Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Panspermia

 Panspermia
type
FeatureClass
 Panspermia
label
Panspermia
 Panspermia
page
Panspermia
 Panspermia
comment
Lots of people wonder about the origins of life on Earth. Were we placed here by a benevolent god? Did we arise out of a primeval soup of microbes? If the former is the case—well, why? And who? And how? And if it's the latter, how exactly did the vast chemical stew of hydrocarbons and proteins somehow get together and become self-replicating? And then how did those cute little squirmy germs grow and change and evolve enough to become, well, us?
Some stories attempt to answer these questions. But others decide to skirt this touchy ontological issue entirely, by bringing into it a different element: Outer space.
In other words, they propose that life on Earth is not of this earth.
Panspermia (get your mind out of the gutter) is a scientific idea which proposes that life on Earth came to it from outer space, as aliens. This is a real scientific hypothesis, mind you. It's considered very unlikely, but not so much so that supporting it necessarily makes you a crackpot. (That Other Wiki, of course, has plenty of information.) This isn't the "Little Green Men"-style of alien, either. We're talking more along the lines of "cosmic pond scum hitching a ride in some water vapor in a comet." In fiction, panspermia (or exogenesis, which is similar but not identical) tends to gravitate toward the former, though—that aliens of some kind were actually the origin for life on Earth, or some other planet.
In fiction, this idea tends to pop up in one of two forms:
Literal panspermia and/or exogenesis. Microbes from space landed on Earth (or another planet, in more sci-fi oriented settings), and evolved into the lifeforms that now populate that planet. This can be used both to get around the idea of having to answer how life arises in the first place, or as a justification for the similarities between life forms on very different planets.
"Alientelligent Design." Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, Precursors or Ancient Astronauts planted either the seeds for life or primitive multicellular lifeforms on a planet to begin with, and, depending on the type of alien, either left them to their own devices or "guided" their evolution in a large-scale Gambit Roulette.
Frequently, this as used as part of a Reveal, and can lead to navel-gazing. Occasionally leads to Mars Needs Women, in cases of literal panspermia. See also Transplanted Humans, which is this trope in reverse (alien life coming from Earth); and Humanity Came from Space, which is only about the human species being extraterrestrial in origin. If a species exists on multiple planets without achieving spaceflight themselves and hasn't sufficiently differentiated it's Transplanted Aliens.
It may be worth noting that while this theory may offer an explanation for how life got its start on Earth (and/or other relevant planets), it ultimately does not in and of itself answer the question how life arose wherever and whenever it did so for the first time.
Due to its nature as part of The Reveal, examples for this trope are frequently full of spoilers. Be warned.
 Panspermia
fetched
2024-03-06T08:16:34Z
 Panspermia
parsed
2024-03-06T08:16:34Z
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to AbusivePrecursors: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to AdvancedAncientHumans: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to Ayreon: Not an Item - IGNORE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to CloneDegeneration: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to EpicRocking: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to HumanAliens: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to LastOfHisKind: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to NoBiochemicalBarriers: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to StarWars: Not an Item - CAT
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to StarWarsExpandedUniverse: Not an Item - CAT
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
processingComment
Dropped link to TheReveal: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Panspermia
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Panspermia / int_135faa14
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_135faa14
comment
Eric: Rincewind drops a sandwich in a tide-pool and the narrator wonders what life would have been like with mustard rather than mayonnaise.
 Panspermia / int_135faa14
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_135faa14
featureConfidence
1.0
 Eric
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_135faa14
 Panspermia / int_1360882c
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_1360882c
comment
The Darkness from Gone is an alien virus that was riding a meteorite when it crashed into Earth — specifically a nuclear plant, which caused it to rapidly mutate and somehow become a mind-devouring god-like being.
 Panspermia / int_1360882c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_1360882c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Gone
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_1360882c
 Panspermia / int_1365ffcf
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_1365ffcf
comment
Spin: This is raised as a possibility by Jason Lawton, who theorizes that the Hypotheticals' slow migration throughout the galaxy for billions upon billions of years has resulted in unintentional seeding of habitable planets with life. Given that the Hypotheticals are fully capable of creating brand-new worlds capable of supporting life and full of "natural" resources, this is not unlikely.
 Panspermia / int_1365ffcf
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_1365ffcf
featureConfidence
1.0
 Spin
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_1365ffcf
 Panspermia / int_242d78ca
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_242d78ca
comment
Corpse of Discovery sees humanity accidentally seeding an alien world (that may or may not be Earth) after the death of several explorers cultivates new life.
