As popularity for these works picked up, the 1930s saw more space operas emerge.

In the 1920s, the popular pulp magazines of the time began to see more stories set in space. One such example, Robert William Cole’s The Struggle for Empire: A Story of the Year 2236 (published in 1900), involves a future imagining of Earth and the evolution of humans, who are now in an interstellar conflict with a fierce humanoid race on Sirius. In fact, works that could be classified as space operas date back to the turn from the19th to 20th centuries.

However, explorations of space in literature and other media existed long before Tucker coined this term. He went as far to describe them as a “hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn.” Not exactly a glowing description. Taking inspiration from the term “horse drama,” he applied this new title to space-centric science fiction works he found to be formulaic. Wilson Tucker is credited with coining the term “space opera” by in 1941. History and Popularity of Space Operas Origins While space operas put more emphasis on space travel, whereas planetary romances focus an alien world, planet or satellite (like the Moon!). Hard science fiction focuses on “hard” sciences (technology, innovation, physics, math, etc) whereas soft science fiction explores “soft” or social sciences (psychology, anthropology, etc.).įurther, there is another genre that is included or excluded in space opera depending on who you talk to: Planetary Romance. Then there is the leaning toward hard vs. Similar to the space western formula, we also have military stories focusing on galactic-scale battles and the ramifications of war.

Space operas often follow one of a variety of other primary story types. The short-lived TV Series, Firefly, is one such example. Not the first genre to do so, Westerns coined the term “horse opera.” A unique twist on this is the concept of a space western, in which a western concept is re-imagined in the setting of space. A play on the term “soap opera”, these stories sway toward the dramatic. Set mostly or entirely in space, this sub-genre also features interplanetary travel and warfare, engaging in risky activities, and advanced technologies such as futuristic abilities and and weaponry. By basic definition, “space opera” is a sub-genre of science fiction.

Is star wars a space opera