Line #58 Main/SpaceCadet


1	!!!For the Creator/RobertAHeinlein novel, see ''Literature/SpaceCadetHeinlein''. For the virtual pinball table, see ''VideoGame/FullTiltPinball''. For the science fiction timeline, see ''Literature/SpaceCadetRvbomally''. And for those of you who came here looking for the term's idiomatic meaning, that's a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
2	%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions46
3	%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
4	%%
5	[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/TomCorbettSpaceCadet https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tom_corbett.png]]]]
6
7	->"And if I'm dismissed from service, who will defend planet Earth?"\
8	"I believe Corbett is available."\
9	"Tom Corbett?" said Proton in disbelief. "That space cadet!"
10	-->-- ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace''
11
12	A DiscreditedTrope from the early PulpMagazine days of media science fiction (peaked in the 1950's in movie serials and TV shows), involving a hero who was part of [[SpacePolice an organization that handles law and order in outer space]], much like in a [[SpaceWestern Western... in space]]. Frequently, the titular Space Cadet was a child or teen who was a new recruit or a sidekick to [[CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth an older hero]]. May be the equivalent of WalkingTheEarth with isolated outposts and frontier planets; especially strange when the KidHero seems not to have a family at home. His training place would be the SpaceCadetAcademy. His great goal in life is to someday become CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth. These days you're more likely to see SpacePolice.
13
14	----
15	!!Examples:
16
17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
20	* The Space Knights from ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasDriftsInTheUniverse'', young teenage pilots who forms the backbone of defense for the Milky Way Drifting Fleet.
21	* Sasami was cast as this in the ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' [=OVA=] special ''Mihoshi's Space Police Adventure''. Of course, [[Anime/PrettySammy that's not all she was there for...]]
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Audio Dramas]]
25	* In the story record for Atari's ''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}},'' the first act consists of space patrolman Jim Stanton doing a lot of ExpoSpeak banter with an eager young space cadet. Oddly, the cadet [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome vanishes from the story]] after the second act for no obvious reason.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
29	* Buzz Lightyear from ''Franchise/ToyStory'' is an homage/parody of this trope. He later received his own spinoff TV series ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'', in which he plays the trope straight.
30	* What Jim becomes in ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet''.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
34	* ''[[Film/RadarMenFromTheMoon Commando Cody]]''.
35	* ''ComicStrip/BuckRogers'', especially in the comic strip and movie serial, where the kid sidekick Buddy was added.
36	* Dickie in ''[[http://www.captainbucky.com/ The Adventures of Captain Bucky and his Space Marshals, in Outer Space]]''.
37	-->'''Dickie:''' Gee golly, Captain -- I would have never thought of that!
38	-->'''Captain Bucky:''' Well Dickie, that's why you're not TheCaptain.
39	* ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' is about an Earth teen who gets recruited by aliens for this sort of organization.
40	* [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan]]: As the ''Enterprise'' is functioning as a training ship when the plot kicks off, the ship is full of them. Kirk addresses them when shit starts to hit the fan, stating that they all will have to grow up quicker than they all had hoped, but that he is confident in their abilities.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Literature]]
44	* ''Literature/SpaceCadetHeinlein'' is notably interesting for being perhaps the UrExample, and showing what modern readers will easily recognize as a cell phone in the opening pages. It inspired the creation of ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet''.
45	* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's earlier story ''Literature/{{Misfit}}'' also fits the trope, and makes the ''inspiration'' from the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps more explicit.
46	* ''Literature/TheCompleteAdventuresOfLuckyStarr'': David "Lucky" Starr is a young member of Earth's [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction Council of Science]], and is in his early twenties. Rather than being a {{sidekick}}, ''he'' has one in the form of John Bigman Jones, his unofficial buddy in their quest to keep the solar system safe for the average citizen and foil the plots from [[UsefulNotes/LocalStars the Sirian colony]].
47	* ''Literature/TheNorbyChronicles'': Jefferson Wells is a cadet at Space Academy, training to become a member of Space Command. He purchased Norby to be a [[RobotBuddy teaching robot]], who was [[MedalsForEveryone made an Honorary Cadet for helping to defeat a terrorist]]. Norby tries to teach Jeff school subjects the normal way, but they keep getting drawn into interstellar, pan-dimensional, and TimeTravel adventures instead.
48	* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
49	** Harrington herself in the novella "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington".
50	** ''Literature/TheStarKingdom'': Stephanie Harrington and several of her friends are Probationary Rangers with the Sphynxian Forestry Service. Sort of a {{Reconstruction}} of the trope, as Stephanie was made the first such Probationary Ranger to justify the Forestry Service keeping tabs on her to [[LeeroyJenkins keep her out of trouble.]]
