Neptune in fiction

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The planet Neptune has been used as a reference and setting in various films and works of fiction:

  • The first fictional visit of Neptune, portrayed as glacial but nevertheless inhabited, occurred in Spirito gentil (1889).
  • In the Captain Future series, Neptune is portrayed as a sea planet, not out of any scientific theory but evidently because Neptune was the Roman sea god.
  • In Olaf Stapledon's 1930 epic novel Last and First Men, Neptune is the final home of the highly evolved human race.
  • Samuel R. Delany's 1976 novel Triton has humanity colonizing several parts of the solar system, including Neptune's largest moon.
  • Neptune was the intended destination of the mining ship Red Dwarf in the books based on the BBC sitcom of that name, but an accident on board sends it into deep space instead.
  • The planet served as the backdrop for the 1997 sci-fi/horror film Event Horizon.
  • Three levels of the Descent take place on Neptune or its moons. Level 22 is set on Neptune in a storage depot. The setting for level 23 was also a storage depot, this time on Neptune's largest moon, Triton. Level 24 took place on Nereid, in a volatile materials mine.

The planet is also used as the home of various alien species and characters:

  • In H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (1928), Neptune is known as "Yaksh" and is inhabited by curious fungoid creatures (Clark Ashton Smith's The Family Tree of the Gods, 1944).
  • In the anime Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (1992), Sailor Neptune is the soldier representing the planet. A Pisces, she has wavy deep green hair and her image colours represent those of Neptune. On her forehead is the symbol of Neptune, which resembles a trident, Poseidon's weapon. Her attacks represent Poseidon's ocean powers (e.g. Deep Submerge). Her talisman is the Deep Aqua Mirror, also bearing the glyph and colors of Neptune.
  • In the animated TV series Futurama (1999-2003), Neptunians are a purple-skinned, four-armed race of humanoids that coexist peacefully with humans across the solar system. They appear to hold two of their four arms with another Neptunian for unknown reasons. Elzar the cook, is also a Neptunian. Robot Santa's base is also located on Neptune, in his 'Death Fortress' at the north pole of Neptune.
  • In the Japanese Anime Urusei Yatsura , Neptune is an icy, cold place which is the home of Oyuki, one of Lum's childhood alien friends.
  • It also had a Boskonian base on it in E. E. Smith's Lensman series (later destroyed by the Galactic Patrol).
  • In Space Patrol (1962) - episode The Slaves of Neptune - The crew of the Galasphere are sent to solve the mystery of a spaceship sending colonists to Pluto which disappeared near Neptune. On approach to Neptune Dart, Slim and Husky fall under the hypnotic influence of Neptunian overlord Tyro who is using his powers to trap Earth colonists as slaves.
  • In Mork and Mindy, the character of Kalnik claims (whether truthfully or not) to be from this planet; since the character is devious, it is possible he comes from much further away, since an advanced race on a planet as close as Neptune should be able to detect Kalnik's mischief at such close range.
  • In Jeffrey A. Carver's novel Neptune Crossing, there is a crew from Earth digging for ancient alien artifacts on Triton. Most of the story takes place on this moon.
  • In Grant Morrison's DC One Million (1998), all the planets of the solar system are overseen by one member of the future desendants of the Justice League. Neptune is overseen by the Aquaman of the 853rd century, and is described as being covered in oceans.
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