HYPER WHAT!

After the revelations of ‘cryo’ here goes with the prefix ‘hyper’.



This prefix is derived from the Greek word huper meaning ‘over’ or ‘beyond’. It has been used regularly in English word building, but it’s use has extended since World War II ended.

There are general words in the dictionary such as hyperborean, hyperbole, hyperbola and hypernym which have been used since at least the 19th century.



Medical words often use ‘hyper’ as a prefix: hypercalcemia, hyperglycaemia, hypermetropia, hyperthermia, hyperthyroidism and the infamous hyperactive.



Then there are words which have been coined since World War II such as hyperinflation, hypersonic (more than five times the speed of sound), hypertense, hypertext.



It’s thought that the word ‘hyperspace’ was invented by John Campbell Junior in Islands of Space in 1931. Heinlein used it in Starman Jones in 1953. In this context hyperspace is an extra dimension which can be entered via gates or wormholes, allowing travel across vast distances of our Dimension. Other writers have seen hyperspace differently – Frederik Pohl saw it as a pocket universe in The Mapmakers in 1955, George R.R. Martin thought travel there would take longer, (in FTA 1974), and in 1990 John E. Smith wrote Redshift Rendezvous in which light only travelled at 22mph in hyperspace.



The word hyper also appeared in comics in 1940 with Hyper Mystery Comics. This featured a Golden Age Flash Gordon clone, with no name or origin, surnamed ‘the Phenomenal’. He used ray guns and had nothing ‘hyper’ about him.





Uses of ‘hyper’ in Sci Fi Film, Television and Games



‘Hyper’ as a General Prefix





Like everyone else, sci fi writers use ‘hyper’ to mean extra or super, attaching it to just about anything they can.



Hyperactive Spaceballs Mode Dark Helmet’s hyperjets used to reach ludicrous speed.



Hyperbaric Chamber seaQuest DSV: Lostland Container in which the skull from the helmet was locked.



Hyperbolic Resting Chamber My Favourite Martian Replacement for the lounge suggested by Martin. [< hyperbola , a geometric shape]



Hyperboomers Bubblegum Crisis Three Boomers built by Largo to fight the Knight Sabers, but destroyed by Priss at Genom Tower.



Hyperchip McCaffrey, Partnership Polyon’s new version of the hyperchip. Contained a program which allowed him to override and control any system that they were installed in.



Hypercloak Blinx 2 : Masters of Time & Space Special cloak which allowed the Tom Tom Gang to move unseen as long as they moved slowly.



Hypercube Cube 2 Cube which had every face another cube, forming a tesseract. Used in this case as a prison.



Hyper-Galactic Star Cruiser Atomic Betty Spaceship commanded by Atomic Betty, crewed by X5 and Sparky.



Hypergiant Enterprise: Cogenitor Sun with only one hundred years to go supernova examined by Enterprise and the Vissians.



Hyper Gravity ST Animated: Beyond the Farthest Star Property of a dark planet inhabited by an energy being. It sucked ships into orbit for the being to use to escape.



Hyperjets Spaceballs Engines on Dark Helmet’s ship capable of ludicrous speed when they went into hyperactive.



Hyperman Adventures of Hyperman Superhero alien from the planet Do-wop, junior agent for W.A.R.P. sent to protect Earth.



Hypernauts Series, Christy Marx, 1996.



Hyperonic Radiation TNG The Ensigns of Command Type of radiation found on Tau Cygna Five, fatal to humans, also blocking communications and transporters. The settlers had discovered ways to become immune to its influences. Data adapted a phaser to work under its influence.



Hyperoptic DriveThe Osiris Chronicles A form of interstellar drive.



Hyper Police Series, Anime, 1997



Hyper Rage Farscape: Thank God It’s Friday, Again Condition suffered by D’Argo causing him to flee to the Skyaran people where he found peace for five days.



Hyper reality probe seaQuest DSV :To Be or Not To Be Design feature of seaQuest not created by Bridger.



Hyper Sapien: People From Another Star Film, 1986, Canada.



Hyperseal, deadlocked handcuffs Torchwood: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang Items John used on Gwen to make the team find a way to release the personalised bomb attached to him.



Hypersleep 1. Alien Cargo Cryogenic sleep state used by SSS to rotate crew on freighters.

2. Alien 3 Cryogenic stasis used during long space journeys.



Hypersonic Soundwaves D? The Lazarus Experiment Use of sound above the range of human hearing to create a resonance in the rejuvenation chamber. Recreated by the Doctor using an organ in a Cathedral bell tower, changing Lazarus back into a normal human.



Hyperspanner Enterprise: Minefield Tool used by Archer to defuse the Romulan mine.



Hyperspectral Imaging Andromeda: Phear Phactor Phenom Technology used to find nanobots present in human secretions.



HyperStone Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The HyperStone Heist Device which Shredder acquired from Dimension X. Shrank buildings.



Hypertrichosis Lanuganosa X-Files: The Post-Modern Prometheus Aka Hirsutism. Real condition of over hairiness, possibly caused by persistent growth of baby hair.



