History Main / BoldExplorer

May overlap with other tropes such as ThePioneer, who is specifically looking for a new home, though it's more usual for pioneers to ''follow'' the explorers. IntrepidMerchant is another one that frequently goes hand-in-hand with this one, as new locations often mean exotic goods and new, untapped markets for old products. Sometimes a state-sponsored version of this would be either an {{Ambadassador}} or engaged in CloakAndDagger, likely both. Compare GentlemanAdventurer and AdventurerArchaeologist.

* Travelling Matt from ''Series/FraggleRock'', the first Fraggle to explore Outer Space (i.e., [[UpTheRealRabbitHole our world]]).

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' frequently and savagely parodies this trope, describing explorers as arrogant, nosy, foreigner-hating busybodies who try to communicate with natives [[TranslationByVolume by talking to them slowly and loudly]]. In fact, Lord Vetinari convinced the Ankh-Morpork Explorers' Society to change its name to the Trespassers' Society on the grounds that they could hardly be "discovering" territories already settled by people. One stellar example is the ambitious but incompetent Sir Roderick Purdeigh, who on one voyage tried to circumnavigate the Disc but wound up going around the Circle Sea for six months. Another famouse Tresspasser is Guy de Yoyo, noted for naming his "discoveries" after himself (Lake Yoyo, River Yoyo, Yoyo Falls, etc.) without troubling about whether the locals might already call them something.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' frequently and savagely parodies this trope, describing explorers as arrogant, nosy, foreigner-hating busybodies who try to communicate with natives [[TranslationByVolume by talking to them slowly and loudly]]. In fact, Lord Vetinari convinced the Ankh-Morpork Explorers' Society to change its name to the Trespassers' Society on the grounds that they could hardly be "discovering" territories already settled by people. One stellar example is the ambitious but incompetent Sir Roderick Purdeigh, who on one voyage tried to circumnavigate the Disc but wound up going around the Circle Sea for six months.

* The aptly-named ''Film/{{Explorers}}'' features a trio of kids who manage to build a spaceship, and then boldly set off to hunt for aliens.

* In ''Literature/CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise'', the titular character was the first of these, although his primary profession is that of a space trader. This doesn't stop him from, occasionally, traveling to unexplored systems to scout it for potential habitable worlds. He can then sell this information on a heavily-populated planet, so it can start building a colony ship. It's not stated if he ever actually lands on any of the virgin worlds, but even traveling to an unexplored system is rife with a degree of danger, as there is always a chance that his ship's relativistic drive can deposit him inside another object or in a dangerous gravity well. His first journey with the drive was in the 21st century as a NASA test pilot, who successfully tests the drive on a trip to the moon Triton and is then sent to Alpha Centauri, where is discovers a habitable planet, which he names Penelope after his daughter. He then goes on a century-long trek and discovers several more planets before heading home. He also relays to his wife a story of a space trader couple who track a signal from another space trader to an uninhabited planet he discovered. They find his ship in orbit and his shuttle on the ground, but no sight of him. Assuming he died, they take his ship and plan to take it to the nearest industrial colony to sell. However, the wife has other plans and absconds with her new ship. When she doesn't appear at their destination, the husband is horrified and assumes she may have died, only discovering the truth years later.

* Quetza in ''Literature/ElConquistador''. He is an explorer so bold and clever than he even discovers Europe several years before Colombus even ships. He even recognizes than he isn't where he expected to be, and recognizes the threat that the Europeans impose to his people and culture.

* In the ''Literature/RedMarsTrilogy'', John Boone becomes a world-wide hero after leading the first expedition to Mars.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in Creator/RobertSheckley's short story, "The Minimum Man". The Planetary Expedition and Settlement Board has tried using the classic bold explorer type to discover new worlds, but these bold types aren't timid enough and tend to overlook obvious dangers that make newly discovered worlds unsuitable for colonization, so now they're going the opposite way, and choose the accident-prone suicide-risk hapless nebbish Anton Perceveral to form a new breed of explorers. Double subvertion: hardships turn Anton into the classic bold explorer anyway. This isn't uncommon in the Board experience, and the mission still counts as success, but Anton is disqualified from further exploring.

* ''Literature/TheTravelsOfMarcoPolo'' is a biographical (and somewhat confused) recounting of the Italian explorer's 13th-century expedition to the Middle-East and China. It was a blockbuster hit in its time.

