Earth

Common themes

• Earth is often depicted as a member of an interstellar community. Earth is often depicted as a major power-broker in the community due to anthropocentrism. Perhaps the most notable example of this is Star Trek (the United Federation of Planets) and Babylon 5 (the Earth Alliance). Earth can also be depicted as the head of an empire as in Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series where "The barbarians in the long ships waited at the edge of the Galaxy for the ancient Terran Empire to fall... The brilliant Starship Commander Flandry fought to save the empire even as he scorned it" (from the preface to "The Rebel Worlds"). Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, too, has a brooding Terran Empire maintaining a colonial enclave on the planet Darkover where the plot takes place, and on countless others. Haegemonia also features an empire controlled from Earth with other major planets, such as Eden IV.
• Earth can also play host to an alien invasion. While reasons vary, in most stories, it is because extraterrestrials are looking for a new world to colonize or otherwise dominate. The aliens are often used to portray nearly all-powerful beings, placing the strongest forces on earth at the receiving end of attacks that they can barely understand. This theme is one of the earliest in science fiction, demonstrated by H. G. Wells in The War of the Worlds and derivative works, and also such works as Independence Day. In such scenarios, the author often uses deus ex machina to allow the invasion to be repulsed. In others, like Footfall and Worldwar, the author depicts aliens only slightly more advanced than the inhabitants of Earth, and are fought to a stand-still or defeated in battle. The opposite has also been depicted, with Earth becoming a refuge to aliens as seen in the Men in Black series of movies, and Alien Nation series.
• The memory of Earth and its location may be lost to the sands of time or shrouded in myth. Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire series depict a common theme of a destroyed Earth. In other works, such as Battlestar Galactica, it is largely forgotten except by the religious. In the numerous books of the Dumarest series by E.C. Tubb, the adventurer protagonist was born on a "galactic backwater" Earth and at a young age had stowed away on a rare spaceship touching down on the planet; having seen more than enough of the galaxy he wants to go back, but no one else had ever heard of the planet. The first Terran inhabitants of the Koprulu Sector are Earth-born criminals in sleeper ships in StarCraft. The expansion also mentions about Earth: upon hearing of the United Earth Directorate's forces' arrival, Zeratul remarks "Raynor [a Terran captain] spoke me of the distant Terran homeworld of Earth." This implies that the Terrans still know about Earth but it's location is lost (StarCraft manual mentions that the sleeper ships have became lost in hyperspace when an error erased the intended destination's coordinates, as well as those of Earth's, resulting in the ships going at full speed for several decades until the engines broke down). Also, the Terran Confederacy uses the same flag as the Confederacy in the American Civil War.
• Earth could have been completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, but its location (or at least its former location) is well-known. This last scenario is also popular, and was featured in the movie Titan A.E., as well as in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Some works, such as Star Wars series and many fantasy works, never mention the Earth at all. This allows the author to operate in a realm unfamiliar and otherworldly to the reader or to explore contentious issues and historical themes in an otherwise entirely alien environment, giving the work a radically different perspective. In Homeworld, Earth's existence is unknown, however it is debatable if the Kushans/Hiigarans are humans at all, since none of them ever seen (although the shape of Karan S'jet makes it very likely that she is human. Also, Hiigara closely resembles Earth from space, implying that humans and Kushans/Hiigarans possess similar [if not same] biology).

