Line #53 Literature/SkylarkSeries


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skylark_of_space_cover_1e.jpg]]
2
3	->''"I'm here to bring you a message: to tell you that humanity has never been conquered permanently and never will be so conquered. Humanity has triumphed and will continue to triumph over all the vermin infesting all the planets of all the solar systems of all the galaxies of all surveyed space."''
4	--> -- Dick Seaton
5
6	The first science fiction series written by Creator/EEDocSmith, better known for his Literature/{{Lensman}} series. Smith started work on ''The Skylark of Space'' in 1916, though he was unable to find a publisher until 1928, making the work arguably the first SpaceOpera, and certainly the first major one.
7
8	Richard Seaton, a chemist, discovers that an unknown extraterrestrial metal ("X") reacts with copper to provide total matter-energy conversion. Seeing the possibilities of this, he and his rich friend Martin Crane (who provides the initial capital) use it to build power stations--and a spacecraft, the "Skylark". The evil Marc [=DuQuesne=], co-worker and collaborator with the highly pragmatic World Steel Corporation, wishes to steal it for himself, and descends to theft, then abducts Seaton's fiancée Dorothy to blackmail Seaton into stepping aside. Seaton and Crane pursue him into space to rescue her, and the story [[{{Pun}} takes off]] from there.
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10	There are four books: ''The Skylark of Space'', ''Skylark Three'', ''Skylark of Valeron'', ''Skylark [=DuQuesne=]''. (The last was written decades after the first three, and it shows.)
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12	----
13	!! The ''Skylark Series'' contains examples of:
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15	* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: The misconception that humans use only 10% of their brains is repeated here.
16	* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Fenachrone look down on all other races, and intend to one day conquer every last one. [[spoiler: Having their whole planet blown up by more advanced races does nothing to alter their mindset, it just makes the few survivors more inclined to patience.]]
17	* AccidentalAstronaut: When Duquesne and Perkins seize Dorothy Vaneman and drag her onto their spacecraft to kidnap her, Perkins makes the mistake of stepping too close to her feet to tie them up. He gets a full-force kick that sends him flying into the controls, turning on the power, and they abruptly take off with enough acceleration to render them all unconscious.
18	* TheAce:
19	** Richard "Dick" Seaton. This guy is a master marksman, tennis champion, hunter, trapper, intergalactic explorer, smiter of evil aliens, ''and'' a he's got a [=PhD=] in chemistry. He's not a bad engineer either. (And he's pretty good at sleight-of-hand...)
20	** [[EvilOverlord DuQuesne]]. Everything that Seaton is (except the tennis and legerdemain), but also WickedCultured and a decent military tactician. In the first book alone, he was steering a starship [[MadeOfIron at 20g acceleration]] and did it well, though he blacked out afterwards. It's noted, however, that Seaton has the edge on him in marksmanship, which makes [=DuQuesne=] unwilling to face off against him directly.
21	* ActionGirl:
22	** Dorothy and Margaret develop into this, especially in the fourth book, where they start packing pistols.
23	** Shiro's wife Lotus Blossom is introduced as being [[WaifFu the deadliest hand-to-hand fighter on Earth]]. The first time that's demonstrated, she responds to an attempted assassination by snapping a man's neck.
24	** [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Sitar of Osnome]], Princess of a ProudWarriorRace, at one point complains at being only able to carry ''two'' guns instead of her usual arsenal.
25	** Kay-Lee from ''Skylark [=DuQuesne=]'' is also an example. In fact, most of the above examples happened in that book.
26	* ActualPacifist: The Norlaminians would choose to let themselves be killed or enslaved, rather than kill others. Fortunately, they don't mind arming their more warlike allies.
27	* AlienInvasion:
28	** Lots and lots of them; though Earth doesn't get hit, all sorts of aliens plan to take over one planet or another, leading to a variety of interplanetary and interstellar wars.
29	** Earth ''does'' get conquered temporarily during ''Skylark of Valeron'', but it's by another human: [[spoiler: [=DuQuesne=]]].
30	* TheAlliance: Seaton and Crane create one of these to fight off the Fenachrone, by visiting all the inhabitable planets in Osnome's system, to convince the locals to join them in their cause. Most wind up hailing Seaton as their "Overlord".