* Alex Lukeman (as Alex Dain) wrote ''Bane of Kanthos'' in 1969. It's the story of Robert Lansing (no, not [[Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth that Robert Lansing]]), who's been an independently wealthy Bold Explorer from an early age. When we meet him he's running for his life to escape a band of irate Jivaro Indians. With his pet parrot Quito he discovers a pyramid temple with unusual levels and configurations, and a dark zone from which he can smell fresh sea air. Quito flies through and Lansing follows, and they are hurled through time and space to an alternative reality filled with Vikings, swords, wizards and adventure. He becomes known as Rocar the Snake-killer, vanquishes a terrible enemy and the Warrior Princess falls in love with him. Then he's bitten by a spider and goes into a coma. '''The End.''' It's clear Dain meant it to go on, but his other projects probably got in the way. Apparently enough people have complained that in 2015, Dain not only put out a revised edition but is preparing sequels, to be called ''The Chronicles of the Gates.'' We will finally find out what happened to Rocar.

** The Taotake are a nomadic seafaring people who places an immense degree of value on discovery and exploration. They're not considered truly adult until they discover and name something that no Taotake did before, and sail across every sea in Golarion as they explore and map out every corner of the world.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service is an agency of Bold Explorers. They have other duties as well due to mission creep. They do scientific-research, occasional police duties, intelligence work, Imperial courier service, and special ops in wartime. They are kind of like a cross between Nasa, the UsefulNotes/IndianPoliticalService, and in some ways the Coast Guard. The exploration side of their job is dying down in the ''TabletopGame/{{Gurps}}'' default time of Emperor Strephon's reign, simply because most of the unexplored territory is on the other side of rival empires. While expeditions still go out from time to time, most of their work is tidying up backwater planets. Other governments, corporations, and private citizens have been exploring for thousands of years and continue to do so.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' frequently and savagely parodies this trope, describing explorers as arrogant, nosy, foreigner-hating busybodies who try to communicate with natives [[TranslationByVolume by shouting at them]]. In fact, Lord Vetinari convinced the Ankh-Morpork Explorers' Society to change its name to the Trespassers' Society on the grounds that they could hardly be "discovering" territories already settled by people. One stellar example is the ambitious but incompetent Sir Roderick Purdeigh, who on one voyage tried to circumnavigate the Disc but wound up going around the Circle Sea for years.

The urge to explore is as old as Mankind, and in every generation, there are those who feel compelled to [[Franchise/StarTrek explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before]]. It's easy to dream, but unknown lands can be dangerous, so only the boldest are willing to live that dream. Tales of these bold explorers are a favorite topic for fiction.

--> And the sky opened
--> And we laid down our armour
--> And we danced, naked as they
--> Baptized in the rain
--> Of the New World.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' backstory, Topal the Pilot was a famous one. An [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] explorer and [[WarriorPoet poet]], he was the first to discover and explore Tamriel during the Merethic Era, encountering primitive versions of the [[CatFolk Khajiit]] and [[LizardFolk Argonians]], as well as a now-extinct race of [[BirdPeople bird people]]. His story was compiled into an epic known as ''Father of the Niben'', but [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold most of it was lost over the centuries]].

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in Creator/RobertSheckley's short story, "The Minimum Man". The Planetary Expedition and Settlement Board has tried using the classic bold explorer type to discover new worlds, but these bold types aren't timid enough and tend to overlook obvious dangers that make newly discovered worlds unsuitable for colonization, so now they're going the opposite way, and choose the accident-prone hapless nebbish Anton Perceveral to be the first of a new breed of explorers.

* In ''Literature/CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise'', the titular character was the first of these, although his primary profession is that of a space trader. This doesn't stop him from, occasionally, traveling to unexplored systems to scout it for potential habitable worlds. He can then sell this information on a heavily-populated planet, so it can start building a colony ship. It's not stated if he ever actually lands on any of the virgin worlds, but even traveling to an unexplored system is rife with a degree of danger, as there is always a chance that his ship's relativistic drive can deposit him inside another object or in a dangerous gravity well. His first journey with the drive was in the 21st century as a NASA test pilot, who successfully tests the drive on a trip to the moon Triton and is then sent to Alpha Centauri, where is discovers a habitable planet, which he names Penelope, after his daughter. He then goes on a century-long trek and discovers several more planets before heading home. He also relays to his wife a story of a space trader couple who track a signal from another space trader to an uninhabited planet he discovered. They find his ship in orbit and his shuttle on the ground, but no sight of him. Assuming he died, they take his ship and plan to take it to the nearest industrial colony to sell. However, the wife has other plans and absconds with her new ship. When she doesn't appear at their destination, the husband is horrified and assumes she may have died, only discovering the truth years later.

