The most prominent similarity between Starcraft and Starship troopers is between the Arachnids in Starship Troopers, and the Zerg in Starcraft. Both are an immensely populated, swarming regime of bug-like creatures whose only purpose in the universe is to consume and extend the swarm. In addition, true to the nature of colonial insects on Earth, both alien factions are lead by a master bug of sorts. In Starship Troopers case, it’s an immense queen bee-esque insectoid. They resemble the shape of a giant larva, known as Brain Bugs, which eat the brains of their captured opponents to gain a superior intellect and to gain any advantages that they might exploit. The Zerg on the other hand, are controlled by Cerebrates, again large larva shaped creatures with massive intellect, which in turn serve an even greater mind known as the Overmind – an enormous structure of intelligence and evil; the governing mind which personifies the Zerg Swarm. Both the Bugs and the Zerg have their chain in command as well, ranging from: the worker bugs seen helping transport the Brain Bug in the Starship Troopers movie and Drones in Starcraft, to the main scurrying Arachnids and Zerglings, to the giant beetle shaped bugs and Ultralisks. It is needless to say that there is an undeniable connection between these two brooding factions, however that’s not where the similarities between Starcraft and Starship Troopers ends.
The fact that the body of human resistance to the Arachnids is called the, “Terran Federation,” should be enough to convince you that Blizzard was inspired greatly by Starship Troopers. However when you look at things more closely, it is evident that the Terran faction in Starcraft is possibly Blizzards most original out of the three. Many of you will jump at this statement, as one of the widest grievances between Starcraft fans and Warhammer 40,000 fans is that the Marines in Starcraft are so similar to the Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000, but in reality they are only similar on a superficial level, and Games Workshop were hardly the ones who popularized the idea of humans in powered armour. Sure they have similar names and appearances, but what makes the Terran faction in Starcraft stand out like a sore thumb in comparison to Warhammer 40K, Starship Troopers, or Aliens, is the running theme of inspiration from the American Civil War. Quite a number of Terran units in the game have southern American accents, and this is all the more realized in Starcraft’s Terran Campaign when you encounter the Terran Confederacy; a governing body of galactic colonists far away from earth which have very conservative ideals. Further more the flag of Starcraft’s Terran Confederacy represents an altered naval jack used by the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. It’s needless to say that there is also a great deal of conflict amongst the Terrans during the story line in Starcraft. This to me was a fairly original approach for science fiction, and the inner strife between the Terran factions was my favorite part of the storyline in Starcraft. I won’t go any further into describing the influence that the Civil War had on the storyline of Starcraft, as it was a great joy of mine to discover it on my own.
This brings us to perhaps the most widely debated topic regarding Starcraft’s originality. Ever since Starcraft shipped in 1998 there has been much discussion surrounding how similar it is to Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 franchise. Rumors of lawsuits between these two companies have floated around the world for years. Speculations have varied considerably, yet there are no traces of any legal actions to be found between Blizzard and GW. To humour you, I will describe one of the more interesting rumors surrounding a lawsuit regarding Starcraft’s origins, as it is quite tantalizing. Keep in mind none of this is confirmed by either Blizzard or Games Workshop.
When Blizzard first decided they wanted to create a game taking place in a science fiction setting, their hearts were set on Warhammer 40,000’s universe, and they began developing a game to fit right in with it. For those of you who don’t know, Warhammer 40,000 is an extremely grim science fiction universe plagued with eons of galactic strife between many factions, such as Space Marines - a zealous regime of super human soldiers, juiced up by the blood of a holy monarch, “the Emperor,” who dawn nigh impenetrable power armour, Imperial Guard – another conglomerate of human military groups, this consisting of the average human soldier, the Tyranids – a nomadic alien race bent on consuming the universe, often referred to as the, “Great Devourer”, and the Eldar – an ancient and mysterious faction of highly intelligent elf-like master psychics, who are the fruit of an even older creator, so to speak. These are just four of the many factions that wage war in the universe of Warhammer 40,000, however if you’ve enjoyed the wonders of Starcraft they should seem very familiar. Now I will not go into detail about the similarities between the Zerg and the Tyranids, because Games Workshop is likely to have taken just as much inspiration from Starship Troopers as Blizzard has. I will also save the Terran faction for a comparison to the Alien series, which will follow in coming paragraphs, because there is a much larger connection between them and the aforementioned Terran Federation in Starship Troopers, than with the Space Marine or Imperial Guard factions in Warhammer 40,000.
