{{Short description|Subgenre of science fiction}} {{Other uses|Space Opera (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates |date=December 2020}} [[File:Imagination 195606.jpg|thumb|225px|Cover of sci-fi magazine ''Imagination'', June 1956]] {{Sidebar|navbar=off | outertitle = Space opera examples | topimage = | topcaption =
| heading1 = Written fiction <!-- alphabetized by title --> | content1style = text-align:left; | content1 = :• ''Skylark series'' and ''Lensman series'' by E. E. "Doc" Smith :• ''Grand Tour'' by Ben Bova :• ''Dune'' by Frank Herbert, and sequels/prequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson :• ''Alliance-Union universe'' and ''Foreigner universe'' by C. J. Cherryh :• ''Legend of the Galactic Heroes'' by Yoshiki Tanaka :• ''Vorkosigan Saga'' by Lois McMaster Bujold :• ''Galactic Empire'' by Isaac Asimov :• ''Culture series'' by Iain M. Banks :• ''Hyperion Cantos'' and ''Ilium/Olympus'' by Dan Simmons :• ''Cadicle Universe'' by A.K. DuBoff :• ''Known Space'' by Larry Niven :• ''The Gap Cycle'' by Stephen R. Donaldson :• ''Ender's Game series'' and ''Homecoming Saga'' by Orson Scott Card :• ''Galactic Center Saga'' by Gregory Benford :• ''Deathstalker'' by Simon R. Green :• ''The Sten Chronicles'' by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch :• ''Uplift Universe'' by David Brin :• ''Heechee'' by Frederik Pohl :• ''Saga of the Skolian Empire'' by Catherine Asaro :• ''Revelation Space universe'' by Alastair Reynolds :• ''The Saga of Seven Suns'' and ''The Saga of Shadows'' by Kevin J. Anderson :• ''The Expanse'' by James S. A. Corey :• ''Commonwealth Saga'', ''Void Trilogy'', ''The Chronicle of the Fallers'' and ''The Night's Dawn Trilogy'' by Peter F. Hamilton :• ''Imperial Radch'' by Ann Leckie :• ''Familias Regnant universe'' and ''Vatta's War'' by Elizabeth Moon :• ''Zones of Thought series'' by Vernor Vinge :• ''Remembrance of Earth's Past'' by Liu Cixin :• ''Seafort Saga'' by David Feintuch
| heading2 = Television and film<!-- alphabetized by title --> | content2style = text-align:left; | content2 = :• ''Flash Gordon'' by Alex Raymond :• ''Farscape'' by Rockne S. O'Bannon :• ''Space Battleship Yamato'' by Leiji Matsumoto and Yoshinobu Nishizaki :• ''Star Trek'' franchise created by Gene Roddenberry :• ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas :• ''Doctor Who'' franchise created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson :• ''Lexx'' by Lex Gigeroff and Jeffrey Hirschfield :• ''Blake's 7'' by Terry Nation :• ''Battlestar Galactica'' by Glen A. Larson & Ronald D. Moore :• ''Macross'' franchise created by Shōji Kawamori :• ''Stargate'' by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin :• ''Babylon 5'' by J. Michael Straczynski :• ''Dark Matter'' by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie :• ''Lavender Castle'' by Gerry Anderson :• ''Final Space'' by Olan Rogers :• ''The Fifth Element'' by Luc Besson :• ''The Expanse'' by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
| heading3 = Games<!-- alphabetized by title --> | content3style = text-align:left; | content3 = * ''Mass Effect'' by BioWare * ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic'' by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment * ''Homeworld'' by Relic Entertainment * ''Eve Online'' by CCP Games * ''Halo'' by Bungie and 343 Industries * ''Space Opera'' by Edward E. Simbalist, A. Mark Ratner and Phil McGregor
| belowstyle = border-top:1px solid black; | below = List of space opera media
}} '''Space opera''' is a subgenre of science fiction<ref>Agafonova, Karina, et al. "How Do People Read Science Fiction and Why is it Popular: Common Tendencies and Comparative Analysis." CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2021.</ref> and science fantasy<ref>{{Cite web|title=20 Best Diverse Space Opera Books You Need to Read – Bookish Brews|url=https://bookishbrews.com/diverse-space-opera-books/|date=2022-04-10|access-date=2026-02-01|language=en-US}}</ref> that emphasizes epic outer space adventures set in a universe in which faster-than-light travel has become common. The plots often play out against a backdrop of space warfare, alien civilizations and galactic empires. The sub-genre is sometimes thought of as a futuristic homage to earlier adventure sagas, such as those found in mythology and chivalric romance.
