Britain goes to the polls today, with voters choosing mainly between Gordon Brown’s Labour, Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, and the T-1000 David Cameron’s Conservatives. In honour of what’s been the most closely fought election in recent British political history, we thought we’d have a crack at listing some of the biggest political faux pas and applecart-upsets in science fiction. Enjoy, and if you’re a British citizen, remember to vote.
Remember, remember the fifth of November
V For Vendetta
V’s plot against the Norsefire regime reaches a crescendo; as the Army stands down in the face of a full scale rebellion, the Houses Of Parliament are blown to smithereens, and Natalie Portman looks on glumly from the top of a building.
Stuffing the boxes
Battlestar Galactica
Roslin attempts to fix the election in her favour over Gaius Baltar, and somehow manages to wind up with him winning the election anyway. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that, but we can’t help but think this case of electoral fraud may actually have been beneficial.
Emergency powers
Star Wars
If anyone ever needed evidence that Jar Jar Binks was the worst thing to happen to the Star Wars universe since the Holiday Special, look no further than the glorified muppet giving Palpatine a clear run at creating the Empire. Yeah, thanks a lot.
Martial law
Babylon 5
It turns out that President Clark is exactly the kind of bastard everyone thought he might be after he more or less openly assassinated President Santiago, when he declares martial law throughout the Earth Alliance and sends a bucketload of cruisers to go and batter B5 into submission.
Police state
Children Of Men
Britain turns charmingly fascist when a worldwide epidemic renders mankind totally infertile. Whether other countries have actually collapsed or not is besides the point, the immediate concern seems to be the jackbooted stormtroopers rounding up anyone foreign and putting them in cages. Often cited as an inspiration for the British National Party manifesto.
