Questions tagged [science-fiction-genre]
Used for questions on the science fiction genre itself, including its tropes and conventions. Should **not** be used to categorize questions about specific works of science fiction.
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What is the first science-fiction film that features the Silence Group?
According to Donald Keyhoe, author of "The Flying Saucer Conspiracy," the phrase "Silence Group" has been used in UFO circles since the early 1950s. Wikipedia (entry: UFO ...
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Was the idea of a ship going through a star to refuel based on previous work?
In Stargate Universe there is a spaceship called Destiny which travels the universe seeding planets with stargates and flying through stars to refuel by collecting the raw materials inside. The ship ...
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Where does the "Starname Prime" naming scheme for planets originate?
I mean the name of a star followed by the word Prime, used to denote the system's most important/primary inhabited world. For example, Earth would be called Sol Prime using this naming scheme. I've ...
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SF book where alien girls award medals for sexual prowess
I read this in the UK but it was forty plus years ago so the details are hazy. It could have been a novelette.
There are two Earthmen on some alien planet, I can't remember what their mission was. The ...
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Earliest 'space locust'/'devouring swarm' type of alien in science fiction?
Modern examples include the Zerg from StarCraft, Tyranids from Warhammer 40,000; the aliens from Alien (1979) are also central examples and seem like the immediate antecedent for most modern takes. ...
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Origin of spider tanks
Spider shaped tanks appear regularly in near-future/cyberpunk settings. The earliest examples I'm aware of are from Masamune Shirows 1989 manga series Ghost in the Shell.
While the idea of walking ...
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End of the World, alien planet series
There was a book series I read as a kid that started in futuristic, 'end-of-world' times. The kid is driving somewhere in a self-propelled car and a meteor crashes into the earth causing a tsunami ...
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What was the first story to depict a modern objective-based approach to artificial intelligence?
A great deal of older science fiction has a rules-based approach to artificial intelligence. Think Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics: the robot has a set rule, and it follows it. In many such ...
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I'm looking for a sci fi novel where the main character was either born or became at an early point in life "unmoored" in quantum reality
I may have read this book some time in the 80s or 90s. I don't recall the cover or author. However, I recall that what happened to him was similar to what happened to Worf in that episode of Star Trek:...
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Looking for a science fiction about an "outcast" assassin who falls in love with his target
I read this 3 years ago. It was about a chosen assassin that has the power to just "not exist" or either become invisible. You can share this power if you touch someone else. I'm not exactly ...
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What was the first work that showed someone (or something) inverted by passing through higher dimensions
Prompted by this question, I found myself wondering what the first work of science fiction was in which a character (or object) was inverted by passing through higher dimensions. Martin Gardner ...
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Short story about a blinded galactic veteran
I read this short SF story in an anthology in the UK, approximately 40 years ago.
This blinded (I think,but I'm not sure, that also something about his vocal cords were damaged) and half crippled old ...
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What was the first work of science fiction that accurately depicted stellar evolution?
Many stories from the golden age of science fiction depicted a far-future Earth in which the sun was reddening and dying. This appeared in both humorous (for example, The Dying Earth series by Jack ...
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I am looking for a show that once on Netflix between 2015-2018 about a kid who gets/has fire powers from some entity
The show was a mini series and was 3d animated(I think) I also remember the final episode have a large fight with some red humanoid monster.
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Where can I find "The Device" by Emily W?
The story follows a young woman named Elizabeth Cartwright who acquires a job position at one of the most influential companies in the world, Ambivalent Communications. When she arrives at the ...
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First pre-1940s SF story that mentions the use of an atomic bomb
Inspired by the comments in this question, I'm curious as to the first SF story published before Hiroshima in WW2 that mentions the use of an atomic bomb.
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First usage of Outworlder in science fiction
I'm currently rereading Come hunt an Earthman by Philip E High (published in 1973)
I've noticed throughout the book that the term "outworlder" is used to describe an alien.
I know I've saw ...
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What was the earliest story that included maintaining the physical body while the mind was in another/virtual world?
Based on a now deleted question over at Worldbuilding, I was contemplating the various stories I'm familiar with that deal with the idea of maintaining the physical body while the mind or ...
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In Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), were there hibernation bunks in the crashed spaceship?
In Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), were there hibernation bunks in the crashed spaceship?
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SF short-story about an alien invasion of Earth by backward aliens [duplicate]
The aliens have discovered a star drive for interstellar travel but are very backward in all other technology. The have conquered other races. When they reach Earth, the air on their ship is becoming ...
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First example of mind control changing eyes?
I've noticed a common trope in SciFi/Fantasy: mind control changes the subject's eye color or, usually in more cartoonish works, gives the subject "spinning eyes". What is the original ...
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Where did the idea of the ornithopter originate?
This question stems from a commonly depicted mode of transportation, the ornithopter. It is the primary flight tool in the latest Dune movie as well as seen in Black Panther and in several books I've ...
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In terms of word count, what is the longest published SFF universe?
I know this is an arbitrary metric, but if we count all books or stories officially published as part of an SFF universe, (even one with multiple authors and/or subseries), which would result in the ...
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The science of the book Eon by Greg Bear
Piggybacking on this question: Book about time portals inside an asteroid in Earth orbit.
The answer to that question was Eon by Greg Bear. In that novel an asteroid comes into orbit around Earth. ...
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What is the earliest work of fiction featuring spaceships with shield technology?
I'm trying to figure out what is the earliest mention of shield technology in any work of fiction to feature spaceships that are protected by shields or any similar force field technology (think of ...