31	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Mardonalians, the Fenachrone, the pure intellectuals, and the Chlorans. All are genocidal militarists, and any internal conflict is about how to most efficiently subjugate the rest of the universe, not whether to do so at all. The trope is also subverted by all the really militaristic aliens who undergo {{Heel Face Turn}}s and join the heroes.
32	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Besides the examples where ScienceMarchesOn, there are a few places where Smith violates even the physics that were well-established by the time the first book was written:
33	** The first book has the ''Skylark'' accelerate away from the Earth at about 12''g''s. It reaches three times the speed of light inside about 20 minutes. Even if we assume that Einstein's Theory of Relativity is wrong and that one can keep accelerating without bound, it would take ''three months'' to accelerate to three times the speed of light at 12''g''. (To do it in 20 minutes would require an acceleration of 75,000''g''.)
34	*** Note: the acceleration ''felt by the protagonists'' is 12''g''. It's made very clear in the dialogue describing the ship that the actual accelerations are vastly higher, and special designs were made for the ship to allow people to survive the actual forces. Smith's description of the acceleration ("acceleration of several lights", in which he means "light-speeds") is mangled, but one can figure out what he meant by it, if one goes through the few numbers provided--and it is in fact something monstrously high (over a hundred thousand ''g''s). Basically, Smith was describing InertialDampening before he came up with a much superior version, which he used in the Literature/{{Lensman}} series. See also note under Science Marches On.
35	** Even if we assume that the ''Skylark'' really was accelerating at 75,000''g'', and that relativistic mass/time dilation doesn't happen, there's still the problem that the ship has far more kinetic energy than could possibly be supplied by the mass-to-energy conversion of a few pounds of copper. In a purely Newtonian universe where a spaceship's kinetic energy is always 1/2 ''m'' ''v''[[superscript:2]] no matter its speed, at three times the speed of light the ship's kinetic energy would be equal to ''4.5 times its own mass'' multiplied by ''c'' squared. You'd have to convert 4.5 Skylark masses' worth of copper into energy, to accelerate to that speed. (To say nothing of the mass you'd have to convert to energy to slow back down--unless a "free" or "energy-recovering" form of space braking existed in the Skylark universe, which I wouldn't put past Doc Smith.)
36	** The only way to "make sense" of the acceleration figures is simply to invoke this trope and/or RuleOfCool and avoid analysing them; they are too inconsistent to withstand analysis--not Smith's usual style, but then this was his first book. The measures taken to enable the crew to withstand the acceleration are purely mechanical shock-absorber type devices, which in reality would no more solve the problem than they would in the case of Verne's cannon. There is no mention of anything truly effective until the second book when they copy the Fenachrone drive system which applies its force to all parts of the ship equally (similar to gravity) instead of transmitting the force through the ship's structure. A further problem is that the ship simply does not carry enough energy to accelerate itself to such speeds. The Einsteinian rest mass energy equivalent of a given mass is equal to the Newtonian kinetic energy of that same mass travelling at c root 2; given that the ship has a much greater mass than the power bars it carries, it clearly doesn't have the wellie to attain more than a fraction of the speed of light, even in a purely Newtonian universe.
37	** Since the "science" eventually makes clear that the energy liberation from Metal X acting on copper (and also in the presence of the radiation fields of an unspecified advanced accelerator) includes a gravitational component, it is possible that the drive incidentally induced an Alcubierre-type warp that met the described acceleration properties relative to real space, but with residual gravitational forces commensurate with the experienced in-ship accelerations (though there is definitely an overwhelming RuleOfCool basis to the design). As noted, the perfected design of ''Skylark Three'' canceled the residual forces to provide weightlessness, and the ultimate design of the ''Skylark of Valeron'' allowed artificial gravity of any reasonable desired level. (Note that the gravity was reduced to Osnomian nomral when Dunark and Sitar were on board.)
38	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: The pure intellectuals transform [=DuQuesne=] into one of them; he is later returned to human form.
39	* AsYouKnow: Dunark gives an InfoDump (which uses this very phrase) about his planet to Seaton, who has just received all knowledge of said planet via AppliedPhlebotinum and thus knows all of this anyway. Subverted in that the InfoDump is still necessary; Seaton's memory is still struggling to index the huge mass of material that just got shoved into it all at once, and having someone verbally walk him through an executive summary of it helps the process.