 Panspermia / int_242d78ca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_242d78ca
featureConfidence
1.0
 Corpse of Discovery (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_242d78ca
 Panspermia / int_25d10644
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_25d10644
comment
Life on Earth was manipulated by the Creators/Advent/Uranus in Guyver as part of their goals to create a powerful bio-weapons platform. Humanity was the end result, a base form that could be adapted into specialised combatants like Zoanoids and Zoalords. The experiment was aborted near completion when they gave a base level human one of the bio-armour units that worn by the Creators themselves and it turned out not only far more powerful than expected but completely immune to their telepathic control.
 Panspermia / int_25d10644
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_25d10644
featureConfidence
1.0
 Guyver (Manga)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_25d10644
 Panspermia / int_28191263
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_28191263
comment
UFO: After Blank: Mentioned after studying the body of a Reticulan as a proposed reason for their amazing similarity to human biology in Aftermath.
 Panspermia / int_28191263
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_28191263
featureConfidence
1.0
 UFO: After Blank (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_28191263
 Panspermia / int_2d2dc041
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_2d2dc041
comment
Serina was seeded with select species by "mysterious creators", who then left them to evolve without intervention.
 Panspermia / int_2d2dc041
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_2d2dc041
featureConfidence
1.0
 Serina (Website)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_2d2dc041
 Panspermia / int_36912697
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_36912697
comment
In the "Bolero" segment of Allegro non Troppo, life on a planet (maybe Earth, maybe not) evolves from the gunk at the bottom of an astronaut's discarded Coca-Cola bottle.
 Panspermia / int_36912697
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_36912697
featureConfidence
1.0
 Allegro non Troppo
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_36912697
 Panspermia / int_3c16210b
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_3c16210b
comment
DC Comics Presents #1-2 has an alien race whose Living Ships' exhaust was microscopic organisms that started life on both Krypton and Earth, among other planets. (This story has been reprinted because it's also a Superman/Flash race.)
 Panspermia / int_3c16210b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_3c16210b
featureConfidence
1.0
 DC Comics Presents (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_3c16210b
 Panspermia / int_3de0ef04
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_3de0ef04
comment
Hamster's Paradise: The planet HP-02017 was a lifeless but tectonically active world terraformed by an advanced spacefaring humanity in an attempt to make a colony. The lifeforms chosen were mostly plants and invertebrates that would be beneficial to people such as food plants, pollinating insects and decomposing microorganisms. Only one vertebrate was placed on the world as a way to test its habitability before being officially settled, the chinese dwarf hamster. However, for reasons unknown they abandoned the world before they could go any further and never returned, leaving the hamsters to spread and evolve into the planet's dominant lifeforms.
 Panspermia / int_3de0ef04
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_3de0ef04
featureConfidence
1.0
 Hamster's Paradise (Blog)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_3de0ef04
 Panspermia / int_3defe34c
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_3defe34c
comment
Discussed; after the theory of Spontaneous Generation of life is discarded, the next theory advanced is that life on Earth was begun by spores traveling through the universe. It, in turn, is also discarded, because of the complications required for such microscopic life to both survive the trip to a second planet in a new solar system and the fact that it merely displaces "how does life originate?" to a different planet.
 Panspermia / int_3defe34c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_3defe34c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Discussed Trope
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_3defe34c
 Panspermia / int_44fe781e
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_44fe781e
comment
In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Humanity (indeed, all life on Earth), and Angels were both created by Sufficiently Advanced Aliens who had a thing for spreading life all over the galaxy. It's All There in the Manual.
The progenitor of Earth-like life is a type of alien called a "Lilith", while the progenitor of Angel-like life is a type of alien called an "Adam". Many copies were spread throughout the known universe in order to seed life toward an unknown purpose.
Also, Earth was meant to be inhabited by Angels, but before they hatched from Adam, the Sufficiently Advanced Aliens screwed up and accidentally crash-landed Lilith on the planet, resulting in Adam's Lance of Longinus activating and putting him in stasis. Then came the Katsuragi expedition...