* In ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'', Sir Manga Melifaro has not only traveled every continent of the known world, but also wrote a GreatBigBookOfEverything afterwards (in eight volumes).

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in Creator/RobertSheckley's short-story, "The Minimum Man". The Planetary Expedition and Settlement Board has tried using the classic bold explorer type to discover new worlds, but these bold types aren't timid enough, and tend to overlook obvious dangers that make newly discovered worlds unsuitable for colonization, so now they're going the opposite way, and choose the accident-prone hapless nebbish Anton Perceveral to be the first of a new breed of explorers.

* ''Literature/TheTravelsOfMarcoPolo'' is a biographical (and somewhat confused) recounting of the Italian explorer's 13th-century expedition to the Middle-East and China. It was a block-buster hit in its time.
* Subverted in Robert Heinleins ''Literature/TunnelInTheSky''. The creator of the portal network saw a jungle through his portal, picked up a gun and stepped through into what he thought was the Jurassic. And was then arrested by the local Brazilian police for carrying a gun in a park.
* Creator/JackVance's ''Ports of Call'' features Myron Tany, a wannabe bold explorer who lucks out when his great-aunt, Dame Hester, receives a spaceship as part of a legal judgement, and reluctantly agrees to let him use it. Unfortunately for Myron, Dame Hester insists on coming along.

* In Creator/AEVanVogt's ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheSpaceBeagle'', most of the crew of the ''Space Beagle'', especially Director Morton, the head of the expedition. (The protagonist, Elliot Grosvenor, is along as more of a trouble-shooter.

* ''Series/TheOrville'' sets itself up as a comedic parody of ''Star Trek'', but makes a point of of keeping the wonder of exploration a central theme.

** Cloud dragons are avid explorers, spending large parts of their lives journeying in search of new lands, new sights, new people and new treasures. Many cross planar boundaries in this process, and most of the ones in the Material Plane came there in search of new vistas or treasures their native Plane of Air doesn't hold.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service is an agency of Bold Explorers. They have other duties as well due to mission creep. They do scientific-research, occasional police duties, intelligence work, Imperial courier service and special ops in wartime. They are kind of like a cross between Nasa, the UsefulNotes/IndianPoliticalService, and in some ways the Coast Guard. The exploration side of their job is dying down in the ''TabletopGame/{{Gurps}}'' default time of Emperor Strephon's reign, simply because most of the unexplored territory is on the other side of rival empires. While expeditions still go out from time to time, most of their work is tidying up backwater planets. Other governments, corporations, and private citizens have been exploring for thousands of years and continue to do so.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'': Many of the in game notes are provided by [[MrExposition Abd al-Hazir]], a Caldeum scholar who traveled across Sanctuary, making notes and descriptions of the things he saw, which prove beneficial to other travelers following after him.
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' backstory, Topal the Pilot was a famous one. An [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] explorer and [[WarriorPoet poet]], he was the first to discover and explore Tamriel during the Merethic Era, encountering primitive versions of the [[CatFolk Khajiit]] and [[LizardFolk Argonians]], as well as a now extinct race of [[BirdPeople bird people]]. His story was compiled into an epic known as ''Father of the Niben'', but [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold most of it was lost over the centuries]].

** [[CoolOldGuy Pikango]] travelled across much of Hyrule during his youth, so he's familiar with most of continent's major regions and landmarks. Old age has done little to slow him down, as he continues to search for new vistas for his paintings.

** The [[BugWar Rachni Wars]] were unintentionally started by one of these, when a salarian explorer opened a mass relay leading to the rachni worlds in which he was captured and his ship was reverse engineered. This led to the salarians uplifting the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] to stop the rachni, which led to the krogan rebellions and the [[DepopulationBomb genophage]].
** In response to the above disaster, the Citadel made it illegal to open uncharted mass relays. This led to the First Contact War, when a group of human explorers ran afoul of a turian patrol [[PoorCommunicationKills that didn't bother to explain]] why opening mass relays willy-nilly was a bad idea.

* The Bread and Butter of ''VideoGame/RenownedExplorers''. With a team of three explorers it's the player's goal to discover as much as possible within a certain time frame to become the world's most renowned explorers.

* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'': [[TheDeterminator Vyse Dyne]]. Much of the game centers on his quest to explore all the lands of Arcadia, which is recorded in his [[CaptainsLog journal entries.]] There's even a massive {{sidequest}} to find all 88 hidden discoveries. Vyse also lampshades it, near the beginning of the game, while he [[ChildhoodFriend Aika]], and [[MysteriousWaif Fina]] are watching the sunset on Pirate Isle:

* The protagonists of the ''VideoGame/UnchartedWaters'' series can be played as such, particularly the playable characters of the Explorer background in the second game, ''VideoGame/UnchartedWatersNewHorizons''. Ernst is the best example, since his overarching quest is to [[CartographySidequest explore and map the entire globe]]. Pietro and Joao also do a fair bit of exploring, but the former is mainly after hidden treasures, while the latter's storyline involves an equal amount of naval battles.

** One of the scrolls in Pandaria tells the legend of a Liu Lang, a young Pandaren who set out to explore the world beyond the mist riding on the back of a turtle. That turtle ended up growing into the Wandering Isle that the player Pandaren come from. It still returns to to Pandaria every so often to pick up the any like minded Pandaran that find life on Pandaria to not be for them.

* The ''Peabody's Improbable History'' segments of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' featured visits to see many bold explorers, including Sir Walter Raleigh, Marco Polo, Juan Ponce de Leon, Balboa, Columbus and Magellan. Many of them turned out to be not-so-bold in person, and needed a kick in the pants from Peabody and Sherman.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Margical History Tour" features Lenny and Carl as Lewis and Clark, exploring the American Northwest, and Lisa as Sacagawea, the native woman who helped them--or, in this case, tried to help them, but gets frustrated by their stupidity.

* ''Disney/{{Moana}}'': Entirely revolves around this trope, as it tells of the Polynesian culture's proud history of being masterful explorers of the Pacific Ocean. Interestingly, Polynesian history had a period of time (between 1000 and 2000 years) when their explorations stopped (known in academia as the "long pause"). The story of Moana is a fanciful, mythological "explanation" for the "long pause" and by the end of the film, Moana leads her people back toward their grand heritage of voyaging and wayfinding.
* ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'': John Smith's explorations of the new Virginia Territory are how he met Pocahontas in the first place. During the song "Mine, Mine, Mine", he sings of how he's never seen a wilder, more challenging land than Virginia and how he doesn't plan to miss any of its dangers.

** The Taotaki are a nomadic seafaring people who places an immense degree of value on discovery and exploration. They're not considered truly adult until they discover and name something that no Taotaki did before, and sail across every sea in Golarion as they explore and map out every corner of the world.

* A ton of these exist across ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'''s Solar System. The International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation has field agents all over Mars, the Roosevelt Station Exploration Society is an entire club of explorers on Venus and the Lizard Monkey Second Hatching is a religious order who go on exploration pilgrimages. All this is before we get to the independent explorers and smaller expeditions.

* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' has [[TheProtagonist Vyse]] [[TheDeterminator Dyne.]] Much of the game centers on his quest to explore all the lands of Arcadia, which is recorded in his [[CaptainsLog journal entries.]] There's even a massive {{sidequest}} to find all 88 hidden discoveries. Vyse also lampshades it, near the beginning of the game, while he [[ChildhoodFriend Aika]], and [[MysteriousWaif Fina]] are watching the sunset on Pirate Isle:

* Allen's DisappearedDad was this in ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne''. In fact, his frequent absences and the fact that he never returned from one of his voyages are the source of Allen's massive DaddyIssues.

* ''FanFic/DontKeepYourDistance'': The entire point. Paint the [[{{PlantAliens}} Seed]][[Anime/SonicX rian]]-[[{{HSOWA}} Fox]] has long romanticized herself and her best friend Arrowhead the Toad as Bold Explorers, but learning of her father's existence for the first time takes them (plus three of their other friends) on a real-life quest across the entire world.