40	* CallASmeerpARabbit: Occasionally the narration will describe really alien fauna in terms of Earth life, such as the dinosaur-like beasts on "Planet X", and sometimes will {{Lampshade}} it.
41	* Catch22Dilemma: The Norlaminians are stuck technologically because their planet utterly lacks metal X, which is essential to put their advanced theory into practice. They do know of a source of X in another solar system, but all expeditions to reach it using rockets have failed, and to build a superior atomic-powered craft would require the use of X. Though they can project themselves to other planets of their solar system, they cannot travel between stars this way, since that also requires metal X. As a result, they're very pleased by the arrival of the Skylark, which will allow them to break out of their dilemma and start a revolution in applied science (although for them, that's mostly building more powerful tools to do even more research).
42	* CharacterExaggeration: Seaton's use of slang, and his impulsiveness, is exaggerated while on Norlamin, to provide a greater contrast between the young humanity and the OlderAndWiser Norlaminians.
43	* ChekhovsGun: The education machine. At first it's just used so that Seaton knows enough about Osnome to befriend Dunark and side with Kondal in the war, but starting from ''Skylark Three'' he really starts to put it to good use, gathering knowledge from various species in order to create a defense against the much further advanced Fenachrone.
44	** [[spoiler:After a three book absence, Seaton's X-plosive gun returns to bring the house down in ''[=DuQuesne=]''.]]
45	* {{Chronoscope}}: Used to check whether any of the Fenachrone had escaped their planet before it was destroyed.
46	* CoolStarship: The Skylark, especially after it is renovated.
47	* DeadpanSnarker: [[IronicNickname "Baby Doll"]] Loring, [=DuQuesne=]'s second [[TheDragon Dragon]], after Perkins's death. After he and [=DuQuesne=] commandeer an alien ship which could vaporize their own craft in seconds (which they actually do, as a test), he says that their new vessel is [[SarcasmMode so delicate and harmless]] that they should name it the ''Violet''.
48	* DirtyBusiness: The reaction most of the humans have to [[spoiler:completely exterminating the Fenachrone]]. However, despite Seaton saying he doesn't have the stomach for the act before doing so, and feeling bad about it after [[spoiler:blowing up their planet]], he is visibly angry when he finds out that he has to delay it for a short time. Possibly because it means he can't just get it over with.
49	* DistantFinale: Actually in ''Skylark Three'', even though it's only the second book of the series. The epilogue is set many thousands of years in the future, after TheAlliance has grown into a Galaxy-spanning civilization, [[GenerationXerox ruled by Seaton's distant descendant]]. Apparently they celebrate the anniversary of the Fenachrone's destruction with [[ShowWithinAShow a film recounting Seaton's exploits]] --[[UnreliableNarrator which actually justifies some of the story's]] dissonant morality.
50	* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler:The home world of the Fenachrone]] is turned into a second sun.
51	* EasyEvangelism: Seaton is able to get [[spoiler:the Osnomians and the Urvanians]] to stop their war just by [[GunboatDiplomacy threatening to wipe them out]], but it's really the speed at which the ambassadors start to befriend one another that makes it this trope. They do mention that they couldn't submit without being dominated by him first, though.
52	* {{Egopolis}}:
53	** Mild case with [=DuQuesne=]'s starships: the ''Capital D'' and the ''DQ'', although it could be argued that since [=DuQuesne=]'s ultimate aim is to destroy Seaton, it's natural for him to want a ship which is at least as powerful and preferably more so.
54	** Also, Urvania is apparently named after its leader, Urvan.
55	* EldritchAbomination: The Chlorans.
56	* EnemyMine: [=DuQuesne=] and Seaton, despite being bitter foes, work together at times against really nasty alien threats.
