Starship Troopers

Science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein, originally published in 1954(?). It was made into a film by Paul Verhoeven. An animated television program was also made from it.

The novel dealt with a platoon of future soldiers defending humanity from an intelligent race of creatures collectively known as "bugs", a repulsive alien enemy sharing many characteristics with social insects such as ants or termites. The novel presents a very favourable view of the purposeness and order of military life and disgust with the slack, individualistic, and purposeless life of "civilians". In the future world of the novel, only those who have volunteered for federal service (which includes military service) are permitted to vote and hold political office. These aspects of the novel make it highly controversial, with many interpreting the book as thinly-designed, expertly-written propaganda for fascism.

Paul Verhoeven's 1995 film takes up these political themes by satirizing the book's attitudes mercilessly, using references from propaganda films such as Triumph of the Will and wartime news broadcasts, but wrapping this satire in slickly-produced action sequences with clever special effects such that the satire went unnoticed by a mostly teenage male audience who treated the movie as a simple gung-ho "action flick".

The animated series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers (released in 2000) was closer to the events of the book, such as including the war with the Skinnies, and included more of the characters. However, it focused mostly on combat, and didn't address the political aspects at all. Verhoeven was also a producer for the series, and it used the creature designs from the 1995 movie.