Earth as presented in various works

• In the H. G. Wells story The War of the Worlds, perhaps the first depiction of an alien invasion in fiction, Earth is simply a neighboring planet of the inhabitants of Mars. With their world coming into its end, they target the younger and richer Earth for migration. This plot is repeated with varying degrees of differences in many of its adaptations, but Earth's place largely remains the same. The notable exception is in the War of the Worlds TV series, where the aliens look to Earth for more specific reasons, as it features many of their old world's characteristics (such as both being the third planet in their respective systems, the number 3 playing a large role in their beliefs).
• In the anime series Cowboy Bebop, Earth has become a backwater wasteland after a horrific accident caused one of the jumpgates that humans used to travel the solar system to explode, destroying part of the Moon and causing the destroyed bits to rain down on the earth.
• In C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, Earth (known as Thulcandra) is part of the Field of Arbol: and is the subject of an interplanetary blockade - hence it's name, the Silent Planet.
• In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Earth has been united into a single geopolitical entity, The World State.
• In David Weber's Honorverse, Earth is the capital planet of the Solarian League, the largest and wealthiest political institution ever created by man. Prior to the League's creation, a large portion of humanity departed for other planets and solar systems in what came to be known as the Diaspora, leaving those who remained to rebuild from the effects of pollution, resource exhaustion, and the cataclysmic Final War. They did so, and Earth once again became the political, economic, and cultural center of humanity.
• The Earth also plays a major part in the Doctor Who universe. Its where Humans come from and expand out of to create numerous Empires, being invaded by many different aliens through all of its history. Having a weather control station on the moon by 2070, by the year 200,000, the Earth is in the middle of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. By this time, 5,000,000,000 humanity is spread all across the stars and has fully integrated themselves with the rest of the universe. Shortly after the destruction of Earth, Humanity regroups and colonized a new planet, naming it New Earth. Humans go to live on to the end of the Universe.
• In Warhammer 40,000, Earth, known as Holy Terra, is the Homeworld of Humanity and the capital of the Imperium of Man. It is the site of the Golden Throne, where the God-Emperor resides.
• In the Noon Universe, Earth is a Utopian world of immense power and the initial home planet of all humans scattered over the Universe.
• In the alternate future universe of The Longest Journey, Earth has been divided into two twin worlds - technology-driven Stark, the world as we know it, and the magic world of Arcadia for over thirteen millennia.
• In Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World, The Stainless Steel Rat travels to Earth, 1975, and then to Napoleonic France, to stop a madman known as He from destroying the time line. The Rat and his contemporaries in the series show confusion over the name of the world, hedging by calling it either "Earth" or "Dirt".
• In the animated television series Exosquad, Earth is the center of the Homeworlds, the core of both Human and Neosapien Empires (at different times).
• In the Alien series of films, Earth is depicted as being the center of an interstellar commercial empire effectively run by a soulless megacorporation referred to as "the Company". Nothing is seen of the planet itself with the exception of several shots of the planet from orbit, which appear to show it in a similar state to the present. In the fourth installment of the series, Alien: Resurrection, Earth is the emergency destination to which Military vessels automatically direct themselves. By the time of Resurrection, Earth is part of an entity known as the "United Systems". One of the film's characters, Jonas (portrayed by Ron Perlman) remarks "Earth... what a shithole," upon learning where the ship is going.
• The television series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda differs from the usual portrayal of Earth as a dominant power in galactic civilization. The series' Systems Commonwealth was founded thousands of years in the past by the Vedran species in the Andromeda Galaxy, with Earth joining in the twenty-second century. Humans go on to become a major player in the Commonwealth, but Earth itself has no special importance (although the final two episodes of the series retcon this). Following the fall of the Commonwealth, Earth becomes one of many Nietzschean slave worlds.
• In the series Red Dwarf, Earth is seen mainly as the goal of the crew's trip; David Lister is personally obsessed with revisiting it as his home world, especially since he is the only character to be from there. The novel Better than Life, however, mentions Earth being voted out of inhabitability, and via various causes, ejected from the solar system.
• In the video game universe of Halo, Earth is the center of all human government, military and technology. Earth and its colonies are governed by the UNSC, or the United Nations Space Command. During the Human-Covenant War, the Cole Protocol was implemented, stating that ships must self destruct rather than let the Covenant find the location of Earth. Furthermore, any ship heading to Earth must take several random slipspace jumps rather than head straight for it. In October of 2552, Earth was attacked by the Covenant and successfully defended by the UNSC Military, only to have the Covenant come back a few days later with more firepower.
• In the StarCraft series, Earth is ruled by a fascistic government called the United Earth Directorate. When the UED becomes aware of the presence of aliens hostile to humanity in the far away Koprulu Sector, it sends a large Expeditionary Force to defeat the aliens, conquer the sector, and reintegrate the banished human colonists who reside there into its political fold. The Directorate's initial progress in the sector was promising, as it managed to invade and conquer the main planets of both the Terran Dominion and the bizarre alien Zerg, in the process kidnapping the Zerg Overmind and using it to control most of the Zerg swarms. The rogue Zerg leader Kerrigan waged a clever and highly successful war to rid the sector of the Earth's control, aided in part by temporary Terran and Protoss allies. The end result for Earth's forces was a crushing defeat which amounted to the loss of all ships in the Koprulu Sector. As of the events of Starcraft II, there remain a few isolated pockets of UED fleet survivors scattered throughout the Koprulu sector. It is unclear if the UED is planning to return to the wartorn area.
