"Tick-Tick-Tickin' in My Head" Topic

I suppose 'Out of time' would include "A long time ago…"

Tick-Tick-Ticking like a watch enveloped in cotton?

Interesting that I could find definitions of "retrofuturism" the art form, but not of retro future the setting and/or genre. Nonetheless…

Somewhere in the retro future, I think. (You have to remember it was "decades ahead" when I was young.) I can see the appeal of Centuries ahead--well, really of "a galaxy far, far away"--but lately I've been trying to integrate all my 28mm SF into a modified Barsoom which already owes as much to Leigh Brackett as to Edgar Rice Burroughs. It's a place where Imperial Storm Troopers might be picked off by Ratlings or Terran Hunters/Archeologists be surrounded by Drylander Martians.

It's a nice place to hide out from the Triplanetary Authority, but don't insult the Warlord, and try not to take Northwest Smith's favorite seat in the bar.

Must confess, I can't see the appeal of Cyberpunk. After all, I live in Cyberpunk with a flavoring of post-Appoc.

Lunar is a good retro-alternate future history of the 1970s/80s space race gone hot. I go even more retro with Lunar, setting it in the late 60s as envisioned c.1960 using MPC plastic toy astronauts and a pre-Apollo Big Gemini concept lunar lander.

Steampunk, or VSF, is also retro-future, but a large enough established genre to warrant it's own listing.

I can see the appeal of Centuries ahead--well, really of "a galaxy far, far away"

Ah, but that was a "long time ago"!

Star Trek is 'centuries ahead'. James T. Kirk was born on March 22, 2233. He even has a Future Birthplace marker in Riverside, Iowa.

Meanwhile, somewhere on Earth, George Jetson will be 3 years old on July 31st. Very near future gaming now for The Jetsons. At some point it will have to slide into alternate history.
=^,^=

Allas, miniMo, I'm afraid even Star Trek is, strictly speaking, fantasy at this stage, not even considering moving backward in computers. Despite some serious doubletalk in "Next Generation" it's the interfertile aliens which are the real deal-breakers. Our understanding of DNA and evolution has gone beyond that. It was a factor in my choice of "retro future" rather than "centuries ahead."

It's notable to me that some of the early "Star Trek" material described Spock as "half-Martian" with Vulcan being a later notion. In the cold light of science, Kirk, Spock and company are now on the other side of a line which also separates us from John Carter and Dejah Thoris.

We really could have used a longer, fuller discussion of the definitions. I think for miniatures purposes, Burroughs, Brackett and Moore are in one cluster, and Star Trek, Galactica, and Babylon5 in another, with Firefly/Serenity Farscape, Andromeda, Blake's 7 and Star Wars having a foot in both camps. The important miniatures decision is whether to unroll a black mat and fight ship to ship, or to dig up individually mounted figures and do skirmishes, usually on a planetary surface. Once you've made that decision, adding another fleet of ships or another alien race is relatively easy.

James T. Kirk is from Iowa? I always thought he was from Nebraska or Kansas. Learn something every day! I only remember he was supposed to be a "farm boy" (Star Trek IV).

But Star Trek, like comic book "universes", has only tied itself into illogical (by Vulcan standards) knots as they keep dragging the series into new reboots and settings and timelines. And then we always have time travel wackiness thrown in when convenient to scramble everything around again.

Vote PAKLEDS! Them make things go, them are smart!