 Panspermia / int_44fe781e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_44fe781e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Neon Genesis Evangelion
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_44fe781e
 Panspermia / int_467c89f7
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_467c89f7
comment
In Super Dimension Fortress Macross, both humans and giant humanoid Zentradi are stated to be descended from an extraterrestrial race of precursors called the "Protoculture". Subsequent Macross series go on to imply that all intelligent humanoid species in the Milky Way are "Children of the Protoculture".
 Panspermia / int_467c89f7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_467c89f7
featureConfidence
1.0
 Super Dimension Fortress Macross
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_467c89f7
 Panspermia / int_49c5717a
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_49c5717a
comment
Incandescence: DNA-based lifeforms have evolved on many planets thanks to collision ejecta spreading the replicators between star systems. There are also ten other panspermias of different kinds of replicators. All are believed to have originated between twenty and thirty thousand light years from the center of the galaxy. The discovery of a meteor containing DNA in the central bulge of stars is surprising news partly because conditions there are believed to be too hostile to support the development of a biosphere.
 Panspermia / int_49c5717a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_49c5717a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Incandescence
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_49c5717a
 Panspermia / int_53a0bd8b
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_53a0bd8b
comment
The Twilight Zone (1985): In "A Small Talent for War", the alien ambassador explains to the United Nations Security Council that Earth is one of several thousand planets that his people seeded with life and where they sped up evolution two million years ago. They have deemed the experiment on Earth to be a failure due to the small talent for war that humanity displays. The Security Council doesn't realize until the next day that the aliens breed warriors to fight for them across the galaxy and that humanity's talent for war is too small to be of any use to them.
 Panspermia / int_53a0bd8b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_53a0bd8b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Twilight Zone (1985)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_53a0bd8b
 Panspermia / int_5804255f
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_5804255f
comment
In The Cobra Trilogy, it's mentioned that almost all of the ecosystems in local space (including Earth) share similar biochemistry. The alien Troft theorize that this is due to these worlds being colonized by advanced spacefarers over a billion years ago, who were then wiped out by a chain of supernovas leaving behind only their bacteria to grow into the various species and worlds that arose later. It's mentioned as being very convenient for colonization when even in a new ecosystem you can probably find something edible; not so convenient is when the native predators realize that YOU are also edible.
 Panspermia / int_5804255f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_5804255f
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Cobra Trilogy
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_5804255f
 Panspermia / int_5d354f8
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_5d354f8
comment
Red Dwarf inverts this trope. Every single lifeform encountered, no matter how alien, is ultimately of Earthly origin. The first novelization even claims that it has been proven that no other life exists in the Universe, although exactly how you can prove this isn't clear. In the series XI episode "Krysis", the crew talk with the Universe itself, who backs this by expressing regret over only bothering to make one planet with life on it during its mid-life crisis.
 Panspermia / int_5d354f8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_5d354f8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Red Dwarf
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_5d354f8
 Panspermia / int_5d8f5ee8
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_5d8f5ee8
comment
In perhaps its biggest predictive stretch, an episode of Life After People proposes that this could happen to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, which is believed to have water oceans. With no humans left to direct it, a deep-space probe crashes there and introduces Earth bacteria to these oceans, which gradually give rise to an entire complex aquatic biosphere.
 Panspermia / int_5d8f5ee8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_5d8f5ee8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Life After People
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_5d8f5ee8
 Panspermia / int_605dd875
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_605dd875
comment
Stargate-verse:
The Ancients are a race of Advanced Ancient Humans that originated as a splinter faction of the Ori and emigrated to the Milky Way millions of years ago, using their technology to create life in human form in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies (on multiple planets in Pegasus, on Earth alone in the Milky Way; the Goa'uld started raiding Earth and creating slave colonies elsewhere way later). They also inadvertently created the Wraith in Pegasus and were driven out of the galaxy by them. The Ori appear to have done the same in their home galaxy, probably where the Ancients got the idea.
The Asgard appear to have evolved independently, though, despite the fact that their original form (seen only once) is very similar to that of the humans. It was the millennia of cloning that resulted in Clone Degeneration (apparently, keeping the original DNA on file is beyond a race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens).
 Panspermia / int_605dd875
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_605dd875
featureConfidence
1.0
 Stargate-verse (Franchise)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_605dd875
 Panspermia / int_671a1cb6
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_671a1cb6
comment
In both the Pact and subsequent OG-verses of the Super Robot Wars metaseries, all life in the universe was actually created by an ancient lost civilization originating on Earth, handily justifying the numerous invading Human Aliens that appear as antagonists. Strangely, other continuities, such as Super Robot Wars Judgment feature Earth life being created by aliens, which they're going to have a hell of a time working into the OG-verse.