• In author Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy, Earth is the heart of an economical empire, its biosphere wrecked by global warming to such an extent that any unfortified structure would be torn apart in a matter of days by colossal, supersized versions of modern tropical hurricanes. The entire sprawling human population is forced to live in arcologies protected against the so-called "Armada Storms". Whilst Earth represents a significant political and industrial power base, it is nonetheless an independent sate and interestingly not the head of the series' Confederation. Physically, Earth is dominated by massive Arcologies that cover most of the major urban centres of our time, including London, New York and Johannesburg. There are also several equatorial space elevators that allow for transit into orbit, where the planet is surrounded by an O'Neill Halo, a collection of captured asteroids providing habitation and raw materials as well as docking and strategic defense units.
• In the Metroid series, Earth is the (assumed) headquarters of the Galactic Federation, formed in the year 2000 C.C. (Cosmic Calendar) as a pact between many different kinds of races.
• In the Wing Commander Universe, Earth is the capital of the Terran Confederation, which spends much of the time period covered in the published media (from the middle to the end of the 27th century) locked in an interstellar war with the Kilrathi Empire. The Confederation was founded in the aftermath of the collapse of the World Economic Consortium.
• In the Perry Rhodan series, Earth is much as in the real world until Rhodan, that Earth's first man on the moon, discovers a wrecked starship from the ancient Arkonide Empire. Using the technology and the help of the surviving Arkonides, Rhodan forces the Earth to unite under his leadership, and begins to explore the galaxy while carefully concealing the location of Earth from enemies such as the Arkonide Empire. Later in the series, Earth under the now-immortal Rhodan becomes a major player in the universe, establishing a benevolent empire. During an invasion of the Milkyway by the Laren, Earth and the Moon with its 20 billion inhabitants are supposed to be teleported to a different system, but accidentally end up in the bridge between two collided galaxies (called Maelstrom of Stars) and moved into orbit about a star. 120 years later the system falls into a giant energy vortex and is again transported to another galaxy, and most of the humans in it become part of the superintelligence IT. Another 5 years later, IT transports Earth and Moon back into the Solar System, and they are repopulated.
• In the anime and manga series Trigun it is revealed that through constant pollution and humanity living beyond its means that the Earth had to be evacuated after becoming uninhabitable. The humans fled in cryogenic suspension with only a small skeleton crew operating their fleet called Project Seeds to search for a new homeworld. Upon crashing on the planet Gunsmoke, any advanced technology from the days of Earth is referred to as lost technology.
• In Phillip Reeves' Hungry City Chronicles, Earth has been ravished by a conflict known as the Sixty Minute War, which was soon followed by earthquakes, volcano eruptions and a brief ice age, leaving Earth forever changed. Europe is known as the "Great Hunting Ground" as where most Traction Cities are found, North America is known as the "Dead Continent" and South America's isthmus has been cut off due to 'Slow Bombs'.
• In Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos series, Old Earth is believed to have been destroyed by The Big Mistake of '08 (in which a miniature black hole was dropped into it), but later shown to have been spirited away by 'other' beings of godlike abilities and consciousness.
• In the original Planet of the Apes film, astronauts attempt to leave the solar system for the first time, aiming for Alpha Centauri. However, unexplained phenomena cause their small vessel to change course while the crew is in cryostasis. They wake upon landing on an inhabitable but harsh planet that they later learn is a future Earth, dominated by sentient apes. However, in the original Pierre Boulle novel and the 2001 film, both of the same name, the astronauts find civilizations of apes on another planet, but suffer a rude shock upon returning to Earth, finding it besieged by apes.
• In the Half-Life series of first-person shooters, a modern day research facility opens a portal storm between Earth and the planet Xen. The portal storm floods the planet with aliens from that world, and is kept open by a creature named Nihilanth. A scientist named Gordon Freeman manages to reach the creature and take it down, unknowingly freeing one of the races that travelled to Earth by the portal storms. The portal storm awakes the Combine Empire, which then manages to conquer Earth in just seven hours, after its military had been crippled by beings from Xen. Two decades after the Black Mesa incident, Gordon Freeman succeeds in cutting Earth off of the Combine Empire and a device that suppressed human reproduction, leading to a renewed fight between the native population and the trapped Combine forces.
• In the Massively multiplayer online role-playing game Tabula Rasa, Earth is shown in the near future as having been attacked by a force known as the Bane. Hopelessly outmatched, it's revealed that Earth's various governments haven't been caught completely off guard and rather than mount a suicidal defence, have chosen to abandon the planet using wormhole portals built using alien technology to evacuate as many people as they could to other planets so the human race can regroup and launch a counterattack at the Bane. The ultimate fate of Earth, and those that were left behind, is unknown, with some thinking it may well be gone forever.
• In the video game Xenosaga, the Earth has been abandoned by humanity for at least 4000 years, due to the fact that the Earth has disappeared altogether from physical space. Humans refer to the planet as "Lost Jerusalem".
• In the video game Freespace Earth serves as the capital of the Galactic Terran Alliance. During the war against the Shivans, a last ditch attack in subspace saves the planet from destruction, but at the cost of collapsing the FTL node that allows access to the system. By the end of Freespace 2, Earth is still sealed off and has had no contact with the outside systems for 32 years, but the Alliance is hopeful they have found a way to restore travel to the Sol system.
• In the AT-43 universe, Earth, known as "Sol III" was the home planet of the humans who became the Therian faction. In this future, Earth was destroyed (after the Therians recklessly used up its resources) and the debris was used to form a Dyson Sphere around the Sun.
• In Little Fuzzy, Earth is referred to as Terra, and is the center of a multi-planetary system, spanning many galaxies most likely.
• In Funky Koval comic series most events take place on 2080's Earth which is very similar to our own.However it's rather ruled by global corporations ( Stellar Fox Syndicate is notable example) than political bodies like UN. Earth is also on the verge of wide galactic explorations with possess ion of subspace flight technology and maintain contact with at least two alien species: The Droll and Ancusans.

