Following a comment Alexandra made on my last blog entry (Eco is such a dirty word), I’ve discovered there are more aspects of the natural world Sci Fi loves to hate, specifically : plants and trees. It doesn’t seem to make sense to hate the basics we need to live, and I floundered until I read a chapter of The Poison Principle by Gail Bell, called The Lethal Greens. Many herbs growing in our gardens are poisonous, and many were used by ‘witches’ or wise women in the Middle Ages to make medicines.
Some poisonous plants growing in our gardensare belladonna, buttercup, catoniasta, foxglove, heliotrope, hellebore, lantana, mistletoe, morning glory, opium poppies, rhubarb, and verbena. Other poisonous plants we’re familiar with are cannabis, hemlock, henbane and wormwood – even if we wouldn’t recognize them growing. So a large number of plants are associated with witches, magic and being burned at the stake. Fairies are also associated with the colour green, perhaps because people saw fairies when they ingested poisonous plants, giving them hallucinations.
In addition to these associations there is the branding of nasties with the word ‘green’. For instance the drink absinthe used to contain aconite, making it a slow poison. It was labeled with a green fairy. And Green Dragon is a mixture of marihuana and datura which is normally fatal.
So we need trees to breath and we must eat our greens, but we must also avoid poisons that come from green plants. The odd thing is that these plants don’t usually feature in Sci fi. It’s carnivorous plants that dominate the bad plant scenario, with gardens full of them. Trees get bad press as well. Only flowers are free of the bad plant stigma, which given their poisonous potential is really weird.
This information also shows strong links between science fiction and fantasy, with a group of similar dangers present in each genre.
There are quite a few web sites which list carnivorous plants in movies and on television. They don’t necessarily discriminate between science fiction and other genres, and they often pick up on the use of carnivorous plants in the background of a film or episode which might be too trivial to notice, or not. There is also disagreement about whether fungus is a plant or not (what else is it?).
Characters and Weapons
There aren’t a lot of characters with names relating to plants, and they balance between good and evil. Commonly used flower names for girls are Holly, Lily, May, Myrtle, Rose, Viola, Violet. Buttercup and Daisy are used for animals. These names are usually benign in line with the mostly benevolent use of flowers, and they tend to be old-fashioned. But there are others:
Plantman (Megaman series/ Rockman EXE Axess ) and Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin/ The Adventures of Batman) are both evil.
Flower Child is a good character Dr Who The Greatest Show in the Galaxy and the alien flower inEarth 2: Flower Childwhich starts out badly, eventually has a positive effect on the whole planet while
Bluegrass is a member of the silverhawks, the smell of applegrass in Doctor Who: Gridlock is a positive, but grass generally doesn’t count.
Death Blossom(Last Starfighter)is a weapon and in Babylon 5 The Parliament of Dreams it is a black flower left by the Assassins Guild as a warning. Both meanings are negative and there are no positive blossoms (there must be one in a cartoon somewhere!)
Carnivorous Plants
There are real carnivorous plants in the world, but we don’t see them very often. Names you’ll see in web lists are Nepenthes and Sarracenia, also called pitcher plants. Real carnivorous plants aren’t very big and eat insects. There are bladderworts and butterworts which catch their prey on sticky leaves. And they don’t have to be villains: we all enjoyed Cleopatra, the African Strangler Plant in The Addams Family, vainly trying to eat visitors and being given yak meatballs and zebra burgers instead.
Sci fi has taken the evil intent of plants a lot further in films:
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes/Return of the Killer Tomatoes, Killer Tomatoes Strike Back! and Killer Tomatoes Eat France!Plus a series. Mutant tomatoes eat humans.
Day of the Triffids - humanity is threatened by a huge, malevolent breed of plant.
La Isla de la Muerta – Another insane scientist breeds carnivorous plants which consume humans blood. Aka Man Eater of Hydra.
Land Unknown, The – An Antaractic expedition finds dinosaurs along with carnivorous plants.
Little Shop of Horrors- the display plant Audrey Junior eats the customers. (Farscape kept the name Audrey for a plant that tried to eat Moya.)
Lost World, The 1960 Plants surviving with the dinosaurs appear to be carnivorous.
Minority Report Carnivorous plants Nepenthes and Sarracenia flourish in a hothouse.
·Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens Van Helsing describes a Venus fly trap as the ‘vampire of the plant kingdom’.
Television series plants
Andromeda: Fear and Loathing in the Milky Way Sarracenia hybrids are said to be ‘tundra plants’.
Battlestar Galactica: Downloaded Features a Sarracenia in Sharon’s quarters.
Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom The Krynoids are plants which absorb human knowledge from their victims.
seaQuest DSV portrayed a whole garden of carnivorous plants on Calimar Colony (By Any Other Name ).
Lexx: Garden The character Lyekka is re-grown with all her carnivorous appetites by Daffodil, Tulip, Lilly who she rewards by eating.
Lost World: the Guardian A jungle tribe feeds a carnivorous plant they can’t kill.
Star Trek Voyager: Initiations/Prototype Sarracenia Leucophylla is briefly seen.
Gardens
You wouldn’t think gardens would be evil, but in sci fi they can contain carnivorous plants or they can be the setting for dirty deeds.
Carnivorous gardens include the ones in Lexx: Garden and in seaQuest DSV: By Any Other Name
Gardens used for plotting and betrayal include US Botanic Gardens in X-files Anasazi and the Valley Forge Gardens in Andromeda : A Heart for Falsehood Framed. Crystherium Utilia in Farscape: We’re So Screwed: Hot to Katrazi was a Scarran garden on Katrazi used to show the Charrids and Kaleesh as incompetent. Babylon 5 had a garden where people meditated as well as discussing politics.
Some ‘gardens’ are cemeteries as in X-filesPaperclip Garden of Remembrance, or memorials to the dead as inRed Dwarf Back to Earth : The Garden of Reflection
In The Adventures ofPluto Nash : The Garden of Eden and The Garden of Paradise are both hotels.
Trees
Trees also getbad press in Sci Fi. It appears the Ents in Lord of the Rings haven’t made a big impression on anyone, or perhaps Old Man Willow in The Hobbit is more memorable.
Trees are negative in Doctor Who: Mark of the Rani and in Lexx: A Midsummer’s Nightmare . In Blackstar There is a Tree of Evil versus the good Sagar Tree and in Power Rangers: Dino thunder the Tree of Life becomes bad Deadwood.
Only in Ewoksis theTree of light positive.
Interestingly not a lot of specific tree names are used in sci fi: Pine is incorporated into town names and Maples is one character.
Flowers
Flowers have special significance in real life and in Sci Fi. There are alien flowers and funny flowers (Think of Lexx: Kai wearing flowers while singing to skulls!) but flowers in Sci fi are used to show love, magic and happiness. The only flowers that are consistently bad are blue flowers, and they are not natural.
Anstellian Tundra Flowers (Andromeda: The Fair Unknown); ,Ardosian orchids (Deep Space 9: Broken Link); Arum Lily (Lexx: Twilight );
Bluebell (Stardust);Blue Flower (A Wrinkle in Time/Batman Begins/Scanner Darkly); Bouquet (Torchwood: Adam);
Chrysanthemums, yellow (Doctor Who: Rise of the Cybermen); Crystillia (Star Trek: The Next Generation: In Theory );
Daisy (Farscape: John Quixote/ Deep Space 9: Past Tense/ The Invaders: The Possessed/seaQuest DSV When We Dead Awaken); Dandelion Clock (Journey to the Centre of the Earth 2009);
Gardenia (white) (Stargate SG1: Memento Mori) ;
Irises (Smallville: Reaper );Iris, yellow (Doctor Who: The Unicorn and the Wasp );
Lilac (Deep Space 9: Trials and Tribble-ations); Lilies, pink (Earth Final Conflict: In Memory);
Muktok (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ménage a Troi); Mustard Plant (Beware! The Blob);
Orchid (Earth Final Conflict: Truth);
Paper roses (SQDSV alone ); Pericules (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ménage a Troi);
Rose (Jericho: Condor ); Rose, white (Smallville: Reaper / Doctor Who: Daleks in Manhattan/ Stargate SG1 Memento Mori/ Star Trek: The Next Generation :The Host);
Snowdrop(Stardust);
Tulips (Smallville: Pilot/Shimmer);
Zainias (Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Nth Degree ); Zan Pericula (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ménage a Troi)
And wherever you are in a TV series, film, game , novel or graphic novel: DON’T GO NEAR THE VINES! They’re always out to get you!