57	* EnergyBeings: The "pure intellectuals" -- immortal creatures made of thought. Arguably [[Franchise/StarTrek the Q continuum]] by any other name, except Smith did it first.[[note]]"Smith did it first" is a fairly safe bet in an awful lot of SF tropes, if Wells and Verne didn't get there before him. Arthur C. Clarke stated outright that "Smith holds all the original ''Star Wars'' patents", and he was sufficiently well informed about SF in general (as well as being personally acquainted with or a direct contemporary of many of its greats) that there seems little reason to doubt him.[[/note]]
58	* EntertaininglyWrong: When [=DuQuesne=] returns to Osnome in secret in ''Skylark Three'' to steal a warship, he sees a battle on the planet, which he thinks is the Kondalians finishing the Mardonalians off. It's actually the war against Urvania, but he has no way of knowing that.
59	* EveryoneIsArmed: By ''Skylark [=DuQuesne=]'', all the heroes are in the habit of going constantly armed... and need to. Even as early as ''Skylark Three'', they [[TwentyFourHourArmor wear armor whenever they are out in public]] in order to defend themselves against [=DuQuesne=]'s minions.
60	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even [=DuQuesne=] is disgusted by Perkins, [[PragmaticVillainy but that doesn't stop him from using Perkins in his plan]]. He also tends to keep his sworn word, though he otherwise lies freely.
61	* EvilVersusEvil: [=DuQuesne=] versus the Fenachrone. His conversation with a Fenachrone soldier is just dripping with EvilerThanThou, with both intending to backstab the other the moment the opportunity presents itself. The only reason he doesn't kill the alien on sight is because he could potentially use him to kill Seaton. Note that his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, in which he points out that the Fenachrone are basically a race of sociopaths, [[HypocriticalHumor applies almost as much to DuQuesne himself]]. He's just better at it, because he has the humility to know when he's licked.
62	* EvolutionaryLevels: The Kondalians believe in this. No one calls them on it, so this belief may be intended as correct InUniverse.
63	* ExpansionPackWorld: In ''Skylark Three'' we learn that Osnome is just one inhabited planet in a solar system[[note]]or more accurately, small stellar cluster,[[/note]] containing literally hundreds of worlds, which have the same culture and ProudWarriorRace attitudes. Since the planets have some level of contact before the heroes arrive, this introduces some FridgeLogic into the Kondal-Mardonale feud. It is later explained that the reason why the Urvanians did not try to conquer Osnome while it was divided was because none of those planets have access to metal X, which allows essentially free space flight; they could only launch rockets, which greatly limited their options.
64	* FantasticRacism:
65	** Kondalians believe that they are superior to Mardonalians, and vice-versa. [[ValuesDissonance Note that the Kondalians are among the good guys.]]
66	** The Fenachrone believe that they are superior to ''[[AbsoluteXenophobe everybody]]''. This extends to calling themselves "supermen" and believing that no other species stands a chance against their military might. To be fair, they're right about that second part before the LensmanArmsRace starts.
67	* FasterThanLightTravel: Accomplished by the simple notion that, hey, Einstein was wrong. (They accelerate away from earth, and before they know it, they're going 3 times the speed of light!)
68	** Which is odd, because the conversion of mass into energy -- the principle on which Metal X operates -- is a direct consequence of Einsteinian relativity.
69	** {{Lampshaded}} in dialogue, in the revised edition:
70	--->'''Crane:''' Three hundred and fifty million miles [in twenty minutes]. Half-way out of the solar system. That means a constant acceleration of about one light.
71	--->'''Seaton:''' Nothing ''can'' go that fast, Mart. E equals M C square.
72	--->'''Crane:''' Einstein's Theory is still a theory. This distance is an observed fact.
73	--->'''Seaton:''' And theories are modified to fit facts. Hokay.
74	** Lampshaded even more in the original edition; when discussing the ship's performance potential Seaton explicitly states that Einstein's theory will limit their speed to no more than c, and the original version of the above quote has him sounding rather more surprised to find this violated than in the revised version.
75	* TheFatalist: Orlon's first reaction to hearing about the Fenachrone is that Norlamin will inevitably be conquered and that there is nothing that can be done, because his species would only put up passive resistance. Amusingly, when Seaton gets him to help anyway, he suddenly says that the Fenachrone are fated to fail.
76	* FauxAffablyEvil: As badass and intelligent as [=DuQuesne=] is, and even though he is willing to enter an EnemyMine situation when he needs it, it doesn't change the fact that his goal is to ''kill'' Seaton [[EvilIsPetty in order to have a monopoly on metal X]]. [[spoiler:He eventually gives up on that goal simply because the knowledge spreads so widely that monopoly becomes impossible.]]
