The WordPress/JetPack writing prompt for today is:
Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in?

I don’t think most fictional worlds would be fun to vacation in, unless you’re into extreme risk. They’re the setting of a story for a reason, and that reason usually involves violence or mortal stakes of some kind.

So, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc. would not be places I’d want to vacation unless I was looking for some kind of combat holiday. Keep in mind, you’d also have to live with their level of medical assistance. You may not come back. People die on vacation all the time (I’m a Debbie Downer today).

While the Star Wars universe has many beautiful places, and there are bacta tanks to fix you if you should get wounded. But balance that with the fact that there’s also a lot of death and oppression. Even walking on a beach can get you arrested and imprisoned for life (as shown in Andor, season 1).

Even more benign universes, like Star Trek, have spasms of violence. Colonies get ambushed, wars get launched, the Borg show up and assimilate you…

However, Star Trek also has an obsession with “Pleasure Planets.”

In the original series episode “Shore Leave,” we discover a planet, Omnicrom Delta, where your fantasies come true. People die.

In the Next Generation, we go to another holiday planet, Risa, where Captain Picard gets into some adventures. There’s intrigue. There’s romance. And no one dies. This planet seems more realistically portrayed as a ‘Mediterranean island resort analogue’ (Club Med, anyone?) than some magical fun place.

In Strange New Worlds, we go to a third pleasure planet, Cesnar, which is the raunchiest. The atmosphere itself is a hypnotic drug, and you will lose your inhibitions, mostly. You may also make questionable decisions, like getting face tattoos (I’m looking at you, Pike). Or, you may end up singing Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart in Klingon.

Honestly, I do think this is where I’d go on a vacation.