planets blowing up
Yesterday, I impulsively bought, read, and then just as quickly (well, 40% in) dismissed a trashy tie-in novel for . Why did I toss it aside? Because I was appalled at the combination of horrible writing with gratuitous carnage: words like "genocide" and crumbling civilizations were being thrown around, and all for some very cheap narrative oomph.
In other words, a planet was exploded in the first ten pages.
During my indignant raging, I realized - with horror - that I do the very same thing: I blow up planets to get some cheap drama. (See and and and oh, God.) Was I as much of a yokel as the next guy? Do I too capitalize on the death of fictional millions, just to give my protagonist some angst? My narrative some drive?
But wait. What about Gallifrey? That's kind of blown up, and that's canon. What about Alderaan? Vulcan? The twelve colonies?!
It was then that it dawned on me: the exploded planet is a sci-fi trope. And it's almost always a cheap one.
Cheap because, on the one hand, it gives me this ethical itchy feeling. If I'm ostensibly against torture porn and gratuitous violence (and, dammit, I am!), why am I okay with sci-fi writers referring to "genocide" this and "X million dead" that? Cheap because, on the other hand, not only is it lazy and unethical-ish, but it's completely embedded in . Maybe , but I certainly can't. Most humans can't. It becomes a number, an abstraction - perhaps, even, a scorecard for our hero? As usual, .
Indeed, as I ticked off all planet-exploding sci-fi, I noticed a trend: they were all pretty trashy pulp (with two notable exceptions - more below). All the sci-fi that didn't explode a planet was of notably higher quality, and was smarter, more conceptual, more... well, more and less airport-paperback sci-fi.
But let's examine some exploded planets.
Cheap explosions
Alderaan
Alderaan is the idyllic, grassy homeworld of Princess Leia, a place where she was raised. So we hear, anyway. It's blown up fairly early on in Star Wars, mostly to establish the evilness of the Empire (which I always find a , to be honest!) and the Death Star's tech specs. We never step foot on it; hell, we don't even get a scene where Leia can mourn for it or reminisce about it.
Tangentially, Ralph McQuarrie's old concept art for Alderaan is pretty damn beautiful, and made a huge impression on me as a child:
(Kudos to Vulcan's elegant imploding. What special effects!)
In fact, maybe blowing up a planet is sci-fi's answer to jumping the shark. Because the big, bombastic of 2009 is a very hollow rendering of the glorious, utopian, smart and techno-positive vision of Gene Roddenberry. Star Trek (2009) is certainly fun and glitzy, but it's also pretty dumb.
Like Alderaan, Vulcan is barely visited. Like Alderaan, we arrive in Vulcan's orbit just in time to see it get blown up. As before, the blowing-upness is the main catalyst to drive the plot forward (as well as the characterization of Spock, and his relationship with Kirk). As before, it's cheap, it's easy, and - despite the nice acting - you don't really feel much of anything, even though ostensibly millions have perished. Millions of Vulcans even! Vulcans are so cool!
Oh - and, like Alderaan - the villains don't even care about the planet. They just blow it up FOR THE SAKE OF BLOWING UP A PLANET.
Gallifrey (sort of)
Okay, Gallifrey hasn't blown up - at least I don't think it has. But it has been basically rendered uninhabitable due to the Time War, and the vagabond Doctor mourns regularly for his lost home (). Here, the trope is slightly modified: the destruction of Gallifrey sort of drives the plot forward, in that it renders the (modern, post-2004) Doctor the interminable traveler he is. But there's no vengeance plotline; it's kind of a done deal. Maybe that makes it slightly (slightly!) less trashy.
Exceptions: Two explosions that are less trashy
The Twelve Colonies
Same tropes as before - blown up planets kick-starting the narrative drive, planets are barely visited and exploded very early on - but with one notable difference. Whereas the Empire and Nero blow up Alderaan and Vulcan just for the sake of blowing something up, the Cylons are blowing up the Twelve Colonies in order to eradicate humanity (there's that cheap genocide option again...): it's strategic and it's targeted.
Indeed, the main narrative difference here is that the blown up planet isn't collateral damage (as Vulcan and Alderaan were), the blown planets are the plot. One of the Battlestar Galactica's big themes is how you build a post-civilization society, what sort of politics and religion and culture could thrive and evolve. It's also big time about survival, as a concept and as an ethical question.
As such, it's probably the be-all, end-all Blown Up Planet story. Maybe we don't need to blow anything up ever again? If we do, we can just hyperlink them to the ?
Earth
Uh, spoiler? Well, it's not a huge spoiler. Surely things written almost 50 years ago don't need spoilers!?
Anyway, Ray Bradbury's wonderful, evocative, basically-perfect novel, Martian Chronicles, ends with the survivors of post-nuclear holocaust Earth landing on Mars to restart civilization. It departs from the Blown Up Planet trope in several notable ways: Earth "blows up" (becomes uninhabitable) at the very end, it's not collateral damage, and its blowing-upness raises the issue (again) of a post-civilization civilization. The blowing-upness is a coda, and maybe a postscript.
QUANTIFY THIS.
I've developed a database, where I'll be noting all exploded planets in all sci-fi media I consume. Feel free to let me know if you come across any additional exploded planets. I'm sure this can be (inversely) correlated with quality indicators like . But I wonder if it also shows any time-trends - e.g. do we see more or less blowing up during the 1940s? 1960s? Post-9/11? Not sure on sample size yet, but - since I'm willing to take all media (books, film, comix) - I expect it might be fine for getting significance and .
