The Great 'Which Universe Would I Rather Inhabit' Tournament Introduction and Round 1, Match 1

The Great 'Which Universe Would I Rather Inhabit' Tournament

I have been asked many questions in my time, and absolutely none of them have been ‘if you could be in any fictional universe, which one would it be?’ Now, I think that’s a crying shame, as this is surely an entire camping trips worth of discussion. I, however, am going to attempt to do it in a series of blog articles. You, dear readers, are the ones who can carry it on. I say that as if there’s millions of you – this is most likely my first entry on this blog so the likelihood of a debate to rival that of the US Presidential Elections is admittedly uncertain. Nonetheless, for any of you curious travellers who do stumble upon this, feel free to add your own points at the end. It’ll be like our very own camping trip.

I’ve singled out 16 universes:

1.     Star Trek

2.     Star Wars

3.     Battlestar Galactica

4.     Red Dwarf

5.     Ultima

6.     Tamriel

7.     Middle Earth

8.     Narnia

9.     Buffy

10.   DC

11.   Aliens

12.   Terminator

13.   Firefly

14.   Marvel

15.   Heroes

16.   Doctor Who

I've missed several out. Programmes like 24, however brilliant it would be to help out Jack Bauer at CTU, just aren’t removed enough from reality to make the debate worth it. That would be better for a ‘which fictional organisation would you rather work for’ debate (that’s a future post already sorted…).  Similarly, with a programme like Lost, what would I say? ‘Well, I could stay on the Island all day, then get off the Island, then find another way back on…’ It’s just never going to work.

So, here’s how it works. It’s a round robin, randomly drawn by myself on pieces of paper but into a hat. The individual merits of each weighed up against the other, with no specific categories, just a good old fashioned ‘go with the heart’ outcome. The timeframe for each universe Is any that which we spend a significant amount of time in via any form of media e.g. Battlestar Galactica it’s the very little bit before and then post-Cylon Apocalypse, but for Narnia it could be anywhere from the beginning to the end. Doctor Who is based around a time traveller, so the sky really is the limit.

So, after drawing the names out of a hat, the tournament looks like this:

15 8 4 5 9 1 3 7 2 13 11 14 6 10 12 16

Red Dwarf
Heroes
Buffy
Battlestar Galactica
Star Wars
Aliens
Elder Scrolls
Terminator
Narnia
Ultima
Star Trek
Middle Earth
Firefly
Marvel
DC
Doctor Who

We'll start Round 1 here, with a new match every day.

Round 1:

Red Dwarf vs Heroes

I’ll start by reminding you all that this is all about which would be the best universe to inhabit, not about which is the best show. Red Dwarf would win by a mile on that contest. Yes, the last couple of seasons can’t compare to Series VI and before, but Heroes really only had one very good season. It’s rare that I have seriously consider stopping watching a series halfway through, but that’s the case with Heroes series III. I’ve never even bothered with series IV, again unusual.

So we have a future version of our universe with nothing of note (not even any aliens) vs an Earth housing people with superpowers.

In the Red Dwarf universe, a few hundred years in the future mankind will have perfected space travel, including artificial gravity and life support, and will be able to bring back humans in the form of holograms, which would appear to be my main way in. Assuming I was alive when the adventures of the Red Dwarf crew that we know and love begin, I could look forward to serving on a spaceship and visiting nearby planets and moons that have been terraformed. This is clearly a universe where mankind makes incredible strides even faster than we are doing now. There might not be any dragons or magic, but there’s the chance to explore the cosmos. Although it’d confirmed that there aren’t any aliens anywhere in the universe. Which is a bitter blow.

In the Heroes universe, a select group of people have special abilities, which enable them to heal from any injury, use telekinesis, and turn invisible. Possible versions of the future show that these might be available to all one day, although it’s a bit more of an underground thing at present. Yes, there are evil people who want to do nasty things with these powers, but there are nasty people in every universe. The key thing is that, at some point, I might get my hand on the old telekinesis ability, and then I’ll be able to wear my Peter Petrelli style coat and properly act out the part. And then there’s flying. Always important to remember flying.

So who wins? Well, as much as I’d love to travel the stars in Red Dwarf or Starbug, there’s not really much that sets it apart from our own universe. Plus, if I was alive with the Red Dwarf crew, three million years in the future, there isn’t exactly a whole lot to do in comparison. In the Heroes universe I could develop powers, and really and truly save the world. Maybe I could have the power to go back and completely re-write the plot of series II onwards.

Winner: Heroes