77	* FishPeople: The Dasorians are a race of marine mammals who resemble porpoises. The Norlaminians once offered them the option of settling on their own planet, thinking it would solve their stagnation, only for them to refuse, because they cannot abide the land.
78	* GenerationShip: The Party of Postponement try to escape the Fenachrone's home world in one of these. They have enough supplies to last a century, and they intend to settle in as distant a galaxy as possible. The heroes kill them all anyway.
79	* {{Gonk}}: Shiro is illustrated as having vastly disproportionate limbs. It is worth noting, however, that he is never described in that way in the text. There is only an illustration, and that is most likely misplaced in the text and actually shows Seaton dealing with a surviving Fenachrone he rescued from the wreck of his ship. The Fenachrone ''are'' described as having extremely short, stumpy legs, [[HeavyWorlder due to the high gravity on their world]].
80	* GoodIsNotSoft: Played with. Seaton and his compatriots are [[IncorruptiblePurePureness utterly incorruptible and courteous to everyone]], but they also won't hesitate to [[FinalSolution systematically wipe out your species]] if you threaten Earth.
81	* GravitySucks: [=DuQuesne's=] ship is caught in the pull of a dead star. Notably it induces a sickening sensation of ''falling'' even though the characters are now used to freefall.
82	* GuiltFreeExterminationWar:
83	** Kondal and Mardonale are in the middle of one at the time of FirstContact. Also, the heroes get involved in these against the "evil" races and the same fate is planned for the Urvanians before the existence of the Fenachrone changes the dynamic. Given that the Fenachrone and Chlorans have no problem doing it to others, the heroes' willingness to go to this extreme is at least understandable.
84	** In sorting out the feud between the Osnomians and the Urvanians, Dick Seaton gives both sides the exact same knowledge of Fenachrone technology. Then he tells them to set aside their differences, promising to exterminate whichever race survives the war if they don't. Somewhat subverted in that he expects that if they do go to war the Osnomians will lose, and while he doesn't want to eradicate the Osnomians (currently allies and close friends), he would have no problem eradicating the Urvanians (who are complete strangers).
85	* HardLight: Produced by higher-order projectors.
86	* HaveAGayOldTime: The series was published in the 1920s, so it should be expected that the hero is called "Dick" and the word "gay" is used to mean "carefree", but it is kind of jarring to read the word "boner" being used to mean "mistake".
87	** This exchange from the first book takes on a new meaning thanks to this:
88	--->"[The creature] seems to [...] have within itself the possibilities of both bisexual and asexual reproduction."\
89	"I wouldn't doubt it—it's a queer one, all right."
90	* HeavyWorlder:
91	** The Fenachrone are described as being quite blocky, due to their planet being much larger than Earth. It doesn't usually matter much, though, since they fight with advanced technology rather than physical strength.
92	** Inverted with many of the Green System races, whose planets are smaller than Earth, and who are consequently much weaker -- although unlike a typical {{Lightworlder}}, they are not especially tall or slender. For extra irony, the Osnomians have a strict meritocracy where the ruling family must be the peak of physical perfection, and will be deposed if another family is fitter, but their adults are only as strong as human children.
93	* HigherTechSpecies: [[UnbuiltTrope Smith actually put more thought into this than most later writers would]]--the reason that the majority of alien species in the series are more advanced than humanity, but haven't spread out to conquer the whole Galaxy, even though FasterThanLightTravel is so easy in this setting that humans figure it out before rocketry, is because to do so is dependent on a material so rare that most star systems completely lack it. If Seaton had not stumbled upon metal X by chance, then humans would not have worked out CasualInterstellarTravel either. Without this, the Dasorians and Norlaminians advanced as far as they could before their civilizations' power requirements stagnated them.
94	* HowDoIShotWeb: Seaton has trouble using the fourth order projector at first; he would often miss his target by light-years.