 Panspermia / int_671a1cb6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_671a1cb6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Super Robot Wars Compact (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_671a1cb6
 Panspermia / int_674f5fd3
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_674f5fd3
comment
The more scientific sort is a suggested origin of all life in the CoDominium universe (at least until The Mote in God's Eye introduces truly alien aliens).
 Panspermia / int_674f5fd3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_674f5fd3
featureConfidence
1.0
 CoDominium
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_674f5fd3
 Panspermia / int_6ed09d93
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_6ed09d93
comment
Maury from Big Mouth claims that life in Earth started when a giant alien had sex with a hole in the ground.
 Panspermia / int_6ed09d93
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_6ed09d93
featureConfidence
1.0
 Big Mouth
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_6ed09d93
 Panspermia / int_70dd8bb6
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_70dd8bb6
comment
In Andromeda Stories, Earth is seeded with life when the twins Jimsa and Affle crash land and perish after escaping the destruction of their homeworld, located in the Andromeda galaxy.
 Panspermia / int_70dd8bb6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_70dd8bb6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Andromeda Stories
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_70dd8bb6
 Panspermia / int_7392678a
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_7392678a
comment
Planet With: Earthlings, Siriusians, and Realians are all humans, but transplanted to different planets. There are also a few humans within the Nebula organization.
 Panspermia / int_7392678a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_7392678a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Planet With
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_7392678a
 Panspermia / int_755b343f
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_755b343f
comment
In Halo, the Forerunners believed that the Precursors, a hyper-advanced race originating outside of the Milky Way, were responsible for seeding lifeless planets and speeding up the evolutionary process on planets that already had life. This is confirmed in Silentium, Mythos and Warfleet. The Precursors explored the universe for billions of years and seeded countless galaxies with the building blocks of life and sped up the evolutionary processes of certain species. It may actually go further than that as Silentium heavily implies that the Precursors didn't just create life throughout the universe but that they created the universe itself.
 Panspermia / int_755b343f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_755b343f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Halo (Franchise)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_755b343f
 Panspermia / int_75b08c20
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_75b08c20
comment
At the end of Firebringer, Chosen reveals herself to be a member of an alien race who seeded Earth Billions of years ago.
 Panspermia / int_75b08c20
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_75b08c20
featureConfidence
1.0
 Firebringer (Theatre)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_75b08c20
 Panspermia / int_79c43540
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_79c43540
comment
Seedship: One of the game over dialogues mentions the titular ship crashing into a planet and the bacteria and organic matter from the remains of the colonists leading to the creation of new life.
 Panspermia / int_79c43540
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_79c43540
featureConfidence
1.0
 Seedship (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_79c43540
 Panspermia / int_7de8951a
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_7de8951a
comment
Traveller, to some extent, as a means of explaining why Humans and Earth-Like life is everywhere.
 Panspermia / int_7de8951a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_7de8951a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Traveller (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_7de8951a
 Panspermia / int_81692f99
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_81692f99
comment
Star Trek:
Subverted in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Return to Tomorrow" when an alien, Sargon, says that the human race may have developed from a colony of his people. The ship's astrobiologist rejects that, citing that there is a vast amount of evidence showing that humans evolved independently on Earth. Spock, however, realizes that may actually fit with the origin of Vulcans. To be fair, it was something that Sargon's species tended to do, and he had no information whether Earth or Vulcan specifically were colonized in this way.
In the 6th season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase", it's revealed that the first starfaring species, which emerged 4 billion years ago, was so lonely that they seeded the entire Milky Way galaxy with a "genetic program" which would cause emerging life to, eventually, evolve into a form that physically resembled them. Since such a genetic program would likely herd all the different planets' developing genomes along the same narrow path, it actually makes sense that all humanoid species would be genetically similar enough to interbreed.
The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Year of Hell" establishes that life on several planets in the Krenim sector is the result of the same comet passing through their orbits in distant past.