Battlestar Galactica

The overarching plot in both the original and reimagined Battlestar Galactica is the quest to find Earth, which is thought to be the location of the thirteenth colony of Kobol, the purported true homeworld of humanity. Both shows are similar in that the location of Earth is initially unknown, but clues to its location are gradually discovered by the refugee fleet from the Twelve Colonies.

In both series, the exodus of the Thirteen Tribes took place so far in the past that most modern Colonists have come to assume that the stories of Earth are religious myths. In the original series, several clues indicate that the existence of Earth is real. In the original series, on the prison planet of Proteus, Starbuck encounters drawings of star systems on the wall of a cell once occupied by a mysterious prisoner. The star charts turn out to be that of the Solar System. The planet Terra is discovered to be inhabited by humans who use Earth units of measurement (hours, minutes, etc.) rather than Colonial units of measurement, suggesting that it was settled by members of the lost Thirteenth Tribe.

Most Colonial historians assume that Kobol is the homeworld of all humanity, and that the Thirteen Tribes fled that world, with twelve founding the Twelve Colonies and the thirteenth heading to Earth. In Galactica 1980, a continuation of the original series, the fleet did eventually discover Earth as it was in 1980.

In the Season Three finale of the re-imagined series, Kara Thrace returns to Galactica after her apparent death, claiming to have been to Earth and intending to lead the fleet there. The camera then pans out from the fleet to view the Milky Way galaxy, and then zooms back in to show Earth, confirming the existence of the planet. In the Season Four mid-season finale episode "Revelations", the fleet finally reaches Earth, only to discover that it is a radioactive wasteland.