The term does not refer to opera music, but instead originally referred to the melodrama, scope, and formulaic stories of operas, much as used in "soap opera", a melodramatic domestic drama, and "horse opera", a 1930s phrase for a clichéd and formulaic Western film.<ref name="Pringle">{{cite book |author-last=Pringle |author-first=David |chapter=What is this thing called space opera? |year=2000 |editor-last=Westfahl |editor-first=Gary |title=Space and Beyond: The frontier theme in science fiction |page=36 |edition=1st |publisher=Greenwood Press |place=Westport, CT |isbn=978-0313308468 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLbvA_WyBRMC&pg=PA36 |access-date=24 March 2017}}</ref> Prototypes of space opera emerged in the early twentieth century, and the genre today enjoys great popularity in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games.
An early serial film which was based on space opera comic strips was ''Flash Gordon'' (1936), created by Alex Raymond.<ref name="Nelson">{{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Murry R. |author-link=Murry R. Nelson |title=American Sports: A history of icons, idols, and ideas |date=2013 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-0313397523 |page=310}}</ref> ''Perry Rhodan'' (1961–), a German franchise by multiple authors, is one of the most successful space opera book series.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Rastatt |title=Perry Rhodan 35th anniversary Press Release |url=http://www.perry-rhodan-usa.com/web1998/rdnpres.htm |website=Perry Rhodan English Language Homepage |access-date=6 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430072534/http://www.perry-rhodan-usa.com/web1998/rdnpres.htm |archive-date=30 April 2008 |date=July 1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Freistetter |first1=Florian |title=A History of the Universe in 100 Stars |date=15 April 2021 |publisher=Quercus |isbn=9781529410136 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hAvzDwAAQBAJ&dq=Perry+Rhodan%2C+the+most+successful+Science-Fiction+series+in+the+world&pg=PT74 |access-date=6 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> The ''Star Trek'' TV and film series (1966–) created by Gene Roddenberry, the ''Star Wars'' films (1977–) created by George Lucas, and the long-running British television series ''Doctor Who'' (1963–) have brought a great deal of attention to the sub-genre.<ref>{{cite news |last=Child |first=Ben |date=2017-02-20 |title=A modern space opera: Has ''Star Wars'' escaped the George Lucas worldview? |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/feb/20/a-modern-space-opera-has-star-wars-escaped-the-george-lucas-worldview |access-date=2017-03-24}}</ref> A wave of "new space opera" works starting in the 1970s, in conjunction with the enormous success of the media franchises, helped space opera to become a critically acceptable sub-genre. From 1982 to 2002, the Hugo Award for Best Novel was often given to a space opera nominee.<ref name="Hartwell">{{cite book |last1=Hartwell |first1=David G. |author-link=David G. Hartwell |last2=Cramer |first2=Kathryn |author-link2=Kathryn Cramer |name-list-style=amp |year=2006 |title=The Space Opera Renaissance |edition=1st |publisher=Tor Books |location=New York, NY |isbn=0765306174}}</ref>
==Definitions== [[Image:GalaxyOct50rearcover.jpg|thumb|left|Back cover of the premier issue of ''Galaxy Magazine''<ref name=Galaxy1950-10-back/>]]
Space opera has been defined as "a television or radio drama or motion picture that is a science-fiction adventure story".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/space-opera |title=Space-opera |website=Dictionary.com |access-date=2016-01-20}}</ref> Some critics distinguish between space opera and planetary romance.<ref>{{cite web |editor-first=Jesse |editor-last=Sheidlower |title=Planetary romance |series=Science Fiction Citations in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' |website=Jesse Sheidlower |date=2008-07-06 |url=http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/169 |access-date=2017-03-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080108231759/http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/169 |archive-date=2008-01-08}}</ref> 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.
