As we all know Space Is An Ocean. So naturally what does
The Federation do when it needs someone to defend it in space? Why, it turns to its
Space Navy . A
Space Navy has a
Standard Sci Fi Fleet naturally enough, which probably includes at least one class of
Cool Starship. Likely it will have an arm of
Space Marines. But it has more. It has the same sort of atmosphere of a real navy. It has organization and
obstructive bureaucrats. It has tradition and
famous names. It might even have in-jokes, perhaps the same ones as when a given writer was in the navy (apparently these are very old jokes by now). Naturally the heroes will likely be part of a
Command Roster, for this is what they have on a
Space Navy.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Legend Of The Galactic Heroes
- Star Blazers. Here noted for the fact that it draws at least some inspiration from the Imperial Japanese Navy and is therefore an exception to the common usage of basing it around the American and/or British Navies.
- Crest Of The Stars, though it become more prominent in the sequels
Movies
Live Action TV
- Star Trek
- Firefly: The Alliance fleet. Usually a nuisance.
- The Colonial Fleet, or what's left of it, in both Battlestar Galactica series.
- The Daedalus-class battlecruisers operated by the United States in the Stargate Verse. Despite being crewed by Air Force personnel, the ships have the same "USS" prefix as commissioned Naval ships.
Literature
- The Galactic Patrol in E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman novels, when they were fighting the space fleet of Boskone.
- The Warchild Series has a Space Navy that was pretty much called just that.
- An Exchange of Hostages and its sequels deal with a medic/torturer assigned to the resident Space Navy.
- The entire Honor Harrington series is about life in one of these, lovingly detailed.
- The Seafort Saga is set within the United Nations Naval Service. An actual Space Navy.
- In Larry Niven's story "The Return Of William Proxmire", one of the changes to the present caused by time travel and Robert Heinlein not being discharged from the Navy due to tuberculous is that space exploration is now part of the Navy's brief, led by Admiral Heinlein.
- Larry Niven's Known Space also has the UN Space Navy, particularly involved in the Man-Kzin war series.
Tabletop RPG
Video Games
- Wing Commander has not only a Space Navy, but an Air Force analog (Terran Confederation Space Force), as well. There's no real rhyme or reason as to when a carrier is host to a Navy wing or a Space Force one, and there's apparently some switching of personnel between the services (Commodore [a navy rank] Blair in Prophecy was, prior to 2681, in Space Force, which uses a modified Army rank structure). The ships themselves, however, are pure navy, and manned by navy crews.
