„I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.“
C-beams were bright lights that some vehicles emitted. Manufacturers of C-beam lamps included Gelieg and the Rytell Corporation.
Tannhauser Gate, Tannhäuser Gate, Tanhauser Gate, and other variants are versions of an unexplained fictional term originally used, once, in a monologue in the 1982 film Blade Runner, and since reused in other science fiction and popular music contexts. The film’s use echoed the usual anglicized pronunciation of the German proper name Tannhäuser (i.e., ignoring the umlaut, and pronouncing the first a like the o in Ronald); the most accessible scripts for the film use the „Tanhauser“ spelling.
There has been popular speculation that the choice of Tanhauser in the initial use was motivated by aspects of the historical poet knight Tannhäuser, the legends about him, and/or the Wagner opera Tannhäuser inspired by them.