The planet Uranus has appeared in various forms of fiction:
Literature
An anonymous author writing as a Mr. Vivenair published A Journey Lately Performed Through the Air in an Aerostatic Globe, Commonly Called an Air Balloon, From This Terraquaeous Globe to the Newly Discovered Planet, Georgium Sidus in 1784.
R. R. Winterbotham's "Clouds over Uranus" was published by Astounding in March 1937
In Ramsey Campbell's The Insects from Shaggai (1964), a Cthulhu Mythos story, Uranus is known as L'gy'hx and is inhabited by cubical metallic many-legged creatures who worship Lrogg, an avatar of Nyarlathotep. They entered in religious conflict with the Shan.
Fritz Leiber's 1962 short story "Snowbank Orbit" has three Earth-ships, fleeing from interstellar invaders, attempt a desperate aero-braking maneuver in the atmosphere of Uranus at 100 miles per second.
The novels #5 (Vorstoß zum Uranus, 1972) and #22 (Raumposition Oberon, 1982) in the Mark Brandis SF book series take place on and around Uranus.
In Larry Niven's novel A World Out of Time (1976), Uranus is outfitted with a massive fusion motor and used to gently move the Earth outward from an artificially brightening Sun caused by a civil war between Earth and its colonies.
Geoffrey A. Landis's short story "Into the Blue Abyss," part of his short-story collection Impact Parameter and other Quantum Fictions (2001) discussed an expedition to Uranus in search of life. Uranus is shown to have a layer of high-pressure liquid water inhabited by primitive "fish."
In Zombie Bums from Uranus (2003) by Andy Griffiths, it is stated that the zombie butts came from Uranus. It is also the setting of one of the chapters.
In Larklight (2006) by Philip Reeve, Uranus is called Georgium Sidus, 'Star of George'. In Mothstorm It is shown to have Sprout islands on it, and is also inhabited by a four-armed merman-like race, who live in the Sprout's floating bladders beneath the surface along with other aquatic races.
"Uranian Gleams" (2015), by Robert Gibson, gives a history of a Uranian civilization, plus six novellas set at various stages in the history.
Film and television
In the 1962 film Journey to the Seventh Planet, astronauts on Uranus encounter a strange intelligence that projects illusions of a beautiful woman.[1]
In the Space: 1999 episode "Death's Other Dominion", the crew of Moonbase Alpha discover a colony of humans stranded on a frozen planet. The remnant crew is from a spacecraft exploration mission which disappeared through a black hole and time warp while on its way from Earth to the planet Uranus.
In the Doctor Who (1963–) serial The Daleks' Master Plan, Uranus is described as being the only location in the universe where the mineral Taranium can be acquired.
In Space Patrol (1962) episode: The Dark Planet - Professor Heggerty and his daughter Cassiopeia are baffled by a plant sample from Uranus with a mind of its own. Following the disappearance of a 20 strong survey team on Uranus, Colonel Raeburn dispatches the Space Patrol crew to locate larger versions of the plant, where they discover the adult specimens of the plant are far from friendly. In another episode, The Invisible Invasion - On Uranus, the Duo's are planning to seize power on Earth by taking over the minds of everyone at Space Headquarters, including Colonel Raeburn. The one person seemingly unaffected by the Duo's power is Professor Heggerty, who is installed beneath his electronic hair-restorer!
In the 1990s Nickelodeon series, Space Cases, the character of Bova, played by Rahi Azizi, is from Uranus. He has a distinction from other characters in the series, having an antenna growing from his forehead.[2]
In Futurama, it is mentioned that in the future, scientists renamed Uranus "to end that stupid joke once and for all", thereby calling it "Urectum".
Comics and anime
In Planet Comics the Red Comet goes to Uranus and finds a race of Ice-Men, and an awful magician who has shrunken the rightful Queen down.
In Grant Morrison's DC One Million (1998), each planet of the Solar System is overseen by one member of the future descendants of the Justice League. Uranus is overseen by the Starman of the 853rd century from his floating citadel, after having replaced the Green Lantern.
In All-Star Comics #13 the JSA are gassed by Nazis and rocketed to different planets. Sandman finds himself heading toward Uranus, a planet so cold that the population's brains are housed in bodies of crystal. When Sandman lands on the planet, the lack of oxygen nearly kills him until a citizen rescues him with an oxygo-tank. In gratitude, Sandman agrees to help the King of the planet battle his nemesis, Kafta, the evil one, and defeats him. The King presents Sandman with a crystal that cures brain cancer and books that explain its use, which come in handy for reading on the long trip back to Earth.