And now for a diversion! These things happen when you read language columns in the Herald on Saturday. Specifically I read a column by Susan Butler, a Dictionary writer, called Do you hear an eco? It’s the language of a green revolution. (November 28-29, 2009). And of course she’s telling us about the new terminology that’s helping us to cope with new green technologies. Words like biochar, carbon sequestration, ecological sustainability, ecotherapy, ecowarrior, green footprint, peak oil and so on. These are the easy words in her list. No wonder we’re all having trouble grasping the concepts when the vocabulary is so difficult. I’m currently working out my carbon footprint and sunpower credits, but the language use just makes me want to give up. The words put you off doing anything positive.
Why haven’t I been hearing these words anywhere else? Or words like them? Being a sci fi fan I went to McKenzie’s Dictionary for some answers. Here are the entries for ‘eco’:
Eco Jak II The dark form of this substance was used to experiment on Jak by Baron Praxis.
Eco Accelerator Red Dwarf: Rimmerworld Rockets used to accelerate the terraforming of a world.
Ecoban Wonderful Days City which powered itself on pollution in the Earth’s future.
Ecologarium The Star Pit A glass enclosure created by the procreation group for the children to observe life natural to Sigma.
Ecomancer PoDW People with a variety of magical abilities including: ability to make plants grow faster, control the weather, wind or water, communicate with animals and send psychic messages. Originally from Andorus, where they protected the land and animals.
Eco Phantoms Game, 1990. Published by Electronic Zoo. DOS. Player returns to Earth to find Eco Phantoms draining life from the planet. Objective is to steal an alien craft, fight through their three domes, freeing prisoners and learn how their technology works. Player then invades the mother ship to reprogram the computers to return the life to Earth.
Ecos, The Invasion Earth Group of friendly aliens who warned Earth about invasion.
Ecotopia SQ2032 Place. Ideal underwater city, which was actually a fraud. [< ecology + utopia.]
Pardon me? Eight entries? And dark eco is a disappointing use of the prefix, sticking in your mind like mud.
What about Gaia?
Gaia 1. Greek name for Earth, representing her as our mother. 2. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within The spirit of Earth. 3. Appleseed Self propagating network of computers forming a supercomputer running Olympus, combined wisdom and intention. Discussed issues with the Elders to work out solutions to problems, tricked by them into causing trouble between the Army and Athena. 4. Deep Space Nine Children of Time Name the descendents of the DS9 runabout gave their home planet.
FOUR entries!
When I looked up green it got worse – there were lots of entries , but most of them were for bad forms of green. Remember the bright green goo in the old Doctor Who? You could never touch it without drastic consequences. Green is usually bad, even green thumb who you would think would be all about growth, is evil. Bio is about the same, with lots of entries with scientific meanings, plus bio hazards and biogenic weapons. And the latest biodome in Doctor Who The Waters of Mars produces bad carrots which turn the crew into alien monsters. Hydroponics doesn’t do any better, even though it is more mainstream than biodomes with two entries:
Hydroponic dome B7 Power Structure under which food was grown by the Cesca.
Hydroponics Chamber SQDSV Vapors Area of seaQuest developed by Captain Bridger as a sanctuary. Climate controlled, tropical, with jasmine and bird song.
Where are the movies and TV Series?
After coming to such a bad end with green words I wondered just how many ‘ecological’ type films there are around.
Sci fi is good at disaster movies, with lots of post nuclear holocaust films, none of which have positive endings, so they don’t count. Possibly The Day After Tomorrow has more positive spin, but in that scenario we have gone into a nasty ice age and we know we can survive that.
Dune and its sequels demonstrates how to survive on a dry planet, and the risks of terraforming the planet into something greener or bluer. You should never feel the same about water again after reading the book or seeing the Television movies.
Final Fantasy the Spirits Within argues that life is within us all, but it works together not individually. But it’s theme is shadowy and difficult, not really inspiring you to go out and take plant cuttings. It gets worse in Final Fantasy: Unlimited. Princess Herba uses her powers to create chaos rather than growth.
Silent Running posited that we could save ourselves by sending biospheres into space with all the vegetation needed to feed us. Of course the military wanted to put a stop to that idea.
Um, are there any more?
In children’s TV there was The Girl from Tomorrow where teenagers from three different time zones defeated evil men who wanted profit at the expense of the environment. Fern Gully stopped the bulldozers razing the rainforest (we wish).
Star Trek Insurrection showsedthe Ba’ku living an idyllic rural life where no-one got a bad back or hammered their thumb. There are other scenes like this in Star Trek, but when you get to Farscape any idyllic scenario is sure to have Peacekeepers behind it for profit. As for more nitty gritty items, Star Trek Next Generation: Transfigurations had an arboretum, Jupiter Moon had a dome over a greenhouse on the Ilea, there were agro or agron ships in the old Battlestar Galactica fleet, and there is an arboretum on Stargate Atlantis. At least some programs acknowledge humans have to eat ( and breath).
What About Non-Sci Fi Land?
Ordinary films and TV programs are no better really. We had Erin Brokovitch saving a community already poisoned and sick and Medicine Man finding cures for diseases in the rainforest.
The English TV program The Good Life presented an environmentally aware couple, although you can pick holes in it now. (How do the lights work at night when the power has been cut off? Did they have cold baths?)
Modern Designs and other architectural programs have had shows on environmentally sensitive houses, with the definition of sensitive varying a lot from minimising the use of concrete to just having dual flush toilets.
For kids, Round the Twist had environmental concerns at its heart, sending up developers and focussing on the spirits of place as saviours of the environment.
What Can We Use for Inspiration?
There are no movies based on Greenpeace, the Rainbow Warrior, the Franklin Dam protests, Paul Ehrlich’s early predictions, eco-warriors etc. At best there have been some documentaries on the results of oil spills like the one from the Exxon-Valdez. But there’s a lot of real life stuff out there to turn into film, documentary or otherwise.
And buried in libraries out there, there are stories waiting to be turned into modern media. Like LeGuin’s The Word for World is Forest.
And as for kids – there’s got to be someone writing stories about eco-warriors, hasn’t there? We get a lot of silly superhero stuff for kids, its time for something better.
Who’s to Blame?
It would be easy to say that sci fi writers and other film writers have been negligent, and yes they have in some ways. But I noticed in Gardening Australia recently that people are concerned that the phrase ‘ common garden variety’ is used in a negative way, to show how ordinary and not-special things are. Where gardeners believe all ‘garden varieties’ are special in their own way. Ordinary people have to adopt a different philosophy to the planet and its ecology. When respect for the environment percolates through all society, then writers will do better by it. It's pity they're not leading the way.
Following from the last blog, Science Fiction not only uses mythological names for characters, it also uses them for places in space. But unlike the randomness of the mythological basis for naming characters, there is a firm scientific tradition for naming astronomical bodies after mythological beings. In fact this crossover is likely to cause many sci fi writers a big problem. How come?
Well, we have a limited number of planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, plus Pluto, Eris and Haumea. Notice that in the original planets, before the plutoids were discovered, there was only one female name. Things have improved a lot in this department since the 20th Century.
Then there are the famous asteroids: Ceres, Chiron, Vesta and Pallas. But to be more technically correct there are asteroid groups called: Apollo, Atens, asteroids, Armor, Cybeles, Trojans, Hildas, Thule and the Hungarias. Each group has a large number of numbered asteroids with a few of them named e.g. Chiron is Armor asteroid 2060. Armor 944 is Hidalgo. Trojan 588 is Achilles and other Trojans are named after participants in the Trojan War.
And moons.