The term "space opera" was coined in 1941 by fan writer and author Wilson Tucker as a pejorative term in an article in ''Le Zombie'' (a science fiction fanzine).<ref name=Stokes-1941>{{cite magazine |last=Stokes |first=Keith |date=January 1941 |title=Suggestion dept. |department=Depts. of the interior |magazine=Le Zombie |issue=36 |page=9 |via=Mid American Conventions |url=http://www.midamericon.org/tucker/lez36i.htm |access-date=2017-03-24}}</ref> At the time, serial radio dramas in the United States had become popularly known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap manufacturers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Turner |first1=Graeme |last2=Cunningham |first2=Stuart |year=2000 |title=The Australian TV Book |page=200 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=St. Leonards, New South Wales |isbn=1741153727}}</ref> The term "horse opera" had also come into use to describe formulaic Western films. Tucker defined space opera as the science fiction equivalent: A "hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Langford |first1=David |year=2005 |title=The Sex Column and Other Misprints |pages=167–168 |publisher=Wildside Press |isbn=9781930997783 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n78kYbvUd_8C&pg=PA167 |access-date=24 March 2017}}</ref><ref name=Stokes-1941/> Fans and critics have noted that the plots of space operas have sometimes been taken from horse operas and simply translated into an outer space environment, as famously parodied on the back cover of the first issue of ''Galaxy Science Fiction''.<ref name=Galaxy1950-10-back>{{cite magazine |editor1-first=Vera |editor1-last=Cerutti |editor2-first=H.L. |editor2-last=Gold |title=You'll never see it in ''Galaxy'' |date=October 1950 |magazine=Galaxy Magazine |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=163 (back cover) |via=Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine-1950-10/page/n163 |access-date=12 March 2019}}</ref> During the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the stories were printed in science-fiction magazines, they were often referred to as "super-science epics".<ref name="Pringle"/>
Beginning in the 1960s, and widely accepted by the 1970s, the space opera was redefined, following Brian Aldiss' definition in ''Space Opera (1974)'' as – paraphrased by Hartwell and Cramer – "the good old stuff".<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}} Yet soon after his redefinition, it began to be challenged, for example, by the editorial practice and marketing of Judy-Lynn del Rey and in the reviews of her husband and colleague Lester del Rey.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}} In particular, they disputed the claims that space operas were obsolete, and Del Rey Books labeled reissues of earlier work of Leigh Brackett as space opera.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}} By the early 1980s, space operas were again redefined, and the label was attached to major popular culture works such as ''Star Wars''.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}} Only in the early 1990s did the term space opera begin to be recognized as a legitimate genre of science fiction.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}}
Hartwell and Cramer define space opera as:{{blockquote|... colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}}}}
Author A.K. DuBoff defines space opera as:{{blockquote|True space opera is epic in scale and personal with characters. It is about people taking on something bigger than themselves and their struggles to prevail. Though a setting beyond Earth is central, being on a spaceship or visiting another planet isn't the only qualifier. There must also be drama and sufficiently large scope to elevate a tale from being simply space-based to being real space opera.}}
Space opera can be contrasted in outline 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 physics, cosmology, mathematics, and biology. Examples are seen in the works of Alastair Reynolds or the movie ''The Last Starfighter''. At other times, space opera can concur with hard science fiction and differ from soft science fiction by instead focusing on scientific accuracy such as ''The Risen Empire'' by Scott Westerfeld. Other space opera works may be defined as a balance between both or simultaneously hard and soft science fiction such as the ''Dune'' prequel series by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert or the ''Star Wars'' series created by George Lucas.<ref>{{cite web |first=Ryan |last=Britt |date=2013-02-28 |title=How Timothy Zahn's heir to the empire turned ''Star Wars'' into science fiction |website=Tor.com |url=http://www.tor.com/2013/02/28/how-zahns-heir-to-the-empire-turned-star-wars-into-science-fiction/ |access-date=2017-03-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616111805/http://www.tor.com/2013/02/28/how-zahns-heir-to-the-empire-turned-star-wars-into-science-fiction/ |archive-date=2015-06-16}}</ref>
==History== Early works which preceded the subgenre contained many elements of what would become space opera. They are today referred to as proto-space opera.<ref name="Dozois">{{cite book |last1=Dozois |first1=Gardner |author-link=Gardner Dozois |last2=Strahan |first2=Jonathan |author-link2=Jonathan Strahan |name-list-style=amp |year=2007 |publisher=Eos |title=The New Space Opera |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780060846756 |edition=1st |page=[https://archive.org/details/newspaceopera2al00gard/page/2 2]}}</ref> Early proto-space opera was written by several 19th-century French authors, for example, ''Les Posthumes'' (1802) by Nicolas-Edme Rétif,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Latham |first1=Rob |title=Science Fiction Criticism: An anthology of essential writings |page=133 |date=23 February 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=New York, NY |isbn=9781474248624 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WobBDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 |access-date=30 June 2017}}</ref> ''Star ou Psi de Cassiopée: Histoire Merveilleuse de l'un des Mondes de l'Espace'' (1854) by C. I. Defontenay and ''Lumen'' (1872) by Camille Flammarion.
