Submarines and Starships

Are sci-fi starship stories just extensions of submarine stories?

Submarines and interstellar space ships have a lot in common. Both are self-contained vessels carrying a crew through a cold, dark, hostile environment. Modern nuclear subs generate all their own oxygen and remove the harmful carbon dioxide and maintain a livable environment, just as a starship would have to do.

I think the original series of Star Trek had it right when they had a view screen and no windows. After all, the view on an interstellar voyage is, for the most part, going to be very boring.  A view screen is going to be a much more practical solution.

Another similarity, most sci-fi stories that take place on starships have the ship’s society based on a military style hierarchy.

And the final similarity, I enjoy both. I enjoy sci-fi and I love a good submarine novel. Maybe it’s the independence that each represents. Maybe it’s the attraction of the isolation from a complicated world with so many worries and problems. Life on either seems simpler than the real world. And both promise an adventure.