The moons of Jupiter are named after the lovers, favourites and daughters of Zeus. In 2009 there were 50 moons. Neptune’s moons are named after Greek water based mythological creatures. In 2009 there were thirteen moons. Saturn now (2009) has 53 moons. These were originally named after Greek giants and titans, now they’re named after their descendents. Only Phoebe doesn’t fit this pattern. Uranus has 27 moons named after magical spirits in English literature including characters from A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Pope’s The Rape of the Lock . Pluto has three moons, Eris has one. Mercury and Venus have none. That’s a lot of mythological names being used to describe our solar system. And the naming system isn’t perfect, some names have been doubled up.
The Constellations
As well as describing our solar system, mythological and latin names are used to describe the star patterns we can observe, including the galaxies. So for constellations we have the zodiac names: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces.
Other constellations include: Andromeda, Aquila, Auriga, Bootes, Canis Major and Minor, Cassiopeia, Centaurus, Cepheus, Cetus, Corona Austrina, Corona Borealis, Corvus, Crater, Cygnus, Delphinus, Draco, Equuleus, Eridanus, Hercules, Hydra, Lepus, Lupus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Orion, Pegasus, Perseus, Piscis Austrinus, Sagitta, Serpens, Triangulum, Ursa Major and Minor.
And there are more, and there are several different ways of designating stars depending on what field the astronomer is working in. But these constellations are the ones that appear regularly in Sci Fi. Sadly, some writers don’t know any astronomy at all, and use constellation names for planets, not in the Star Trek fashion i.e. Eridani Major is the main planet in the Eridanus constellation or solar system, but as planets in other Galaxies. Look at Andromeda below and there is one such anomaly. The use of asteroid and moon names in our solar system is done much better, indicating that writers are looking at the existing names in our solar system and using them.
Using the names in Science Fiction
The data: There are thirty one references here. Eight planets (include Pluto) in our solar system are generally used in their true form. Eight references are female indicating the same prejudice to female names exists in this area as well as those I’ve already looked at.
Andromeda Starblazers Galaxy; Space Cowboys Galaxy; Alien Nation Star System; The Boy From Andromeda Star System; Doctor Who: The Ark in Space Planet ; Doctor Who: Mysterious Planet Constellation; Andromeda Galaxy Andromeda: It Makes a Lovely Light ; Andromeda Line:The Silver Sun Line in space;
Argos Stargate SGI Brief Candle/ Proving Ground Planet Ariel Firefly: Ariel Planet. Callisto B7 Shadow Planet; McCaffrey:The Rowan Moon; Red Dwarf The Last Day Space port ; Jupiter Moon moon; Space Patrol 1960 Moon ; Cassiopeia Andromeda: Soon the Nearing Vortex Star system Centauri Prime Babylon Five planet Ceres Jupiter Moon Asteroid ;Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest System; Charon McCaffrey: Partnership Planet; J. Haldeman :The Forever War Tenth planet; Weber:In Enemy’s Hands planet;
Daedalus 5 Andromeda: Time Out of Mind Planet Demeter Earth*Star Voyager Planet.
Ganymede Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers Colony; Babylon 5: By Any Means Necessary/Messages from Earth Mining Planet; Hephaistos Andromeda: The Broken Places/Under the Night Solar System
Jupiter Babylon 5: Messages from Earth planet; Eye of the Storm Planet; 2010: Odyssey Two Planet; Stargate SG1: Tangent Planet; Bova: Jupiter planet; Deep Space Nine: Dr. Bashir, I Presume? Research Station; Space Patrol 1960 Scientific headquarters on the planet; Enterprise: Fortunate Son/Anomaly Space Port.
Lyra K-Pax Constellation Marduk Andromeda: Slipfighter the Dogs of War Planet
Mars Planet: Babylon Five: Spider in the Web/A Race Through Dark Places;Bova: Mars/Return to Mars; Burroughs, E. R. Mars series; Doctor Who: The Sun Makers/Pyramids of Mars/The Seeds of Death; Enterprise: Twilight; Mars Attacks; Red Planet; Robinson: Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars; Space Patrol 1960; Total Recall.
Medusa Weber: On Basilisk Station planet; Star Maidens Planet. Medusa Cascade Doctor Who: Last of the Timelords Mercury Planet : Space Patrol 1960; Sunshine.
Neptune: Space Patrol 1960 Planet. Oberon Blake 7: Breakdown Planet; New Planet of the Apes: Space station. Odin: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Planet.
Orion: Planet: Babylon Five: Severed Dreams; Blade Runner; Deep Space Nine: Little Green Men; Eternam; Master of Orion. Constellation or group of planets: Babylon Five: Passing Through Gethsemane; Doctor Who: Turn Left; Enterprise: Borderland. Eye of Orion: Doctor Who: The Five Doctors.
Pallas Space Patrol 1960 asteroid; Space Patrol 1966: Keepers of the Law Planet. Persephone Firefly: Serenity Planet; Scott: Dreamships Planet. Pluto: Planet: Doctor Who: The Sun Makers; Space Patrol 1960 Planet; Saturn: Bova: Saturn; Space Patrol 1960 planet; Marooned Space Station.
Tartarus: Weber: Echoes of Honor Moon; Andromeda: The Knight, Death and the Devil System; Deep Space Nine: Q-Less Planet (Tartarus V).
Uranus Star Cops planet; Space Patrol 1960 planet; Valhalla: UFO:Ultramaiden Valkyrie Planet. Venus : Planet: Bova: Venus; Deep Space Nine : Past Tense ; Quantum Leap: Leaping of the Shrew ; Space Patrol 1960; Tom Corbett Space Cadet; Venus Wars; Voyager: Future’s End. Vulcana Regar Enterprise: Fallen Hero Planet.
This is not a huge list of planet names which means that planets in sci fi are being named in other ways. I’ll have a look at that next time. But in the interim, if you’re writing a si fi script have a look on the Internet for the names of moons in our solar system. You’ll be inspired to use a whole new range of names in your work!
Still on the theme of how language makes Science Fiction sound scientific and cool, you’ll notice if you’re paying attention that there is a consistent use of Greek root words to create sci fi terms. In the first part of the alphabet in particular, there is a huge number of Greek based terms and names. One way to have a look at this is to target words and phrases beginning with the letters of the Greek alphabet as written below:
After compiling my word list I discovered there is no use of the letters Upsilon, Phi or Kappa. There is no use of Greek Chi – only the Chinese meaning is used, while Psi is used to mean psychic and Pi is used as the number. Apparently Chi Tango Six would not be a cool call sign, and Andromeda Kappa would sound too bad to bear! The main letters I found in use were alpha, beta and delta, with omega being popular. These letters represent first, second, fourth and last, so it makes sense to use them for planets, areas of space and bases of all kinds. Because our planet comes with eight planets, of which only one inner planet is habitable, we impose this structure on other solar systems. It is rational to think the first three or four planets in a system are going to be the inhabitable ones, and so they should be designated alpha, beta and delta. A different way of noting the importance of a planet is to designate it a Prime from the Latin word Primus meaning first e.g. Giedi Prime (Dune); Gauda Prime (Blake’s 7: Afterlife); Centauri Prime (Babylon 5) ; Zanda Prime (Crusade: Patterns of the Soul) ; Rodimus Prime (Transformers the movie). There are not many examples of this use, and its meaning is a back up system to the primary Greek planetary designation. Another reason for the use of Greek letters for astronomical features is that they are used in real astronomy. So there is a real Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri and Omega Centauri. There is a real Epsilon Aurigae and Epsilon Eridani plus A;pha Crucis, Omicron Ceti and Sigma 2398. But the more stars and clusters you find labeled with Greek names the more you find they aren’t used very often, and often not at all. Sci fi writers like to make up their own stars, and of course planets are only just being labeled now. Latin numbers occasionally come up in names for areas of space as in Secundi Drema Sector TNG Pen Pals; Quaddiespace LMB Diplomatic Immunity; Primero McCaffrey, Nimisha’s Ship ; Tertio McCaffrey, Nimisha’s Ship Notice that most of these come from novels, not television series, whereas Greek letters are used mostly in television series, then films. The Star Trek universe is particularly fond of Greek letters which help build up its incredible technobabble vocabulary.