Buck Rogers

In most variations on the Buck Rogers mythos (comic strip, TV series, feature film), Earth of the 25th century (where the action takes place) is recovering from various atomic wars, usually variations on World War III. In the original comic, Mongols have taken over the Earth; in the TV series, the Draconian Empire fills this role (although the Draconians are obviously based on Mongols). Most of Earth's cities lie in ruins, although rebuilding is in progress (Earth's capital is New Chicago; other cities include New Paris, New London, etc.). The second season of the TV series revealed that much of Earth's population fled the planet in the wake of the atomic war and founded colonies in deep space; the Earth ship Searcher is dispatched to investigate.

CoDominium

In Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium series (now largely alternate history) the Earth comes under the control of the CoDominium, an alliance between the United States and Soviet Union, in the year 1990. The CD imposes its control over all other nations of the Earth, halting scientific development and warfare. The CD is ruled by a Grand Senate located on the Moon, and eventually constructs interstellar colonies for the joint goal of economic gain and a means of exiling troublesome elements of society. Eventually in 2103, the CD dissolves, with the US and USSR engaging in the nuclear "Great Patriotic Wars" which destroy almost all of Earth (it is mentioned that Jamaica and the Tyrolean Alps are untouched).

The CD Space Navy escapes to the planet Sparta, which eventually becomes the nucleus of the "Empire of Man." During the Empire's Formation Wars the Earth is once more hit hard, but is eventually incorporated into the Imperium as the "honorary capital." When the Empire dissolves in the Secession Wars in the 27th century, Earth is once more subjected to nuclear attacks, but by the early 31st century has been reclaimed by the Second Empire. By that time, the Earth city of "New Annapolis" is a training center for the Imperial Space Navy. To inhabitants of planets newly contacted, such as Prince Samual's World in "King David's Spaceship", the condition of the still largely desolate Earth is presented as an object lesson for the prohibitive price of war and a justification for Empire's claim to universal rule.

Dune

In Frank Herbert's Dune series of novels, Earth is referred to as Old Earth/Old Terra by the time of the original novel Dune (at least 21,500 years in the future). The Sun is called Al-Lat, and humanity had populated many planets (among them Caladan, Giedi Prime and Salusa Secundus) before the Titans and then thinking machines had taken control of the universe. In the Legends of Dune series, it is revealed that at the beginning of mankind's war with the Machines, called the Butlerian Jihad, Earth had been devastated by humans themselves using atomics in an attack on the Machines. In the time of Paul Atreides, the Earth is an uninhabited and largely forgotten land, shrouded in legend. In Dune Messiah, Paul refers to Hitler and Genghis Khan, in comparing the destructiveness of his Jihad to their wars. It is a wilderness and recovering an ecosystem of its own as humans have abandoned it. The artifacts of Homo sapiens have for the most part crumbled back into the planet, though a more than casual observer can find many traces of the old civilizations.

Paul's son, the God Emperor Leto II, refers to the Earth many times in his journals. The God Emperor seemed particularly fond of the ancestors he had from the Western sections of Eurasia. He makes references to Israel, Urartu, (also called Armenia), Edom, Damascus, Media, Babylon, Arpad, Umlias, the plains of Central Asia, and the Greeks; the family name refers to their descent from Atreus. He seems to have had ancestors among the Turks or the Mongols as he says that one of his memories involves a horse plain with felt yurts. Leto also has the memories of a famous politician from the United States whose name was Jacob Broom.

In Heretics of Dune, it is noted that the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza has the preserved Vincent van Gogh painting Cottages at Cordeville hanging in her room. In the Prelude to Dune prequel series it is mentioned that certain Monet and Gauguin paintings are owned by House Vernius, and hang in the Grand Palais at Ix.

Firefly

In the Joss Whedon series Firefly, Earth is long since abandoned. It is referred to with awe as "Earth-That-Was", having been abandoned centuries ago due to overpopulation and depletion of the planet's natural resources. After fleeing the planet, the remnants of humanity traveled in generation ships for decades (many humans lived their entire lives within a spaceship's walls) until finding a new star system. Collection of Earth-That-Was artifacts is a popular hobby, and ancient Earth artifacts are known to be very valuable.