Go and look behind the Ranges --\\

!! Examples:

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Literature/CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise'', the titular character was the first of these, although his primary profession is that of a space trader. This doesn't stop him from, occasionally, traveling to unexplored systems to scout it for potential habitable worlds. He can then sell this information on a heavily-populated planet, so it can start building a colony ship. It's not stated if he ever actually lands on any of the virgin worlds, but even traveling to an unexplored system is rife with a degree of danger, as there is always a chance that his ship's relativistic drive can deposit him inside another object or in a dangerous gravity well. His first journey with the drive was in the 21st century as a NASA test pilot, who successfully tests the drive on a trip to the moon Triton and is then sent to Alpha Centauri, where is discovers a habitable planet, which he names Penelope, after his daughter. He then goes on a century-long trek and discovers several more planet before heading home. He also relays to his wife a story of a space trader couple who track a signal from another space trader to an uninhabited planet he discovered. They find his ship in orbit and his shuttle on the ground, but no sight of him. Assuming he died, they take his ship and plan to take it to the nearest industrial colony to sell. However, the wife has other plans and absconds with her new ship. When she doesn't appear at their destination, the husband is horrified and assumes she may have died, only discovering the truth years later.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', the whole purpose of the team was to go through the Stargate and see what they could find on the other side.

* The titular Ellie in ''Webcomic/EllieOnPlanetX''.

The urge to explore is as old as Mankind, and in every generation, there are those who feel compelled to [[Series/StarTrek explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before]]. It's easy to dream, but unknown lands can be dangerous, so only the boldest are willing to live that dream. Tales of these bold explorers are a favorite topic for fiction.

* ''Theatre/PoseidonsFury'' at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's Islands of Adventure]] has the "World Discovery Group", an organization that's exploring the Temple of Poseidon in order to extract as much information and artifacts out of it as they can.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/OnePiece''
* In ''Manga/VinlandSaga'', Leif the Lucky is the man who found Vinland, though he's now old and retired.
* Allen's DisappearedDad was this in ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne''. In fact, his frequent absences and the fact that he never returned from one of his voyages are the source of Allen's massive DaddyIssues.
* Mendoza in ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'' is a charismatic explorer who claims to be the one who brought Esteban to Spain as a child, and now wants him to return and use the power of the locket to help find the [=titular=] cities.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* ''La Vallée'' (a film mainly remembered because Music/PinkFloyd provided the soundtrack) features a bunch of hippies, joined by the wife of the French consul, exploring uncharted regions of New Guinea--one of the very last unexplored places on the planet--seeking the truth about a mysterious valley marked on maps as "obscured by clouds".
* In Fritz Lang's 1929 silent film ''Film/WomanInTheMoon'', Helius and Professor Mannfeldt plan and lead an expedition to the moon.

* Dave Bowman, Frank Poole, and the deceased crew of the ''Discovery'' in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', who are on an expedition to explore strange findings near Jupiter.

* Quetza in Literature/ElConquistador. He is an explorer so bold and clever than he even discovers Europe several years before Colombus even ships. He even recognizes than he isn't where he expected to be, and recognizes the threat that the Europeans impose to his people and culture.

* ''[[Literature/TheIcelandicSagas The Vinland Sagas]]'' tell how Leif Ericson's explorations led him to become the first European known to have set foot on North America. (The popular theory that Leif's father, Erik the Red, discovered Greenland, however, is not supported by the sagas, nor by any other historical evidence.)
** According to one saga North America was discovered by one Bjarni Herjolfsson who just wanted to visit his parents in Greenland. Every time he sighted land he quickly established it wasn't Greenland and sailed on. So not much of a BoldExplorer but one heck of a devoted son.
* ''Literature/TheTravelsOfMarcoPolo'' is a biographical (and somewhat confused) recounting of the Italian explorer's 13th-century expedition to the Middle-East and China. It was a block-buster hit in its time.
* ''Voyage dans la Lune'' (1657) by the RealLife Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac, casts Cyrano himself as the first explorer to the moon. Although there were earlier stories of people visiting the moon, the use of a non-magical method of transportation (fireworks) has led some to classify this as one of the very first works of true ScienceFiction.
* In Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912'', Professor Challenger is a man of science who has no hesitation to set off and explore a mysterious plateau in the Amazon.
* Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'' has Michael Ardan, who persuades the Gun Club to build a hollow shell that can carry him (and some others) to the moon.

* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/PolesotechnicLeague'' stories, David Falkayn is an aristocrat who would rather be out exploring new worlds than sitting in comfort on his home planet.
* A somewhat fictionalized (but reasonably realistic) UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus in Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus''.
* In the ''Literature/RedMarsTrilogy'', John Boone becomes a world-wide hero after leading the first expedition to Mars.
* In the ''Literature/PriscillaHutchins'' series, Hutch herself is a borderline case, but a more clear-cut example is George Hockleman, a rich entrepreneur in ''Chindi'' who hires an Academy ship, and the use of Hutch, to go chasing alien interstellar radio signals in the hope of making FirstContact.
* In Creator/AllenSteele's ''Literature/{{Coyote}}'', Carlos Montero sets off to explore the new world of Coyote while the rest of the colonists are still settling in and trying to learn the ''local'' dangers.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in Creator/RobertSheckley's short-story, "The Minimum Man". The Planetary Expedition and Settlement Board has tried using the classic bold explorer type to discover new worlds, but these bold types aren't timid enough, and tend to overlook obvious dangers that make newly discovered worlds unsuitable for colonization, so now they're going the opposite way, and choose the accident-prone hapless nebbish Anton Perceveral to be the first of a new breed of explorers.

* In the prologue to ''Literature/PandorasStar'' Earth sends a manned spaceship to Mars whose crew is extremely irritated to discover that, while they were hoofing it, a couple of garage tinkerers in Los Angeles discovered how to create stable wormholes and beat them there. Fast forward five hundred years or so, and the normally wormhole-dependent Commonwealth builds an FTL-capable exploration starship named the ''Another Chance'', captained by the leader of the Mars expedition. (Immortality therapy was involved.)

* Creator/JackVance's ''Ports of Call'' features Myron Tany, a wannabe bold explorer who lucks out when his great-aunt, Dame Hester, receives a spaceship as part of a legal judgement, and reluctantly agrees to let him use it. Unfortunately for Myron, Dame Hester insists on coming along.
* In Creator/HalClement's novel ''Literature/MissionOfGravity'', the small centipede-like creature named Barlennan on the planet Mesklin is a bold explorer, which is what brings him to the one area of the planet where humans can visit even briefly.
* In Creator/AEVanVogt's ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheSpaceBeagle'', most of the crew of the ''Space Beagle'', especially Director Morton, the head of the expedition. (The protagonist, Elliot Grosvenor, is along as more of a trouble-shooter.

* Tully the human from the ''Literature/ChanurNovels'' was a bold explorer who got lost in Compact space, captured by the Kif, and rescued by the Chanur clan.

* In ''Literature/{{Noob}}'', Törk mapped the shape of the Continent Without Return, which is protected by a PerpetualStorm.
* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' frequently and savagely parodies this trope, describing explorers as arrogant, nosy, foreigner-hating busybodies who try to communicate with natives [[TranslationByVolume by shouting at them]]. In fact, Lord Vetinari convinced the Ankh-Morpork Explorers' Society to change its name to the Trespassers' Society on the grounds that they could hardly be "discovering" territories already settled by people. One stellar example is the ambitious but incompetent Sir Roderick Purdeigh, who on one voyage tried to circumnavigate the Disc but wound up going around the Circle Sea for years.
* In ''Literature/CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise'', the titular character was the first of these, although his primary profession is that of a space trader. This doesn't stop him from, occasionally, traveling to unexplored systems to scout it for potential habitable worlds. He can then sell this information on a heavily-populated planet, so it can start building a colony ship. It's not stated if he ever actually lands on any of the virgin worlds, but even traveling to an unexplored system is rife with a degree of danger, as there is always a chance that his ship's relativistic drive can deposit him inside another object or in a dangerous gravity well. His first journey with the drive was in the 21st century as a NASA test pilot, who successfully tests the drive on a trip to the moon Triton and is then sent to Alpha Centauri, where is discovers a habitable planet, which he names Penelope, after his daughter. He then goes on a century-long trek and discovers several more planet before heading home. He also relays to his wife a story of a space trader couple who track a signal from another space trader to an uninhabited planet he discovered. They find his ship in orbit and his shuttle on the ground, but no sight of him. Assuming he died, they take his ship and plan to take it to the nearest industrial colony to sell. However, the wife has other plans and absconds with her new ship. When she doesn't appear at their destination, the husband is horrified and assumes she may have died, only discovering the truth years later.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Eshonai, the Parshendi general and their last Shardbearer, was once just a girl who wanted to see the world. Her maps and stories inspired her people, and soon the Parshendi were roaming the entirety of the Unclaimed Hills. One of these parties stumbled upon the Alethi king, out on a hunting expedition, which connected the Parshendi to the outside world again. Eventually, this resulted in the Parshendi assassinating the Alethi king, fleeing to the Shattered Plains, and fighting a long, losing war of attrition. Though Eshonai [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom couldn't possibly have seen any of that coming]], she still blames herself.