Sci Fi Planets
Alpha Centauri Doctor Who: The Curse of Peladon ; Enterprise: Twilight; Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri; Alpha Prime Lost in Space; Alpha Site Stargate SG1 : The Serpent’s Lair ; Stargate Atlantis: Michael; Beta SpG Homing Device; Beta 5 Blakes 7: Gold ; Beta Agni II Next Generation: The Most Toys; Beta,Corvi McCaffrey, The Ship Who Sang ; Beta Durani 7 B5LR ; Betafarl Blakes 7: Warlord ; Beta 5 Blakes 7: Gold ; Beta 9 Babylon 5: Between the Darkness and the Light; Beta Site Stargate SG1: There but for the Grace of God ; Beta Thoridor Next Generation: Redemption; Beta Zed Deep Space 9: Q-Less Gammacalorum The Osiris Chronicles ; Gamma Tauri IV Next Generation: The Last Outpost ; Gamma Ten Les Maitres du temps ; Gamma Hydra IV Star Trek: The Deadly Years ; Gamma Orion PRSPD ;
Delta Space Patrol 1960; Delta 3 The Shape of Things to Come 1979; Delta 5-5 The Colony; Delta VII RD Epideme; Delta Seventeen Doctor Who: The End of the World; Delta Magna Doctor Who: The Power of Kroll ; Epsilon 3 Babylon 5: The Long Twilight Struggle; Epsilon 119 Deep Space 9: Second Sight; Epsilon Delta 177-3-3 McCaffrey, The Ship Who Searched; Epsilon Eridani F Derelict ; Epsilon Hydra VII Deep Space 9: Q-Less; Epsilon Nine Next Generation: Samaritan Snare; Zeta Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Unchained Woman; Zeta Alpha II Next Generation: The Best of Both Worlds; Zeta Five Blakes 7: The Way Back ; Zeta Minor Doctor Who: Planet of Evil; Eta Ceta LMB Cetaganda ; Theta VIII TNG The Royale; Omicron 1. Star Command 2. SpG The Anti-Matter Man ; Omicron Pascal Next Generation: 1 1001 1001 ; Rho Ceta Diplomatic Immunity ; Sigma Gamma One Andromeda: The Pearls That Were His Eyes; Sigma Tau Five Andromeda: Forced Perspective; Sigma 957 Babylon 5: Mind War;
Tau Ceti McCaffrey, The Death of Sleep; Tau Ceti Alpha Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan; Tau Ceti 2 Space Raiders; Tau Ceti Five 1. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan / 2. System Shock 2 ; Tau Ceti Three Next Generation: Conspiracy; Tau Ceti Six 1. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan Planet; Tau Cygna Five Next Generation: The Ensigns of Command; Tau Gamma Prime Outer Limits: Relativity Theory;
Iota Aurigae McCaffrey, Damia
Omega Robert Sheckley: The Status Civilization;
Sci fi Universes, Systems and Areas of Space
Alpha 1 Solar System Xardion; Alpha Centauri 1.Lost in Space series 2. Space Patrol 1960: MS, DS; Crusher Joe; Deep Space 9: Past Tense; Alpha Omicron System Next Generation: Galaxy’s Child ; Alpha Onias System Next Generation: Future Imperfect; Alpha Sector Blake’s 7: The Harvest of Kairos; Alphaverse Charlie Jade
Beta Belt, The Weber, The Short Victorious War; Beta Cassius Next Generation: Haven; Beta Magellan System Next Generation: 11001 1001 ; Beta Renner System Next Generation :Lonely Among Us ; Beta Stromgren System Next Generation :Tin Man; Betaverse Charlie Jade Universe;
Delta Sector Blakes 7: The Harvest of Kairos; Delta Rana System TNG The Survivors; Delta Quadrant Voyager ; Gamma Arigulon System Next Generation: Reunion; Gammaverse Charlie Jade; Epsilon 7 Battlestar Galactica: The Hand of God ; Epsilon Jump Gate Babylon 5: Lost Rangers; Epsilon Minos System Next Generation: When the Bough Breaks; Epsilon Quadrant Battlestar Galactica: Lost Planet of the Gods Zeta Gelis Cluster Next Generation: Transfigurations; Zeta Reticuli Real; Theta 116 Solar System Next Generation :The Royale; Omicron Theta Next Generation: Datalore; Sigma Erandi System TNG The Most Toys; Tau Alpha C Next Generation :Where No One Has Gone Before; Tau Ceti 3 Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood ; Tau Ceti Six Andromeda: The Mathematics of Tears ; Omega System TOC ; Omega Sagetha System Next Generation: The Outrageous Okona
Sci fi Bases: Domed Colonies, Moons, Space stations, Asteroids etc.
Alpha Space 1999; Alpha IV Timelock ; Alpha Colony seaQuest DSV: something in the air; Alpha Control Lost in Space: Pilot Beta Colony LMB; Gammak Base Farsape: A Bug’s Life/ Farscape: Season of Death; Gamma Site Stargate SG1:The Scourge; Delta 3 Doctor Who: The Power of Kroll ; Delta 714 Blakes-7: Terminal; Delta Base PRSPD; Theta Station Buck Rogers in the 25thCentury: Space Vampire; Lambda Pez Next Generation: Final Mission; Sigma 3 Next Generation: Hide and Q ; Sigma 14D Red Dwarf: Marooned ; Tau Fourteen Titan AE; Omega Base RbotRR; Omega Seven Crusade: Every Night I Dream of Home; Omega Stations Secrets of the Phantom Caverns; Cities and Towns
Delta City Robocop: Prime Directives; Delta Glen X-files: Red Museum; Delta, Suburb Space Precinct; Xi Martian Chronicles Adventure Game, Ray Bradbury’s;
Next
The next main use of Greek letters is in the names of characters, robots and types of clones and other creations, as well as in call signs. Since Greek letters are not generally used in real human names, don’t expect to find them being used for real, ordinary human characters. But a writer can make an alien character sound quite harmless with the use of a quick alpha or omega, or dehumanize near human creations labeling them as a gamma or beta with their production number. It sounds quite scientific, even if it’s not. Latin numbers perform the same function for characters as Greek letters. Stargate SG1 has the Unas, or first ones. Lois McMaster Bujold calls her modified humans ‘quaddies’. Neither of these words sounds quite as sophisticated as Greek letters do. Call signs seem to be based more on common usage which would make you suggest their terminology be widened to avoid confusion. Characters
Alpha Cat Women of the Moon; Missile to the Moon; McCaffrey, Partnership; The Colony; Quantum Leap: A Leap for Lisa; Alpha Bates Gundam 0083 : Stardust Memory; Alpha Centauri Doctor Who: The Curse of Peladon; Alpha-Ralph The Miraculous Mellops; Alpha –712 Jon Linton; Alpha Six Power Rangers Turbo; Power Rangers in Space; Alpha Trion Transformers, series ; Gamma-Jane The Miraculous Mellops; Beta Doctor Who: The Krotons; Delta Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen ; Epsilon Eagle Alien Soldier; Zeta Cat Women of the Moon; Lambda Cat Women of the Moon; Rho-ha Earth Final Conflict: Secret of Strand Hill/ Pandora’s Box ; Sigma 1. Zoids Fuzors 2. Mega Man X2; Theta Sigma D? The Happiness Patrol; Omega 1. D? Arc of Infinity; 2. BG The Long Patrol ; Omega Mutie X-Men 3: The Last Stand;
Robots, Zords and Types of Humans
Alpha 5 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; Alpha Model K seaQuest DSV: Daggers ; Alpha – plus intellectuals Brave New World Novel; Alpha Zoid Zoids Fuzors; Betas Brave New World Novel ; Beta Unit The Last Starfighter; Delta Enterprise: Bound ; Delta Megazord Power Rangers in Space; Deltas Brave New World Novel ; Delta Squad Megazord PRSPD; Zeta The Zeta Project; Zeta Gundam Zeta Gundam ; Theta Read All About It (1981); Theta Class Lifeforms Battlestar Galactica: The Gun on Ice Planet Zero; Omega Crawler Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue; Omega Doom Omega Doom; Omega Megazord Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue ; Omega Prime Transformers: Robots in Disguise; Omega, Zero Mega Man Series Aliens
Alpha Earth Final Conflict: Scorpion’s Dream; Alpha Q Transformers: Energon ; Alpha Quintesson Transformers: Energon ; Betazoid Next Generation: Encounter at Farpoint;
Call Signs and Designations
Alpha 4 Enterprise: Affliction ; Alpha 9175 Blue Deep Space 9: Through the Looking Glass; Alpha Red Priority Mission Deep Space 9 Second Skin; Alpha Seven Tango Three Stargate Atlantis: No Man’s Land; Alpha-Six Delta-Charlie Niner Stargate Atlantis: The Return; Alpha Two Next Generation: Brothers; Delta 04197 Earth 2: Redemption; Delta Fifty Doctor Who: Planet of the Ood ; Delta Flight Babylon 5 ; Delta Fox X-Ray Mad Max/3; Delta V607 Silver Sun ;
And Again:
Greek letters feature heavily in the military, at least in Sci fi. The same logic that applies to planets and areas of space applies to vehicles. It sounds scientific or military or both to label your space ship the Alpha model, with Omega sounding a tad cooler than Doomship or another equivalent. Powers and forces have used Greek letters from day one of science fiction. Gamma rays are real of course, but in Sci fi they equate to disintegrator weapons, and regularly receive new names like plasma weapons which we all know are really gamma rays in disguise.
