History Main / DaysOfFuturePast

Despite the title of this page, this trope has nothing to do with the 1967 [[Music/TheMoodyBlues Moody Blues]] album ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Future_Passed Days of Future Passed]]'' (the title of which refers to, well, the ''present'', specifically the course of a single day in a person's life). Nor with the ''Comicbook/XMen'' TimeTravel story arc ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' (although in the original run of the X-Men story, some of the background details imply a degree of technological regression, such as horses pulling a bus, and that timeline had certainly regressed in terms of social equality into an extreme level of segregation and eugenics), or [[Film/XMenDaysofFuturePast the film adaptation of said comic that bears the same name]].

* ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' transplants the cast of the Arthurian mythos into a futuristic Space Opera (among other things). This gives us a setting where medieval kings hold court on their starships, and knights joust with fighter craft, and fight space pirates. Then things get really weird when Merlin, a time traveler, reveals the entirety of Earth's history has been space-opera-fied as well; the earliest history anyone in the setting knows is the Eden Colony formed after the destruction of the theoretical origin planet, and Arthur gets to go back and visit Space Hercules on Planet Greece, plus Space Jesus, Space Noah, and many more.

* The film adaptation of ''Film/{{Dune}}''

* The ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series by Frank Herbert. The neo-medieval nature of the [[AbsentAliens human]] interstellar Imperium was explained in detail in the novels, but handwaved in the [[Film/{{Dune}} film]] and [[Series/{{Dune}} TV miniseries]]. The main historical parallel to the Imperium is the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire of the European Middle Ages, [[CultureChopSuey though elements from various other historical empires, nations and societies]] [[CocaPepsiInc are all over the place...]]

* Piers Anthony's ''Cluster'' series had, as a rule of space colonization, that civilizations would regress in proportion to their distance from the original home planet. ItMakesSenseInContext, up to a point, except that they regressed ''exactly'' back into the history books; X light years away, you had atomic-age planets; further away than that, you had industrial revolution planets; further away than that, you had medieval planets; all the way out to the edge, where you have caveman planets.

* Timothy Zahn's ''Quadrail'' series is a take on the Golden Age of Railroad, only the railroad is built and maintained by mysterious aliens and stretches between star systems.

** Caesar's Legion ([[ItIsPronouncedTropay pronounced]] ''Kai-sar'' by the legionnaires) is a huge slaver nation with the style of dress based on military uniforms of AncientRome. The ranks are also borrowed from Rome: legionnaires and centurions. Of course, by that token Caesar himself should be wearing the imperial purple.
*** It's not Augustus' Legion. Caesar was merely Dictator.

Contrast SchizoTech. See also CrystalSpiresAndTogas. Compare FutureImperfect and AmbiguousTimePeriod.

* The manga ''Anime/{{Grenadier}}'' reveals over time that this is the case, in an AfterTheEnd sense, particularly with the appearance of TheDragon's [[ElectronicEyes Electronic Eye]], and the usage of a solar WaveMotionGun by the BigBad as his ultimate weapon during the final battle.

* ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' followed ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'' in making its futuristic society look like 1950s or early '60s USA in terms of fashion and product design. Officially, this was CulturalTranslation combined with the LiteraryAgentHypothesis: ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' had used 2000s USA fashions and ''Caprica'' was set a few decades before, so the design choices were supposed to put us in the mindset of an earlier era.

* ''Literature/TheDinosaurLords'', while set in world that looks like Medieval-esque Europe (albeit less prudish and more agnostic one) wih dinosaurs, strongly implies that it's in fact the future, with "magic" being ClarkesThirdLaw-abiding tech and Paradise being a colony that regressed technologically. There are even nations such as Spaña, Irysh, Anglysh, Slavia etc.

* ''Film/StarWars'', to a degree (the Jedi code of the warrior and Darth Vader having a [[PuttingOnTheReich part-stahlhelm]] part-samurai helmet).

* ''The Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' series by Creator/AnneMacCaffrey. Pern was settled in Earth's future, but reverted to a technologically inferior mostly feudal society, partly due to the intent of the colonists, and partly due to the scourge of Thread. Most people live in natural and man-made cave systems carved out of cliffs[[note]]Thread can't consume non-living material, and they had neither the resources nor the infrastructure to build metal buildings[[/note]] called Holds. The Lord Holders are in charge of protecting and caring for the people under them, and the position is hereditary. Skilled workers live separately, in Crafthalls, similar to Guilds. The eponymous Dragonriders also live apart from Holders, and have their own system of governing themselves.

* While technologically advanced as you'd expect for the 5000s CE, the society and culture of ''Anime/Gankutsuou'' resembles the 19th-century France of Dumas' original novel -- just with space ships instead of carriages, and nobles' country retreats on other planets. The anime begins with a fancy noble ball ''on the moon.''

* The ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' Series: The Galactic Empire is Imperial Rome, the Foundation-era galaxy is Medieval Europe. The entire arc is explicitly modeled on ''The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''.
* ''The Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' series by Anne [=MacCaffrey=]. Pern was settled in Earth's future, but reverted to a technologically inferior mostly feudal society, partly due to the intent of the colonists, and partly due to the scourge of Thread. Most people live in natural and man-made cave systems carved out of cliffs[[note]]Thread can't consume non-living material, and they had neither the resources nor the infrastructure to build metal buildings[[/note]] called Holds. The Lord Holders are in charge of protecting and caring for the people under them, and the position is hereditary. Skilled workers live separately, in Crafthalls, similar to Guilds. The eponymous Dragonriders also live apart from Holders, and have their own system of governing themselves.

