Nazis in space!

[Focus Abbey]

When I first started producing Westward in 2010, I knew that Nazis in space would be one of the central plot points. Early ideas for the first episode included the Westward crew actually landing on a planet inhabited, Iron Sky-style, by an advanced Nazi empire. As the idea evolved, however, I opted for a more subtle approach. The introduction of the Nazi element in the first episode was in the form of a battered coin discovered by newspaperman Lamont Townsend among ancient ruins of an alien planet:


The thread wouldn't be picked up again in a major way until Episode Four, beginning with a blurted admission by exobiologist Rosemary Wells...


...and culminating in her rather disastrous encounter with some vestige of the Nazis themselves:







But how did Nazis get into space and what actually happened to them? These questions are still unfolding in Westward, five years on. The key element is the mode of interstellar travel posited in Westward: Escherspace. It's a scientifically dubious technology that entirely ignores space and time, though at a high cost and a great deal of risk, ask the crew has begun to discover.


The current episode of Westward, Episode Seven, introduces the crew to a new mission that exemplifies the strange properties of Escherspace. Thousands of colonists were sent deep into space--and consequently deep into the past--to preserve humanity in the face of a looming cataclysm. Now Westward is going to track down those colonies and learn what became of them. But are the Nazis waiting for them? And if they are, have they all become mechanical monstrosities like the one Rosemary encountered?

Here's where I'd love to hear some ideas. While I have a rough concept of the Nazis in Westward, they are far from set in stone. So far, they've appeared as something not unlike a combination of the Borg in Star Trek and the Reavers in Firefly. Both fun ideas, but they've been explored.

So a Nazi scientist rockets off into space to establish a new master race among the stars. But each leap deeper into space sends the civilization farther back in time. Now, later space colonists are faced with the threat of a Nazi civilization established long before their arrival. But what does it look like? What would you do?

 

[Icemizer]

My first thought would be to determine when the Nazi's left Earth. How many ships were sent and when. Pre and early war Nazi's full of black and brown shirts confident they would sweep all before them. Middle war Nazis wearing grey still confident they would win the war. Late war Nazis desperate to preserve a losing cause in another place. Were these hard core SS recruits willing to sacrifice anything or more functionary types and middle management.

Dont limit yourself to one version of these Nazis. I have always disliked the unified alien concept. On some planets they are held in high esteem, on others feared, on still others they exist only in history as something like the ancient gods, on others they have become a religion. A planet where they have taken racial purity to excess would be interesting, and of course a planet where they have successfully cloned Hitler for several millennia could be an interesting place to visit for a story.

What they look like should also not be limited in anyway. Your concept is sound but it should not be the only one you use. The alterations made by Escherspace and time should be both horrific and amazing, destructive and improving.

 

[Focus Abbey]

The backstory is that a single Nazi-affiliated scientist launched an ark into space to seed a new genetic master race. At least one character in Westward (Rosemary) is the result of his early experimentation engineering this race. So whatever became of them, it started from a single point.




I fully and heartily agree with you about the unified whole model. History on earth is always complicated and multifaceted, able to be interpreted from any number of perspectives. Science fiction writers are often guilty of oversimplifying the cultures they create.