Vehicles including Spaceships
Alpha. Tom Corbett Space Cadet: Revolt on Prison Rock; Alpha Baker X-ray X-files: Vienen; Alpha One Barbarella Queen of the Galaxy; Alpha Seven Babylon5 : Babylon Squared; Alpha Two Barbarella Queen of the Galaxy; Beta, the RbofRR ; Delta 4 seaQuest DSV :To Be or Not To Be; Delta ATV Power Rangers:SPD ; Delta Command Crawler Power Rangers: SPD ; Delta Cruiser Power Rangers: SPD ; Delta flyer Farscape ; Delta Leader Babylon 5; Delta Megaship Power Rangers in Space; Delta Runner PRSPD; Delta Pod IV Planet of the Apes/2; Zeta Wing Babylon 5: Survivors; Omega Class Destroyer Babylon 5:And Now for a Word
Weapons
Gamma Ray Gun Space Patrol 1960 ; Gamma Particle Gun The Hulk ; Gamma Pulse Generators Next Generation: Evolution; Gamma Warhead seaQuest; Delta Blasters Power Rangers: SPD ;Delta Enforcers Power Rangers:SPD; Deltamax Strikers Power Rangers: SPD; Delta Wave Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways; Omega Device Galaxy Quest;
Powers and Forces
Alpha Force Stargate SG1: Family Ties; Alpha Maison Phospher Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen: Gamma Frequency Battlestar Galactica: The Hand of God; Gamma Ray The Brain from the Planet Arous; The Hulk; Gamma Strike Doctor Who: Evolution of the Daleks; Delta Particles Doctor Who: The Time Warrior ; Delta Power Unit Space Patrol 1960; Zeta Waves Buck Rogers; Omicron Particles Deep Space 9: Shadowplay; Omicron Radiation Enterprise: The Shipment; Lambda Field Generator Next Generation: A Matter of Perspective; Omegahedron Supergirl ;
And the rest
There are a few categories of Greek letter use that don’t fit the astronomical/military model. Titles of groups, names of medicines and a group of random uses, shows that Greek letters can fill a hole anywhere, and make it sound scientific. Included here also are film, television series titles, and games that may include more uses of Greek letters than already noted.
Groups
Alpha List Stargate SG1: The Serpent’s Lair ; Alpha Section Beyond Good & Evil ; Alpha Squad RahXephon;; Alpha Team Roughneck’s Hydora Campaign ; BETA Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers; Delta City Security Robocop: Prime Directives; Delta Squad Eearth Final Conflict: Volunteers; Zetan Pirates 1. Buck Rogers Pilot 2. Buck Rogers Unchained Woman; MU RahXephon; Omega Squad War of the Worlds series;
Medicines and Drugs
Beta A Andromeda: Fear Burns Down to Ashes ; Beta canten StargateSG1: The Other Side ; Beta-sympathomimetic Quantum Leap : Genesis
Films, Series and Game Titles
Alpha Centauri Game; Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack Game; Alpha Incident, The Film; Alpha One Next Generation: Brothers; Alpha Scorpio Series; Alphaville Film’ Alpha Wing Game, 2003. Betaville Film; Delta Wave Series; Delta V Game; Zeta Project, The Series; Sigma Star Saga Game, 2005; Tau Ceti 3. Game; Omikron : The Nomad Soul Game; Omega Doom Film; Omega Factor, The Series; Ωmega Man, The Film
Random
Alpha Centauri Rec Room Dude, Where’s My Car?; Alpha Channel Battlestar Galactica: Murder on the Rising Star; Alpha Circuit Knight Rider: Deadly Maneuvers; Gammasphere The Hulk; Epsilon Beta Andromeda: It Makes a Lovely Light; Epsilon Plan, The McCaffrey, Damia; Epsilon vector 22 Battlestar Galactica: War of the Gods ; Mu Atragon ; Omicron Pulse Length Blake’s7: Moloch ; Sigma Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol; Tau Ceti Accords; Enterprise: Shadows of P’Jem; Omega Circuit 2099 ;Omega Intersection Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma ;
References
Funk and Wagnall’s Dictionary McKenzie’s Science Fiction Dictionary
Why are there so many words in science fiction that end in the sound ‘ck’?
I’ve been wondering about the vocabulary of science fiction, especially word endings like ‘ck’ and ‘x’. I thought the answer to why there were so many was easy and obvious. But as usual, when I looked into it, the reasons for science fiction using so many ‘ck’ and ‘c’ endings is complicated and raises other questions.My first thought was thatin the Star Trek universe there is a theory that thanks to the success of Captain Kirk writers inventing sci fi names have to include a ‘K’ sound.Thus we got Captain Picard and Captain Sisko. Captain Janeway was doomed to fail because she had no ‘k’ sound in her name, and Archer was only half way there in Enterprise but he did have Trip Tucker to help him out.
But this theory really doesn’t explain why so many science fiction names and words end in ‘c’ or ‘ck’.
Here’s what a quick review of sci fi proper names brings up:
Adric (Doctor Who); Alec (Swamp Thing + 7 more);
Babcock (X-files: Gethsemane); Barak (Buck Rogers); Blokk (Shadow Raiders);Bray’tac (Stargate); Burke (Planet of the Apes);
Chick (QL Good Morning, Peoria ); Chuck (Screamers + 14 more); Clark (Babylon 5); Clank (Ratchett and Clank); Cruikshank (D? The Invisible Enemy);
Derek (Teenagers from Outer Space + 8 more); Dink (Ender’s Game); Dick (Third Rock from the Sun + 5 more); Dirkim (Blake’s 7: Star One); Draysick (Enterprise: North Star); Durka (Farscape: Durka Returns);
Eric (XF Anasazi/Jericho + 17 more); Erek (Animorphs/Kim Possible);
Flenteck (Crusade); Frank Black (Millenium);Frank (22 characters and counting); Fro’tak (Stargate: Family);
Garrack (Deep Space Nine); Gromak (Slider’s: Revelations); Gromek (Next Generation: The Emissary); Grunchlk (Farscape: Die Me, Dichotomy).
Hank (Lois and Clark: the Green, Green Glow of Home)/Lexx: Xevivor/Stepford Wives 2 et al); Havoc (X-Men); Hawk(Captain Power); Hulk (The Incredible Hulk);
Jack (Stargate et al); Jake ( Deep Space Nine, Animorphs et al); Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars: Phantom Menace); Jarvik (Blake 7); Jesek (The Miles Vorkosigan series).
