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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9647413" data-attributes="member: 6779310">Steampunk and cyberpunk seem only slightly off the mark about societal ills.But the Steampunk aesthetic was part of sci fi well before being labled such. The point where steampunk really seems to come forward as a public genre is when Space: 1889 took off. that was about 1987. But the aesthetic elements of steam powered sci-fi never leave sci-fi entirely until the 90's. Goggles, oversized wrenches, pipes everywhere... it even infiltrates Star Wars prop design. (Adam Savage has noted this.)Wild Wild West (TV) was clearly fantastical alt-history, and in retrospect, is pretty much the leading edge of Steampunk as a retro-alt-history movement, before the name was coined.Wild Wild West (Movie) was doubling down on the steampunk elements. Making Captain West black was, well... a nifty subversion vs history. Few black men made law enforcement in the era of SteamPunk (1870-1920, really). Fewer still survived it. Wil Smith nailed the attitude...So while the term is clearly from the 80's, it was labelling an existing pattern.</blockquote>