Sirius in fiction

For other uses, see Sirius (disambiguation).

An artist's impression of Sirius A and Sirius B. Sirius A is the bigger star, Sirius B the smaller white dwarf. (NASA)

Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris), the brightest star in the night sky, is frequently mentioned in science fiction and related popular culture.

In science fiction

Sirius is usually treated as a location where events may take place, or from which people or artifacts may originate, usually in works of science fiction.

Literature

• True History story by Lucian of Samosata. Sirius is the home star of the dog-headed Acorn-Dogs, who come to the aid of the King of the Sun in his war with the king of the Moon.
• Micromégas A short story by Voltaire written in 1752, one of the earliest science fiction stories. Sirius is the home star of one of the main characters.
• The Foundation (1942-1950), series of novels by Isaac Asimov. The local "county" of the Galactic Empire in which Sol (Earth's Sun) is located is called the "Sirius Sector".
• Proof (1942) by Hal Clement. Short story featuring a Sirian and a Solarian, beings that live in Sirius and Sol, respectively, who argue about the existence of non-plasma ("ordinary") matter
• Lucky Starr series (1952-1958) of juvenile novels by Isaac Asimov. The Sirians are the (usually unseen) antagonists throughout the series.
• Wasp (1957), novel by Eric Frank Russell; the Sirians (the Sirian Empire) are (is) at war with the humans (Terrans)
• Seed of Light (1959), novel by Edmund Cooper. Thirteen-year old Kepler, having read in the precognitive memory of spaceship commander Faraday, warns this that Sirius A had no planets and Sirius B had five, the third of which was most suitable for settlement, but involved a deadly danger. Kepler is tragically confirmed when seven members of the crew mysteriously die during and after a five-day visit to the planet, which is slightly above 3,000 km across and possesses a breathable atmosphere.
• Unearthly Neighbors (1960), novel by Chad Oliver. Men quarrel, but later reconcile with intuition-and-meditation-based humanoids on the ninth planet orbiting Sirius A.
• Space Opera (1965), novel by Jack Vance. Sirius Planet occupies the Trojan position with Sirius A and Sirius B. It is where the crew of the Phoebus performs Beethoven’s Fidelio.
• Known Space (1966-1995) series of stories by Larry Niven. A high-gravity world called Jinx is the moon of a gas giant in the Sirius system.
• The Starlight Barking (1967) novel by Dodie Smith. Sirius, Lord of the Dog Star, comes to take stray dogs from Earth to his home planet.
• Foeman, Where Do You Flee? (1969), short story by Ben Bova. Earth explorers find humans living on a war-ravaged planet that orbits Sirius and is bathed in the light of "The Pup."
• The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969) novel by Frederik Pohl. Earth is at war with aliens, who are known as Sirians because they were first encountered by humans in the Sirius system.
• As on a Darkling Plain (1972), novel by Ben Bova. An insterstellar expedition arrives at and explores the planet Sirius A-2, or Makta, which orbits Sirius A. They discover distant descendants of Earth men.
• Dogsbody (1975), novel by Diana Wynne Jones. The Dog Star, Sirius, is tried for murder by his heavenly peers and sentenceed to be reborn on Earth as a dog until such time as he carries out the seemingly impossible mission imposed on him.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) series by Douglas Adams. The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is a fictional company.
• Canopus in Argos series of novels by Doris Lessing. Star-visitors from Sirius play a part in Earth's history, though secondary to the Canopans. They feature especially in The Sirian Experiments (1980).
• The Songs of Distant Earth (1986), novel by Arthur C. Clarke. Sirius X is the second closest habitable extrasolar planet.
• Rama (1989-1993) series of novels by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. One of the Raman vessels leaves the Solar System for a node in the Sirius system.
• Nebulous episode 'Last of the Present Sirius' (2006) by Graham Duff, the star itself as the centre of a huge interstellar television broadcasting network, run by the last two surviving aliens of that star system.