Not widely popular, proto-space operas were nevertheless occasionally written during the late Victorian and Edwardian science-fiction era. Examples may be found in the works of Percy Greg, Garrett P. Serviss, George Griffith, and Robert Cromie.<ref name=Bleiler-1990>{{cite book |first1=Everett F. |last1=Bleiler |author1-link=E. F. Bleiler |first2=Richard J. |last2=Bleiler |name-list-style=amp |date=1990 |title=Science-fiction, the Early Years |pages=147–148 |publisher=Kent State University Press |location=Kent, Ohio |isbn=0873384164 |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencefictionea0000blei |url-access=registration |quote=A full description of more than 3,000 science-fiction stories from earliest times to the appearance of the genre magazines in 1930, with author, title, and motif indexes.}}</ref> Science fiction scholar E. F. Bleiler cites Robert William Cole's ''The Struggle for Empire: A Story of the Year 2236'' as the first space opera in his 1990 reference work ''Science-Fiction: The Early Years''.<ref name=Bleiler-1990/> The novel depicts an interstellar conflict between solar men of Earth and a fierce humanoid race headquartered on Sirius. However, the idea for the novel arises out of a nationalistic genre of fiction popular from 1880 to 1914 called future-war fiction.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clarke |first1=I.F. |author-link=I. F. Clarke |title=Future-war fiction: The first main phase, 1871–1900 |journal=Science Fiction Studies |date=November 1997 |volume=24 |issue=74 |pages=387–412 |doi=10.1525/sfs.24.3.0387 |url=https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/clarkeess.htm |access-date=28 November 2017}}</ref>
Despite this seemingly early beginning, it was not until the late 1920s that the space opera proper began to appear regularly in pulp magazines such as ''Amazing Stories''.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}}<ref name="Dozois"/> In film, the genre probably began with the 1918 Danish film, ''Himmelskibet''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hardy |first=Phil |year=1995 |title=The Overlook Film Encyclopedia |publisher=Overlook Press |location=Woodstock, NY |isbn=0879516267 |page=56 |edition=3rd}}</ref> Unlike earlier stories of space adventure, which either related the invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials, or concentrated on the invention of a space vehicle by a genius inventor, pure space opera simply took space travel for granted (usually by setting the story in the far future), skipped the preliminaries, and launched straight into tales of derring-do among the stars. Early stories of this type include J. Schlossel's "Invaders from Outside" (''Weird Tales'', January 1925),<ref name=Bleiler-1990/> ''The Second Swarm'' (''Amazing Stories Quarterly'', spring 1928) and ''The Star Stealers'' (''Weird Tales'', February 1929), Ray Cummings' ''Tarrano the Conqueror'' (1925), and Edmond Hamilton's ''Across Space'' (1926) and ''Crashing Suns'' (''Weird Tales'', August–September 1928).<ref name="Dozois"/> Similar stories by other writers followed through 1929 and 1930. By 1931, the space opera was well established as a major subgenre of science fiction.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}}
However, the author cited most often as the true father of the genre is E. E. "Doc" Smith. His first published work, ''The Skylark of Space'' (''Amazing Stories'', August–October 1928), written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby, is often called the first great space opera.<ref name="Dozois"/> It merges the traditional tale of a scientist inventing a space-drive with planetary romance in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}} Smith's later ''Lensman'' series and the works of Edmond Hamilton, John W. Campbell, and Jack Williamson in the 1930s and 1940s were popular with readers and much imitated by other writers. By the early 1940s, the repetitiousness and extravagance of some of these stories led to objections from some fans and the return of the term in its original and pejorative sense.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}
Eventually, though, a fondness for the best examples of the genre led to a re-evaluation of the term and a resurrection of the subgenre's traditions. Writers such as Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson had kept the large-scale space adventure form alive through the 1950s, followed by writers like M. John Harrison and C. J. Cherryh in the 1970s. By this time, "space opera" was for many readers no longer a term of insult but a simple description of a particular kind of science fiction adventure story.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}}
In Japan, space opera themes became popular among tokusatsu films and shows in the 1950s. Notable examples include ''Warning from Space'' (1956), ''The Mysterians'' (1957), ''Super Giant'' (1957-1959), ''Planet Prince'' (1958-1959), ''Battle in Outer Space'' (1959) and ''Gorath'' (1962).<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Player |first=Mark |date=March 2014 |title=Intergalactic Tokusatsu: Charting the Japanese Space Opera, Part 1 |url=https://www.academia.edu/9074963 |journal=Midnight Eye}}</ref>
