What Happened To Space Opera?

[JakeWIlls92]

Back in the early 2000s we had awesome epic space operas like Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5. I used to see a lot of commercials promoting the Battlestar Galactica TV series back in 2004-05. I was never interested in sci fi until earlier this year when I played the first Mass Effect under the recommendation of a friend. I thought the Battle for the Citadel scene was epic. I have yet to watch Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5.



Why don't we see shows like Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 anymore? Did the network execs decide the genre was dead? I think we need more epic space battles on TV.

It was long thought that fantasy was a genre reserved for geeks but Game of Thrones has garnered a huge audience. Perhaps a well written space opera with a huge budget could appeal to a diverse audience.



Do you think this genre should be revived?

 

[Statistikhengst]

The Galactica series was a remake of the Sci-Fi series with the same name from the late 1970s, and there are some Mormon underpinnings in the newest series, which I think was made quite well.

Babylon 5 first started in the 1990s and then, as with many series, it branched out with at least one spinoff that I can remember.

And Stargate, with it's two or three major spinoffs, lasted quite a while.

Defiance just came out as a major terraforming series.

But none has been so long lived as the Star Trek Saga, with TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and finally, going back in time, Enterprise, plus 11, soon to be 12 major Kino films.

We've seen a large uptick in individual Sci-Fi films, most all of them having to do with alien contact or alien conquest. Why, one could almost think that powers behind the scene are trying to prepare us for the eventuality of first contact...

BTW, I've never heard it be called "space opera" before, but I think the title is pretty accurate.

 

[Rikurzhen]

Back in the early 2000s we had awesome epic space operas like Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5. I used to see a lot of commercials promoting the Battlestar Galactica TV series back in 2004-05. I was never interested in sci fi until earlier this year when I played the first Mass Effect under the recommendation of a friend. I thought the Battle for the Citadel scene was epic. I have yet to watch Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5.



Why don't we see shows like Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 anymore? Did the network execs decide the genre was dead? I think we need more epic space battles on TV.

It was long thought that fantasy was a genre reserved for geeks but Game of Thrones has garnered a huge audience. Perhaps a well written space opera with a huge budget could appeal to a diverse audience.



Do you think this genre should be revived?

I suspect that the answer can be found somewhere in your own question.

 

[Rikurzhen]

The Galactica series was a remake of the Sci-Fi series with the same name from the late 1970s, and there are some Mormon underpinnings in the newest series, which I think was made quite well.

Babylon 5 first started in the 1990s and then, as with many series, it branched out with at least one spinoff that I can remember.

And Stargate, with it's two or three major spinoffs, lasted quite a while.

Defiance just came out as a major terraforming series.

But none has been so long lived as the Star Trek Saga, with TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and finally, going back in time, Enterprise, plus 11, soon to be 12 major Kino films.

We've seen a large uptick in individual Sci-Fi films, most all of them having to do with alien contact or alien conquest. Why, one could almost think that powers behind the scene are trying to prepare us for the eventuality of first contact...

BTW, I've never heard it be called "space opera" before, but I think the title is pretty accurate.

Star Wars was a space opera. Grand story arcs, tragedy, galactic sweep. Good versus evil. I wouldn't call BG or B5 space operas. They lack something.

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

How about the real McCoy? I wrote the Amazon blurb. I listen to these often when out in the dark playing with my telescope.

Amazon.com Thomas G. Sweetnam s review of Symphonies Of The Planets 4

 

[Rikurzhen]

I find the group-think of Hollywood Sci-Fi to be dispiriting, everyone has the same vision of the future. Every film has a big city with towers look, we never see suburbs or farms or small towns. Every alien is built on the human body form. With CGI anything is now possible but what do we get when we travel to Alpha Centauri to mine unobtainium? We get giant blue people with tails. They have a head on which there are two eyes, two ears, a mouth underneath a nose, etc. Hollywood pays well, so let's get some of these creative people to spend some time thinking through what a real alien could look like, show us something original.

As for spaceship design, stop making them look cool, make them look functional. Make it believable. In BG why would the Ceylon motherships look so damn stupid? What was the purpose behind that design?

Anyone watch Defying Gravity when it was on a few years back? What was wrong with the plot that they needed to put some magic alien onto the ship?

Everything is so damn cliched and predictable. They need new thinking in the genre.

 

[JakeWIlls92]

There's this.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/syfy-orders-space-opera-expanse-695555
Syfy Orders Space Opera The Expanse to Series - Hollywood Reporter