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One of the Ur Examples.
A Discredited Trope from the early Pulp Magazine days of media science fiction (peaked in the 1950's in movie serials and TV shows), involving a hero who was part of an organization that handles law and order in outer space, much like in a Western... in space. Frequently the titular Eager Young Space Cadet was a child or teen who was a new recruit or a sidekick to an older hero. May be the equivalent of Walking the Earth with isolated outposts and frontier planets; especially strange when the Kid Hero seems not to have a family at home.
The name comes from the best-known example of the trope in the early 21st century, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
Examples of Eager Young Space Cadet include:
Multimedia[]
- Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (based on Heinlein's novel)
- Buck Rogers, especially in the comic strip and movie serial, where the kid sidekick Buddy was added.
Anime and Manga[]
- Sasami was cast as this in the Tenchi Muyo! OVA special Mihoshi's Space Police Adventure. Of course, that's not all she was there for...
Film[]
- Commando Cody.
- Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story is an homage/parody of this trope.
Literature[]
- Space Cadet: Robert A. Heinlein novel, best known for its opening pages being so prophetic as to not read like Science Fiction today.
- His earlier story Misfit also fits the trope, and makes the inspiration from the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps more explicit.
- The Lucky Starr series of books by Isaac Asimov, which started with David Starr, Space Ranger.
- Jeff Wells of Isaac and Janet Asimov's Norby series is also technically a space cadet, although most of his adventures are unofficial ones.
- Various midshipmen throughout David Weber's Honor Harrington stories, including Harrington herself in the novella "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington".
Live-Action TV[]
- Space Patrol (1950's radio and TV)
- Captain Video and his Video Rangers
- Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
- Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers
- Wesley Crusher represents the best example in the Star Trek universe. As a child prodigy, he represented an Audience Surrogate for a young viewer and could be considered a "sidekick" to Picard. Later in the series, Wesley became a literal cadet in Starfleet.
- In Deep Space Nine, Nog plays the trope straight, while "Red Squad" is something of a Deconstruction of the trope.
- Harry Kim is the closest example in Star Trek: Voyager.
Tabletop Games[]
- Tales of the Solar Patrol, as a homage to Golden Age science fiction, has "Patrol Cadet" as one of the playable character archetypes.
Western Animation[]
- Galaxy High plays this trope semi-straight.
- Porky Pig's title in the Looney Tunes short Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (and the series based on it) is actually Eager Young Space Cadet, making his character the Trope Namer.