According to author Paul J. McAuley, a number of mostly British writers began to reinvent space opera in the 1970s<ref name="Mcauley">{{cite web |last=McAuley |first=Paul |title=Junk yard universes |website=Paul McAuley |via=Wayback Machine |url=http://www.omegacom.demon.co.uk/opera.htm |access-date=November 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407103536/http://www.omegacom.demon.co.uk/opera.htm |archive-date=April 7, 2014}}</ref> (although most non-British critics tend to dispute the British claim to dominance in the new space opera arena).<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}} Significant events in this process include the publication of M. John Harrison's ''The Centauri Device'' in 1975 and a "call to arms" editorial by David Pringle and Colin Greenland in the Summer 1984 issue of ''Interzone'';<ref name="Mcauley"/> and the financial success of ''Star Wars'', which follows some traditional space opera conventions.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|10–18}} 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 older space opera, involves newer technologies, and has stronger characterization than the space opera of old.<ref name="Mcauley"/> While it does retain the interstellar scale and scope of traditional space opera, it can also be scientifically rigorous.<ref name="Mcauley"/>
The new space opera was a reaction against the old.<ref name="Levy">{{cite journal |last=Levy |first=Michael |date=June 2008 |title=Cyberpunk versus the new space opera |journal=Voice of Youth Advocates |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=132–133}}</ref> 'New space opera' proponents claim that the genre centers on character development, fine writing, high literary standards, verisimilitude, and a moral exploration of contemporary social issues.<ref name="Levy"/> McAuley and Michael Levy identify Iain M. Banks, Stephen Baxter, M. John Harrison, Alastair Reynolds, McAuley himself,<ref name="Mcauley"/> Ken MacLeod, Peter F. Hamilton, Ann Leckie, and Justina Robson as the most-notable practitioners of the new space opera.<ref name="Levy"/><ref name="Mcauley"/> One of the most notable publishers Baen Books specialises in space opera and military science fiction,<ref>{{cite web |last=Walter |first=Damien |date=29 August 2014 |title=Space opera strikes up again for a new era |website=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/29/space-opera-new-guardians-of-the-galaxy-ancillary-justice |access-date=13 January 2020}}</ref> publishing many of the aforementioned authors, who have won Hugo Awards.
==Definitions by contrast== Several subsets of space opera overlap with military science fiction, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons in an interstellar war. Many series can be considered to belong and fall in two genres or even overlap all like ''Ender's Game'' series by Orson Scott Card or the ''Honorverse'' by David Weber. 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 science-fiction trappings in fictional planets with fictional civilizations and fictional extraterrestrials. The term "military space opera" is occasionally used to denote this subgenre, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold's'' Vorkosigan Saga''.<ref name="Hartwell"/>{{rp|251}} Other examples of military space opera include the ''Battlestar Galactica'' franchise and Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel ''Starship Troopers''. The key distinction of military science fiction from space opera as part of the space warfare in science fiction is that the principal characters in a space opera are not military personnel, but civilians or paramilitary. That which brings them together under a common denominator is that military science fiction like space opera often concerns an interstellar war. Military science fiction however does not necessarily always include an outer space or multi-planetary setting like space opera and space Western.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Livingston |first1=Dan |title=23 Best Military Science Fiction Books |url=http://best-sci-fi-books.com/23-best-military-science-fiction-books/ |website=The Best Sci Fi Books |access-date=27 June 2021 |date=14 March 2015}}</ref>
Space Western also may emphasize space exploration as “the final frontier”. These Western themes may be explicit, such as cowboys in outer space, or they can be a more subtle influence in space opera.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Green |first1=Paul |title=Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Films, Television and Games |date=14 October 2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786458004 |pages=3–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HDnHo993Dv0C&pg=PA4 |access-date=4 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Gene Roddenberry described ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' as a space Western (or more poetically, as “''Wagon Train'' to the stars”).