How Star Wars Saved Space Opera

The story of how a sci-fi classic turned the most contemptuous subgenre into one riddled with acclaimed masterpieces

In 1977, young filmmaker George Lucas released his space epic about a young boy, Luke Skywalker, in a galaxy far, far away who is called upon to fulfill a prophecy by stopping evil and bringing balance to the galaxy. But what if I were to tell you that the conception of this science fiction classic began in 1783, almost 200 years before the film hit the screen? You’d think I’m crazy right? Well, think again…

In about 1783, Frederich Schiller began writing down the first bits of a play he would call Don Karlos, based on the historical character of the same name. In 1867, an opera, inspired by the play, entitled Don Carlo was first performed in London. In 1977, Star Wars premiered in just 32 American theaters but soon broke box office records. Over the course of a couple of centuries between Schiller’s Don Karlos and Lucas’ Star Wars, the story of destiny, liberation, and forbidden love was revised and rewritten, until finally, it found the screens of America. Americans and critics alike were suddenly obsessed with this aging subgenre of science fiction — space opera. But what is space opera? What is its connection to the opera of the 19th century, if any? By looking into the subgenre’s origins and conventions, comparing the film Star Wars and the opera Don Carlo, looking at another example of space opera after Star Wars, I believe it will be clearer to see what makes up a space opera and how Star Wars took this subgenre from critical contempt to worldwide worship.

Origins and Conventions of the Space Opera

The origin of what would come to be known as space opera is highly disputed because of the nature of how the subgenre was born, out of critical disdain. What we do know is that in the latter part of the 1920s, what is called the “magazine era” became a platform for the release of these popular science fiction stories. Stories of adventure and action in space had been written for years before this, but this period saw the emergence of what would become the classic space opera. This is the period where the subgenre would start to naturally form its conventions and traditions, but before we take a look at the genre conventions that make a space opera what it is, let’s first delve deeper into where and when the term “space opera” arose. This might inform us of what the term meant originally.

It wasn’t until 1941 that the term “space opera” was associated with these romantic space adventure stories. Wilson “Bob” Tucker used the term in the 36th issue of his fan magazine, Le Zombie, as a derogatory jab at what he considered uninspired works of science fiction that had started to crop up. In fact, here’s what Tucker had to say:

“In these hectic days of phrase-coining, we offer one. Westerns are called ‘horse operas’, the morning housewife tear-jerkers are called ‘soap operas’. For the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn spaceship yarn, or world-saving for that matter, we offer ‘space opera.’”

So space opera doesn’t have any connection to the popular 19th century genre of opera at all. You have to keep in mind that in the 1940s the predominant medium for entertainment was radio. Radio, much like modern television, was the platform for weekly or daily story series. These radio shows called soap operas, “named after the soap companies that sponsored the content, [were] launched in the 1930s as short daily radio texts that focused on the plights of a family in a drama centered on the ongoing development of an ensemble cast.” Usually, these programs were very popular but disdained by critics for their lack of quality storytelling. Tucker used this disdain to describe science fiction stories that he thought lacked the same quality when he titled them “space opera.” Tucker wasn’t alone either. Most critics at the time, and for a long time after, thought of the genre with contempt. To critics, space opera was just trashy pulp dramas with no value.

But what were the conventions of this new subgenre that made editors of popular magazines and critics so against their presence? Well, editors of the time wanted their science fiction stories to have at least a small tether to scientific accuracy. Editors like Hugo Gernsback — editor of the popular science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories — actively attacked space operas. This dissidence flowed over to some of the readers, who made the same attacks. Westfahl tells us that, “Gernsback’s desire for scientific accuracy and logic had an immediate impact, as readers enthusiastically embraced these goals and regularly wrote letters chastising authors who failed to achieve them.” The main problem with space operas lies in their typical conventions: space travel, encounters with alien species, and themes of war and diplomacy. Space travel wasn’t typically condemned, but the way that space operas portrayed it resulted in a problem for critics. Space operas often implemented faster than light travel, not only between planets and solar systems but also galaxies. This intergalactic travel led to the other conventions of space operas — the presence of alien species and themes of war and diplomacy. It seems obvious that when you have interplanetary and intergalactic travel, there will be both encounters with aliens and conflict resulting from these encounters. All of these conventions make the subgenre different from the rest of science fiction and incredibly unscientific. That being said, the conventions of these unscientific stories slowly gained the subgenre some popularity.

One space opera series that skyrocketed to popular success was the Flash Gordon comics. One of the more famous space operas of all time, Flash Gordon quickly garnered popularity and recognition for space operas. After the series of comics was started in 1934, it was quickly “adapted by Universal and became one of the highest-grossing films of that year.” Flash Gordon started a revolution of space operas on the screen that would continue through the 40s and 50s, but critics still weren’t convinced. When the 60s rolled around, a new series took hold of the public’s imagination — Star Trek.

Star Trek took the genre further than it had gone before, and because of that, the public loved it. Star Trek added elements to the classic space operas being made previously. As Westfahl states it, “Star Trek did contribute something new to space opera — the subject matter and sensibility of the romance novel.” These new elements expanded the genre and directed the genre closer to something that critics would actually pay attention to. The two-dimensional pulp space exploration stories of the 1920s were now three-dimensional stories of complicated alien cultures, complex romance, and thrilling adventure. This addition paved the way for the space opera that would top them all, and bring the subgenre the respect it sought for decades. The world was finally ready for Lucas’ masterpiece — Star Wars.

