What is and isn't Space Opera?

[Yora]

I'm a functionalist. A words means what the majority of people using it think it means. If you think space opera means bad sci-fi, then what do you think you have to contribute to the discussion at hand?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm a functionalist. A words means what the majority of people using it think it means. If you think space opera means bad sci-fi, then what do you think you have to contribute to the discussion at hand?

1) "Bad" is subjective. Some of those characteristics some people might view as negatives are viewed by others as positives. Some people like Wagner after all!

2) You asked "what is Space Opera", you didn't specify "omitting any traits that can viewed as negatives".

3) If you include the people who don't like science fiction in your population, I think you will find a majority of people use Space Opera to mean "particularly bad sci fi".

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

The Expanse starts out a hard sci-fi political intrigue story, but expands massively. With the crew surviving improbably odds repeatedly and making massive changes to humanity, it pushes that series into space opera, IMO.

Yes, and it's one of the the best transformations from sci-fi to space opera I've read or watched.

Spoiler

It's even more interesting that the last books partly move the story back to more low-key sci-fi, it's an unusual move.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

3) If you include the people who don't like science fiction in your population, I think you will find a majority of people use Space Opera to mean "particularly bad sci fi".

If one don't like sci-fi, read Peter F Hamiltons Night's Dawn trilogy, and still claim that Space Opera mean particularly bad sci-fi, then one are objectively wrong and have failed at reading fiction ;-)

 

[Willie the Duck]

Others have already stated that the name was given as an insult and I think that needs to be factored into any definition. From that angle I would define "space opera" as taking place in space while having a trite, melodramatic, and formulaic storyline. See also: "Jupiter Ascending."

Factored maybe, but I'm not sure either original intent nor original definition really matter that much. Certainly not if we're trying to align our definitions or parameters to how the term is used now.

I'm also not sure it was intended to mean trite or formulaic. I think that might be imputing our current framing of soap operas and the like on top of it, and I'm not even sure if that was the way people thought of them when the term was coined. I think melodramatic probably was a part of it, as that seems to be a common thread throughout all things with the opera moniker (including of course opera opera, which honestly I don't know how people would have seen it in the 30s and 40s). Could it been meant to convey trite and formulaic? Sure. It could also have simply meant epic and melodramatic. Or maybe even just a simple story surrounding universal themes (love, hate, heroes, villains, etc.).

Historically, that's where the term came from.

If you don't like that, maybe it's time to coin a new term?

Here too, the later point doesn't necessarily proceed from the former. Whether the historical derivation of the term is important/relevant seems something we should be discussing. I don't think it is safe to assume it one way or the other.

Regardless, between Space Opera as I think I've seen the term used back in the day, and how it is used now, I can kinda see a few common threads. The two I feel are likely near universal are:

• Scope is definitely one. Firefly isn't a Space Opera while Serenity is because the former is about a small group trying to keep fuel in their tank and money in their pockets, whereas in the later they are trying to save worlds.
• The Science Fiction has to be ubiquitous -- it isn't just the Apollo astronauts who go into space, it is lots of people (maybe most people). Enough for it to be an assumed thing. The story can be about a bunch of people stuck on Arrakis, but the world has to have differing planets in which various people travel between (and do so in a way that effects the primary plot, making Blade Runner a non space opera story in a universe where one could exist).

One other thing I've noticed (and bear with me here, as I'm trying to explain a lack, and a lack of need) is thus: Space Opera tends to work as an entertaining story-- even if you ignore, remove, or never have in the first place -- any specific exploration of how the changes in society that the technology of the setting or being in the space setting would have on people or the human condition. If the story is just about the strapping space hero or space scoundrel with a heart of gold (or both) saving the space princess and battle the space warlord (or both), it still works. Obviously you can include one or both of those (see any episode of Star Trek where transporters or replicators altering daily life is explored, or B5 having a battleground between the forces of law and chaos, or whatnot), but you don't need them. Lots of other science fiction (Jurassic Park or Altered Carbon or the like) if you remove the implications of the science in the science fiction, and you don't really have much of a story. Obviously some other science fictions also have this trait (particularly if they are not-space-opera by means of not fitting another category, such as Firefly and scope), but it's something I notice about Space Opera.