** Caesar's Legion ([[ItsPronouncedTropay pronounced]] ''Kai-sar'' by the legionnaires) is a huge slaver nation with the style of dress based on military uniforms of AncientRome. The ranks are also borrowed from Rome: legionnaires and centurions. Of course, by that token Caesar himself should be wearing the imperial purple.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' takes place in a future in which society has been taken back (or forward?) because [[spoiler: humans have all gathered on a single island that survived the end of the world and erased their memories.]] They are fascinated when machines are brought to them via time travel, and they start off not using money.

* ''Anime/FantasticChildren'' Has this trope. The Greecians bodies are capable of assimilating technology, they can even locate the souls of dead Greecians and humans and beam them back into their respective bodies. What do they fight with? Swords. What do they wear? just about anything medieval. Also, the planet of Greecia is a monarchy. King's word is law, even if it leads to the main problems in the series and makes everybody suffer in the long run. Yep.

* Several societies in Creator/SMStirling[='=]s ''Literature/{{Emberverse}}'' fulfill this trope although it also has a foot in FantasyCounterpartCulture as supernatural elements creep in during the second trilogy. The Clan [=MacKenzie=] is based on a New Age interpretation (much against the liking of its founder) of a Celtic clan, while the Portland Protective Association was deliberately created by an SCA member as a copy of a medieval feudal society with trappings of [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Mordor]]. The oddest example are the Dúnedain Rangers founded by a mildly insane Tolkien fangirl who has a quasi-religious reverence for his books. There are also several "Indian" tribes many of whose members have, at best, only nominal amounts of First Nations ancestry and Norrheim, a Viking style nation founded by Asatru. The Republic of Boise claims to be the successor to the original United States but it's setup is much more like the Roman Republic, especially it's military. Meanwhile over in England "Mad King Charlie" tried to turn what remained of his nation into something of a vast Rennaisance Faire, although his subjects drew the line at Morris dancing.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', which creates what is, overall, a mid-'70s to very-early-'80s atmosphere through its choice of music tracks and it's aesthetic cues for sci-fi.

* ''ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' transplants the cast of the Arthurian mythos into a futuristic Space Opera (among other things). This gives us a setting where medieval kings hold court on their starships, and knights joust with fighter craft, and fight space pirates. Then things get really weird when Merlin, a time traveler, reveals the entirety of Earth's history has been space-opera-fied as well; the earliest history anyone in the setting knows is the Eden Colony formed after the destruction of the theoretical origin planet, and Arthur gets to go back and visit Space Hercules on Planet Greece, plus Space Jesus, Space Noah, and many more.

* The planet Prysmos, the setting for ''Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light'', also falls into this category. The opening scenes of the first episode show how all machines on the planet failed when its Three Suns aligned, though the precise reason this happened is never made clear. Within a few years, the once technologically advanced Prysmosians were living in a medieval-style society, though remnants of the Age of Technology can still be seen.

Contrast SchizoTech. See also CrystalSpiresAndTogas. Compare FutureImperfect.

* An episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' involved the crew stumbling across an Old West town on a planet light years from Earth. It turned out that the inhabitants were the descendants of humans abducted as slave labour by aliens sometime in the 19th century. Though that didn't explain why they hadn't made any cultural, sartorial or scientific advances in the intervening 300 years, despite having alien technology to work with.

# FeudalFuture: In the future, human society will resemble a cross between medieval and early modern Europe, possibly with elements of [[SpaceRomans Imperial Rome]], Imperial China, and feudal Japan. Expect TheEmpire, although it will likely have elements of TheKingdom. Humanity may be united, in which case the parallel is to the Roman or British Empire and you can expect the ruler of humanity to be titled appropriately, or it may have been united in the past and is now descending into barbarism, in which case the parallel is with medieval Europe. Aliens are unlikely, but if present they will probably be a FantasyCounterpartCulture for the Mongol Horde.

* The setting of the ''IronGrip'' games is a [[PlayingWithATrope mostly]] [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy feudal]] SteamPunk LowFantasy world, but it's generally hard to pigeon-hole one or even two single historical eras it resembles the most. In broad terms, it has a blend of culture, architecture, tech and overall atmosphere that wouldn't look out of place in eras as varied as TheMiddleAges, UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar, UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain, UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the decades between them...]] Not only CultureChopSuey, but full-blown [[AnachronismStew Era Chop Suey]] [[RuleOfCool as well]]...

** Most of the primary cast had performed in westerns in the past (DeForestKelley in particular was well-known as a Bad Guy character actor before becoming Dr. [=McCoy=]) and westerns were the most popular shows on television during that period, so it's not surprising that ''Star Trek'' would follow that pattern.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Star Trek Enterprise}}'' involved the crew stumbling across an Old West town on a planet light years from Earth. It turned out that the inhabitants were the descendants of humans abducted as slave labour by aliens sometime in the 19th century. Though that didn't explain why they hadn't made any cultural, sartorial or scientific advances in the intervening 300 years, despite having alien technology to work with.
* ''MaxHeadroom''. Lots of retro items still around (or recreated?) TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.

* The setting of the ''IronGrip'' games is a [[PlayingWithATrope mostly]] [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy feudal]] SteamPunk LowFantasy world, but it's generally hard to pigeon-hole one or even two single historical eras it resembles the most. In broad terms, it has a blend of culture, architecture, tech and overall atmosphere that wouldn't look out of place in eras as varied as TheMiddleAges, TheRenaissance, the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar, UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain, UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the decades between them...]] Not only CultureChopSuey, but full-blown [[AnachronismStew Era Chop Suey]] [[RuleOfCool as well]]...

[[folder:Film]]
* The film adaptation of ''Film/{{Dune}}''