 Panspermia / int_81692f99
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Panspermia / int_81692f99
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek (Franchise)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_81692f99
 Panspermia / int_8fda7950
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_8fda7950
comment
Known Space:
Nearly all alien species evolved from food yeast grown to feed the Thrintun and their subjects, which was left to run willd when the Thrintun empire collapsed a billion and a half years ago. This is the reason why there are No Biochemical Barriers between most known ecologies and sapient species, which share the same common biochemistry, DNA, and preference for oxygen-rich planets around Earth's temperature range. There are some exceptions, as other biospheres developed on their own on other worlds, and tend to be very different from the Thrintun-derived norm; examples include Gummidgy, whose native life is deadly poisonous to offworlders and vice versa; the Trinocs, who evolved on a very cold outer-system world, breathe methane, and don't have distinct cells in their tissues; and the Outsiders, who have a biology base on liquid nitrogen and prefer to live in freefall and hard vacuum.
About million years ago, a species called the Pak, native to a world near the galactic core, sent out colonization fleets to seed new worlds farther out in the galaxy. In all instances, the hyper-intelligent, post-adult "Protectors" died out for one reason or another, leaving only the animalistic "breeders" to run wild and evolve. One such colony was Earth — modern science knows Pak breeders as Homo habilis. Another was the Ringworld, which is now inhabited by a wide variety of hominid species.
 Panspermia / int_8fda7950
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_8fda7950
featureConfidence
1.0
 Known Space
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_8fda7950
 Panspermia / int_90c73dda
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_90c73dda
comment
Animorphs:
The Ellimist (an extremely powerful Last of His Kind god-like being) seeded many planets with life during his war with his Evil Counterpart Crayak. This included custom-making the Pemalites and giving them a mission to spread life across the galaxy themselves. Crayak also created his own species — the Howlers.
Also, several Earth vegetables were apparently imported by crab people during the Cretaceous period.
 Panspermia / int_90c73dda
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_90c73dda
featureConfidence
1.0
 Animorphs
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_90c73dda
 Panspermia / int_924b6d63
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_924b6d63
comment
Xenogears: Life on the planet was created by an intergalactic war machine, to be harvested later for spare parts. However, it does have some native life forms, as evidenced by Balthasar's paleontological studies. While their planet's fossil record goes back millions of years, no evidence of humans or related beings can be found any further back than ten thousand.
 Panspermia / int_924b6d63
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_924b6d63
featureConfidence
1.0
 Xenogears (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_924b6d63
 Panspermia / int_9a0c0ffa
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_9a0c0ffa
comment
The History of the Galaxy: One of the novels reveals that biological life in the galaxy (possibly, the Universe) is an unintentional side-effect of an Energy Being's attempts to survive. The being was "born" in the magnetic fields of a gas giant but foresaw that its homeworld would eventually die. In order to escape, it created artificial proto-plasmic semi-sentient creatures called Forerunners. They would travel through space and spread the Energy Being to other compatible gas giants. The Forerunners were themselves mostly energy, but parts of them were organic and composed of rudimentary DNA (how else do you program an organism to do something?). Over billions of years, the Forerunners spread through the galaxy and, possibly, beyond. Some of them died, and their remains ended up on planets, unintentionally starting the process of life. This, of course, raises more questions than it answers, such as how the Energy Being came to be, and how it was able to create a semi-biological organism.
 Panspermia / int_9a0c0ffa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_9a0c0ffa
featureConfidence
1.0
 The History of the Galaxy
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_9a0c0ffa
 Panspermia / int_9a7088bc
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_9a7088bc
comment
Subverted in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Return to Tomorrow" when an alien, Sargon, says that the human race may have developed from a colony of his people. The ship's astrobiologist rejects that, citing that there is a vast amount of evidence showing that humans evolved independently on Earth. Spock, however, realizes that may actually fit with the origin of Vulcans. To be fair, it was something that Sargon's species tended to do, and he had no information whether Earth or Vulcan specifically were colonized in this way.
 Panspermia / int_9a7088bc
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Panspermia / int_9a7088bc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: The Original Series
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_9a7088bc
 Panspermia / int_9f89a5f0
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_9f89a5f0
comment
In Pokémon, all animal life on Earth, as well as the handful of known extraterrestrial ones, is descended from the Pokémon Mew who could potentially inhabit other areas of the universe as they have been shown to be capable of flying through the vacuum of space.
 Panspermia / int_9f89a5f0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_9f89a5f0
featureConfidence
1.0
 Pokémon (Franchise)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_9f89a5f0
 Panspermia / int_9fbd3925
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_9fbd3925
comment
Kolibri's backstory, explained in the manual, includes a shard of an advanced planet landing on Earth after the advanced planet exploded. This crystal begat all life on Earth, and in Kolibri's time sustains it.