Film and television

Sirius within the constellation Canis Major

• Doctor Who, television series.
  • "Frontier in Space", 1973 episode. The Master poses as an official from Sirius, an independent dominion of the Earth Empire in the 26th Century.
  • "The Caves of Androzani", 1984 episode. The colonised planets Androzani Major and Minor are in the Sirius system. The main antagonist of the story, Trau Morgus, is the chairman of the Sirius Conglomerate, an organisation that regulates the mining and sale of spectrox, a drug that extends the normal lifespan of a human.
• The alien race in the 1980's American television mini-series V (1983 miniseries), V (The Final Battle) and the subsequent series V (1984 TV series) identified that their race came from Sirius IV orbiting Sirius.
• In 1984, Television New Zealand produced Children of the Dog Star, a science fiction television program for children produced in New Zealand in 1984, written by Ken Catran and directed by Chris Bailey, with the novelization written by Marie Stuttard. It won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival that year as well as the New Zealand Feltex 1984 best drama award. Sirius B is the origin of three space probes, one of which began the Dogon legend.
• Screamers (1995), film. The story takes place on planet Sirius 6B.
• Good Boy! (2003), film A planet in the Sirius System is the home world of dogs, some were sent to Earth to conquer and colonize the Planet.
• Power Rangers: S.P.D. (2005), television series. Sirius is the homeworld of dogheaded aliens including Anubis Cruger.
• Star Trek The Original Series (1964), television series. The script for the pilot episode "The Cage" used the name Sirius IV rather than Talos IV for the central location.[1]

Comics and anime

• Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1982), light novel. Many centuries before the main story takes place, the Sirius system hosted the congress and military of the rebelling colonies of Earth and became the center of the universe after overthrowing the corrupt Terran government in the "Sirius War" of the year 2704. After several political murders led to almost a century of unrest, the universe was again reunited under the banner of the United Stars of the Galaxy in 2801 and the government was finally moved from Sirius to Aldebaran. A fictional sixth planet of the Sirius star system is named as Rondolina, the planet on which the incident known as "Bloody Night" took place and where the government of the universe had its seat during Sirian rule.
• Voices of a Distant Star (2002), Original Video Animation. A human expedition of four intergalactic spaceships travels to the Sirius star system to chase down enemy aliens called Tarsians. The anime also features the (fictional) fourth planet of the star system called Agharta.
• Diebuster (2003), Original Video Animation. A human presence (space colony or settled planet) is present in the Sirius star system as of July 6th, 14292, and has presumably been in existence there for several thousand years.

Games

• Freelancer, computer game. Takes place in the "Sirius Sector" of space after 'sleeper ships' (colony ships) escape from the warring Earth solar system.
• Serious Sam, video game series. Sirius is the star from which the evil presence, Mental, is commanding its armies. The term "Serious Sam" is therefore a pun since much of the game's story revolves around Egyptian culture being influenced by aliens from the Sirius system under Mental's control.
• FreeSpace 2, computer game. Sirius is one of the three star systems under the control of the Neo-Terran Front in their war for independence against the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance and is used as a staging ground for NTF assaults into Alpha Centauri and Deneb.
• Earth & Beyond, computer game by Electronic Arts. Sirius is a planetary system.
• Independence War, computer game. Sirius B is the system in which the hidden COSA base is located.
• Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters, computer game series. Headquarters of the Sirius Corporation, a quasi-monopolist producer of fuel for military spaceships.
• Battletech wargame franchise. Sirius is a location in the Inner Sphere.
• Traveller, role-playing game franchise. Sirius is a barren, irradiated system devoid of planets from the intense stellar wind from Sirius A.
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope, video game. Sirius is host to the planet Aeos, one of the worlds the player characters visit during the storyline.

Other uses

Sirius is often treated simply as a star visible from Earth, with magical or metaphorical import, but not as a location:

• Absalom and Achitophel (1681), satirical poem by John Dryden. Sirius was commonly thought to cause madness in 18th century England, and it is alluded to in the context of showing that it would plainly be mad to think that Charles II should "displease" the English people (LL.333-334).
• Dogsbody (1975), novel by Diana Wynne Jones. The star Sirius is an intelligent being falsely accused of murdering another star by his peers. As punishment he is sent to Earth in the body of a new born puppy to find the weapon he supposedly used.
• The Silmarillion (1977), novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. Sirius is called Helluin by the Elves, who "awoke" when "Menelmacar [Orion] strode up the sky and the blue fire of Helluin flickered in the mists above the borders of the world".
• Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994), novel by Tom Robbins. Deals with various Dogon/Sirius mysteries as well as much of the general mythology surrounding the star.

The name "Sirius" is also often applied to people, animals, or things not directly connected with the star. For these uses, see Sirius (disambiguation).