* Most versions of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' have revolved around this. Captain Kirk in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and Captain Archer in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' are classic examples. Captain Picard in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is a more subdued version, but his second-in-command, Commander Riker is a classic version; they both count. In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Captain Janeway was possibly more focused on finding her way home, but still took her mission of exploration seriously.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', the whole purpose of the team was to go through the Stargate and see what they could find on the other side.
* Professor Challenger from ''Series/SirArthurConanDoylesTheLostWorld''. The rest of the team sort of become this default once they are in the LostWorld.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Spaceman Spiff, one of Calvin's alter-egos in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', is a bold interstellar explorer, who constantly gets captured by bizarre alien life forms (usually Calvin's parents or his teacher).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' Several adventures are about exploration or about saving a lost exploration party. An explorer would be a perfectly suitable player character concept and it is also a career available in character generation.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service is an agency of Bold Explorers. They have other duties as well due to mission creep. They do scientific-research, occasional police duties, intelligence work, Imperial courier service and special ops in wartime. They are kind of like a cross between Nasa, the UsefulNotes/IndianPoliticalService, and in some ways the Coast Guard. The exploration side of their job is dying down in the ''TabletopGame/{{Gurps}}'' default time of Emperor Strephon's reign, simply because most of the unexplored territory is on the other side of rival empires. While expeditions still go out from time to time, most of their work is tidying up backwater planets.
** Other governments, corporations, and private citizens have been exploring for thousands of years and continue to do so.
* The background for ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' contains this a lot. In the "present" of the setting, it mostly consists of the Mechanicus searching for lost technology. Given the [[CrapsackWorld setting]], their [[LanguageDrift explorators]] have to be considered pretty bold even when they're part of a large fleet. Rogue Traders also do plenty of exploring in the effort to open up new markets. In fact, the first edition of Warhammer 40K was titled "Rogue Trader" and explicitly described them as fitting this trope.
** The Tau, as the youngest major species in the setting, must have a lot of these, although it's only the wars after they've "discovered" a populated planet that get much attention.
** Orks also fit the trope nicely, with their habit of launching themselves randomly into space in the hopes of finding new planets to conquer and new people to fight.
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' includes the Void Engineers, who are an entire [[InsistentTerminology scientific convention]] focused on this. In their past (when they were the Seekers of the Void), they were the ones responsible for exploring unknown lands. Although some elements of that still remain (usually focused on undersea exploration or other areas difficult to reach), the modern version is mostly focused on space exploration.
* A tonne of these exist across ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'''s Solar System. The International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation has field agents all over Mars, the Roosevelt Station Exploration Society is an entire club of explorers on Venus and the Lizard Monkey Second Hatching is a religious order who go on exploration pilgrimages. All this is before we get to the independent explorers and smaller expeditions.

* In the backstory of the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series, the crew of the twelve-man starship ''Winterblossom'' set forth in 2045 AD to explore the newly discovered [[PortalNetwork jumpgate network]] and find habitable worlds for colonies.
* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' has [[TheProtagonist Vyse]] [[TheDeterminator Dyne.]] Much of the game centers on his quest to explore all the lands of Arcadia, which is recorded in his [[CaptainsLog journal entries.]] There's even a massive {{sidequest}} to find all 88 hidden discoveries. Vyse also lampshades it, near the beginning of the game, while he [[ChildhoodFriend Aika]], and [[MysteriousWaif Fina]] are watching the sunset on Pirate Isle:
-->'''Vyse''': ''(wistfully)'' "I want to see what's out there... to see what lies beyond the sunset."
** The game is set in a fantasy analogue to the Age of Exploration, with plenty of rival explorers to get first dibs on finding Discoveries if you're too slow, and the requisite [[TheEmpire empire]] even being a stand-in for the real-life Spanish Empire during their expansionist heyday.
* The protagonists of the ''VideoGame/UnchartedWaters'' series can be played as such, particularly the playable characters of the Explorer background in the second game, ''VideoGame/UnchartedWatersNewHorizons''. Ernst is the best example, since his overarching quest is to [[CartographySidequest explore and map the entire globe]]. Pietro and Joao also do a fair bit of exploring, but the former is mainly after hidden treasures, while the latter's storyline involves an equal amount of naval battles.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** Brann Bronzebeard and later Harrison Jones are seen exploring newly opened lands.
** One of the scrolls in Pandaria tells the legend of a Liu Lang, a young Pandaren who set out to explore the world beyond the mist riding on the back of a turtle.
*** That turle ended up growing into the Wandering Isle that the player Pandaren come from. It still returns to to Pandaria every so often to pick up the any like minded Pandaran that find life on Pandaria to not be for them.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' is rife with these, though they seem to almost always end badly, with most of the history of violence in the setting caused by them.
** The [[BugWar Rachni Wars]] were unintentionally started by one of these, when a salarian explorer opened a mass relay leading to the rachni worlds in which he was captured and his ship was reverse engineered. This led to the salarians uplifting the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] to stop the rachni, which led to the krogan rebellions and the [[DepopulationBomb genophage]].
** In response to the above disaster, the Citadel made it illegal to open uncharted mass relays. This led to the First Contact War, when a group of human explorers ran afoul of a turian patrol [[PoorCommunicationKills that didn't bother to explain]] why opening mass relays willy-nilly was a bad idea.
** In the games proper, two separate sidequests in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' involve the discovery of a wrecked exploration vessel.
** ''VIdeoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' features the heroes as this. Though things generally go somewhat badly for them as well. You'll spend a lot of time wading through enemies who got there first and make new allies (who also got there first). But with a bit of determination and a lot of explosions you can carve out a new place for your fellow travellers.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' has the famous explorer Dusknoir who provides some necessary exposition, and the ill-fated legendary explorer Scizor who you can rescue.