It is unknown whether Earth has actually been destroyed, or if the planet still physically exists; in the feature film Serenity, ancient starships are shown leaving a sickly brown Earth with grey oceans, but the fate of the planet is never fully revealed. A puppet show in the episode "Heart of Gold" implies that Earth has in fact been obliterated, but this was never actually confirmed on screen.

Asimov's Future Histories

In much of Isaac Asimov's fiction, the future Earth is an underprivileged planet — impoverished, overcrowded and disease-ridden — which is regarded with disdain by the arrogant Spacers of the "Outer Planets" (at this stage, there are about fifty of them).

In the Robot Series the inhabitants of these planets are still aware that their ancestors came from Earth, but this does not make them fond of the place. Rather, they develop a racist theory by which "the best strains" had left Earth to colonise the other planets and left "the inferior strains" behind. However, they have no choice but to ask the help of the protagonist, a detective from the despised Earth, to solve murder mysteries which baffle their own police. Afterwards, Earth embarks on a major new campaign of space colonization, with the pious hope that the new colonists will prove more faithful to the Mother Planet than the earlier ones. However in the end of the Robot Series the Earth is doomed to a slow radioactive process that will leave the planet uninhabitable, causing a more rapid expansion of colonization from Earth.

In the Galactic Empire series, taking place thousands of years later (originally conceived as completely separate but made by Asimov in his later career into the direct sequel of the Robot Period), Earth and settlements from it are still clearly remembered in The Stars Like Dust. By the time of The Currents of Space, Earth is ruled by Trantor, not yet a Galactic Empire. Its status as the original world is now disputed.

In Pebble in the Sky, we see Earth in the early days of the Empire of Trantor. Earth has a largely radioactive crust with only patches of habitable land in between, and its people have to undergo compulsory euthanasia at the age of sixty. It is a backwater province , and among inhabitants of other planets there is a prevalent prejudice known as "Anti-Terrestrialism", (obviously modeled on antisemitism), with the main negative stereotype having to do with the radiation-induced diseases prevalent on Earth.

By this time, Earth people still believe themselves to be the original home of Humanity, but hardly anyone else shares this belief. Fanatical priests, based in a mysterious Temple erected on the ruins of Washington, D.C., cultivate the mystique of Earth's ancient glories and conceive a plot to spread a Terrestrial disease throughout the Galaxy and in this way take over the Empire (and incidentally, act out the stereotype). The plot is foiled by a middle-aged tailor from the Twentieth Century, who possess powerful psychic abilities as a result of experiments performed upon him when he arrived in the future. Schwartz, the tailor, is often described as being Jewish, though his religion is never stated within the novel.

By the time of the Galactic Empire's decline, Earth is vaguely remembered as 'Sol' in Foundation, and only one candidate for being the Original World. In Foundation and Earth, records of Earth are missing, so two citizens of the mature Foundation go looking for it.

Hitchhiker's Guide

In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, the Earth is destroyed to make room for an interstellar bypass. One of the only two surviving Earthmen, Arthur Dent, is affronted to find that his planet's entry in the Guide is simply "Harmless." The Guide researcher reassures him that the next edition will improve upon this. The new entry will read "Mostly Harmless." Dent also learns of the creation of Earth by inhabitants of the planet Magrathea, as a giant supercomputer built to find the question behind the answer to life, the universe, and everything. The computer was so large that it was often mistaken for a planet, and that it was destroyed five minutes before the program was due to complete (after ten million years of running). It also mentions that humans are descended from a convoy of middlemen (bureaucrats, telephone sanitizers, and the like), tricked into leaving another planet. The Earth was located in sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. An alternate version of Earth is the planet NowWhat, which is probably located at an improbable location along the probability axis. In the 2005 film adaptation, a new Earth replaces the old one, and everything is restored to the moments leading up to its destruction.

Stargate

In the Stargate television series (Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis), Earth (Stargate Address: ) is described as one of countless inhabited worlds, and is revealed to be the origin of humans. In ancient history many groups of humans were kidnapped and enslaved by powerful malevolent alien races, primarily the Goa'uld. Others remained to form present day Earth societies, which interact covertly with other extraterrestrial races and civilizations, many of them human. It is also described as the homeworld of the ancients, the creators of the stargate which has a very prominent role in the series as the name suggests.

