The guy who did ARRIVAL and BLADE RUNNER 2049 (and whose name I can't spell) is reportedly developing a new DUNE movie.
Iconic space operas
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The guy who did ARRIVAL and BLADE RUNNER 2049 (and whose name I can't spell) is reportedly developing a new DUNE movie.
The Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much as space opera as you can get.
The Expanse might be a debatable depending on you're definition.
In books there's the Imperial Radch series, the Wayferers series, Culture series, the Uplift series, in comics there Saga (which I decided isn't really for me, but a lot of people love it).
Video games have the Halo, and Mass Effect series.
These are just the ones I'm familiar with, there's a lot more out there.
I've always considered Burroughs stuff strictly "pulp", even the Barsoom and Amtor stuff. But aspects of these tales certainly influenced space opera.
Buck Rogers first appeared in book form, but IIRC the character and world are pretty different in the book version. He's not even called "Buck" in the book and it's basically "Red Dawn" with America having been conquered by "the Han", a "Yellow Peril" style enemy.
Flash Gordon was King Syndicates answer to the comic version of Buck Rogers, and I'm a quite a bit more familiar with Flash Gordon than Buck. For whatever reason, I don't really associate either with being space opera, though you could certainly make the case that they are.
For me, space opera is the Interstellar Patrol of Edmond Hamilton, the Legion of Space of Jack Williamson and of course.....The Lenmsan series by E.E. "Doc" Smith. I suppose I look at the crazy and vast scale of Hamilton and Smith as one of the defining traits of space opera for me. Weapons that can destroy planets and suns and more. Mighty starships armed with deadly beam weapons, heroic (or roguish in the case of Giles Habibullah) good guys fighting bizarre aliens while rescuing the occasional damsel in distress.
The Lensman series is to space opera what Lord Of The Rings is to fantasy. It pretty much defined space opera. I know serious sci-fi authors tend to dismiss space opera, but it seems to resonate with the general public more than "real" sci-fi. See Star Wars.
Star Trek and Star Wars are the last of the old "super science" epics.
I was curious as to what exactly constituted "Space Opera", and so I decided to do a search for a definition of the term, which led me to Wikipedia and a "List of space opera media", and, for some weird reason, they have DC's Legends of Tomorrow on there, which I find strange.
Denis Villeneuve (local boy). Hasn’t made a bad film yet (and not all are sci-fi). Sicario is very good, as is Prisoners.
Actually, that was a prequel series that was out about 35 years ago and it was not too bad. It wasn't picked up after the trial run, but it would have quickly run into continuity issues anyway.
Sounds like a bit in ACC's 2061 where GWTW Mark II was the definitive version.
Welllll, not exactly.....Heck, the Princess of Alderaan even ends up dressed like Dejah Thoris eventually.
I couldn't say what "version" Lister was talking about, but it would've been 23rd century.
I guess I've always assumed that "space opera" was supposed to be kinda pulpy. That's part of the appeal.
I certainly don't see a contradiction between "pulp" and "space opera". Pulp simply was the medium back then, and writers like Isaac Asimov and E.E. Smith wrote some of their most famous and celebrated work for pulp magazines.
Vorkosigan Saga maybe?
Not sure that's exactly iconic, or why my phone just decided to bold everything suddenly, for that matter...
Not sure that's exactly iconic, or why my phone just decided to bold everything suddenly, for that matter...
Indeed. The Foundation Series is classic Hard SF, Pulp, and Space Opera.
Thanks. I was too lazy to look up the spelling of his name. I remember liking PRISONERS.
Did Frank Herbert come up with folding space? This is spicier than the two titans for sure. Excuse me but I hope it's a huge tentpole franchise and one that can make it's way to tv like I think it can 'cause it seems to be very contained eventually branching out hopefully into the next sprawling Titan. I don't see Forbidden Planet doing that or even the Lensman series even though they should be quite the spectacle and if they have good music, directing and acting and art design, whose to say anything. Certainly not me. Who knows what God, er J Michael Strazinsky is up to.
They did one, I think it's called "Star Trek".
Fair enough. I suppose I should've said that I consider Burroughs strictly "planetary romance" or "sword and planet" instead.
Or more opera than they are sci-fi. To me, sci-fi doesn't have to have people in it at all. I would be just as happy if they were sentient robots or holograms. Voyager did a lot of those. Someone won the Nebula or Hugo sometime back about simply writing a story of two damaged robots telling tall stories to each other on a beach or something like. Now that's my idea of sci-fi.
On a side note, did anybody read a short story called the exploding man? What a concept, and they say there's nothing new.
On a side note, did anybody read a short story called the exploding man? What a concept, and they say there's nothing new.
SciFi is a broad term. Space Opera is a type of Sc-Fi not something different.
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