Interstellar war
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In fiction, an interstellar war is a war between combatants whose respective headquarters lie in different star systems. It is a popular plot device in science fiction, especially in the space opera subgenre. An intergalactic war refers to war between combatants of different galaxies. Interplanetary war refers to war between combatants on different planets of the same system.
The literature on interplanetary war is often revealing of contemporary mores at the time it was written. In general, older fiction relates to the colonial systems of politics and economics of the late 19th/early 20th centuries; mid-20th century depictions are often heavily influenced by the Cold War and are often barely-concealed analogies of the conflict between the "free world" and the Communist states, with Earth (personified in 1950s-style American archetypes) as the "good guys" and aliens as the "bad guys". Modern fiction often uses the conflict to explore known failings in the human (especially Western) perspective.
[edit] Interplanetary war in fiction
The earliest fictional references appear to be to interplanetary, not interstellar war (e.g. H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds). Now that the other planets of the solar system are believed to be devoid of intelligent life sci-fi writers generally posit some form of faster-than-light drive in order to facilitate interstellar war, but writers such as Larry Niven have developed plausible interplanetary conflict based on human colonisation of the asteroid belt and outer planets using only technologies explicable using the laws of physics as currently understood.
[edit] Interstellar war in fiction
Below are a few well known examples of Interstellar War in fiction.
- The Tau'ri (Earth humans) versus the Goa'uld, Ori, Wraith, Asurans, and Lucian Alliance in both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
- The alien invasion depicted in the War of the Worlds (2005 film)
- The Independence Day (film) where many of the major cities (on both sides) are obliterated. (Note: this is technically not an interstellar war during the course of the movie, as the aliens state that they move their entire civilization in order to attack planets; thus, the headquarters - the mother ship - is in Earth orbit, making the combatants inhabitants of the same star system during the movie. However, the movement is implied to have been from other star systems.)
- The Borg vs Starfleet in Star Trek
- The Klingons vs The Cardassians in Star Trek
- Earth-Romulan War in Star Trek
- Dominion War in Star Trek
- The Time Lords vs The Daleks in Doctor Who Time War (Doctor Who (which is both an interstellar and intertemporal war.), Also the Sontaran Vs Routan war. Many others are referanced.
- Many interstellar wars in Babylon 5, notably the Earth-Minbari War and the Shadow War.
- Idiran-Culture War (Culture)
- The Clone Wars (Star Wars)
- Galactic Civil War (Star Wars)
- Yuuzhan Vong War (Star Wars)
- The Cylon War in which the Twelve Colonies of man fight against the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica universe.
- Boskone versus the Galactic Patrol in E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series
- Multiple interestallar conflicts between the races of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
- Formic Wars in Ender's Game.
- The Human-Covenant War from Halo:Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3 series by Bungie.
- Men-Taurans conflict in Joe Haldeman's sci-fi novel The Forever War
- The Interstellar Wars period of conflict between the First (Vilani) Imperium and the Terran Confederation in the Traveller role-playing game. As well as at least five wars between the Zhodoni and the third Imperium.
- Humankind Empire Abh and the Four Nations Alliance in Crest of the Stars
- Man-Kzin Wars (an anthology series set in Larry Niven's Known Space, but mainly written by other authors)
- The surprise relativistic attack in The Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski
- The Andalites vs the Yeerks in Animorphs
- The War between the Kushan and Tiidan in Homeworld
- The War between the Terrans, United Earth Directorate, Zergs and Protoss in Starcraft
- The Arachnid-Human war in Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein
- The "Ant"-Human war in Armor (novel), by John Steakley.
- The interstellar war between Maians and Skedars in Perfect Dark
- The Xeelee-Human wars in the Xeelee Sequence novels and short stories by Stephen Baxter.
- The Succession Wars Set in the BattleTech Universe
- The Havenete Wars in The Honor Harrington Series by David Weber
- The Kilrathi vs Terrans in the Wing Commander game series.
- The conflict in S.M. Sterling's Drakon (book), part of the Draka series. The combat is on Earth in an alternative history, but one side had fled Earth before the conflict (due to an earlier war) and was in another star system.
- The Worldwar series, written by Harry Turtledove, between "The Race" and humans.
- The hostile alien takeover depicted in the Half-Life video game series, though this is more accurately an interdimensional war.
