Science fiction versus Space opera

I’ve had this thought for a while, and it all began with the comment “Star Wars isn’t science fiction, it’s space opera”.

Now, before I’m blasted by the legion of Star Wars fans, you’d have to look at the definitions of the two genres.  First science fiction, as read at wikipedia, is defined as thus:

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least non-supernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a “literature of ideas”.^[1]

Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures.^[2] It is similar to, but differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation).

So, that’s the definition of science fiction.  What about space opera.

Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to “soap opera“. Perhaps the most significant trait of space opera is that settings, characters, battles, powers, and themes tend to be very large-scale.

Sometimes the term space opera is used pejoratively to denote bad quality science fiction, but its meaning can differ, often describing a particular science fiction genre without any value judgement.

So, technically, space opera is a sub-genre of science fiction.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean that space opera IS science fiction.  Thus, why I’m using the example of Star Wars.  To use the opposite, I’ll use Star Trek.

Star Trek, for all of it’s rather Shakspearean concepts and scripts and stories, still puts in place the science of the fiction.  How many times have we seen a discussion take place in stellar cartography? Or had a completely indepth discussion about the physics of microscopic life forms.  Or even the fact that much of the ship itself (whether it’s Kirk’s Enterprise, Picard’s Enterprise, Archer’s Enterprise, Janeway’s Voyager, or Sisko’s DS9 and Defiant) is mentioned in scientific terms that can be related with.  Those data pads that the crew is always reading information from?  Interesting how they look like Kindles now.

Attempting to rewrite Star Trek in another genre would be incredibly difficult.  Attempting to explain holodecks, the science of physics, biology and more would be extremely difficult to translate in fantasy.  You could say it’s very much like a swashbuckler.  But even that would only encompass a few of the episodes, and not many of the movies.  I couldn’t see Legolas say “they’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard through a transwarp conduit”.

Star Wars, on the other hand, has something that Star Trek doesn’t.  It’s vast, wide open, and just plain huge.  While Star Trek had many stories plotted out across a wide range of generations, Star Wars had one long, sweeping epic.  Sure, it was spread out over several generations, but the story always built up to the grand conclusion, which was what we saw at the end of Return of the Jedi.  And even for as much science in Star Wars as there was (I’m ignoring midichlorians, as I know much of the fandom likes to ignore it too), the concepts were much more fantasy in their base forms.  The script and story itself had a larger amount of drama.  You could even argue that there was a great deal of difference between the first three movies (New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) as compared to the three prequels.  The first three felt much more grand in scale than that of the prequels, though the level of drama was maintained.  Even though the audience knew exactly what was going to happen by the end of the third movie.

If you were to attempt to rewrite Star Wars with a more fantasy feel, it wouldn’t be that hard.  A mystical “Force” that a number of “Knights” can learn to wield or who have been chosen to wield, as the white knights defend the kingdom against the evil black knights.  Each of these knights has the ability to use incredible magical powers and are expert swords men as they use specially granted holy swords, many which they created themselves.  The basic gist of Star Wars.

The primary, basic concept of a space opera isn’t that it’s science fiction, but that it takes place in space.  The second is that it must be a massive epic that manages to encompass drama more than it captures action.  The focus isn’t so much on the science, but the characters and the events.  Space opera did pluck concepts from westerns and sea faring tales.  And even those latter plucked from different genres themselves.

While the reason space opera is a sub genre of science fiction, it doesn’t always mean it is science fiction.