Kirk (Star Trek); Kobick (The Land of the Giants); Krycek (X-files);
Laraq (Roswell); Luke (Star Wars + 11 more);
Mark (Ac=e Lightning +11 more); Marduk (SG1 Thor’s Hammer ); Mick (City Limits et al); Monk (Damnation Alley); Mork (Mork and Mindy);
Nick (The Girl from Tomorrow + 27 more );
Ock (Babylon 5 Born to the Purple)
Patrick (Finders Keepers + 7 more); Psylocke (X-Men)
Quark (Deep Space Nine);
Radek (Stargate Atlantis); Radic-Q-2 (The Shape of Things to Come); Rick (Bladerunner + 12 more); Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog); Ry’ac (Stargate: Family);
Sarek (Star Trek); Solek (Stargate Company of Thieves); Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog); Sovak (Next Generation: Captain’s Holiday); Spock (Star Trek); Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica); Stark (Farscape/Invasion America/ Iron Man);
Teal’c (Stargate); Tok (Blake 7: Assassin’Enterprise: Breaking the Ice); Tolek(Andromeda:So Burn the Untamed Lands); Tomalak (Next Generation: The Defector); Tomasick(XF: Underneath); Tuvok (Star Trek Voyager);
Vereck (Farscape);
Wolancjek (seaQuest);
York (Hyperdrive);
Zarek (The Fantastic Planet/Battlestar Galactica 2); Zarrick (Megas XLR); Zek (Deep Space Nine: The Nagus);
There are no female names in this list! This was not deliberate on my part, mostly. There was one ( a Vulcan female) so I took it out. There are plenty of normal Anglo-Saxon male names in the list, but no female names.Coincidentally there are not many Anglo-Saxon women’s names ending in ‘ck’, so perhaps the omission is forgivable. But if you go back to the Captain Kirk Theory, ‘ck’ or ‘c’ is a strong ending to a word, indicating that the character is strong (whether good or evil). So we have a Vulcan woman called Saavik in Star Trek III, and Vulcan women are strong. IN Stargate Bloodlines Teal’c wife is called Drey’auc, but then all his family names end in ‘c’.
But when I looked at other languages (Russian, French, Spanish, Italian) this is not the case – if you accept an ‘a’ after the ‘ck’ or ‘c’ sound you get quite a few female names. And some of these do get used:
Annika (Star Trek Voyager) Seven’s real name;
Beka (Andromeda);
Bianca(Wicked Science/ X-files: Medusa);
Erica (Team Knight Rider); E.R.I.C.A. (Sliders: State of the Art);
Francesca (Clockstoppers);
Lyekka (Lexx :Lyekka);
Nikka (Stargate:Scorched Earth); Nikki (Torchwood: Adrift/The 4400 + 2 more);Niko (The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers);
Rebec (Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks); Rebecca (Tank Girl/ The Core + 16 others)
Tinker (Maximo vs Army of Zin);
That’s 77 guys names to 11 female, without counting variations of male names like Nicky, Rockyor Winky and Blake, Jake and Snake. But the women with these names are strong characters who take control of their situations.
The only other female name of note is the heroine of Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey, and that name is an insult in the language of my ancestors!
So is the form of the English language doing this?
No. I think not. On a quick Google you can come up with a list of hundreds of English words ending in ‘ck’. You don’t have to include ‘c’ as an ending. When you go through one of these lists an interesting point comes up. Many of the words are from Old English and are what we would call ‘Anglo-Saxon’. For example:
Some words come from Old Norse (via the Viking invasion of England):
Beck ( a stream) ; fleck; ruck;
Another group of words came from Old French (presumably through the Norman invasion of England):
Brick; mock; muck; track; wreck.
There were a few words from Middle Dutch (presumably from trade):
Deck; Duck (cloth); Rack; Smack (boat); Snack;
And then there were plenty of words from Middle English.
Duck (verb);kick;lack; nock; pack
So there are lots of very old words in English that end in ‘ck’, indicating they probably came from the Germanic languages.
·They are short words which are easy to say and easy to build into compound words.
·They rhyme, making them good words to use in oral poetry.
·They’ve got lots of good things going for them, so we’ve kept them even when we end up with two or three different meanings for the same sound.
·And we have lots of male names ending in ‘ck’. Germanic women’s names don’t end in ‘ck’, or ‘a’, so we don’t have a stock of old, dependable girl’s names ending in ‘ck’.
Aren’t there other words in Sci Fi ending in ‘ck’ or ‘c’ ?
Yes, there are other sci fi words ending in ‘ck’ and’c’, with another interesting pattern:
Planets
Chulak (Stargate); Crinnok 14 (Lexx:Trip); Guk (Terrahawks); Marduk( Andromeda: Slipfighter the Dogs of War);Merak( McCaffrey, The Ship Who Sang); Meylec (A Wrinkle In Time); Ork (Mork and Mindy);
Alien races
Ashrak (Stargate: In the Line of Duty); Dalek (Doctor Who); Dentic (Farscape); Drakh (Babylon 5); Drak (Farscape: Exodus from Genesis); Ewok (Star Wars); Formic(Ender’s Game); Karack metalites (Farscape); Mynock (The Empire Strikes Back); Tavlek (Farscape: With Friends Like These); Terrahawks (Terrahawks); Yeerk (Animorphs).
Titles and Group names
Anla’shok (Babylon 5); Cyberjack (Cyberjack); Freejack (Freejack); Impsec (Miles Vorkosigan series); Tank (Space Above and Beyond); Vedek (Deep Space Nine); Warlock (Crusade)
Food and Drink:
Bubbleshock (Sarah-Jane Adventures: invasion of the Bane); Enyac milk (Deep Space Nine: ties of Blood and Water); Grolak (Farscape: Lava’s a Many Splendored thing);Jilnak(Farscape: Lava’s a Many Splendored thing); Plomeek soup or broth (Deep Space Nine: The Maquis/Enterprise); Vak clover soup (Deep Space Nine: Melora); Yamok sauce (Deep Space Nine Destiny);
Gagh – a Star Trek Klingonspecialty – is debatable, depending on its pronunciation.
Random Shoes
Drackik (Farscape: Die Me, Dichotomy); Eurac (The Invaders: The Summit); Mivonks (Farscape: Eat Me); Nuyock (Bladerunner);Tac (Stargate: Rules of Engagement)
So?
Alien species, places, planets and food are given strong names, but generally weapons, spaceships, star-drives and other more technological features are not included. They are developed with prefixes, but that’s another blog.
How to make it sound Scientriffic
Why are there so many words in science fiction that end in the sound ‘ck’?
I’ve been wondering about the vocabulary of science fiction, especially word endings like ‘ck’ and ‘x’. I thought the answer to why there were so many was easy and obvious. But as usual, when I looked into it, the reasons for science fiction using so many ‘ck’ and ‘c’ endings is complicated and raises other questions.My first thought was thatin the Star Trek universe there is a theory that thanks to the success of Captain Kirk writers inventing sci fi names have to include a ‘K’ sound.Thus we got Captain Picard and Captain Sisko. Captain Janeway was doomed to fail because she had no ‘k’ sound in her name, and Archer was only half way there in Enterprise but he did have Trip Tucker to help him out.
But this theory really doesn’t explain why so many science fiction names and words end in ‘c’ or ‘ck’.
Here’s what a quick review of sci fi proper names brings up:
Adric (Doctor Who); Alec (Swamp Thing + 7 more);
Babcock (X-files: Gethsemane); Barak (Buck Rogers); Blokk (Shadow Raiders);Bray’tac (Stargate); Burke (Planet of the Apes);
Chick (QL Good Morning, Peoria ); Chuck (Screamers + 14 more); Clark (Babylon 5); Clank (Ratchett and Clank); Cruikshank (D? The Invisible Enemy);
Derek (Teenagers from Outer Space + 8 more); Dink (Ender’s Game); Dick (Third Rock from the Sun + 5 more); Dirkim (Blake’s 7: Star One); Draysick (Enterprise: North Star); Durka (Farscape: Durka Returns);
Eric (XF Anasazi/Jericho + 17 more); Erek (Animorphs/Kim Possible);
Flenteck (Crusade); Frank Black (Millenium);Frank (22 characters and counting); Fro’tak (Stargate: Family);
Garrack (Deep Space Nine); Gromak (Slider’s: Revelations); Gromek (Next Generation: The Emissary); Grunchlk (Farscape: Die Me, Dichotomy).