95	* HumanAliens: Many. In this series, humanlike intelligent species naturally develop on Earthlike planets. At least it's {{lampshaded}} that the heroes find this odd, and at one point Seaton does speculate that StarfishAliens exist, but on planets that are completely uninhabitable to humans (and which the Skylark crew has consequently not bothered to visit). He's eventually proved right when they encounter a species of chlorine-breathing amoebas.
96	** RubberForeheadAliens: Some of them are distinctive enough to fall into this category rather than plain HumanAliens.
97	* IgnoredEpiphany: [=DuQuesne=] has a whole conversation with Loring about how the Earth is just an InsignificantLittleBluePlanet in the vastness of the universe, but he's still hung up on getting his revenge on Seaton and ruling Earth, even though it would be pointless.
98	* IgnoredExpert: After, [[spoiler:the heroes give their ultimatum to the Fenachrone]], their Emperor is furious, and refuses to give in to the demands. A Fenachrone scientist, Ravindau, tells him to his face that [[spoiler: he has doomed them all]], because Seaton has far more advanced technology than they. Predictably, the Emperor flies into a rage and accuses Ravindau of treason, and Ravindau only survives by [[spoiler:killing the Emperor before the latter can kill him]].
99	* IncrediblyLamePun: The first AppliedPhlebotinum in the series is not given a name, but just designated "X". Bullets made from it are called "X-plosive". [[DontExplainTheJoke Geddit?]]
100	* JapaneseRanguage: Shiro, Seaton's Japanese cook, speaks this way in the first book and part of the second, but then learns proper English thanks to alien phlebotinum.
101	* LensmanArmsRace: '''So much''' that it arguably makes the trope namer - and Skylark's successor series - look ''restrained''. From steel hulls to impenetrable armor made of the alien material "inoson"; from simple explosive projectiles to insanely powerful beam weapons (and various types of 'projectors', which are very versatile). From a ship 40 feet across to one a thousand miles in diameter. Whole ''galaxies'' are embroiled in battle eventually.
102	** Lampshaded when Dorothy asks Seaton why he isn't using copper shells against an enemy, and he informs her that explosive copper would be like candy kisses compared to the weapons both sides are now using.
103	** You meant to say [[spoiler:that entire galaxies are [[IncrediblyLamePun BROILED]] in battle. The Skylark of Valeron destroys two galaxies simultaneously while saving all the oxygen-breathing planets from both by moving them to the third galaxy]].
104	* MagicCompass: It's possible to create an "object compass" which, once attuned to something, will always point towards it.
105	* MessianicArchetype: The Norlaminians are unfortunate enough to live on a planet with hardly any resources, meaning that they can never leave their planet. However, they have still somehow managed to deduce the existence of a material which makes space travel possible, and their religion teaches that one day, an alien will arrive and give it to them. So when Seaton asks them for help, they agree because they think that he is that figure.
106	* MidSeasonUpgrade: The heroes start with the first ''Skylark'', which first gets upgraded in the middle of the first book when they land on Osnome, and then gets upgraded again in the eponymous ''Skylark Three'' when they first encounter the [[KnightOfCerebus Fenachrone]]. Once they arrive on Norlamin and give the natives the material they need to put their theories into practice, the ''Skylark'' is upgraded yet again, and can destroy entire armies with ease.
107	* MindOverMatter: The ultimate expression both of sentient life within the universe (the Immortals) and Dick Seaton's research.
108	* MindReadingMachine: Used by Seaton and the Kondalians to learn each other's language. It can even be used on a dead brain!
109	** Though not indefinitely on the last one. Dead brains decay eventually.
110	** The educator can also be used to take thoughts against the wearer's will, [[MindRape and worse.]] Seaton describes its potential darker side as "making the Inquisition look like a petting party."
111	*** This is also ''demonstrated'' when they [[IDidWhatIHadToDo use it]] to interrogate the captain of a scout vessel from the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Empire of the Fenachrone]].
112	* MundaneUtility: "X" metal releases enough energy from copper to make interstellar travel feasible, but what Duquesne and World Steel really want it for is cheap electricity generation.
113	* MyBrainIsBig: The Norlaminians' brains are about three times the size of a human's.
114	* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Played with. Ravindau is the only named Fenachrone who doesn't think that his species is invincible, but he is still just as warmongering and genocidal as all the others.
