Taking the “Space” Out of “Space Marines”
Games Workshop recently decided that because 1) it has an established trademark on Space Marines in a game context and 2) it has recently begun publishing science fiction, it automatically has a “common law trademark” on space marines in science fiction.
John Scalzi has already put together a good response to this, but it makes me wonder: why are we still using the term “space marine?” It’s a pulp phrase that goes back to the 1930s. Do we still need to throw the adjective “space” in front of nouns to create their science fiction equivalents?
For some things it makes sense. A space ship is a ship that travels through space, an important distinction if the culture still uses ships to travel on the seas or only recently developed space travel. Space ports make sense to me for the same reason. They need to be distinguished from sea ports.
In the same sense, I can imagine scenarios that would have troops called space marines. Suppose that the United States, China, Japan, and Russia all begin colonizing the planets of our solar system. Politics would require the expansion of naval duties to include patrolling nationally controlled space. Those ships would need marines, but they would have different training than the marines we would need to maintain on the surface of the Earth. Current marines might be called sea, terrestrial, or planetary marines, and the others would likely be called space marines.
Again, I think the distinction makes sense when there is a non-space variety for comparison purposes.
But once a society has pushed its space travel beyond a certain point, planetary forces might be considered a different military branch entirely, perhaps an army branch while space superiority is left to a navy or space force (since air force wouldn’t make much sense). At that point, if they still have troops they call marines, they wouldn’t need a “space” designation.
Unless it’s a pulp style story. Then sticking with tradition makes sense. Heck, in light of Games Workshop’s insane claim, I’m tempted to write a space marine story myself. But if I ever write a non-pulp SF story that needs shipboard troops, I’ll call them something else.
What do you think? Is space marines a classic concept that needs new stories, or is a relic that needs updating?