In other words, a planet was exploded in the first ten pages.
During my indignant raging, I realized - with horror - that I do the very same thing: I blow up planets to get some cheap drama. (See and and and oh, God.) Was I as much of a yokel as the next guy? Do I too capitalize on the death of fictional millions, just to give my protagonist some angst? My narrative some drive?
But wait. What about Gallifrey? That's kind of blown up, and that's canon. What about Alderaan? Vulcan? The twelve colonies?!
It was then that it dawned on me: the exploded planet is a sci-fi trope. And it's almost always a cheap one.
Cheap because, on the one hand, it gives me this ethical itchy feeling. If I'm ostensibly against torture porn and gratuitous violence (and, dammit, I am!), why am I okay with sci-fi writers referring to "genocide" this and "X million dead" that? Cheap because, on the other hand, not only is it lazy and unethical-ish, but it's completely embedded in . Maybe , but I certainly can't. Most humans can't. It becomes a number, an abstraction - perhaps, even, a scorecard for our hero? As usual, .
Indeed, as I ticked off all planet-exploding sci-fi, I noticed a trend: they were all pretty trashy pulp (with two notable exceptions - more below). All the sci-fi that didn't explode a planet was of notably higher quality, and was smarter, more conceptual, more... well, more and less airport-paperback sci-fi.
But let's examine some exploded planets.
Cheap explosions
Alderaan
"Oh no, you can't destroy innocent people! Basketball is a peaceful planet! Please! We have no weapons!"
- (the first Star Wars parody?)
Alderaan is the idyllic, grassy homeworld of Princess Leia, a place where she was raised. So we hear, anyway. It's blown up fairly early on in Star Wars, mostly to establish the evilness of the Empire (which I always find a , to be honest!) and the Death Star's tech specs. We never step foot on it; hell, we don't even get a scene where Leia can mourn for it or reminisce about it.
Tangentially, Ralph McQuarrie's old concept art for Alderaan is pretty damn beautiful, and made a huge impression on me as a child:
Looking at it now, it's reminiscent of Miyazaki's art for Nausicaa!
Vulcan
(Kudos to Vulcan's elegant imploding. What special effects!)
In fact, maybe blowing up a planet is sci-fi's answer to jumping the shark. Because the big, bombastic of 2009 is a very hollow rendering of the glorious, utopian, smart and techno-positive vision of Gene Roddenberry. Star Trek (2009) is certainly fun and glitzy, but it's also pretty dumb.
Like Alderaan, Vulcan is barely visited. Like Alderaan, we arrive in Vulcan's orbit just in time to see it get blown up. As before, the blowing-upness is the main catalyst to drive the plot forward (as well as the characterization of Spock, and his relationship with Kirk). As before, it's cheap, it's easy, and - despite the nice acting - you don't really feel much of anything, even though ostensibly millions have perished. Millions of Vulcans even! Vulcans are so cool!
Oh - and, like Alderaan - the villains don't even care about the planet. They just blow it up FOR THE SAKE OF BLOWING UP A PLANET.
Gallifrey (sort of)
Okay, Gallifrey hasn't blown up - at least I don't think it has. But it has been basically rendered uninhabitable due to the Time War, and the vagabond Doctor mourns regularly for his lost home (). Here, the trope is slightly modified: the destruction of Gallifrey sort of drives the plot forward, in that it renders the (modern, post-2004) Doctor the interminable traveler he is. But there's no vengeance plotline; it's kind of a done deal. Maybe that makes it slightly (slightly!) less trashy.
Exceptions: Two explosions that are less trashy
The Twelve Colonies
Same tropes as before - blown up planets kick-starting the narrative drive, planets are barely visited and exploded very early on - but with one notable difference. Whereas the Empire and Nero blow up Alderaan and Vulcan just for the sake of blowing something up, the Cylons are blowing up the Twelve Colonies in order to eradicate humanity (there's that cheap genocide option again...): it's strategic and it's targeted.
Indeed, the main narrative difference here is that the blown up planet isn't collateral damage (as Vulcan and Alderaan were), the blown planets are the plot. One of the Battlestar Galactica's big themes is how you build a post-civilization society, what sort of politics and religion and culture could thrive and evolve. It's also big time about survival, as a concept and as an ethical question.
As such, it's probably the be-all, end-all Blown Up Planet story. Maybe we don't need to blow anything up ever again? If we do, we can just hyperlink them to the ?
Earth
Uh, spoiler? Well, it's not a huge spoiler. Surely things written almost 50 years ago don't need spoilers!?
Anyway, Ray Bradbury's wonderful, evocative, basically-perfect novel, Martian Chronicles, ends with the survivors of post-nuclear holocaust Earth landing on Mars to restart civilization. It departs from the Blown Up Planet trope in several notable ways: Earth "blows up" (becomes uninhabitable) at the very end, it's not collateral damage, and its blowing-upness raises the issue (again) of a post-civilization civilization. The blowing-upness is a coda, and maybe a postscript.
QUANTIFY THIS.
I've developed a database, where I'll be noting all exploded planets in all sci-fi media I consume. Feel free to let me know if you come across any additional exploded planets. I'm sure this can be (inversely) correlated with quality indicators like . But I wonder if it also shows any time-trends - e.g. do we see more or less blowing up during the 1940s? 1960s? Post-9/11? Not sure on sample size yet, but - since I'm willing to take all media (books, film, comix) - I expect it might be fine for getting significance and .
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