Line #2 Main/SpiceOfLife


1	->''"The spice must flow."''
2	-->-- ''Film/Dune1984''
3
4	SpaceIsAnOcean for all science fiction and it shows with [[TwoDSpace two-dimensional space]] and {{Space Whale}}s. So what do we need to round things out?
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6	Spices. Extremely valuable ''{{space\|X}}'' spices.[[note]][[{{Portmanteau}} "Spaices"]], if you will.[[/note]]
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8	For some reason, all kinds of futures have a high demand for something called "spice", though it tends to be only tenuously related to flavorings on Earth. Space spice is usually a food or FantasticDrug but, depending on the story, can do other things such as fuel starships or act as a SuperSerum. It's often a MineralMacGuffin, sometimes being [[NoBloodForPhlebotinum the point of contention for all known nations and traders]]. Sometimes controlling it will allow you to control people's fates, either sociopolitically or magically. But it might just be a valuable trade commodity.
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10	The idea of a rare, extremely valuable product that cannot be synthesized artificially (along with reasonably CasualInterstellarTravel) serves as a justification for otherwise-economically-dubious interstellar trade, which is necessary for many standard SpaceOpera tropes such as [[IntrepidMerchant independent traders]], {{merchant prince}}s, [[VenturousSmuggler smugglers]], [[SpacePirates pirates]], trade convoys and so on.
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12	This trope probably derives from the historical Eurasian spice trade, which was enormously valuable for centuries and a major motivator of European maritime exploration in the Age of Discovery. When Magellan's fleet circumnavigated the globe in the 1500s and only ''one'' ship out of five made it back, that ship's cargo of cloves and cinnamon was enough to repay all of the expedition's backers. The idea of spice possessing or bestowing unusual powers is likewise rooted in historical practice, as many spices were particularly valued for their purported ritual or medicinal applications.
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14	See also AlienCatnip.
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16	----
17	!!Examples:
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19	[[foldercontrol]]
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21	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
22	* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
23	** ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIVANewHope'': Han Solo is in debt to Jabba the Hutt due to jettisoning a shipment of spice he was supposed to be transporting to keep it from being seized by TheEmpire. His spice was apparently some kind of drug. As with a number of other elements in the movies, this is ultimately inspired by ''Franchise/{{Dune}}''.
24	** ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIAttackOfTheClones'': Spice miners on the moons of Naboo are the primary suspects of Padme's assassination attempt, until Obi-Wan finds the real culprits.
25	** ''Film/SoloAStarWarsStory'': A large portion of the film takes place on a planet dedicated to the production of spice. They're an equivalent of salt mines RecycledInSpace in that they're a dangerous hellhole using slave labor.
26	[[/folder]]
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28	[[folder:Literature]]
29	* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', the TropeMaker (also counts for the [[Film/Dune1984 1984]], [[Film/Dune2021 2021]]-[[Film/DunePartTwo 2023]] films and ''Series/FrankHerbertsDune''). Spice is produced only by the {{sand worm}}s of Arrakis, making the planet the most strategically important planet in the galaxy. The spice [[SuperSerum gives]] various psychic organizations their [[PsychicPowers abilities]], and allows (safe[[note]]The actual FTL mechanism itself doesn't require spice, but due to an ancient prohibition on computing power, the navigators need it in order to foresee the "safe" path through foldspace - otherwise, they run the risk of never emerging from the jump[[/note]]) use of the setting's manual [[FasterThanLightTravel FTL travel]]. Since it also extends life somewhat, nearly the entire ruling class takes some occasionally (often consumed as flavoring -- the taste is described as somewhat similar to cinnamon). Addiction is rare off Arrakis -- on Arrakis, Spice is ''everywhere'', even if in concentrations too small for mining. This leads to an interesting case of irony. . . off Arrakis, the blue-within-blue eyes that signify Spice addiction are rare and a sign of either great personal wealth or having a very wealthy benefactor, as Piter [=DeVries=] is a Spice addict supplied by his master, Baron Harkonnen. On Arrakis, not having the Eyes of Ibad is a sign that you're wealthy enough to have most of what you consume imported, and thus free from Spice. And withdrawal is fatal. Painfully. Critics generally see the spice as a metaphor for oil, making the Fremen Space Arabs.
30	* ''Literature/PolesotechnicLeague'': Nicolas van Rijn heads the Solar Spice and Liquors Company. Of course, Old Nick has his pudgy (but very strong) fingers in a lot of other profitable endeavors, as well.
31	* ''Literature/SpaceCaptainSmith'': The second novel, ''God-Emperor of Didcot'', is by and large one long parody of Dune, with ''Tea'' taking the place of Melange. Yes, the brown stuff in a cup with milk and two sugars. Apparently [[BritsLoveTea it's what gives the British Space Empire the edge over everyone else]]. It Builds Moral Fibre, old boy. Very important.
32	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Several versions of spice exist, and many, but by no means all, are mined. The most expensive and worst is the "glitterstim" Han was running for Jabba. It's a drug from the planet Kessel that makes people both high and (in concentration) mildly telepathic, as well as paranoid and twitchy. "Glit biters" is an in-universe term for people who take the pure form.
33	** ''Literature/XWingSeries'': The Rogues have to talk to a glitbiter -- someone who regularly takes glitterstim and shows it -- via hologram, and the glitbiter apparently forgets that he's using a hologram. Glitterstim telepathy doesn't work on someone who's aware of the glitbiter's ability and hostile, so because this guy can't read Rogue Leader, he gets defensive.
34	** ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' introduces a second type of spice, ryll, which is more common and named for the Twi'lek world of Ryloth where it was generally found.