Hank (Lois and Clark: the Green, Green Glow of Home)/Lexx: Xevivor/Stepford Wives 2 et al); Havoc (X-Men); Hawk(Captain Power); Hulk (The Incredible Hulk);
Jack (Stargate et al); Jake ( Deep Space Nine, Animorphs et al); Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars: Phantom Menace); Jarvik (Blake 7); Jesek (The Miles Vorkosigan series).
Kirk (Star Trek); Kobick (The Land of the Giants); Krycek (X-files);
Laraq (Roswell); Luke (Star Wars + 11 more);
Mark (Ac=e Lightning +11 more); Marduk (SG1 Thor’s Hammer ); Mick (City Limits et al); Monk (Damnation Alley); Mork (Mork and Mindy);
Nick (The Girl from Tomorrow + 27 more );
Ock (Babylon 5 Born to the Purple)
Patrick (Finders Keepers + 7 more); Psylocke (X-Men)
Quark (Deep Space Nine);
Radek (Stargate Atlantis); Radic-Q-2 (The Shape of Things to Come); Rick (Bladerunner + 12 more); Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog); Ry’ac (Stargate: Family);
Sarek (Star Trek); Solek (Stargate Company of Thieves); Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog); Sovak (Next Generation: Captain’s Holiday); Spock (Star Trek); Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica); Stark (Farscape/Invasion America/ Iron Man);
Teal’c (Stargate); Tok (Blake 7: Assassin’Enterprise: Breaking the Ice); Tolek(Andromeda:So Burn the Untamed Lands); Tomalak (Next Generation: The Defector); Tomasick(XF: Underneath); Tuvok (Star Trek Voyager);
Vereck (Farscape);
Wolancjek (seaQuest);
York (Hyperdrive);
Zarek (The Fantastic Planet/Battlestar Galactica 2); Zarrick (Megas XLR); Zek (Deep Space Nine: The Nagus);
There are no female names in this list! This was not deliberate on my part, mostly. There was one ( a Vulcan female) so I took it out. There are plenty of normal Anglo-Saxon male names in the list, but no female names.Coincidentally there are not many Anglo-Saxon women’s names ending in ‘ck’, so perhaps the omission is forgivable. But if you go back to the Captain Kirk Theory, ‘ck’ or ‘c’ is a strong ending to a word, indicating that the character is strong (whether good or evil). So we have a Vulcan woman called Saavik in Star Trek III, and Vulcan women are strong. IN Stargate Bloodlines Teal’c wife is called Drey’auc, but then all his family names end in ‘c’.
But when I looked at other languages (Russian, French, Spanish, Italian) this is not the case – if you accept an ‘a’ after the ‘ck’ or ‘c’ sound you get quite a few female names. And some of these do get used:
Annika (Star Trek Voyager) Seven’s real name;
Beka (Andromeda);
Bianca(Wicked Science/ X-files: Medusa);
Erica (Team Knight Rider); E.R.I.C.A. (Sliders: State of the Art);
Francesca (Clockstoppers);
Lyekka (Lexx :Lyekka);
Nikka (Stargate:Scorched Earth); Nikki (Torchwood: Adrift/The 4400 + 2 more);Niko (The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers);
Rebec (Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks); Rebecca (Tank Girl/ The Core + 16 others)
Tinker (Maximo vs Army of Zin);
That’s 77 guys names to 11 female, without counting variations of male names like Nicky, Rockyor Winky and Blake, Jake and Snake. But the women with these names are strong characters who take control of their situations.
The only other female name of note is the heroine of Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey, and that name is an insult in the language of my ancestors!
So is the form of the English language doing this?
No. I think not. On a quick Google you can come up with a list of hundreds of English words ending in ‘ck’. You don’t have to include ‘c’ as an ending. When you go through one of these lists an interesting point comes up. Many of the words are from Old English and are what we would call ‘Anglo-Saxon’. For example:
Some words come from Old Norse (via the Viking invasion of England):
Beck ( a stream) ; fleck; ruck;
Another group of words came from Old French (presumably through the Norman invasion of England):
Brick; mock; muck; track; wreck.
There were a few words from Middle Dutch (presumably from trade):
Deck; Duck (cloth); Rack; Smack (boat); Snack;
And then there were plenty of words from Middle English.
Duck (verb);kick;lack; nock; pack
So there are lots of very old words in English that end in ‘ck’, indicating they probably came from the Germanic languages.
·They are short words which are easy to say and easy to build into compound words.
·They rhyme, making them good words to use in oral poetry.
·They’ve got lots of good things going for them, so we’ve kept them even when we end up with two or three different meanings for the same sound.
·And we have lots of male names ending in ‘ck’. Germanic women’s names don’t end in ‘ck’, or ‘a’, so we don’t have a stock of old, dependable girl’s names ending in ‘ck’.
Aren’t there other words in Sci Fi ending in ‘ck’ or ‘c’ ?
Yes, there are other sci fi words ending in ‘ck’ and’c’, with another interesting pattern:
Planets
Chulak (Stargate); Crinnok 14 (Lexx:Trip); Guk (Terrahawks); Marduk( Andromeda: Slipfighter the Dogs of War);Merak( McCaffrey, The Ship Who Sang); Meylec (A Wrinkle In Time); Ork (Mork and Mindy);
Alien races
Ashrak (Stargate: In the Line of Duty); Dalek (Doctor Who); Dentic (Farscape); Drakh (Babylon 5); Drak (Farscape: Exodus from Genesis); Ewok (Star Wars); Formic(Ender’s Game); Karack metalites (Farscape); Mynock (The Empire Strikes Back); Tavlek (Farscape: With Friends Like These); Terrahawks (Terrahawks); Yeerk (Animorphs).
Titles and Group names
Anla’shok (Babylon 5); Cyberjack (Cyberjack); Freejack (Freejack); Impsec (Miles Vorkosigan series); Tank (Space Above and Beyond); Vedek (Deep Space Nine); Warlock (Crusade)
Food and Drink:
Bubbleshock (Sarah-Jane Adventures: invasion of the Bane); Enyac milk (Deep Space Nine: ties of Blood and Water); Grolak (Farscape: Lava’s a Many Splendored thing);Jilnak(Farscape: Lava’s a Many Splendored thing); Plomeek soup or broth (Deep Space Nine: The Maquis/Enterprise); Vak clover soup (Deep Space Nine: Melora); Yamok sauce (Deep Space Nine Destiny);
Gagh – a Star Trek Klingonspecialty – is debatable, depending on its pronunciation.
Random Shoes
Drackik (Farscape: Die Me, Dichotomy); Eurac (The Invaders: The Summit); Mivonks (Farscape: Eat Me); Nuyock (Bladerunner);Tac (Stargate: Rules of Engagement)
So?
Alien species, places, planets and food are given strong names, but generally weapons, spaceships, star-drives and other more technological features are not included. They are developed with prefixes, but that’s another blog.
How to make it sound Scientriffic
Why are there so many words in science fiction that end in the sound ‘ck’?
I’ve been wondering about the vocabulary of science fiction, especially word endings like ‘ck’ and ‘x’. I thought the answer to why there were so many was easy and obvious. But as usual, when I looked into it, the reasons for science fiction using so many ‘ck’ and ‘c’ endings is complicated and raises other questions.My first thought was thatin the Star Trek universe there is a theory that thanks to the success of Captain Kirk writers inventing sci fi names have to include a ‘K’ sound.Thus we got Captain Picard and Captain Sisko. Captain Janeway was doomed to fail because she had no ‘k’ sound in her name, and Archer was only half way there in Enterprise but he did have Trip Tucker to help him out.
But this theory really doesn’t explain why so many science fiction names and words end in ‘c’ or ‘ck’.