Humans who are from Earth are referred to as the Tau'ri by most other life forms in the galaxy, including the Goa'uld. Earth is a relatively important player on account of the radical change it unwittingly brought about when American troops under the command of Col. Jack O'Neill killed Goa'uld Supreme System Lord Ra. However, its importance pales in comparison to the power of the System Lords before their collapse, or that of the Free Jaffa Nation after it.

The main interaction between Earth and the rest of the Universe is via three organisations:

• The International Oversight Advisory (IOA) co-ordinates funds and control between the nations of the Earth Stargate; the Atlantis Expedition was sent to the Pegasus Galaxy under its authority. The key players are the Big Five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: the United Kingdom, the United States, France, the People's Republic of China, and the Russian Federation; also important are Canada, on account of its special relationship with the United States and the services of Dr. Rodney McKay, and other nations, such as Japan, Australia, and Germany, which have also been involved; Germany in particular has sent security personnel to Atlantis.

• Stargate Command, under the control of both the United States Air Force and the IOA, sends through teams to other worlds on missions of diplomacy, tactical strikes, research and exploration. Control of the Stargate not just by the United States, but by the United States military, is a constant bone of contention with the Chinese, who take every opportunity to express their displeasure at the situation at IOA meetings where the future of Stargate Command is an issue. Nevertheless, the SGC remains the primary interface between the humans of Earth and the outside world, including the galactic human diaspora.

• The Atlantis Expedition is based in the great city of the Ancients in the Pegasus Galaxy. An international team, with personnel from at least 23 countries, interacts with the other humans of the Pegasus Galaxy (seeded by the Ancients, not taken by the Goa'uld) and the dangerous Wraith. They mostly have to rely on Earth technology, but have been able to harness the great advances of the Ancients integrated into the city of Atlantis, even if they don't fully understand them.

Star Trek

In the Star Trek universe, Earth was one of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets. Several major federal organizations are found on Earth, such as the Federation Council which meets in San Francisco. The Federation President keeps offices in Paris, and Starfleet Headquarters is also located in San Francisco. Major events on Earth included first contact with the Vulcans (Star Trek: First Contact), barely averted attacks by the Borg (in "The Best of Both Worlds" and Star Trek: First Contact), Founder infiltration ("Homefront"), and numerous attempted coups. Like most other major Federation worlds, Earth is a near-paradise where poverty and war have been eradicated and environmental damage has been reversed. Earth was also the planet of origin for at least one other sentient species, the Voth, according to the Star Trek: Voyager episode Distant Origin. Descendants of the hadrosaur, they fled Earth for the Delta quadrant after an extinction event. Sentient non-human life on Earth is also suggested by interaction between humpback whales and a menacing spacecraft in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Forge", we learn that the name of the planet's actual government is United Earth. According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Attached", United Earth was formed in the year 2150. The episodes "Demons" and "Terra Prime" imply that United Earth is a parliamentary system of government: we meet various government officials who are referred to as Ministers (such as Minister Nathan Samuels, played by Harry Groener). United Earth's leader is most likely a Prime Minister, but is probably someone other than Samuels since a Prime Minister is customary referred to by that full title, not simply 'Minister'.

In the Mirror Universe, Earth is the capital of the despotic Terran Empire which rules over large portions of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants and is generally seen as the most powerful interstellar empire. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine revealed that the Empire had collapsed and fallen to a Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. The fate of Earth after the fall of the Empire and its role during this era are never revealed.

'Babylon 5'

In the universe of the Babylon 5 television series, Earth was located in a relatively uncontested and non-valuable portion of the Galaxy. As a result, the people of Earth were allowed to develop with relatively little outside interference or threat of invasion from alien races. Unified under the worldwide government of the Earth Alliance, first contact with the Centauri was made in the mid-twenty-second century, which led to trade with a number of different species.