51	* The first of ''Literature/TheShipWho'' stories was published in 1961. The partnered [[BrainsAndBrawn brainships and brawns]] in the Courier Service are not specifically associated with law and order, but fly between colonies making vital deliveries, transporting personnel to emergencies, trying to [[HomeworldEvacuation evacuate endangered colonists]], and along the way encounter some of the kinds of things Space Cadets have to address, usually while complaining that they are ''not'' "spacerangers".
52	%%** Various midshipmen
53	* The ''Scott Saunders Space Adventure'' series by Creator/PatrickMoore.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
57	* ''Tom Corbett: Space Cadet''. Tom and his companions Astro and Roger Manning, are all cadets on a training ship. The series would go on to become a franchise in radio, comic strips and novelisations.
58	%%* ''Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers'', all cadets on a training ship.
59	* Space Cadet Happy from ''Series/SpacePatrolUS'' although he was more like a NumberTwo. Some of the [[ProductPlacement Chex commercials]], however, followed this trope a little better, with kids dreaming about being on the Space Patrol.
60	* The Video Ranger from ''Series/CaptainVideo and his Video Rangers''
61	* Winky and TagalongKid Bobby from ''Series/RockyJonesSpaceRanger''.
62	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
63	** Wesley Crusher from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' represents the best example in the franchise. As a child prodigy, he represented an AudienceSurrogate for a young viewer and could be considered a "sidekick" to Picard. Later in the series, Wesley became a literal cadet in Starfleet.
64	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
65	*** The elite cadet group "Red Squad" is something of a {{Deconstruction}} of the trope -- especially in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E22Valiant Valiant]]", which shows what happens when a group of cocky cadets get to fly their own ship without adult supervision. [[spoiler:They attack [[TheDreadedDreadnought a Dominion battleship]] and [[CurbStompBattle get blasted to hell]].]]
66	*** Nog becomes a cadet in Season 3 before his RankUp to Ensign.
67	** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
68	*** Icheb becomes a long-range version (as in 30,000 light years from Starfleet Academy) in Season 7, being instructed by the command staff of ''Voyager''.
69	*** The ShowWithinAShow ''Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton'' has Buster Kincaid, though in the novelization he's a TagalongReporter.
70	** Sylvia Tilly in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' is introduced as an Academy cadet on field duty before her RankUp to Ensign.
71	** Nyota Uhura appears in ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' as a cadet, unsure if she even wants to continue serving on the ''Enterprise''.
72	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
73	** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S1E14QualityOfMercy Quality of Mercy]]", Bree Tristan tells Major John Skokes that she is a cadet 2nd class who was assigned to [[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfJupiter Europa base]] and that she was captured by the aliens while on a training mission with her instructor Commander Hartley. [[spoiler: In the final scene, it is revealed that Tristan is in fact an alien in disguise. It is not made clear whether Tristan was a real person whose identity the alien assumed or whether she was merely a creation of the aliens.]]
74	** In the sequel "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E18TheLightBrigade The Light Brigade]]", the cadet (also played by Creator/WilWheaton) was assigned to the ''Light Brigade'' during its mission to destroy the aliens' homeworld with a subatomic bomb due to the influence of his father, a member of the UNDF Council. [[GlorySeeker He wanted to be one of the 600 heroes who would save Earth from the aliens]]. It doesn't go according to plan.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
78	* Wrestling/{{AAA}} was visited by "Los Cadetes del Espacio" {{tecnico}} stable in the 1990s. Abismo Negro, Maniaco, Mosco de la Merced, Histeria and March-1 [[LegionOfDoom got together and formed]] Los {{Rudo}}s de la Galaxia in an attempt to get rid of them.[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Radio]]
81	* ''Radio/SonOfCliche'' with their sci-fi spoof "Dave Hollis: Space Cadet". The underlying but underdeveloped theme of the last living human lost in space was [[SoundtoScreenAdaptation later re-used]]; many of the gags from [=SoC=] were later recycled into ''Series/RedDwarf''.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Western Animation]]
85	%%* "Galaxy High" plays this trope semi-straight.
86	* Porky Pig's title in the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes short ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'' (and the [[WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers series based on it]]) is actually '''Eager Young Space Cadet'''.
87	* In the ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' episode ''Space Madness'' Stimpy plays "Cadet Stimpy", the subordinate of Ren's "Commander Hoek".
88	[[/folder]]

Context Main / SpaceCadet