Here’s what a quick review of sci fi proper names brings up:
Adric (Doctor Who); Alec (Swamp Thing + 7 more);
Babcock (X-files: Gethsemane); Barak (Buck Rogers); Blokk (Shadow Raiders);Bray’tac (Stargate); Burke (Planet of the Apes);
Chick (QL Good Morning, Peoria ); Chuck (Screamers + 14 more); Clark (Babylon 5); Clank (Ratchett and Clank); Cruikshank (D? The Invisible Enemy);
Derek (Teenagers from Outer Space + 8 more); Dink (Ender’s Game); Dick (Third Rock from the Sun + 5 more); Dirkim (Blake’s 7: Star One); Draysick (Enterprise: North Star); Durka (Farscape: Durka Returns);
Eric (XF Anasazi/Jericho + 17 more); Erek (Animorphs/Kim Possible);
Flenteck (Crusade); Frank Black (Millenium);Frank (22 characters and counting); Fro’tak (Stargate: Family);
Garrack (Deep Space Nine); Gromak (Slider’s: Revelations); Gromek (Next Generation: The Emissary); Grunchlk (Farscape: Die Me, Dichotomy).
Hank (Lois and Clark: the Green, Green Glow of Home)/Lexx: Xevivor/Stepford Wives 2 et al); Havoc (X-Men); Hawk(Captain Power); Hulk (The Incredible Hulk);
Jack (Stargate et al); Jake ( Deep Space Nine, Animorphs et al); Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars: Phantom Menace); Jarvik (Blake 7); Jesek (The Miles Vorkosigan series).
Kirk (Star Trek); Kobick (The Land of the Giants); Krycek (X-files);
Laraq (Roswell); Luke (Star Wars + 11 more);
Mark (Ac=e Lightning +11 more); Marduk (SG1 Thor’s Hammer ); Mick (City Limits et al); Monk (Damnation Alley); Mork (Mork and Mindy);
Nick (The Girl from Tomorrow + 27 more );
Ock (Babylon 5 Born to the Purple)
Patrick (Finders Keepers + 7 more); Psylocke (X-Men)
Quark (Deep Space Nine);
Radek (Stargate Atlantis); Radic-Q-2 (The Shape of Things to Come); Rick (Bladerunner + 12 more); Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog); Ry’ac (Stargate: Family);
Sarek (Star Trek); Solek (Stargate Company of Thieves); Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog); Sovak (Next Generation: Captain’s Holiday); Spock (Star Trek); Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica); Stark (Farscape/Invasion America/ Iron Man);
Teal’c (Stargate); Tok (Blake 7: Assassin’Enterprise: Breaking the Ice); Tolek(Andromeda:So Burn the Untamed Lands); Tomalak (Next Generation: The Defector); Tomasick(XF: Underneath); Tuvok (Star Trek Voyager);
Vereck (Farscape);
Wolancjek (seaQuest);
York (Hyperdrive);
Zarek (The Fantastic Planet/Battlestar Galactica 2); Zarrick (Megas XLR); Zek (Deep Space Nine: The Nagus);
There are no female names in this list! This was not deliberate on my part, mostly. There was one ( a Vulcan female) so I took it out. There are plenty of normal Anglo-Saxon male names in the list, but no female names.Coincidentally there are not many Anglo-Saxon women’s names ending in ‘ck’, so perhaps the omission is forgivable. But if you go back to the Captain Kirk Theory, ‘ck’ or ‘c’ is a strong ending to a word, indicating that the character is strong (whether good or evil). So we have a Vulcan woman called Saavik in Star Trek III, and Vulcan women are strong. IN Stargate Bloodlines Teal’c wife is called Drey’auc, but then all his family names end in ‘c’.
But when I looked at other languages (Russian, French, Spanish, Italian) this is not the case – if you accept an ‘a’ after the ‘ck’ or ‘c’ sound you get quite a few female names. And some of these do get used:
Annika (Star Trek Voyager) Seven’s real name;
Beka (Andromeda);
Bianca(Wicked Science/ X-files: Medusa);
Erica (Team Knight Rider); E.R.I.C.A. (Sliders: State of the Art);
Francesca (Clockstoppers);
Lyekka (Lexx :Lyekka);
Nikka (Stargate:Scorched Earth); Nikki (Torchwood: Adrift/The 4400 + 2 more);Niko (The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers);
Rebec (Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks); Rebecca (Tank Girl/ The Core + 16 others)
Tinker (Maximo vs Army of Zin);
That’s 77 guys names to 11 female, without counting variations of male names like Nicky, Rockyor Winky and Blake, Jake and Snake. But the women with these names are strong characters who take control of their situations.
The only other female name of note is the heroine of Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey, and that name is an insult in the language of my ancestors!
So is the form of the English language doing this?
No. I think not. On a quick Google you can come up with a list of hundreds of English words ending in ‘ck’. You don’t have to include ‘c’ as an ending. When you go through one of these lists an interesting point comes up. Many of the words are from Old English and are what we would call ‘Anglo-Saxon’. For example:
Some words come from Old Norse (via the Viking invasion of England):
Beck ( a stream) ; fleck; ruck;
Another group of words came from Old French (presumably through the Norman invasion of England):
Brick; mock; muck; track; wreck.
There were a few words from Middle Dutch (presumably from trade):
Deck; Duck (cloth); Rack; Smack (boat); Snack;
And then there were plenty of words from Middle English.
Duck (verb);kick;lack; nock; pack
So there are lots of very old words in English that end in ‘ck’, indicating they probably came from the Germanic languages.
·They are short words which are easy to say and easy to build into compound words.
·They rhyme, making them good words to use in oral poetry.
·They’ve got lots of good things going for them, so we’ve kept them even when we end up with two or three different meanings for the same sound.
·And we have lots of male names ending in ‘ck’. Germanic women’s names don’t end in ‘ck’, or ‘a’, so we don’t have a stock of old, dependable girl’s names ending in ‘ck’.
Aren’t there other words in Sci Fi ending in ‘ck’ or ‘c’ ?
Yes, there are other sci fi words ending in ‘ck’ and’c’, with another interesting pattern:
Planets
Chulak (Stargate); Crinnok 14 (Lexx:Trip); Guk (Terrahawks); Marduk( Andromeda: Slipfighter the Dogs of War);Merak( McCaffrey, The Ship Who Sang); Meylec (A Wrinkle In Time); Ork (Mork and Mindy);
Alien races
Ashrak (Stargate: In the Line of Duty); Dalek (Doctor Who); Dentic (Farscape); Drakh (Babylon 5); Drak (Farscape: Exodus from Genesis); Ewok (Star Wars); Formic(Ender’s Game); Karack metalites (Farscape); Mynock (The Empire Strikes Back); Tavlek (Farscape: With Friends Like These); Terrahawks (Terrahawks); Yeerk (Animorphs).
Titles and Group names
Anla’shok (Babylon 5); Cyberjack (Cyberjack); Freejack (Freejack); Impsec (Miles Vorkosigan series); Tank (Space Above and Beyond); Vedek (Deep Space Nine); Warlock (Crusade)
Food and Drink:
Bubbleshock (Sarah-Jane Adventures: invasion of the Bane); Enyac milk (Deep Space Nine: ties of Blood and Water); Grolak (Farscape: Lava’s a Many Splendored thing);Jilnak(Farscape: Lava’s a Many Splendored thing); Plomeek soup or broth (Deep Space Nine: The Maquis/Enterprise); Vak clover soup (Deep Space Nine: Melora); Yamok sauce (Deep Space Nine Destiny);
Gagh – a Star Trek Klingonspecialty – is debatable, depending on its pronunciation.
Random Shoes
Drackik (Farscape: Die Me, Dichotomy); Eurac (The Invaders: The Summit); Mivonks (Farscape: Eat Me); Nuyock (Bladerunner);Tac (Stargate: Rules of Engagement)
So?
Alien species, places, planets and food are given strong names, but generally weapons, spaceships, star-drives and other more technological features are not included. They are developed with prefixes, but that’s another blog.