115	* NameOfCain: Marc [=DuQuesne=]'s name is a relatively subtle pun[[note]]compared to some other examples, like [[ComicBook/XMen Cain Marko]][[/note]] on "mark of Cain".
116	* NoBiochemicalBarriers:
117	** Played with in a bizarre way. The heroes land on a planet, Osnome, which contains a high concentration of heavy elements. Thus, Seaton and [=DuQuesne=] refuse to eat any food they are offered before they test it. However, Seaton then gives the Emperor of Mardonale salt and pepper, at a point when he doesn't know anything about ''his'' biochemistry. Apparently the barriers only work one way.
118	** In later books, there is always an explanatory paragraph where the aliens give the heroes only food that they have specially synthesized to be safe.
119	* NotRareOverThere: On Earth, salt is the major solute in the oceans. On Osnome, sodium chloride is the very rarest chemical on the planet, so the Osnomian characters are fascinated by Seaton holding a salt shaker which he uses for food seasoning. [[spoiler:Sodium chloride is a necessary chemical in the treatment process of Osnomian superweapons, and Seaton gave some to [[BigBad Nalboon]] none the wiser, leading to the conflict of the first book’s second half.]]
120	* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: The second book is confusingly called ''Skylark Three''.
121	* {{Omniglot}}: Dorothy fulfills this role ([[LensmanArmsRace for all of one day]]) until the heroes gain access to TranslatorMicrobes.
122	* PlanetSpaceship: Drs. Seaton and Crane build a 1000 miles diameter spaceship called the Skylark of Valeron. Its size was needed to house the sensors required to travel at its full velocity. Later, their rival Dr. [=DuQuesne=] builds an even bigger ship.
123	* PowerCopying: The Osnomian educator can give the heroes absolute knowledge of someone else's brain, allowing them to [[LensmanArmsRace pick up foreign technologies]] really fast.
124	* PragmaticVillainy: This is how [=DuQuesne=] operates. In the first book, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even he is disgusted]] by [[TheDragon Perkins]] mistreating their captives ForTheEvulz... not because it is morally wrong, but because it's a waste of time.
125	* ProjectedMan: The HardLight version; this is achieved by using the higher "order" projectors. Possibly the UrExample.
126	* ProudWarriorRace: The Osnomians. The Urvanians and the Fenachrone also qualify, even though the latter are the enemy (as are the former, temporarily).
127	* PsychicPowers: The highest level technology (sixth-order) depends on the manipulation of thought, essentially creating psychic powers via technology.
128	* PunyParachute: [=DuQuesne's=] bail-out over Panama using an Osnomian (low gravity, high air density) parachute.
129	* ReactionlessDrive: When metal X is used to convert matter into energy, that energy can be released as explosive force (as in the case of the X-plosive bullets), or it can be used to drive a starship. When used for the latter, no exhaust is produced--the released energy is "just added onto" the kinetic energy of the ship. (Actually, Smith wasn't even ''that'' specific. The ship just "goes.")
130	* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Rovol has little patience for Seaton's unwillingness to relax. When Seaton tells Crane that talking about their work is forbidden while the Norlaminians are on break, Rovol scolds him the way one would a child.
131	* TheSociopath: Both [=DuQuesne=] and Perkins, but in different ways; the former is WickedCultured and the latter is TheBrute. Loring sits somewhere between the two.
132	* SpaceAgeStasis:
133	** The Dasorians and the Norlaminians are both stuck here. They have advanced their technology as far as they can, but, despite their scientific knowledge being far above that of Earth (particularly among the Norlaminians) they can advance their technology no further, because they lack the metal X/Rovolon, which is needed to provide the necessary amount of power. Thus, they are quite grateful when the ''Skylark'', which is powered by the metal, shows up on their planets.
134	Kondal and [[TheEmpire Mardonale]] have been continuously at war for approximately ''six thousand years''--[[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale about as long as Earth civilization has existed]]--and there is no indication that their societies or cultures have changed at all during that time.
135	* SpaceElves: The Norlaminians, and to a lesser extent, the Dasorians. Unlike the other species in their system, they are PerfectPacifistPeople who simply desire knowledge, and the only reason they have not spread throughout space is because they lack the resources to power a spacecraft. The Norlaminians in particular are said to have millions of years of scientific knowledge ahead of humanity, and follow a mystical philosophy. Both species are immediately friendly to Seaton and crew, and the Norlaminians tried to help the Dasorians out in the past.