Comparison of Star Wars and Don Carlo

While space opera doesn’t really have any connection to opera, the popular stage genre of the 19th-century, George Lucas made a connection. This connection would completely change the reception of space operas.

In his analysis of opera and its history, Theodore Rabb said that “opera was then (the 19th century) what film is now — an essential medium for communicating the principal concerns of the day.” Because of this passing of the baton, opera influences film in more ways than you could imagine. A clear example of this is seen when you look at Lucas’ Star Wars and Guiseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo. When we look at the plots of Don Carlo and Star Wars, many parallels become self-evident. The first of which is the meeting of the “prince” (Luke an unknowing prince and Carlos a knowing one) and the war-hero turned mentor. This meeting results in the call to action from a trusted mentor that pulls him away from his simple life and into the political sphere. There, he gets involved in a rebellion against his father’s evil empire. Because of this, he finds himself running away from his father, who is actively trying to capture him. During all of this frenzy, the prince witnesses the sacrifice of his mentor. This sacrifice inspires the rebellion even more, which leads to the most memorable of all the plot points — the destruction of the evil war machine. In Star Wars, this is the classic destruction of the Death Star (the Spanish armada in Don Carlo).

To make it plain to see, here’s a list of the 17 plot parallels between the opera and the film, formulated by Jefferey High:

1. A plea from the oppressed provinces
2. An ancient religion divided into two sects (Light and Dark side), one resists the other’s rule of terror
3. A distracted prince who lost his mother at childbirth (Luke and Carlos)
4. The rule of territorial governors
5. A war hero-mentor who rebels against the empire (Rodrigue and Obi-wan)
6. Forbidden love between the prince and a female family member
7. The actions of a stepmother/sister as the allegorical embodiment of republican virtue
8. The burned skeletons of territorial subjects
9. A conspiracy of the prince and the queen/princess against the tyrant
10. The past friendship between the war-hero mentor and the father (Vader and Philip)
11. The exhaustive search for secret/stolen war plans
12. The fourth/fifth acts spent in jail cells and dark passageways teeming with guards
13. The prince sneaking through passageways in disguise
14. The function of two supporting characters, long-time royal court insiders who provide back story
15. The political machinations of a source of all evil behind the father/tyrant
16. The self-sacrifice of the war hero-mentor that inspires the rebellion
17. The defeat of the unsinkable fleet/ultimate weapon (Spanish armada/Death Star)

It’s important to recognize all of the similarities between Lucas’ Star Wars and Verdi’s Don Carlo. By formulating his story around that of an already respected opera, Lucas not only put actual meaning behind the opera in “space opera”, but he also demanded respect from critics of his work, and it worked. It worked so well, in fact, that Star Wars is #15 on the very respected American Film Institute’s Top 100 films list and the only space opera even on the list. To see the effects of this success, it would be prudent to look at an example of a respected space opera composed after Star Wars.

Hyperion and the Legacy of Star Wars

When we look at an example of space opera produced after Star Wars, we can see how the subgenre developed further because of the advancement made by the famous sci-fi franchise. This example is the 1989 novel by Dan Simmons — Hyperion. Hyperion is a fantastic adventure, written in the form of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, that follows a group of pilgrims on their journey to fulfill a traditional pilgrimage to pacify an evil entity called the Shrike. Because of its brilliant style and story, Hyperion went on to win the 1990 Hugo award for the best science fiction novel. What makes this more incredible is that the Hugo award was actually named after Hugo Gernsback, the famous magazine publisher mentioned above. The avid opponent of space opera now has his name stamped on one. In fact, the Hugo award would go on to be stamped on several space operas after the release of Star Wars in 1977. Ender’s Game (1985), Startide Rising (1983), The Uplift War (1987), and many more beat out other more traditional science fiction novels for the coveted award. It seems that the critics had finally come around. After Star Wars, the stigma surrounding the subgenre dissipated. The success of novels like Hyperion proves this.

Conclusion

What Star Wars really brings to science fiction and space opera is a new focus. By harkening back to the operas of centuries before, Lucas took the space opera to new heights. While the space opera wasn’t based on the actual opera, Lucas took inspiration from and modeled his film on an actual opera, giving the space opera legitimacy. Instead of looking at the term with its negative connotation, Lucas took the derogatory term literally and connected his science fiction film to an actual opera. By making the connection that was hiding in plain sight, Lucas garnered respect for the genre.

After the release of Star Wars in 1977, we saw that critics laid off the subgenre. In fact, from what we saw with books like Hyperion, critics started to praise works that fit into the space opera subgenre. We saw that space operas began to receive coveted awards like the Hugo award for best novel, and the effect was not just in the world of literature. After the release of Star Wars, we can see that the production of space opera films exploded. Space opera movies like Dune, The Last Starfighter, and Alien started to pop up like they never had before. Hollywood even decided to remake Flash Gordon in 1980. The new space opera renaissance that happened after 1977 was the rebirth, the redemption, of the genre. Space opera was finally baptized into the world of critical praise by its savior — Star Wars.