Portals in science fiction
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A common device in science fiction is a portal, or stargate, allowing rapid travel between distant locations, often originating from some combination of natural phenomenon and technological device. These fictional devices (or fictional faster-than-light starship drives or wormholes) are required for most stories on an inter-solar scale, otherwise transit time, even between relatively close stars, would be excessive for storytelling purposes (decades or centuries). An advantage of portal technology over a faster-than-light drive is that it can be imagined to work instantly, and optionally to travel to the past or future, or to alternate universes.
Stephen Robinett's book "Stargate" [1] (1976) revolves around the corporate side of building extra-dimensional and/or transportational Stargates. In the novel, the Stargate is given the name "Jenson Gate," after the fictional company which builds it. Andre Norton's 1958 novel Star Gate may have been the first to use that term for such portals. The plot of Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky (1955) uses a portal. Raymond Jones' Man of Two Worlds (aka Renaissance) (1944) employs a portal which turns out to be a fraud.[2]
A recent example of a portal, or Stargate device, is found in the Stargate TV series. Portals were also seen on television well before. They can be seen in the series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981), where travel between stars was also accomplished by a Stargate network. Each Stargate carries a designation such as "Stargate 4." These Stargates however were only shown as a diamond-shaped quartet of stars that shimmered when a vessel was making transit.
The Shi'ar, an extraterrestrial race introduced by Marvel Comics in 1976, also utilize a network of Stargates. The Shi'ar utilize both planet-based Stargates and enormous space-based versions (equivalent to the Ori supergate), though both are usually depicted without any physical structure to contain the wormhole.
Since the introduction of the Stargate on the big screen other authors have referenced the Stargate device. Authors Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince also write of "The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth About Extraterrestrial Life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt." The book details an alternative theory which ingrains the term Stargate with Egypt's past: either the pyramid itself is a gateway to the stars (because of the shafts pointing to a star) or the building of Heaven on Earth based on geographical location of the great and outlying pyramids (see: Orion).
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[edit] Common envisioning
There is a widespread conception within visual science fiction of what a "portal" should look like. The "ripple effect" is the most common part of this conception. One of the earliest examples is the Guardian of Forever, an artifact of the Star Trek universe. The device could open spacetime portals to any point in history on any world in the universe, and was ring-shaped with a watery "event horizon." It was first seen in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" (1967) and later in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Yesteryear" (1974). Again in Star Trek, portals (with angular frames) and ripple effects are seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "To The Death."
Other examples include the "warp gates" in Jak 3 which are rings containing a rippling blue substance used for transportation; a portal in ReBoot, created by the characters Megabyte and Dot displays a rippling "event horizon" (generated by a ring that closely resembled the Stargate in appearance, making it an obvious reference to the movie); and the "Waygates" in Warcraft III which bear a shimmering portal. Also, in the StarCraft series, warp gates exist, which are similar in both style and function. Protoss warriors created Warp Gates to travel great distances instantaneously, rather than using the slower process of space travel. The knowledge involved in their creation was lost, but on some planets like in Stargate, these gates still remain.
In Star Trek: Voyager and the game Star Trek: Armada II, the Borg have a device known as a Transwarp Conduit. The aperture of the conduit at the transwarp hub resembles the event horizon of a Stargate crossed with the wormhole effect created by the Stargate.
Another famous science fiction example is the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, where the "dimensional portals" allow fast transportation between distant locations, and some portals are even used to travel in time. The portals are connected to some kind of machines and often look like a pulsating light in different colors. If the portals somehow work wrong or, someone/something doesn't get through before the closing, it/he/she often will end up in a whole other place instead. As a result of the portals, interstellar spacecraft are seldom seen in the series.
The television series Sliders used the concept of portals to allow the series' characters to travel to parallel worlds.
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil features a Hell Portal device that looks like a demonic version of the movie Stargate, with satanic markings replacing the constellation symbols. The event horizon resembles water, but in the form of a vortex.
The series Prehistoric Park features a "time portal" which main character Nigel Marven uses to travel back in time to save now-extinct ancient animals. The portal, which also seems to function as a geographic portal, consists of two small generators which generate between them a translucent, rippling event horizon, much like a Stargate.
In the video game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes the protagonist Samus Aran travels between the dark and light dimensions or versions of the games' setting through "Dimensional portals." These are semi hoop shaped structures in both dimensions though the actual portal surface differs depending on which side of the portal the player happen to be on. Also, while the portal will transport the player to an analogous location in the destination dimension, there is rarely an analogous portal at the destination point--portals tend to be one-way only.
