DEFINING SPACE OPERA - And confusing myself in the process

By Ciaran McNulty

I warn you.  We’re about to get nerdy.

I recall an argument from my teenage years.  Amidst the other kids’ conversations in the Dundalk school yard that day about football, night clubs and girly bits, there could be heard a heated discussion about which Sci-Fi creation was better- Star Wars or Star Trek.  I stated that there couldn’t be an argument as Star Wars was far better.  I still feel there is no argument but for completely different reasons.

For, as my love of Star Trek has increased tenfold since then, these days I find comparing the two is unfair as they now seem to me to fit into two different genres.  Star Trek is absolute Science Fiction, whilst Star Wars is not quite as easy to define.

Trek takes ideas from present technology and then leaps forward with them, offering examples of where such tech could take us in the future, for better or worse- surely the definition of Sci-Fi.

Star Wars, however, does nothing of the sort.  It’s a fable that could as easily be set in Medieval times with swords and horses and it is in outer space with lightsabres and starships.  The technology has no baring on plot- even something like a Death Star destroying a planet could be translated, in another time and setting, as a battleship or army attacking a community.

Therefore, the films Star Wars needs to be held up against are fantasy flicks like Lord of the Rings or myth-inspired fare like Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans(More on Harryhausen in a later blog)- stories that are life lessons shrewdly fed to people throughout the centuries in nifty dramatic packaging.

Of course though, Star Wars has been lumped into another genre as well, hasn’t it.  For it was in connection with George Lucas’ tale of Rebels, Stormtroopers and Jedi that I first heard the term ‘Space Opera’.  If Star Wars has a place in Science Fiction, it is in this sub-genre, where it actually sets a near-perfect example.

Space Opera, it would seem, can be a broad term as technology can be a vital part of the story or it can be incidental.  All that really defines the Space Opera is the setting and the nature of the story.  A dramatic and exciting tale which chooses the stars as it’s setting.

An example of Space Opera with a purer Sci-Fi emphasis can be seen in Firefly.  Here we have a definite Space Opera, with spaceship battles/chases aplenty but at the centre of it all, an examination of how Western and Eastern cultures could homogenise in the future.

Now, that’s some Futurism and not the sort of thing we’re going to get with something set in a galaxy far, far away.  For whilst Star Wars can play political allegory with it’s votes of no confidence in Chancellors and transformations of democracies into evil galactic empires, it is never a prediction of Earth’s future and makes no leaps of imagination with how our present culture and technology will evolve.  It happily distances itself from the plausible.

And of course, Firefly went for realism by cutting out sound effects in the vacuum of space, not in keeping with the flash-bang of your typical Space Opera.

Which brings us to the other end of the genre.  Whilst the term Space Opera has something of a grand and refined sound to it, many examples of this type of movie are anything but (just check out some early 80s efforts from Roger Corman).  The gleeful lack of fidelity to scientific plausibility in these trashier Space Operas is what sets them apart from the likes of Hard Sci-Fi, as the use of space adventures become nothing more than an excuse for violence and nudity.

However, in order to gain the moniker, all kinds of Space Opera - from Battle Beyond the Stars to Battlestar Galactica - must fall into that category of a ripping galactic yarn.  What quite a lot of them share with Star Wars is their adaptability to any other environment where, in this case, they just happen to take place in outer space.

So, what actually qualifies as Space Opera?  Well, John Carter seems a prime candidate.   It strays away from Star Trek-like pure Sci-fi and delves into the more morality-tale oriented realm of Space Opera with it’s emphasis on mysticism and the allegory of European-Americans and their interaction with Native Americans. However, is this potential Space Opera really set in space?  Not really.

It seems, creator of the source material, Edgar Rice Burroughs was less concerned with Carter’s method of getting to Mars than later authors would be, instead content to use astral projection, bypassing the space between Earth and Mars.

JOHN CARTER OF MARS: Not quite Space Opera but still remarkable.

And where Space Operas triumph is the fun they have on the journey between the planets.  The starscape is a playground for screenwriters wherein to have lazer battles between spaceships and even tense (albeit slow moving) extra-vehicular activity in space suits.

And proof again of the broad nature of the genre is it’s over-lapping of other genres.  Movies involving Superman and Green Lantern are obviously in the superhero genre but also clearly delve into Space Opera.  Green Lantern’s climatic scenes see a normal man endowed with super powers of galactic origin going toe-to-toe with a gigantic alien enemy at the centre of our solar system- without a space suit. And very importantly, such fare tend to be planet-hoppers of movies.

The more varied planets and spaceship environments in a Space Opera the better.  After all, travel from one location to the next means more outer space action on the way.

It’s a difficult genre to define and proof perhaps that pigeon-holing movies is just a silly idea.  Remember though, that this thought process stemmed from my anger at people comparing Trek and Wars.  In order to prove that they shouldn’t be compared, I’ve discussed the nature of certain types of Sci-Fi entertainment and how some of it opposes the other thematically.  Either way, I just love talking about this shit.

But roughly 900 words later and I’ve confused myself.  What the hell is Space Opera? Maybe it should just all be called Sci-Fi.  Agree with anything I said? Or think I’m talking crap? Feel free to comment below, whilst I crack open a beer and watch David Lynch’s Dune.  Yeah, that’s another one.
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