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Space Opera

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Classic pulp space opera cover, with the usual cliche elements.
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Classic pulp space opera cover, with the usual cliche elements.

Space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic adventure, exotic settings, and larger than life characters.

Contents

History

"Grey Lensman", 1939
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"Grey Lensman", 1939

"Space opera" was originally a derogatory term, a variant of "horse opera" and "soap opera". It does not directly refer to opera. Wilson Tucker suggested the term in 1941 to describe what he called "the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn" – i.e., substandard science fiction[link]. "Space opera" may still be used with a similar pejorative sense.

A nostalgic fondness for the best examples of the genre of story which produced "space operas" in the original sense led to a reevaluation of the term. It is now commonly used to mean a tale of space adventure whose emphasis is on boldly delineated characters, drama, and especially action. Originators of the first space opera stories in this second sense were E. E. Smith, with his Skylark and Lensman series; Edmond Hamilton; Jack Williamson; and later Leigh Brackett.

The early writers of space opera had, of course, no real-life models or experience of life in space to draw upon. Their early stories therefore owe a great deal to existing adventure and pulp fiction of the 1920s-1940s; notably frontier stories of the American West, and stories with exotic settings such as Africa or the orient. There were often parallels between sailing ships and spaceships, between African explorers and space explorers, between pirates and space pirates.

Perhaps the first space opera was Edison's Conquest of Mars, published in 1898. It has all the cliche elements: spaceships, travel to other planets, flying cars, battles with evil aliens, military weapons of mass destruction, beautiful women being held prisoner, and even the first appearance of a disintegrator ray. While this story predates the term "space opera", it defined the genre.

Galaxy ran an ad on its back cover, "You won't find it in Galaxy", which gave the beginnings of make-believe parallel western and science fiction stories featuring a character named Bat Durston. From these ads sprung the term "Bat Durston" to refer to the widespread subgenre of space opera, stories that merely substituted SF trappings for Western ones.

Characteristics

A space opera is usually set in outer space or on a distant planet. In most cases, to keep the story fast moving, a spaceship can fly almost unlimited distances in a short time, and can turn on a dime, without the boring necessity of decelerating. The planets usually have earthlike atmospheres (Earth's moon is an exception) and exotic life forms. Aliens usually speak English, sometimes with an accent. The machinery of space opera often includes (in addition to spaceships) ray-guns, robots, and flying cars.

Space opera backgrounds may vary considerably in scientific plausibility. Most space operas conveniently violate the known laws of physics by positing some form of faster-than-light travel. Many space operas diverge even more from known physical reality, and not uncommonly invoke paranormal forces, or vast powers capable of destroying whole planets, stars, or galaxies.

Depth of character development and description may also vary in space operas. Lois McMaster Bujold and Iain M. Banks write space operas with a great deal of human interest. Some critics and fans refuse to use the term 'space opera' for a work with well-developed characterization. Both sides of this debate have been expounded at length in the Usenet forum [rec.arts.sf.written].

If there is one thing that generally sets space opera apart it is the combination of scale, ultimate Good vs Evil, and romance. In terms of scale nothing less than a planet will be involved and its fate will at times involve the survival of not only the civilization the hero is a part but the galaxy or entire universe as well. As far as Good vs Evil is concerned there are often next to no shades of gray, a character is one or the other and the side they are on generally determines what they are, though this is not always or even often true of space opera. Romance is another key element that combined with the other two sets space opera apart.

Definitions by contrast

Space opera and planetary romance

Some critics distinguish between space opera and planetary romance. Where space opera grows out of both the Western and sea adventure traditions, the planetary romance grows out of the lost world or lost civilisation tradition. Both feature adventures in exotic settings, but space opera emphasizes space travel, while planetary romances focus on alien worlds. In this view, the Martian-, Venusian-, and lunar-setting stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs would be planetary romances (and among the earliest), as would be Leigh Brackett's Burroughs-influenced Eric John Stark stories, initially set on Mars, but Brackett's screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back would belong to space opera, as does most of the work of her husband (and frequent collaborator), Edmond Hamilton. In recent years, works like Robert Silverberg's Majipoor sequence have seen the planetary romance move closer to being considered as fantasy rather than science fiction.

Space opera and hard science fiction

Space opera can also be contrasted with "hard science fiction", in which the emphasis is on the effects of technological progress and inventions, and where the settings are carefully worked out to obey the laws of science. There is, however (according to some), no sharp division between hard science fiction and true space opera. Many of Robert A. Heinlein's young adult novels, such as Starship Troopers, are seen by his fans to qualify as both.

Space opera and military science fiction

One subset of space opera overlaps with military science fiction, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons (example: Honor Harrington series by David Weber). In such stories, the military tone and weapon system technology may be taken very seriously. At one extreme, the genre is used to speculate about future wars involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other it consists of the use of military fiction plots with some superficial sf trappings.

Space opera and space western

Another subset of the space opera is the Space western genre. The term doesn't have anything to do with wearing cowboy hats and roping steers. It supposes that the future of space exploration will be much like the taming of the old west in the USA (e.g.Northwest Smith by C. L. Moore). This "frontier stories" view of the future is only one of many ways to look at space exploration, and not one that is held in high regard by scientists and futurologists like Raymond Kurzweil, who assert that humans will evolve past the need for rocket ships in the near future.

New Space Opera

Starting with M. John Harrison's The Centauri Device in 1975 and, following a 'call to arms' editorial in Interzone, a number of writers, mostly British, began to reinvent space opera. This new space opera, which evolved around the same time cyberpunk emerged and was influenced by it, is darker, moves away from the 'triumph of mankind' template of space opera, involves newer technologies, and has stronger characterisation than the space opera of old. It does, though retain the interstellar scale and grandeur of traditional space opera. New space opera is therefore scientifically rigorous while ambitious in scope. Among the practitioners of the new space opera are Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, Paul McAuley, John Clute, Charles Stross, M. John Harrison, John C. Wright, Simon Green, and Ken MacLeod.

Parodies

Heroic comedic parody, 1965
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Heroic comedic parody, 1965

In his 1965 story Space Opera, Jack Vance parodied the genre by writing about an interstellar operatic company which brought culture to deprived worlds. Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero, and Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ("...men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.") are classic space opera parodies.

Other media

In Manga, possibly the most ambitious and long-running space opera series is the Five Star Stories.

While most science fiction in television and film, from Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica have space opera elements they usially lack one or more the elements that sets space opera apart from the other parts of the sci-fi genre. Anime (mecha sub-genre particularly) in particular really messes with the key ideas seen in classic space opera. Trigun for example does not until near the end deal with the survival of a planet lacking the scale seen in space opera, while the Macross/Robotech series had 'bad guys' and 'good guys' on both sides. Other like Legend of the Galactic Heroes have such complex storylines that it is next to impossible to tell who is 'good' and who is 'evil' without a score card. By contrast Voltron and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs are pure space opera fullfilling all the key elements of scale, Good vs Evil and romance.

Space Opera and Scientology

Space opera plays a part in the belief system of Scientology, whose founder L. Ron Hubbard was originally a pulp science fiction writer. The story of Xenu illustrates space opera themes in Scientology, which regards science fictional space opera as being an unconscious recollection of real events which occurred in the distant past.

Sample space opera backgrounds

In all media.

Books

Comic Strips or Comic Books

Television

Stage

Film

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Games

Role Playing Games:

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See also

Articles

 

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All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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