History Main / SubspaceOrHyperspace

* Many classic video games had teleportation abilities (usually with a random destination somewhere else on the playfield) that were explicitly called "Hyperspace". For example, ''VideoGame/{{Spacewar}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Defender}}'', and most notably ''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}}''. A bootleg of the latter was even named ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMHhVWVP5Kw Hyperspace]]'', and when Buckner and Garcia wrote a song about it for their ''Music/PacManFever'' album, it was also named "Hyperspace".

Subspace was popularized by ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and is a trope for a form of space that has different physical properties from normal space and allows the ''Enterprise'' crew (and the writers) to do all sorts of things that have [[MagicAIsMagicA some degree of scientific "consistency"]] but can't actually happen in the real world. For example, generating a subspace field can alter the apparent mass of an object, allowing it to be moved more easily. It's also the basis of FTLRadio, which makes communications possible in ships that are moving faster than light (since real-life radio transmissions can only travel at light speed). It was used on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' with regularity, often just to fill the AppliedPhlebotinum slot for the episode. ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' took this to silly extremes-at least one episode referenced ''hypersubspace''. Your guess as to what that means is as good as ours.

->''Hi, I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson. Now, you've heard the term "hyperspace" for years in sci-fi movies and television shows, but what does it really mean?''

-->-- Instructional video shown to new members of [[Series/StargateSG1 the Stargate]] [[Series/StargateAtlantis Program]].

* In ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'', it's called "Planar Space", and it is literally two-dimensional, making it rather the opposite of hyperspace. Spaceships have to generate a "space-time bubble" around themselves to avoid ceasing to exist as spaceships and getting irreversibly turned into exotic particles. Ships can only enter or exit Planar Space at naturally-occurring gates (called "Sords"), and distances and locations in Planar Space does not correspond in any meaningful way to distances or locations in normal space, though it is for the most part a great deal shorter and all those explored so far have exited into the Milky Way galaxy.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused]] with the other [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_BDSM#Subspace subspace.]] [[RunningGag Or with the]] other other [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subspace_topology subspace.]] [[OverlyLongGag Or]] [[IncrediblyLamePun with]] [[SubStory Sub Space.]]

* ''VideoGame/Minecraft'' players use [[FireAndBrimstoneHell the Nether]] in this way in order to travel large distances quickly, as eight blocks in the Overworld is one block there. Overlaps with HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace as the Nether is, well, hell, and is filled with many hazards, including [[LethalLavaLand a sea of lava covering the surface]].

* ''VideoGame/MineCraft'' players use [[FireAndBrimstoneHell the Nether]] in this way in order to travel large distances quickly, as eight blocks in the Overworld is one block there. Overlaps with HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace as the Nether is, well, hell, and is filled with many hazards, including [[LethalLavaLand a sea of lava covering the surface]].

* ''ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsJLA'' reveals that hyperspace, known to the White Martians as the Still Zone, to Prometheus as the Ghost Zone, and to the Queen Bee as the Honeycomb, is also the PhantomZone used as a prison on Krypton ''and'' Limbo (as in, the place you go when you die if you weren't good or evil enough to go directly to Heaven or Hell).

* The "Space" theme in ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' uses a hyperspace with some unusual features, as explained in TheRant attached to strips [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1258.html 1258]], [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1385.html 1385]], and [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2059.html 2059]].

* The [[{{Teleportation}} matter paddle]] in ''Series/RedDwarf'' works by sending people through subspace.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' complete averts this. While they can use ether to travel at very high speeds indeed, they do so in perfectly regular space.
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' verse has an immaterial, psychic, parallel dimension known technically as the "Immaterium", colloquially (and classically) as the "Empyrean", also known as "Warpspace", the "Sea of Souls", and a number of other names, but most commonly called the "Warp". The Warp fits this trope as a hyperspace, filled with daemons, the occasional deity, space hulks, and is the source of all psychic and sorcerous power. Direct exposure to the Warp or its gradual influence causes mutation, insanity, and a high risk of DemonicPossession, and (for humans at least) the people able to navigate it are blind to normal space.

* The ''Literature/AllianceUnion'' universe has Hyperspace travel that acts similar to (and is mostly described in terms of) [[{{Teleportation}} Jump Drives]]: it's impossible to change direction while in Hyperspace, and the only way to drop out of Hyperspace is to run into a sufficiently large gravity well, so FTL travel consists of pointing yourself in the right direction, building up enough speed, hitting the "Enter Hyperspace" button and then waiting for the ride to be over. The FTL engine can also be used to briefly dip into Hyperspace in such a way that once the dip is over the starship's velocity is higher or lower than beforehand. This allows starships to rapidly go up to or down from near-light speed [[InertialDampening without smearing the crew into paste and tearing apart the ships like they were made from tinfoil]]. \\\

* Neal Asher's ''[[Literature/ThePolity Human Polity]]'' series has ''Null Space'', exposure to which drives an unprotected human quite mad.

* In ''Anime/UchuuSenkanYamato'' this is where space submarines go when they "submerge". And yes, they do have periscopes to peek back into normal space with. If SpaceIsAnOcean, subspace is what's under the surface.

* ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim'': Ramona Flowers uses Subspace to get around quicker for her job as a delivery girl, and owns a Subspace handbag. Ramona specifies that it's not the same kind of subspace featured in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', where it was essentially a DarkWorld, and not really this trope.

* Creator/GrantMorrison's ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]'' reveals that hyperspace, known to the White Martians as the Still Zone, to Prometheus as the Ghost Zone, and to the Queen Bee as the Honeycomb, is also the PhantomZone used as a prison on Krypton ''and'' Limbo (as in, the place you go when you die if you weren't good or evil enough to go directly to Heaven or Hell).

* In the Franchise/GreenLantern/''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' crossover ''Comicbook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' Supergirl jumped into Hyperspace to go from planet Mongo to Earth.
* In ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'', Superman's starship takes a shortcut through subspace to reach planet Rokyn quickly.

* Creator/IainBanks' ''[[Literature/TheCulture Culture]]'' novels feature two types of Hyperspace: Ultraspace and Infraspace. This is a result of the description of the nature of the Universe in those novels - as the Universe expands, other Universes are expanding "inside" it (in a multi-dimensional analogue of a kind of expanding onion, with the individual layers of the onion representing Universes). Hyperspace is found "in between" the Universes, with Ultraspace defined as the Hyperspace between a Universe and the one "above" it and Infraspace being defined as the one between a Universe and the one "below" it. The current method of travel amongst The Culture is to alternate between the two, accelerating first in one then switching to the other over and over until max speed is reached, then sticking with whichever is desired. Interestingly, these spaces appear to have a plasticity -- a ship that is accelerating hard or breaking hard is described as creating churning waves in whichever space it's in.

* ''VideoGame/WarCraft'' The Twisting Nether in the Warcraft series is hyperspace in all but name. It's a series of hyperspace-like extra dimensions that connects all worlds together. Portal magic uses this to work. Also, the former world of Draenor (called Outland after its destruction) was entirely shifted into the Twisting Nether when it was destroyed by a portal storm, so it has a REALLY interesting sky.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused]] with the other [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_BDSM#Subspace subspace.]] [[RunningGag Or with the]] other other [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subspace_topology subspace]]. [[OverlyLongGag Or]] [[IncrediblyLamePun with]] [[SubStory Sub Space.]]