History Main / SpaceWestern

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' as a whole is one. Extra points for having Yondu control his deadly arrow through Morricone-style whistling.
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' expands on this, with a planet of sexual escorts that's essentially a space-age version of a seedy saloon, other factions of the Ravagers having different motifs and Yondu's above-mentioned whistling being expanded into a laser-arrow version of a wild west shootout in two key scenes.

* ''Gungho Brigade'' from TOMY is a Playstation game where the protagonists use race cars that transform into battle mechs as they battle SpiderTank robots that took over the world in a desert SpaceWestern setting, down to having rifle and six-gun slinging cowboys and saloons despite being in the far future.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'', whose lore owes rather a lot to ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', has a setting that's roughly equal parts this trope and ScavengerWorld: The game takes place on a rugged, mostly lawless frontier planet inhabited by a mixture of pre-industrial tribal societies, groups of off-worlders SettlingTheFrontier (not necessarily by choice) who have access to somewhat more advanced technology and the occasional vault full of [[HumanPopsicle Human Popsicles]] left over from an UnspecifiedApocalypse that toppled [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis an apparently quite technologically sophisticated civilization]] that existed there in the distant past. Much of the transplanted Earth life brought by the original settlers is recognizably American (raccoons, beavers, cougars) and the default clothing options for your settlers include dusters and Stetsons. Even the soundtrack has some heavy bluegrass and Country & Western influences.

* ''Film/{{Riddick}} is about a wanted criminal who, after being abandoned on a hostile planet, intentionally attracts the attention of two groups of bounty hunters simply to get a ship so he can escape the planet. However the dangerous alien creatures that already live on the planet force the outlaw and the bounty hunters to work together.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'', whose lore owes rather a lot to ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', has a setting that's roughly equal parts this trope and ScavengerWorld: The game takes place on a rugged, mostly lawless frontier planet inhabited by a mixture of pre-industrial tribal societies, groups of off-worlders SettlingTheFrontier (not necessarily by choice) who have access to somewhat more advanced technology and the occasional vault full of [[HumanPopsicle Human Popsicles]] left over from an UnspecifiedApocalypse that toppled [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis an apparently quite technologically sophisticated civilization]] that existed there in the distant past. Much of the transplanted Earth life brought by the original settlers is recognizably American (raccoons, beavers, coyotes) and the default clothing options for your settlers include dusters and Stetsons. Even the soundtrack has some heavy bluegrass and Country & Western influences.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'', whose lore owes rather a lot to ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', has a setting that's roughly equal parts this trope and {{ScavengerWorld}}: The game takes place on a rugged, mostly lawless frontier planet inhabited by a mixture of pre-industrial tribal societies, groups of off-worlders SettlingTheFrontier (not necessarily by choice) who have access to somewhat more advanced technology and the occasional vault full of HumanPopsicles left over from an UnspecifiedApocalypse that toppled [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis an apparently quite technologically sophisticated civilisation]] that existed here in the distant past. Much of the transplanted Earth life brought by the original settlers is recognisably American (raccoons, beavers, coyotes) and the default clothing options for your settlers include dusters and stetsons. Even the soundtrack has some heavy bluegrass and Country & Western influences.

* MediaNotes/{{The Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} ComicBook/{{Superman}} foe Terra-Man was a human kidnapped by aliens in the 19th century. He grew up as their slave, eventually escaped, and became a successful {{space pirate|s}}. He eventually returned to Earth only to find that he'd spent so much of his life traveling at [[TimeDilation relativistic speeds]] that 100 years had passed. Despite all his high tech equipment, culturally he was a literal space cowboy, and he dressed appropriately. He even acquired an alien steed named Nova that looked like a winged horse.

* UsefulNotes/{{The Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} ComicBook/{{Superman}} foe Terra-Man was a human kidnapped by aliens in the 19th century. He grew up as their slave, eventually escaped, and became a successful {{space pirate|s}}. He eventually returned to Earth only to find that he'd spent so much of his life traveling at [[TimeDilation relativistic speeds]] that 100 years had passed. Despite all his high tech equipment, culturally he was a literal space cowboy, and he dressed appropriately. He even acquired an alien steed named Nova that looked like a winged horse.

** And then in ''Series/{{Castle}}'', Creator/{{Nathan|Fillion}} wears his Mal Reynolds outfit from Firefly, for Halloween, only for the idea of a space cowboy to be seen as ridiculous. "Where are you going to find cows in space?"

* ''Videogame/{{Starfield}}'' has an entire faction with this aesthetic. The Freestar Collective broke away from the United Colonies in what is known in the backstory as the Colony War. They have adopted a western aestheic with cowboy hats, have a libertarian mindset, and have an organization called the Freestar Rangers carrying out peacekeeping duties on behalf of their citizens.

** ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'' zigzags this due to taking place on multiple worlds with widely-varying aesthetics. The two that really qualify are Pandora, once again, as well as Eden-6, headquarters of the aforementioned Jakobs corporation.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' heavily favors this trope, especially with the DeepSouth-flavored Terran faction. Cut off from Earth, the Terrans of the sector have had to make do and forge an existence for themselves. Much of their technology is cobbled together and has a rough, industrial look to it, resulting in frontier saloons where soldiers in power armor go to drink. Notably, this trait increases in ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'', where the {{Dixieland}} aesthetic is replaced for a grungy, pseudo-''Series/{{Firefly}}'' one, complete with saloons, revolvers, and Western-style musical cues. The single-player campaign for the first installment, ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty Wings of Liberty]]'', even has a cantina on a starship where [[Music/LynyrdSkynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama"]] plays on a jukebox. Not to mention [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic "Free Bird"]].

* Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/TheBeastMaster'' and its sequel ''Literature/LordOfThunder''.

* Music/TaijiSawada's work with D.T.R. combines the trope with WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs, occasional HardRock / HeavyMetal fused with countryish sound, and even the occasional ProtestSong or HorribleHistoryMetal in his first two albums, ''Daring Tribal Roar'' and the self-titled ''Dirty Trashroad.'' The acoustic version of ''Daring Tribal Roar'' is pure western soft rock remixes of some of the songs.

* ''VideoGame/WildGuns'', which provides the page image, is a shooting game with a very western story about a young woman and a bounty hunter avenging her family against a powerful gang of outlaws. While our heroes could've stepped out of the background of ''VideoGame/{{Sunsetriders}}'', our outlaws use robots, gliders, dune buggies, hover trains, giant tanks, and of course the HumongousMecha in the image. The remake reinforces the heroes with a grenade-tossing woman with cybernetic arms and a small dog with an AttackDrone.

* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' follows the adventures of a banjo-playing alien {{drifter}} (Wander) and his trusty SapientSteed best friend (Sylvia) as they travel the galaxy, helping out the alien locals wherever and whenever they can, while trying to outrun an evil skeleton who's put a massive bounty on them. The show usually leans more heavily into comedy and sci-fi parody than the western genre, but the influence is fairly clear. Heck, the show's title even comes from a line in an old country song.

TheWestern '''[-[[RecycledInSPACE IN SPACE!]]-]'''. Basically TheWestern [[JustForFun/XMeetsY Meets]] WagonTrainToTheStars.

* The French comic ''ComicBook/SpaceMounties'' features, well, Mounties InSpace, although they very much want to get back to base and the joys of bureaucratic work instead of field missions.

* The ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series is for the most part Literature/HoratioHornblower...[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]], and as such its atmosphere is mostly [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen old-school British naval fiction]]. The planet [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Montana]], however, [[PlayedStraight plays this trope]] even straighter than ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.
* Creator/HBeamPiper's "Lone Star Planet" is something of an AffectionateParody - take a planet of [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texan stereotypes]] and add a courtroom drama (with a system based on working out whether the politician you shot had it coming, no less).

** ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' draws heavily on Western tropes, but rather than ''Wagon Train'' they leaned into the more sedentary ''Series/TheRifleman'' InSpace: the single father raising his son (the Siskos), the sheriff (Odo), the bar/brothel (Quark's, with Dabo girls and Holosuites of Ill-Repute), the frontier town (the space station) near a strategic pass (the wormhole), and so on.

*** [=DS9=] also takes the occasional [[SelfDeprecation dig at the franchise's]] HighConcept. Early on, when Doctor Bashir gushes at this opportunity for him to come out to far-flung Bajor and be a FrontierDoctor, Major Kira (one of the Bajorans) irately points out that it isn't the Final Frontier, it's ''her homeworld'', which the Bajorans had just gone through a great deal of trouble to rid of an alien occupation force.

* Mocked on the back cover of the first issue of ''Galaxy'' (1950), which printed two paragraphs of a Western story ("Hoofs drumming, Bat Durston came galloping down through the narrow pass at Eagle Gulch...") alongside the same thing RecycledInSpace ("Jets blasting, Bat Durston came screeching down through the atmosphere of Bbllzznaj...").

* ''TabletopGame/NewHorizon'' is generally a western [[RecycledInSpace ON A WHOLE NEW PLANET!]], but nowhere is this more evident than Trapper Town.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVIGunmenOfTheApocalypse Gunmen of the Apocalypse]]".

[[folder: Audio Drama]]

* The story "Shootout At Ice Flats" in the 1996 ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' ''ComicBook/LegendsOfTheDeadEarth'' annual was about a Kara-lookalike sheriff on an ultra-primitive frontier world. Forget laser guns, the people of this world didn't even know what a gun ''looked'' like.

%%* ''VideoGame/GunmanChronicles'', a commercial total conversion for ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', has a Western theme, but with dinosaurs.%%ZCE. What does "Western theme" mean?

%%* ''VideoGame/GunmanChronicles'', a commercial total conversion for ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', has a Western theme, [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs but with dinosaurs]].%%ZCE. What does "Western theme" mean?

* Creator/GeneRoddenberry pitched ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' to the networks as a "WagonTrainToTheStars" (naming that trope.)
** Almost every ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series had at least one Western episode: the original series had "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E6SpectreOfTheGun Spectre of the Gun]]", ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E8AFistfulOfDatas A Fistful of Datas]]", ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' had "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E09NorthStar North Star]]", and ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' had "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS3E02FarFromHome Far From Home]]".
** Although not a Space Western per se, ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' draws heavily on Western tropes. The producers stated that ''Deep Space Nine'' was ''Series/TheRifleman'' InSpace: the single father raising his son (the Siskos), the sheriff (Odo), the bar/brothel (Quark's, with Dabo girls and Holosuites of Ill-Repute), the frontier town (the space station) near a strategic pass (the wormhole), and so on.
*** When filming "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations Trials and Tribble-ations]]", [[https://youtu.be/-OyLHkFSat4?t=4m24s stunt coordinator Dennis Madalone noted that the fistfights in ''TOS'' were straight out of Westerns as opposed to the more martial arts-oriented fights of the 1990s.]]