 Panspermia / int_9fbd3925
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_9fbd3925
featureConfidence
1.0
 Kolibri (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_9fbd3925
 Panspermia / int_a3fcd166
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_a3fcd166
comment
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy reveals what Earth really is. It is implied though that no organism on Earth is older than a few million years, and all were likely brought in from other places. Furthermore, humanity is the descendants of middle-men who crashed here 2 million years ago, completely unplanned by Earth's architects.
 Panspermia / int_a3fcd166
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_a3fcd166
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_a3fcd166
 Panspermia / int_a825da3e
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_a825da3e
comment
In Magic: The Gathering, the plane of Mirrodin was created by Karn. He didn't put life on the plane, though. Memnarch, a creation of Dominaria's Mirrari, did. All that life is from other planes. However, Karn is responsible for some inhabitants of Mirrodin. The Phyrexians are back.
 Panspermia / int_a825da3e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_a825da3e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Magic: The Gathering (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_a825da3e
 Panspermia / int_a843aac3
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_a843aac3
comment
In Polycon, the Takari created the Polyconians to terraform worlds for Takari use, intending to later employ a "killswitch" virus to exterminate them. Unfortunately for them, some of the Polyconians survived, while the virus jumped species and wiped out the Takari instead.
 Panspermia / int_a843aac3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_a843aac3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Polycon (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_a843aac3
 Panspermia / int_aa7dca5b
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_aa7dca5b
comment
To Be Taught, If Fortunate follows a group of astronauts ecologically surveying four planets in the twenty second century. Life is known to be common in this universe, but its origins are murky. On Earth, all cells have a chiral preference (left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars.) However, because both types of amino acids and sugars occur evenly when whipped up in the lab, there are two possibilities: 1. Chiral preferences are a necessity for life or 2. Life originated from a meteorite slamming into Earth, which happened to have mostly left-handed amino acids. On their last planet, they discover single cellular life that has no chiral preference. Which means life uses whatever is on hand, and so life on Earth very probably originated from off-world ingredients.
 Panspermia / int_aa7dca5b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_aa7dca5b
featureConfidence
1.0
 To Be Taught If Fortunate
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_aa7dca5b
 Panspermia / int_b3788a5d
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_b3788a5d
comment
2001: A Space Odyssey: The aliens didn't necessarily seed Earth, but most definitely influenced the evolution of mankind.
 Panspermia / int_b3788a5d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_b3788a5d
featureConfidence
1.0
 2001: A Space Odyssey
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_b3788a5d
 Panspermia / int_b481533
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_b481533
comment
Hainish: The stories use this trope for human and semi-human life, spread by the Precursors in the title.
 Panspermia / int_b481533
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_b481533
featureConfidence
1.0
 Hainish
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_b481533
 Panspermia / int_c007e9c8
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_c007e9c8
comment
In the final episode of Space: Above and Beyond, it's revealed that the aliens evolved from Earth bacteria that was deposited on their moon through panspermia.
 Panspermia / int_c007e9c8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_c007e9c8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Space: Above and Beyond
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_c007e9c8
 Panspermia / int_c0c57462
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_c0c57462
comment
Not life per se, but human evolution is this way in Chrono Trigger: "Grown like farm animals, waiting for the slaughter. All our history, all our art and science, all to serve the needs of that... beast."
 Panspermia / int_c0c57462
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_c0c57462
featureConfidence
1.0
 Chrono Trigger (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_c0c57462
 Panspermia / int_c43df4d8
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_c43df4d8
comment
Doctor Who:
The Time Lords were one of the earliest races to evolve, and they either seeded the universe with their genetic material or affected the fundamental properties of the universe itself, so it's not that Time Lords are humanoid, but humans are "Time Lord-oid".
"City of Death" says that life on Earth was accidentally started by an exploding Jagaroth ship.
 Panspermia / int_c43df4d8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_c43df4d8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Doctor Who
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_c43df4d8
 Panspermia / int_c4b3cf3f
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_c4b3cf3f
comment
A Lord from Planet Earth,: It's common knowledge among Human Aliens (no Starfish Aliens) that life on all of their planers began with intentional panspermia by the mysterious Seeders, who also left behind numerous Lost Technology and temples on each planet (except for Earth). What they don't know is that the Seeders are, in fact, humans from the future, who need an army but do not have the time for a massive breeding program. They send autonomous seeder ships into distant past to spread life and leave behind carefully-selected pieces of technology to accelerate the development of these cultures. They also choose planets in unexplored systems in order to avoid any temporal paradox and ensure that their "children" are unable to get to Earth via conventional means before the time is right.
