] External links

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