* The ''VideoGames/EuropaUniversalis'' games have Conquistadors and Explorers, leaders who specialize in exploring unexplored patches of land and sea respectively. Below a certain military tech level, forces led by them are the ''only'' units capable of revealing provinces and sea zones [[FogOfWar fogged as "Terra Incognita"]].

* In ''VideoGame/CaptainMorganeAndTheGoldenTurtle'', much of the plot consists of following the trail of Buckleberry Tanner, a famous explorer. He was more interested in discovery than profiting from it, giving up a comfortable post as governor to go out exploring again.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'': Many of the in game notes are provided by [[MrExposition Abd al-Hazir]], a Caldeum scholar who traveled across Sanctuary, making notes and descriptions of the things he saw, which prove beneficial to other travelers following after him.
* The Bread and Butter of ''VideoGame/RenownedExplorers''. With a team of three explorers it's the player's goal to discover as much as possible within a certain time frame to become the world's most renowned explorers.
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' backstory, Topal the Pilot was a famous one. An [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] explorer and [[WarriorPoet poet]], he was the first to discover and explore Tamriel during the Merethic Era, encountering primitive versions of the [[CatFolk Khajiit]] and [[LizardFolk Argonians]], as well as a now extinct race of [[BirdPeople bird people]]. His story was compiled into an epic known as ''Father of the Niben'', but [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold most of it was lost over the centuries]].

* The titular Ellie in ''Webcomic/EllieOnPlanetX''.

* What R. H. Talltales from ''WebVideo/WorldsGreatestAdventures'' claims to be. Of course, [[MilesGloriosus your mileage may vary…]]

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Hilda}}'' is the [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue-haired]] girl who's insatiably adventurous. Unfortunately for her, she has to [[CountryMouse move from the wilderness to the city]], but nevertheless seeks out adventure and mystery wherever she can.

* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia Skies of Arcadia'' has [[TheProtagonist Vyse]] [[TheDeterminator Dyne.]] Much of the game centers on his quest to explore all the lands of Arcadia, which is recorded in his [[CaptainsLog journal entries.]] There's even a massive {{sidequest}} to find all 88 hidden discoveries. Vyse also lampshades it, near the beginning of the game, while he [[ChildhoodFriend Aika]], and [[MysteriousWaif Fina]] are watching the sunset on Pirate Isle:

* Subverted in Robert Heinleins ''Literature/TunnelInTheSky''. The creator of the portal network saw a jungle through his portal, picked up a gun and stepped through. And was then arrested by the local police for carrying a gun in a park.

** In response to the above disaster, the Citadel made it illegal to open uncharted mass relays. Ironically this led to the First Contact War, when a group of human explorers ran afoul of a turian patrol [[PoorCommunicationKills that didn't bother to explain]] why opening mass relays willy-nilly was a bad idea.

* ''Franchise/WallaceAndGromit'': In the short film, ''WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut'', Wallace & Gromit are off to explore the moon, which turns out to be made of green cheese.