Hypertime Clockstoppers State of being in which a human moved so fast that time appeared to stand still. Accessed by the use of molecular accelerators, or time watches. This would allow surgeons to perform operations between beats of a heart.





‘Hyper’ relating to Hyperspace







Hyperspace is a word used by mathematicians to mean spaces of more than three dimensions. It is used commonly in Science Fiction, but with slight variations in its meaning. New words have developed to describe parts and theories of this other dimension, and for the engines required to travel into it.



1.Star Trek the Next Generation 1987 - 1993; Star Wars 1977 ; Deep Space Nine 1993-2000; Star Trek Voyager 1995-2001 ; Crusade 1998.

An area of space separate to normal Space-time, usually approached through a wormhole, stargate or slipstream not following the usual rules of time and distance. Originally hyperspace was pictured as a rushing void, often twisting like a vortex. In later programs, such as Crusade it has been depicted as having distance, artefacts and life-forms.



2. Babylon Five Soul Hunter A layer of space where travel was much faster because the distance between points was less. Entered through a Jump Gate, beacons provided a guide for ships to prevent them from becoming lost. Appeared to be red in colour.



3. Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood Alternate dimension parallel to ours used to bypass time distortion when travelling faster than the speed of light. Cessair of Diplos trapped her pursuer’s ship in hyperspace for 4000 years.



4. Sliders: Pilot Title of text read by Quinn even though his travels through a wormhole into different dimensions don’t seem to involve hyperspace.



5. Weber, On Basilisk Station A compressed dimension of space where the distance between two points was shorter than in normal space. Existed in multiple bands, the ‘higher’ the band, the shorter the distance between points.



6. Lexx: The Game Called The Other Zone. Location where Kai chose to play Prince a game of chess. Entered through a portal, separate to our Universe, it appealed to Prince.





Hyperspace Drive Stargate SG1: Fail Safe Function of the Hatak vessel, repaired and used to take the asteroid through Earth rather than crash into it.



Hyperspace Field Stargate Atlantis: No Man’s Land Area of space used by ships travelling faster than light. Prevented the launch of small ships from a larger ship e.g. Darts and Daggers.



Hyperspace Physics Test Star Trek: The Next Generation: Coming of Age Part of the test sequence undergone by Wesley to see if he was ready for Starfleet. Everyone in the group passed.



Hyperspace Portal Stargate Atlantis: Inferno Opening in the fabric of space to allow a ship to travel vast distances in no time. Used by McKay to take the Orion away from Taranis.



Hyperspace sub-beam Blake’s 7: Seek, Locate, Destroy A Federation message scrambler.



Hyperdrive and a few others



Hyperdrive 1. Star Trek the Next Generation 1987 - 1993; Star Wars 1977 ; Deep Space Nine 1993-2000; Star Trek Voyager 1995-2001 ; Crusade 1998.

Engines on a star-ship allowing travel faster than light, and entry to hyperspace.



2. Blake’s 7 Space Fall Engine allowing a ship to travel faster than the speed of light.



3. Lost in Space Secondary drive for the Jupiter 2 usually forming a gate for travel.



4. Stargate SG1: Company of Thieves Engine driving the Odyssey.



5. Weber: Mission of Honor Usual type of engine, replaced with Streak Drive which was faster.



6. Star Wars: A New Hope Engine used by the Millenium Falcon, class 0.5.



7. Series, 2006, Britain. This is more a sitcom than a serious science fiction show, so hyperdrive and hyperspace aren’t very important.





Hyperdrive Sequence Dark Star Preparation to travel to another system, begun after a bomb dropped with enough time to leave a system before the planet exploded.



Hypergate Lost in Space Device allowing control over the entry into hyperspace. Once a second gate was installed at any destination, instantaneous travel was possible. With no gate there was no exit vector.



Hyper generators Weber, On Basilisk Station Machines used to accelerate a ship into hyper.



Hyperlaunch Stargate SG1: Within the Serpent’s Grasp Process of accelerating a Goa’uld ship into hyperspeed.



Hyperlight Drive Lois and Clarke: Foundling Technology allowing Superman’s spaceship to travel from Krypton to Earth.



Hyperspeed Stargate SG1: Within the Serpent’s Grasp Goa’uld referent for speeds faster than light.



Hyperwall Weber, On Basilisk Station The limit on the edge of a solar system where gravity ceased to interfere and hyper can be entered.



Hyperwave Red Dwarf: Ouroboros Phenomenon in space travelling through non-space to the next dimension. Allowed an unstable linkway to form between dimensions, and the transferral of Kochanski.




Where to now? FTL

In the 2000’s the word hyperspace is still used, but less commonly. Series like Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Universe use the term ‘FTL’ meaning faster than light, to describe the style of engines being used in starships and the speed at which they go. This has possibly been in response to criticisms that ‘hyperspace’ and ‘hyperdrive’ did not describe the speeds being travelled at. It would be theoretically possible to travel in ‘hyperspace’ at sub-light speeds. Star Trek did at least develop sub-light engines as well as warp engines to help with these problems.