136	* SpheroidDropship: The Skylarks are probably {{UrExample}}s of this trope.
137	* TheStarscream: Ravindau, of the Fenachrone. After he uses science to deduce that [[spoiler:Seaton's threat is not a bluff, and they truly are capable of exterminating the Fenachrone]], he criticizes the Emperor, telling him that his arrogance and short-sightedness has doomed their race. But since the Emperor's mind is made up, [[spoiler:he commits regicide]] so that his own plan to save a remnant of their civilization will not be overruled.
138	* StatuesqueStunner: Stephanie "Hunkie" [=DeMarigny=], [=DuQuesne=]'s eventual LoveInterest, is noted to be attractive, yes, but above all ''striking''.
139	* SubmersibleSpaceship: Early atomic-powered spacecraft, which have no exhaust trail and can change direction rapidly, tend to be heavily armored spheres, and by book two, they're using FantasyMetals. The pressure of the ocean is nothing compared to what they regularly face in combat. When the Skylark visits the world of Dasor, which has very little landmass above sea level, Margaret worries for a moment before remembering that the ship works just as well in water as in space.
140	* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: The Norlaminians, even ''before'' they get their hands on metal X. Rovol doesn't need to use any tools at all, because the laboratory suffuses the environment with rays that do most of the work. Compared to him, Seaton's ([=PhD=]-level) understanding of chemistry is like a schoolboy's.
141	* TechnologyLevels: Averted with the people of Osnome, who are more advanced than Earth in mechanics, but less advanced in chemistry.
142	* ThatsNoMoon: The ''Skylark of Valeron'' is a spaceship a thousand miles in diameter, and the DQ slightly larger.
143	* ToThePain: Before the events of ''Skylark Three'', a Fenachrone ship captured a Kondalian ship, and told the crew exactly how they and their species would be tortured in horrible ways, before killing them.
144	* TwoOfYourEarthMinutes: After capturing a Fenachrone officer and learning that the Fenachrone are likely to attack Earth in retaliation, Seaton has to torture him into revealing how much time they have. Then he has to find the officer's timepiece, and use a stopwatch to work out how many Earth seconds the dials represent, and do some quick maths to figure out what "two tenths of a year" actually means.
145	* {{Unobtainium}}: [[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/arenak.html Arenak]], Dagal, and Inoson. Super tough, super hard, super temperature resistant materials, at least two of which are transparent.
146	** Inoson (or "isonon," the spelling seems to vary) is described as a ''gleaming purple'' in its raw form, though doubtless Seaton can paint his ship any color he likes.
147	*** It is also described as the "theoretical ultimate" in material durability. Then one might consider that this setting uses degenerate matter for the focal lenses of their [[strike: lasers]] heat rays...
148	** The metal X is also a kind of Unobtainium, having the power to convert copper--or other metals; Skylark Two is powered by activated uranium, since Rovinol can be used to activate other metals by changing the excitation frequency--completely into energy--without destroying any of the metal X in the process.
149	** Then there is the faidon, a substance described as "crystallised ether" (in modern terms, basically crystallised space). It passes no ordinary vibrations, and is used as an outer shell for the focusing lens at the heart of Seaton's fifth-order projector. Inside that lens is material from the CORE of a white dwarf star, which is also the only environment in which the faidon is at all malleable.
150	* WhatTheHellHero: At the beginning of ''Skylark Three'', Dorothy and Margaret are horrified when they find out that Dunark has come to get supplies in order to commit genocide against an invading species. However, [[ValuesDissonance Seaton and Crane say that it's either the Osnomians or their enemies]]. [[spoiler:But when Seaton actually arrives at the planet, he tells the natives that they and Osnome must put aside their differences in order to have a chance against the Fenachrone. In fairness, he had access to Fenachrone technology by then, so UsefulNotes/PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower was on the table.]]
151	* WickedCultured: [=DuQuesne=] is exceptionally intellectual, and a ruthless scientist with a symbiotic relationship with [[MegaCorp World Steel Corporation]].
152

Context Literature / SkylarkSeries