Babylon 5.
Literally intended to mimic BBC space operas. It is the American Gold Standard of Space Opera.
It is also the show that standardized serial storytelling outside of actual soap opera shows. Which Deep Space 9 changed its format to, and shows like Buffy, Lost, Battlestar Galactica all followed.
Frankly, the measure of how Space Opera-ish a show is should be measured in Babylons, with 5 being the most.
Seriously. HTF do you get 8 replies in on the subject and nobody mentions it.

Probably because it is the gold standard for and only for western standard broadcast watching American tv viewers who came of age in the 90s, which is a sizable portion of the forum population, but not exhaustively so (and there are plenty of similar examples, up to and including those BBC space Operas). If you started in the 30s-50s, it probably was a novel. If you were into science fiction in the 60s, Star Trek changed the game as much as B5 did in the 90s (I say this as someone who became an adult in the 90s, with Star Trek as old hat and B5 as mind-blowing). It's downright hard to exaggerate how much Star Wars changed everything in the 70s. Probably plenty of things since then (maybe not even western live action shows or movies) with which I'm not even familiar, and also non-American examples. Babylon 5 was a game changer in quality. It's even iconic. I don't know, however, if it's definitive. I don't know what it brought to the genre that changed things in the way that, I don't know, Sherlock Holmes did for Mysteries, Roots did for dramatic miniseries, or Indiana Jones did for cliffhangers. It is simply a really good show in the genre (which is not a ding against it, that's more than I can say about half the dreck I fondly remember alongside it which, in all honesty, I can't actually defend as 'good'). .

That's a new one on me. Military sci fi is its own sub-genre.

"Space Western" could cover everything from Star Trek TOS to the Mandalorian, but I don't think its generally considered a formal genre, and all those go in the Space Opera bucket, which is really a catch-all for any science fiction that isn't clearly something else.

I think this is where I stand on Space Opera in general. It isn't any sci fi that doesn't fit another convention, but it is broad enough that most sci fi that gets made that doesn't have another genre probably fits.

 

[Ryujin]

Factored maybe, but I'm not sure either original intent nor original definition really matter that much. Certainly not if we're trying to align our definitions or parameters to how the term is used now.

I'm also not sure it was intended to mean trite or formulaic. I think that might be imputing our current framing of soap operas and the like on top of it, and I'm not even sure if that was the way people thought of them when the term was coined. I think melodramatic probably was a part of it, as that seems to be a common thread throughout all things with the opera moniker (including of course opera opera, which honestly I don't know how people would have seen it in the 30s and 40s). Could it been meant to convey trite and formulaic? Sure. It could also have simply meant epic and melodramatic. Or maybe even just a simple story surrounding universal themes (love, hate, heroes, villains, etc.).

I'll give you another example then, to try and explain my statements. Would you consider "The Fifth Element" to be space opera? It tends to fit the definitions used by many, if not most people. Think about the story. The "Chosen One" is here to save the universe. Spoiler: The universe is ultimately saved by love. The presentation is excellent. Probably one of my 5 favourite movies of all time. The story, however, is as old as time. I think that qualifies as "trite and formulaic" but, as I stated previously, that doesn't mean "bad."

 

[Yora]

To me, this movie is on the "pass" side of borderline. The story itself is still an "monstrous alien invades Earth" plot, and it is centered around Earth, but it actually does have quite a lot of aliens, which I think might make up half of the secondary characters that play important roles in the plot. And it got lots of different space ships, a big battle on an alien ship, and even some explosions in space.
If you'd rename Corbin's home planet to Arcturus III and make not a single other change, I don't think anyone would ever have the idea that it might not be a space opera.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Is that different from the Space Opera RPG we talked about earlier?

No, its the one we were talking about.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If one don't like sci-fi, read Peter F Hamiltons Night's Dawn trilogy, and still claim that Space Opera mean particularly bad sci-fi, then one are objectively wrong and have failed at reading fiction ;-)

The whole point is the term is usually used by people who wouldn't read a Sci Fi trilogy if you threatened them with thumbscrews.

Which is most people outside the geek bubble.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Would you consider "The Fifth Element" to be space opera?

If you attach significance to authorial intent, then yes, it's the exception to the rule than no one deliberately sets out to write a space opera. The image you referenced early in this thread is Besson making an intentional metajoke to that effect.