35	** Andris spice is another variety from Kessel. It acts as a stimulant and sharpens concentration. In the ''Literature/YoungJediKnights'' series, an andris addict is reasonably proficient with a [[LaserBlade lightsaber]] due to her habit, even though she's not Force-sensitive.
36	** ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': It's stated spice is legal, just so expensive due to the Empire's monopoly over its mining for smuggling to be very profitable.
37	* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'': Ordinary ginger turns out to be an addictive drug [[spoiler:and aphrodisiac]] to the vaguely reptilian members of the Race. The setting isn't SpaceOpera, but trade ends up developing fast.
38	* ''Literature/KnownSpace'': Boosterspice is engineered from an alien plant and stops the human aging process, [[ImmortalityInducer letting people live indefinitely if taken regularly]].
39	[[/folder]]
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41	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
42	* The 1984 ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "The Caves of Androzani" featured a textbook example ("spectrox", a life-prolonging substance), with the added twist that the unrefined stuff was extremely toxic.
43	* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'':
44	** Regular spices are prized as much as they were in olden times due to the bland flavor of packaged protein that most space crews eat. Shepherd Book notes "A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgment Day if he's got enough rosemary."
45	** Given that apples, tomatoes, and strawberries are treated by the crew as rare and wondrous delicacies, one can assume that even modern common spices are prohibitively expensive for the average spacefarer. The supplemental material indicates this to be the case.
46	* In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', the ''Enterprise'' trades a rack of Earth spices for the recipe for [[{{Unobtanium}} Trellium-D]]. {{Justified\|Trope}} as the ''Enterprise'' was extremely far from Earth, making Earth spices effectively irreplaceable (and therefore quite valuable). When selling the trader on the deal, an Enterprise crewmate remarks: "On our planet, wars were fought over these."
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49	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
50	* ''TabletopGame/Space1889'' has bhutan. Not the country. It's a mildly narcotic Martian spice, perhaps Mars's third most important export. Monopolized by the Boreo-Syrtan League.
51	* In SPI's ''Star Trader'', "spice" is one of the four commodities the players trade in, alongside alloys, isotopes and monopolies.
52	* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'':
53	** Downplayed. There are a lot of exotic products available from thousands of different planets. These do include spice. The "dust-spice" is loved by both Aslan and Vargr.
54	** In the volume ''Far Trader'' one possible adventure is the yearly race to bring the "loam truffles" from the planet where they are grown to a posh court.
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57	[[folder:Video Games]]
58	* Quafe can be said to be an ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' drug, despite it being a soda.
59	* In ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', Spices are some of the most valued mundane items. They are rather hard to come by unless you are farming for them, and they are a necessary ingredient for most high-quality foods. The only ways to reliably get them are if you are a Pastamancer with one of the two spirits that can give them, or if you expend a ten-leaf clover (which are themselves pretty valuable and hard to come by) to retrieve some from the sewers.
60	* In ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'', there's [[WeWillUSeWikiWordsInTheFuture the NipNip plant and its derivative product GekNip]], which is a valuable drug used by the Gek race to make their pheromones smell better.
61	* Non-science fiction example: Spice in ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'' is [[GRatedDrug the equivalent of cocaine]]. Eating it causes a person to enter an UnstoppableRage. [[spoiler:Arpeggio plans to use the rage caused by spice to fuel his OneWingedAngel transformation.]]
62	* In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', most of the stuff you trade for sporebucks in the space stage is Spice, in various colors and ranks of rarity. The homage to ''Dune'' is obvious, down to the spice blows, although [[AllThereInTheManual the Sporepedia]] states that most of the spices are used for food. Generally speaking, the different colors of Spice from different worlds change the speech of the colonist's you put there, and although none of the creatures actually say anything identifiable, the tone and the accent is different. For example: Blue Spice, which is described as a sleep aid, results in colonist with a sort of smooth and relaxed tone. The sour Yellow Spice colonists sound somewhat high strung, and as for Pink Spice... they sound... "happy". Occasionally colonies, including the homeworld (99.9% of the time, red spice) will have different accents.
63	* In ''Starport'', a obscure game in the vein of ''VideoGame/StarControl'', Spice is a resource that can produce valuable warp fuel for the player and earn some money. Obviously as a ShoutOut to Dune, desert planets produce this product.
64	* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has Riggan spice, a strategic resource only available from one specific Trader Enclave. It provides bonus happiness to your people for 120 months, and renewing the spice trade will even quote the trope maker.
65	** Later updates that consolidated the strategic resources made Riggan spice effectively [[SpaceX Space]] [[RidiculouslyPotentExplosive Gunpowder]], but now you can use it in your [[EatTheBomb Food]] [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce Processing]] [[SecretIngredient Plants]].
66	* In the {{backstory}} of ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'', spices are stated to be one of the main trade goods humans sell to the [[BeePeople Hivers]], along with smoked cheeses and other very fragrant foodstuffs. The Hivers have vastly different sensory organs and biochemical makeup than humans, and to them, strongly tasting and smelling food is something of a narcotic.
67	* ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'': Packaged spices are a Terran trade good under the name "Flavor Packs". The text describes actual spices like cinnamon and paprika. On the Commonwealth side, we have Stott Spices and Massom Powder. Between the 3 major spice selling powers , Terran Spices are the most valuable of the flavorings. The Split and Boron are at war with one to compete as the other dominant spice selling group.
68	[[/folder]]
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70	[[folder:Western Animation]]
71	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', as Future Mandy uses her "cinnamon mines" to support her tyrannical regime. It's a parody of ''Dune'' and its sequels, particularly ''Literature/GodEmperorOfDune'', with Mandy as an immortal giant-worm God Empress who has had thousands of Billy clones (one at a time) created over the years to serve as her constant companion and UnwittingPawn in her EvilPlan.
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Context Main / SpiceOfLife