<ref>{{cite news |title=A First Showing for 'Star Trek' Pilot |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/22/arts/a-first-showing-for-star-trek-pilot.html |access-date=4 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=22 July 1986 |page=18}}</ref> ''Firefly'' and its cinematic follow-up ''Serenity'' literalized the Western aspects of the genre popularized by ''Star Trek'': it used frontier towns, horses, and the styling of classic John Ford Westerns.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Murray |first1=Noel |last2=Bowman |first2=Donna |title=Firefly: "Serenity" |url=https://www.avclub.com/firefly-serenity-1798173008 |website=The A.V. Club |access-date=4 January 2021 |language=en-us |date=1 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Franch |first1=Darren |title=12 Signs It's a Joss Whedon Project |url=http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20302134_20738454_30025733,00.html |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=4 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122183858/http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20302134_20738454_30025733,00.html |archive-date=22 January 2014}}</ref> Worlds that have been terraformed may be depicted as presenting similar challenges as that of a frontier settlement in a classic Western.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bould |first1=Mark |last2=Butler |first2=Andrew |last3=Roberts |first3=Adam |last4=Vint |first4=Sherryl |title=The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135228361 |page=508 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7CNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA508 |access-date=4 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Six-shooters and horses may be replaced by ray guns and rockets.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lilly |first1=Nathan E. |title=The Emancipation of Bat Durston, or: "I'm from Iowa, I Only Work in Outer Space" |url=http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20091130/lilly-a.shtml |website=Strange Horizons |access-date=4 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314104907/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20091130/lilly-a.shtml |archive-date=14 March 2014 |date=30 December 2009}}</ref>
==Parodies== Harry Harrison's novels ''Bill, the Galactic Hero'' and ''Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers'', as well as the film adaptation of the former, the films ''Galaxy Quest'' and Mel Brooks' ''Spaceballs'', and ''Family Guy's'' ''Laugh It Up, Fuzzball'' trilogy parody the conventions of classic space opera.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hartwell |first1=David G. |last2=Cramer |first2=Kathryn |date=August 2003 |title=Space opera redefined |type=review |website=SF Revu |url=http://www.sfrevu.com/ISSUES/2003/0308/Space%20Opera%20Redefined/Review.htm |access-date=2009-02-08}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Speculative fiction}} * List of space opera media * Space opera in Scientology
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |author-link=Dave Langford |last=Langford |first=Dave |year=1996 |article=Fun with senseless violence |title=The Silence of the Langford |publisher=NESFA Press |isbn=0-915368-62-5}} * {{cite book |last=Sawyer |first=Andy |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-20LVwKfTMC |article=Space Opera |title=The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=505–509 |isbn=978-0-415-45378-3}} {{Commons category|Space opera}} * {{cite magazine |title=Interview with M. John Harrison |date=December 2003 |magazine=Locus |issue=12 |url=http://www.locusmag.com/2003/Issue12/Harrison.html}} Harrison discusses his view of the nature of space opera in depth. * {{cite magazine |first1=Russell |last1=Letson |first2=Gary K. |last2=Wolfe |first3=Ken |last3=MacLeod |first4=Paul J. |last4=McAuley |first5=Gwyneth |last5=Jones |first6=M. John |last6=Harrison |first7=Stephen |last7=Baxter |date=August 2003 |title=Special section on 'The New Space Opera' |magazine=Locus |issue=8 |url=http://www.locusmag.com/2003/Issue08/Toc.html}} * {{cite magazine |title=Interview with Alastair Reynolds |date=August 2003 |magazine=Locus |issue=8 |url=http://www.locusmag.com/2003/Issue08/Reynolds.html}} * {{cite magazine |title=Interview with Charles Stross |date=August 2003 |magazine=Locus |issue=8 |url=http://www.locusmag.com/2003/Issue08/Stross.html}} * {{cite book |first=Gary |last=Westfahl |author-link=Gary Westfahl |chapter=Space Opera |year=2003 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction |editor1-first=Farah |editor1-last=Mendlesohn |editor1-link=Farah Mendlesohn |editor2-first=Edward |editor2-last=James |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=197 |isbn=9780521016575 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55wUHXiay-gC&pg=PP1}}
==External links== * {{cite web |title=Space opera |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/space_opera}} {{Space opera serials 1930-1960}} {{Science fiction}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Space Opera}} Category:Space opera Category:Fiction about space warfare Category:History of science fiction Category:Science fiction themes Category:Science fiction genres Category:1940s neologisms