In the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion the Oblivion gates have a transparent, red "event horizon" with the same rippling water effect as seen in Stargate.
The opening cutscene of the video game Soul Reaver 2 features a time portal similar to a Stargate in several respects, including a similar "Kawoosh" effect.
The Time Portal in Timesplitters 2 which makes the centerpiece of the level select screen bears a major resemblance to a Stargate (including a similar "Kawoosh" effect), However due to the large number of jokes the game contains based on parts of pop culture it is highly likely it was directly based on the stargate.
The game Portal created by Valve Corporation features a portal-creating gun as a central game mechanic which is used to solve puzzles and reach otherwise-inaccessible destinations. The portals here are depicted without any special visual effects; instead, they show a crystal clear representation of the destination that the player can walk through seamlessly, without any loss of momentum.
In the single player campaign of the video game The Settlers II progression to the next level becomes possible when the player's territory is extended to include the "Gateway", a stone arch structure containing a rippling water effect.
In the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, two hula hoop-sized devices, capable of instantaneously transporting matter from one to the other are depiced in the "Star Wars Guide of Technology and Devices" as being part of a magician's act.
In the television series, Danny Phantom, there are portals in the forms of the Fenton Portal, and the fan named "Plasmius Portal." They are portals that lead to a parallel dimension, the Ghost Zone. In one of the last episodes, "Infinite Realms," it is learned that there are natural portals leading between the dimensions. In the series finale, "Phantom Planet," the Fenton portal is destroyed. All portals are swirling green objects, large enough for a large car to fit through, with the exception of the Plasmius portal, which is violet.
In Dan Simmons' Hyperion series, there exists a network of portals called farcasters which connect most human inhabited planets. The actual form these farcaster portals take can vary, and they may be opaque, completely transparent, or semi-transparent. The completely transparent variety is very commonly used and effectively turns all connected places into one giant "WorldWeb" where distance becomes almost meaningless, even between planets. Some of the more opulent occupents may have houses where each room is built on a different planet, and some rooms themselves may actually be partially built in several different physical locations but be joined by farcaster portals to form one complete room.
In the anime Cowboy Bebop, hyperspace gates allow for faster- though not instantaneous- travel between the planets and colonies of our solar system. These gates, however, were imperfect upon construction; this imperfection was made plain after a catastrophic accident involving the explosion of a gate near Earth ripped nearly half of the Moon's surface away to crash into the Earth.
[edit] Common functions
One concept of portals used abundantly in science-fiction to cast protagonists into new territory. Another video game concept assumes that portals are used to cover territory that's already been explored very quickly. A related book plot that's commonly used is the struggle to get to the opposite end of a new gate for the first time, before it can be used. The 1998 film Lost in Space featured a space-bound hypergate system. The premise of the film is that the Robinson family will pilot a spaceship to Alpha Centauri, in order to complete construction of another hypergate there, which will allow instantanous travel between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Stargate-like devices are abundant in video games as they can be used to neatly split a game into levels. The video games Primal and Turok the Dinosaur Hunter feature gateways that allow instantaneous travel between locations to this effect, and in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, a number of ring-shaped dimensional portals allow the main characters to travel between a "Light" and "Dark" version of a planet. In the game EVE Online, a large object called a Stargate lets you travel between solar systems, and in Homeworld 2, "Hyperspace Gates" serve as the centerpiece of one of the game's final missions; these are massive rings that create wormholes capable of transporting matter great distances. In Super Mario 64, and its follow up, Super Mario Sunshine, various paintings and warp pipes lead to levels, all connected by a bigger level that houses said portals. The effects are different, however. In Super Mario 64, Mario simply jumps into the paintings. In Super Mario Sunshine, he jumps up, splits into smaller particles, which go into the portal, and the particles merge again in the level.
In the cartoon series The Transformers, the Decepticons built the Space Bridge, which serves a similar purpose. A large round ring built on Earth (lying flat) would create a subspace tunnel to a destination tower on Cybertron. One key difference in function was that matter was not broken apart for transport.
[edit] References
- ^ Robinett, Stephen, Stargate, Signet, 1976.
- ^ Jones, Raymond F. Man of Two Worlds, Street and Smith Publications, Inc., 1944.