 Panspermia / int_c4b3cf3f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_c4b3cf3f
featureConfidence
1.0
 A Lord from Planet Earth
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_c4b3cf3f
 Panspermia / int_ce615615
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_ce615615
comment
In Fossil Fighters, it is eventually revealed that multicellular organisms were created on Earth in order to be "guided in evolution" to recreate a lost race. Of course, things went wrong, creating humans instead of proper Lizard Folk. A in the end, it turns out subverted: all the creatures the dinaurians planted died out. Humans and everything else evolved out of Earth's natural life forms after all.
 Panspermia / int_ce615615
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Panspermia / int_ce615615
featureConfidence
1.0
 Fossil Fighters (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_ce615615
 Panspermia / int_d5b84b32
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_d5b84b32
comment
Spore uses the proper definition of the theory. That is, alien bacteria hitching a ride on a rock to a different planet. This is the opening animation for the cell stage (the first stage). This was added to avoid answering the always difficult (and for now unanswerable) question of how life actually arose, and also to try to explain why all life in the universe is made of the same handful of parts.
 Panspermia / int_d5b84b32
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_d5b84b32
featureConfidence
1.0
 Spore (Video Game)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_d5b84b32
 Panspermia / int_d5ddd6c1
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_d5ddd6c1
comment
Pokémon: The Series: In the original series, Pokémon are alleged to have come from somewhere in outer space...early on. This hypothesis from the first generation was quickly dropped in all subsequent generations, to the point that we eventually meet Pokémon that created the earth, the physical universe, and all of time and space. In other words, the series progressed from panspermia to intelligent design. Try to make sense of that.
 Panspermia / int_d5ddd6c1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_d5ddd6c1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Pokémon: The Series
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_d5ddd6c1
 Panspermia / int_d803ecde
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_d803ecde
comment
In Ben 10: Omniverse, it's revealed that the universe itself was created by a race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens from the fifth dimension called the Contumelia, and all life in it arose from a race of unicellular aliens working with them called Slimebiotes.
 Panspermia / int_d803ecde
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_d803ecde
featureConfidence
1.0
 Ben 10: Omniverse
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_d803ecde
 Panspermia / int_d9919dda
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_d9919dda
comment
Last and First Men: At the end, the solar system is about to be destroyed by increasing radiation from the sun. The Last Men devote their remaining time to sending out "the germs of life" on the solar wind.
 Panspermia / int_d9919dda
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_d9919dda
featureConfidence
1.0
 Last and First Men
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_d9919dda
 Panspermia / int_d9c602eb
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_d9c602eb
comment
According to the South Park episode "Cancelled", all life on Earth is one big intergalactic Reality Show, in which different species from other planets had been brought together for the amusement of the viewing public.
 Panspermia / int_d9c602eb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_d9c602eb
featureConfidence
1.0
 South Park
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_d9c602eb
 Panspermia / int_e5ea79ee
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_e5ea79ee
comment
The Authority: One story has the team face off against an alien life-form the size of the moon — "the closest thing to God" that had "planted" life millions of years ago. Subverted in that life on the planet didn't develop as it should have, leading to, among others, the rise of humanity.
 Panspermia / int_e5ea79ee
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Panspermia / int_e5ea79ee
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Authority (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_e5ea79ee
 Panspermia / int_e5fd2cef
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_e5fd2cef
comment
Lensman: The backstory states that all life in Earth's galaxy came from Arisian spores. Mentor tells at least one Lensman that this is why he's offering the Lens to the Galactic Patrol — they're "family".
 Panspermia / int_e5fd2cef
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_e5fd2cef
featureConfidence
1.0
 Lensman
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_e5fd2cef
 Panspermia / int_ea9e0181
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_ea9e0181
comment
In the Intelligent Design "documentary" Expelled, Ben Stein gets Richard Dawkins to concede that it is theoretically possible that life on Earth could have originated by being seeded from life on other planets. The film treats this as some sort of coup for Intelligent Design, but a moment's reflection would clarify that this doesn't have any bearing on the question of how life itself first developed.