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On the words "science fiction" and "scientifiction"
One of the many mysteries surrounding the origins of science fiction is when this word was used first and who invented it: it was my understanding that both "scientifiction" and «science ...
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When did an overlap in readership of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy first become recognized by publishers?
In the early 20th century magazines of speculative fiction began to acquire both science fiction and fantasy works. Prior to this fantasy seems to have been mostly romantic sagas or fairy tales, and ...
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First sci-fi story to feature electromagnetic railguns or mass-drivers?
What was the first story to feature electromagnetic railguns?
The answer could be a movie, a TV show, a book, or a short story.
The main difference between a railgun and most other kinds of projectile ...
user89104
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What was the first sci-fi TV series to have titles for each episode?
Star Trek: The Original Series had titles for each episode. (e.g. - “Amok Time,” “Balance of Terror,” “The Doomsday Machine,” and so forth.)
Doctor Who episodes had titles as far back as 1963. (e.g. -...
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Which Sci-Fi work introduced the concept of "AI Doctor"?
We see AI doctors in Sci-Fi works all the time. Examples can be the famous medical droids of Star Wars (first encounter 1980):
Click images to enlarge.
The Doctor (Emergency Medical Hologram Mark ...
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When was “sf” first used to describe science fiction?
In a book called “My Best Science Fiction Story”, published in 1949, the author John Taine, referring to his story “The Ultimate Catalyst”, writes that the story is “my favorite s-f story”. The ...
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What work contained the first mushroom trees?
Mushroom trees are a familiar component of exotic locales, like Draenor (Warcraft), Morrowind (The Elder Scrolls), and Felucia (Star Wars).
The first example I know of is the Mushroom Planet series ...
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What was the first science fiction series?
What was the first science fiction series?
Did any series predate the 1936 series of Flash Gordon?
I don't really know a sensible way to search IMDb for the answer.
Wikipedia, erroneously, suggests:
...
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What is the first work of science fiction to take place during or after the most drastic effects of unintended human-caused climate change from CO₂?
Of the science fiction I have read, a lot of it takes place very or somewhat far into the future, but, even among quite recent stuff, a large majority of it makes no mention of what the Earth will be ...
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When was DNA evidence from a crime investigation in space first used in a SciFi plot?
In the Space SE question Why were blood and hair follicles from 25 people put on the Moon? I wrote
It sounds more like a potential plot for a future CSI Spaceforce episode.
That got me thinking, ...
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Earliest story to mention the different surface gravity on the Moon
What was the first science fiction story to mention that the Moon has a lower surface gravity than the Earth?
I'm sure that was mentioned many times in science fiction before the Space Age began in ...
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Is there a name for the style/genre of Sci-Fi using floating, illuminated technology elements?
Astral Chain, Mass Effect, Halo 4 (with the Forerunner technology and weapons) and Black Panther are all examples of Science Fiction that make use of floating, illuminated elements in their technology....
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Earliest example of double planets in science fiction?
What is the earliest science-fiction story featuring double planets?
I am defining a double planet as two bodies of planetary or dwarf-planetary size that orbit a common barycenter, and the ...
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What was the first story to feature the plot "the monsters were human all along"?
The plot/trope where some crime so violent or egregious has happened that some alien/monster is automatically suspected to be behind it, only for our human protagonists to investigate, and in the end ...
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What was the first instance of a "planet eater" in sci-fi?
In Sci-Fi, there are quite a few 'planet eaters'; giant beings that consume/live off planets or similarly large celestial bodies. The ones I know of are:
Unicron from Transformers 1986
Galactus from ...
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Why are energy weapons seen as more acceptable in children's shows than guns that fire bullets?
This is a question about the real-world factors that have influenced the development of science fiction and television for children.
In children's television (as well as movies), especially animation,...
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What was the first science fiction story set to the future without bothering about the present?
I'm not talking time travels and such, even if that can be involved. In the early days of science fiction, even if you travelled to outer space, back in time or forward in time, it always started in ...
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Do the makers of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle consider the film to be science fiction or fantasy?
I've been in an argument with one of my teachers. I'd like to know if there has been any definitive statement from the makers of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle as to whether they consider the film to ...
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Initial uses of the term "ultradrive" as a faster FTL drive?
This question about an early story about an FTL drive with unfortunate side effects for which the answer was Randall Garrett's 1954 "Time Fuze" and the use of "ultradrive" left me pondering the ...
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What was the first sci-fi work to have a virus that only infected computers?
In the Wikipedia entry for the original 1973 Westworld it mentions the computer scientist scoffing at the idea of 'an infectious virus that affects computers'.
Is there an earlier than this sci fi ...
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Where did the "pew pew" phrase come from? [closed]
People make silly phrases like:
Pew! Pew! I shoot you with my space gun.
Where did the "pew pew" phrase come from?
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When was hydroponics utilized for the first time in a sci-fi movie or a sci-fi TV show?
In the realms of sci-fi (movie or TV) with extra-terrestrial environments, from the perspective of life support, technological systems are present in order to allow human beings to survive and ...
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What was the 1920's/1930's SF/horror "literary ghetto"?
I was doing some research on the 1920's author Leonard Cline to support an answer to this question, and I came across this October 2006 comment on his works by Weird Tales Magazine (defunct) [the ...
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Is there a term for real-world science-based SciFi? [duplicate]
I've read just a few books in SciFi genre, never liked it, because it's usually written by writers, not scientists. Though, recently I've read few books written by Peter Watts and Stanislaw Lem. There ...
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What is the genre of fantasy stories that take place in a science fiction universe?
There are some stories that superficially look like they belong squarely in the fantasy genre but contain hints (or even major revelations) that the world was a sci-fi setting all along.
The ...
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