In a Superman comic Uranus' inhabitants are actually small mechanical robots. Their civilization is quite advanced, they can tour the solar system in circular space ships and although having weapons like "lance throwers" and "flame cannons", they have other advanced technologies like "transporta-rays" (which transport things and animals) and an interplanetary zoo.
In September 1949, referring to a book called Children's Picture Book of Animals, they try catching an Earth animal from each page, including a human man and woman. Superman deceives them into thinking all humans are robots, which they have no interest in (WF No. 6, September 1949: "The Alphabetical Animal Adventure").
In the anime and manga series Sailor Moon, one of the Sailor Guardians is named Sailor Uranus (Haruka Tenoh in civilian form). Sailor Uranus does not appear in Sailor Moon until halfway through the series. Her powers are related to sky and wind, and is one of the guardians given the task to protect the Solar System from external threats.
The anime series Captain Earth depicts its main villains, the Kill-T Gang, originating from Uranus in their space ship, the Blume. Near the end of the series the protagonists fly toward Uranus to try and destroy the Blume.
Games
In the role-playing game Transhuman Space, China has begun preliminary harvesting of helium-3 from Uranus' atmosphere to compete against American helium-3 harvesting on Saturn.
In the video game Mass Effect, the Human Systems Alliance has mined Uranus for helium-3. In the sequel, Mass Effect 2, should the player attempt to use the planet scanning mechanic to launch a probe to extract resources from Uranus ("probing Uranus"), the starship's AI will respond "Really, Commander?" before deploying the probe. A second probe triggers a deadpan "Probing Uranus" response, after which the voice switches to stock lines used for all other planets.
The video game Blasto involves the titular character stopping an inter-dimensional alien invasion of Uranus.
Uranus' moons in fiction
Ariel
"Dead Men Walking" by Paul McAuley (2007). Story of an android assassin on Ariel, which houses cities, penal colony and a prison farm.
First Contact? (1971) by Hugh Walters features two spaceships sent to investigate alien radio signals emanating from Ariel.
Titania
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1997) contains a description of a colony on Titania, where humans have adapted to the low gravity and light levels.
In Earth 2160, the Eurasian Dynasty (ED) had a military Prison on Titania, until it was destroyed by rogue LC forces.
In the "Expanse" series Titania is the location of humanity's furthest outpost.
In the computer game Descent, level 18 takes place in a mine on Miranda.
In the novels of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor based on their sitcomRed Dwarf, Miranda is the site of a large, congested spaceport where Dave Lister takes shore leave to get over being dumped by his girlfriend Kristine Kochanski and adopts a cat which he names Frankenstein.
In Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1997), two characters visit Miranda, which is being preserved by the colonists of the Uranian system as a primal wilderness; the other sizable moons of Uranus are being ambitiously colonised at the time with the help of fusion lanterns placed in Uranus' upper atmosphere to provide more light.
In the Sailor Moon manga and anime series by Naoko Takeuchi, the Sailor Guardians are revealed to have a castle named after a moon of the guardian planet; Sailor Uranus's is Miranda Castle.
Oberon
In Treasure on Thunder Moon (1942) by Edmond Hamilton, Oberon is the volcanic world, home of the semi-sentient alien race of "Flame-Throwers".[citation needed]
Three levels of the computer game Descent take place in mines on Oberon. Levels 19, 20, and 21 take place in an unidentified mine, an iron mine, and a platinum mine, respectively.
In Paolo Aresi's novel Oberon there is a secret Russian base on Oberon (which plays an important part in the plot).
In the 1978 Russian novel (and film) Lunar Rainbow (Лунная радуга), written by S.I. Pavlov (Сергей Павлов), astronauts on Oberon become infected with a strange disease that gives them supernatural powers, but which ultimately turns out to be intelligentalienmicroorganisms from another planetary system.[3] The sequel Soft Mirrors (1983) features other Uranian moons as well.
In the PC real-time strategy game Earth 2160, the UCS evacuation ship Phoenix was hidden among a Shield generator and a small UCS Base on the surface, in orbit around Oberon.
In the Starhunter TV series episode "Cell Game" (2000), a maximum security prison has been established below the Oberon surface to keep the worst of the worst in an environment from which there is no hope for escape. Series hero Percy (Tanya Allen) is imprisoned there on false charges as bait to draw her bounty hunter uncle Dante Montana to the hostile world and her rescue. Action in Starhunter is restricted to the solar system, its planets and moons.
In Donald A. Wollheim's short story "Umbriel" (1936), Umbriel is really a gigantic dead animal who came to die in an orbit around Saturn. The protagonist, an astronaut, discovers huge worms appearing from the ground, and he concludes they are eating the flesh of the immense corpse. Before he leaves he realises the worms have metal collars, which mean there is a species of intelligent beings living in the interior of the corpse, and they are the worms' masters.