 Panspermia / int_ea9e0181
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_ea9e0181
featureConfidence
1.0
 Expelled
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_ea9e0181
 Panspermia / int_ef076a36
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_ef076a36
comment
The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Year of Hell" establishes that life on several planets in the Krenim sector is the result of the same comet passing through their orbits in distant past.
 Panspermia / int_ef076a36
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_ef076a36
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: Voyager
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_ef076a36
 Panspermia / int_ef5dc701
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_ef5dc701
comment
Transpecial: Ten planets have been found that support life, and all known lifeforms use similar amino acids. The ky'iin have long believed that they're descended from a panspermia.
 Panspermia / int_ef5dc701
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_ef5dc701
featureConfidence
1.0
 Transpecial
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_ef5dc701
 Panspermia / int_f372b84e
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_f372b84e
comment
Extraterrestrial Civilizations:
Discussed; after the theory of Spontaneous Generation of life is discarded, the next theory advanced is that life on Earth was begun by spores traveling through the universe. It, in turn, is also discarded, because of the complications required for such microscopic life to both survive the trip to a second planet in a new solar system and the fact that it merely displaces "how does life originate?" to a different planet.
A footnote describes how Fred Hoyle has advanced the theory that comets, approaching close enough to Earth's orbit, are the source of viral pandemics.
 Panspermia / int_f372b84e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_f372b84e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Extraterrestrial Civilizations
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_f372b84e
 Panspermia / int_f481d3e4
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_f481d3e4
comment
The opening scene of Prometheus shows an alien sacrificing himself in order to seed the earth with his DNA. At least, that's what we think was going on there.
 Panspermia / int_f481d3e4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_f481d3e4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Prometheus
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_f481d3e4
 Panspermia / int_f74b5f80
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_f74b5f80
comment
Referenced in Babylon 5. An early episode states that the Centauri claimed at First Contact that they and humans had a common origin, but DNA testing by the humans proved they weren't related. Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari blames this on a clerical error.
 Panspermia / int_f74b5f80
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_f74b5f80
featureConfidence
1.0
 Babylon 5
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_f74b5f80
 Panspermia / int_f9652a21
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_f9652a21
comment
Quintaglio Ascension: This is alluded to. Turns out that there was a ridiculously powerful species that lived in the universe that existed before this one, all but one died when the universe we know was formed, and that one last being seeded different planets with life forms — from Earth, which is the only planet where life formed naturally.
 Panspermia / int_f9652a21
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_f9652a21
featureConfidence
1.0
 Quintaglio Ascension
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_f9652a21
 Panspermia / int_ff9ab17f
type
Panspermia
 Panspermia / int_ff9ab17f
comment
In the 6th season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase", it's revealed that the first starfaring species, which emerged 4 billion years ago, was so lonely that they seeded the entire Milky Way galaxy with a "genetic program" which would cause emerging life to, eventually, evolve into a form that physically resembled them. Since such a genetic program would likely herd all the different planets' developing genomes along the same narrow path, it actually makes sense that all humanoid species would be genetically similar enough to interbreed.
 Panspermia / int_ff9ab17f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Panspermia / int_ff9ab17f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: The Next Generation
hasFeature
Panspermia / int_ff9ab17f

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Panspermia
processingCategory2
Alien Tropes
 Panspermia
processingCategory2
Speculative Fiction Tropes
 Andromeda Stories / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Money Shot (Comic Book) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Expelled / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 2001: A Space Odyssey / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Stargate-verse (Franchise) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 All Tomorrows / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 At the Mountains of Madness / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Extraterrestrial Civilizations / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Gone / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Hainish / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Incandescence / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Project Hail Mary / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 The Gaiad / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 The History of the Galaxy / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 To Be Taught If Fortunate / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Transpecial / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Unfettered
seeAlso
Panspermia
 Nightwish (Music) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Nightwish (Band) (Music) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Cosmos / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Life After People / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Star Trek: Voyager / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Firebringer (Theatre) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Fossil Fighters (Video Game) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 I Miss the Sunrise (Video Game) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Seedship (Video Game) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Alien Legacy / Videogame
seeAlso
Panspermia
 Zogg From Betelgeuse (Web Video) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Serina (Website) / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Heavy Metal / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 Empire from the Ashes / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia
 The Reconstruction / Videogame / int_a5ab6ea3
type
Panspermia