This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Gus: When I read the title, I thought "The Space Opera setting!". The distinctions made in that entry seemed to capture it fairly well, without having a mention of Earth as the discriminator.
((Darksasami)): Hmm, I don't know. Maybe it's an arbitrary divider, but I feel very strongly that there's a huge difference between "Us, but much much later" and "Not Us." And The Herculoids, for example, was on another planet, completely unrelated to Earth, but had a range of maybe ten miles.
It just seems to me that the distinction between the setting of Star Wars, which is not in the future, and Star Trek, which is, needs to be made, because The Future evokes an enormous mass of associations, references and feelings that pervade both Eastern and Western culture. And part of what it is is the feeling of "this is what happens to us." When you don't have that, it's a greater challenge to draw in the audience—which is why it's much more rare, and valuable when it's done well.
Gus: Well, I'm closing in on the notion a little more. The primary distinction you want to focus on, I'm reading, is the "far, far away" bit. Whether it is very early along this timeline or on another timeline altogether is not so much the matter. The setting is spaceships, different civilizations, and possibly other species, with no clear extrapolation to the present day around here. I'm familiar with this setting from written SF, but am having some trouble placing a finger on it for TV. With the exception of Andromeda — which pretty clearly fits, I'm not immediately aware of another example.
Red Shoe: Seems like this is, eg, a common CRPG setting (see jokes in RPG-themed webcomics where someone says "What on earth..." and someone else says "'Earth'? What's 'earth'? You mean 'this unnamed planet'." Also, this is where a lot of shows (or individual Twilight Zone episodes) claim to be set right up to the inevitable Planet of the Apes Ending.
Ununnilium: I wouldn't say Final Fantasy games fit this trope. They have humans on a planet that's not Earth, but there's not the whole "galactic" aspect to it. Maybe there should be another one - Not Quite Earth.
Looney Toons: Smapti, why have you changed the Battlestar Galactica example so as to completely reverse the attributes of the two series?
Smapti: Because the original editor was incorrect - the '70s version of BSG ends with the fleet receiving a transmission of the Apollo 11 landing, whereas in the 2000s version no communications from Earth have yet been received. Apologies for taking so long to notice this comment.
In any event, I have to change it again now due to the season finale. (sigh)
Paul A: I've moved the Isaac Asimov example to The Future, because that's where it belongs.
And I've removed this:
- Stargate SG-1 inverts this trope, in a way; all the main characters are from present-day Earth, which they find out is, in fact, the ancestor planet for a galaxy of civilizations.
because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything.
Ununnilium: I would move the Issac Asimov example back. If you look at the The Future entry, it says "The Future differs from A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away by the presence of Earth—whether the show is set in San Francisco or whether Earth is a distant legend, there are always ties to Earth that make it significant in the show." The Foundation books would work almost exactly the same if the origin of humanity was never brought up - at least, the original trilogy.
- Dune does not belong here. Earth is even mentioned in the original novel as where the Orange Catholic Bible was written. It exists, it just isn't important anymore. Probably radioactive like in the nonexistant Brian Herbert ones.