Earth remained a relatively minor power until the 2230's, when it intervened on behalf of a number of other races (which later became the League of Non-Aligned Worlds) during the Dilgar invasion. Following the Dilgar War, Earth began to expand its influence and was seen as a rising power in the galaxy. A disastrous first-contact with the Minbari in the 2240's precipitated the Earth-Minbari War, in which Earth was nearly conquered: the military (EarthForce) was devastated and the planet's population was nearly annihilated. However, the Minbari mysteriously surrendered just prior to the final invasion of Earth.

Following the war, Earth's major contribution on the galactic stage was the creation of the Babylon Station, a neutral trading post and diplomatic haven. Earth turned inward and suffered from xenophobic tendencies in the late 2250's under the despotic regime of President Morgan Clark, until a military coup led by John Sheridan overthrew the Clark regime and helped establish Earth as one of the major players in the Interstellar Alliance.

'Robotech'

In the Robotech canon Earth is the homeworld of humanity and notable as one of the few places that "The flower of life" (the source of the powerful energy source Protoculture) can grow. In 1999 during a global war the (future) SDF-1 an alien warship crashed to Earth on Macross island. Discovering they were not alone in the universe (and in secret the fact that the SDF-1 was a warship for a giant sized alien race) the human race united and rebuilt the ship as well as using the technology to advance their own and to create a small defence fleet for earth.

Ten years later the ship was ready but as preparation for launch on a mission of exploration continued Zentradi warships arrived in orbit to search for the ship. Though humanity tried peaceful contact a booby trap in the SDF-1 fired the huge main gun at the Zentradi committing Earth to a devastating interstellar war. To lure the Zentradi away from Earth the SDF-1 attempted a space fold FTL jump. This went wrong transporting not only the SDF-1 but part of Macross Island, 70,000 civilians and two navy warships to an area near Pluto. Pressure held in sub-surface shelters long enough to evacuate the civilians while the ships were grafted on to the SDF-1 as flight decks.

However the jump also caused the FTL drive to vanish (for unknown reasons) as such the SDF-1 had to return home under normal thrust fighting Zentradi all the way and unable to talk to earth due to jamming.

During the conflict many Zentradi became fascinated by Earth culture and over a million ships eventually defected.

The ship finally returned to Earth but was driven back into space to draw off the Zentradi again. However the Zentradi bought over four million ships to Earth and bombarded the planet. The SDF-1 took out most ships with an overload of its shield system but in the process the ship was left incapable of flight and most of the Earths population was killed.

Over the next two years the survivors tried to rebuilt and at last the Earth began to green again.

Twenty years later the Earth had recovered during the war with the Robotech masters, but even after Earths victory the planet was then attacked and occupied by another set of aliens The Invid in 2031. The Invid collected what they could of the Protoculture on Earth but seem to have left the population (now millions once more) largely alone.

In 2042 the Robotech Mars expedition returned from deep space but was wiped out by the Invid during the battle to liberate the planet. The survivors were forced down to Earth where they hooked up with the local resistance groups.

Two years later a massive fleet arrived with more advanced technology given to them by the alien Hydenites. The Invid quickly left Earth rather than risk Earth's destruction by deadly weapons the Neutron_S missiles which were far more dangerous then man believed. As Humanity celebrated however the Hydenites were revealed as the Children of Shadow who had destroyed the Invid homeworld eons before. They launched a sneak attack on the human space station liberty. Another war then began.

'Worldwar'

In the Worldwar novels by Harry Turtledove Earth is the human homeworld and is attacked by the aliens known as The Race in 1942. All sides in the Second World War are forced to unify to fight this threat. And despite superior technology the Lizards (a human racial epithet for the aliens) are fought to a draw by 1944.

In 1962 another race fleet arrives carrying a civilian colony force of nearly 100 million, in 1965 the Race and the German Reich fight a major war which Germany loses.

In 1994 humanity has caught up to the Race enough to send a slower than light starship to the Race's Homeworld, where it arrives in 2031. Soon after another ship arrives, an FTL capable ship, indicating that humanity has now bypassed the Race in technology.

See also

• Arda
• Earth (Babylon 5).
• Earth (classical element)
• Gaia
• Gaia hypothesis
• Midgard