There’s something to be said for fearless starship crews, led by charismatic captains, who point their ships at the far reaches of the universe, following coordinates and star-charts to boldly go exactly where they plan to. But we’ve got a soft spot for the underdogs—the folks who woke up with no idea that their day would involve getting tossed into space at the mercy of wormholes or intergalactic highway construction projects. From an astronaut who gets dropped in the middle of a space battle to a tech disruptor who gets dragged by the heart across dimensions, here are six highly relatable stories of stumbling through space.
Farscape
Initially intending to test his theory about gravity-assisted propulsion by slingshotting around the Earth, astronaut John Crichton instead goes all the way down the rabbit hole—via a wormhole that yanks him and his Farscape-1 module through time and space. Things only get curious and curiouser from there, as this hapless Earthling gets tossed into the middle of an alien firefight that earns him a deadly enemy and an ensemble of escaped-prisoners-turned-allies. But as Crichton adjusts to his new reality, still trying to find a way home, he discovers that while the wormhole that swallowed him up and spit him out was seemingly random, it represents a force that could be harnessed—so long as it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone
Brilliant entrepreneur Vivian Liao is this close to changing the world—again—when her plan to hack the planet gets interrupted by the appearance of an otherworldly being: a glowing green woman who shouldn’t exist in this room, let alone on this plane. With her star-glittering smile and fatally sharp nails, this alien force should be the end of Viv, but instead she fights back, and gets catapulted across dimensions. Waking in a space opera populated by killer robots and warrior monks, Viv must confront an intergalactic future even more dangerous than her own world of advanced artificial intelligence and sinister surveillance technology. Because celebrated tech disruptor Vivian Liao has stumbled into the middle of a showdown with an omnipotent Empress, and time is almost up.
Follow Viv’s lead and throw yourself into the first three chapters of Empress of Forever!
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Empress of Forever
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
While Philip Francis Nowlan’s 1928 novella Armageddon 2419 A.D. provided the source material for the Buck Rogers television series, his hero—WWI veteran Anthony Rogers—is only tossed forward in time: After being exposed to radioactive gas while working in an abandoned coal mine, he remains in a coma for nearly 500 years, only to awaken to a drastically different Earth following a takeover by China in 2109 A.D. In the 1979 made-for-TV movie and subsequent series, however, Buck Rogers is a NASA astronaut whose accidental coma comes about after his spaceship flies into a “space phenomenon” involving gases and meteors. With the life support and other controls frozen, Rogers’ ship is knocked out of its intended trajectory, into an orbit “a thousand times more vast”—an orbit that has him floating through space for half a millennium. Until, that is, a lucky encounter with the alien ship Draconia unfreezes him and returns him to a very different Earth, ravaged and reshaped by nuclear apocalypse. Thrown to and fro by forces beyond his control, Buck must, well, buck up and figure out where he fits into this future.
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Armageddon 2419 A.D.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Peter Quill gets tossed into space in the way that a Dickensian orphan might be tossed from one dire situation to another: In 1988, mere moments after his mother dies of brain cancer, the sobbing boy is abducted by aliens. While the Ravagers initially snatch Peter to bring him back to his father Ego, their leader Yondu discovers that Ego’s brand of parenting involves murder, and so decides instead to raise the poor little Terran orphan as his own. Of course, “raising” for the Ravagers means kicking the crap out of young Peter so he would learn to fight, and keeping him on constant alert with threats to eat him. Unsurprisingly, Peter escapes as soon as he reasonably can, taking on the name of Star-Lord striking out on his own across the galaxy.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
At first glance, a spaceship running on improbability wouldn’t seem the most effective means of space travel. That is, until the exact moment that a human—who has narrowly escaped the destruction of Earth with his alien friend by hitchhiking on board a Vogon spacecraft, and, having been discovered, is sentenced to death (and subjected to Vogon poetry)—is tossed out of an airlock right in front of said spaceship. In that case, then the Heart of Gold is precisely where in space and time it is supposed to be.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Futurama
Like Buck Rogers, delivery boy Philip J. Fry has to get tossed into time before he can get tossed into space: After accidentally cryogenically freezing himself on New Year’s Eve 1999, he awakens exactly 1,000 years later, into the quintessential sci-fi “world of tomorrow.” Initially stumbling his way through New New York City, Fry attempts to evade fate assignment officer Leela, whose job is to slap him with a career chip, and runs into suicidal robot and fellow job deserter Bender. By the end of the pilot, Fry, Bender, and Leela—who, it turns out, is not so fond of her job, either—meet up with Fry’s only living relative Professor Farnsworth and decide to make a break for it. Hopping aboard the Planet Express (delivery) ship, they launch themselves at midnight, into the year 3000—and into the unknown of space.
What are your favorite “tossed into space” stories?
Farscape was really the last great live action classic SF show. There has not really been anything that hit that same height of adventure, drama, and imagination since. And that is a problem. The only thing approaching it has been The Orville, and the SFF review industry seems determined to ignore it in favour of more flavours of drab and empty shows.
Brian Daley’s trilogy about the adventures of Hobart Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh is a very fun read, and I’m very sorry that it’s only a trilogy.
An awful lot of Heinlein fits the category; Starman Jones and Have Spacesuit Will Travel being the two I remember most clearly. Also possibly The Number of the Beast, although even my 12 year-old self recognized that ol’ RAH was starting to have issues.
How about 2001?
And you’ve got to count the very first Star Wars. (And no bloody I, II, VII or VIII.) It may be a space-faring civilization, but take away the princess and the wizard and the mysterious destiny; you know no other poor moisture farmer is going to go jetting around the galaxy.
Given the “tossed into space” title, I was expecting stories about people involuntarily going out airlocks… wonder if that says something bad about me?
Lol @@@@@ Futurama, the epitome of being tossed into space!
Where’s “The Cold Equations”?
(Yes, I know. I’m just asking to be … )
@6 jmeltzer
It’s an excellent example though.
random22 @1: How about The Expanse? It’s definitely imaginative.
Not exactly sure it qualifies as “tossed into space” but Stephen King’s “The Jaunt” is one I haven’t been able to shake. “It’s longer than you think, Dad! Longer than you think!” OH MY GOD.
@8 More grim horribleness in space. I think not.
“Gully Foyle is my name and Terra is my nation.
Outer space my resting place; The Stars My Destination!”
@4/rickarddavid: Me too.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy would still work under that premise.
The Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson
MST3K!
In the not-too-distant future —
Next Sunday A.D. —
There was a guy named Joel,
Not too different from you or me.
He worked at Gizmonic Institute,
Just another face in a red jumpsuit.
He did a good job cleaning up the place,
But his bosses didn’t like him
So they shot him into space…
Before MSTK there was a Saturday morning live action show about two janitors accidentally launched into space. Far Out Space Nuts I think it was called. The writing fit the title.
@15 I remember that one. “I said ‘*lunch*’, not ‘launch’!”
That’s the one! A Sid and Marty Kroft production I think.
i’ll go with Futurama, great writers and always good for a laugh![.](//s04.flagcounter.com/mini/Jkzv/bg_FFFFFF/txt_CCCCCC/border_DBDBDB/flags_0/" alt="Free counters!" border="0"></a>)
I am also happy to see Farscape mentioned. There had been other good TV SF shows, but that one still stands out.
What about Space: 1999? How soon we forget . . .