I don't think the term "opera" relates so much to the scale of the action and location as much as it does to the themes. I'd have to say I think it goes a bit deeper than a police procedural- sure, you can view it on that level and it's fine, but there are bigger ideas presented in it concerning various aspects of humanity. Obviously, it's basically High Noon- I don't think anyone, even the original writers, would argue with that as an inspiration, and it's a point that has been made ad infinitum. As for borrowing the setting from Alien, well, I think any similarities in look and feel to that film are more a rseult of it having been made within a few years of it and having some of the same model makers etc involved. At least, in terms of directly looking similar. As for the idea of a grimy industrial-looking future, I think that was more of a sci-fi zeitgeist. One which now, sadly, seems to be missing a little in more recent space-set dramas, as we once again go organic and shiny.
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djensen1
16 years ago
I think you're being naive about how Hollywood works. People literally say, "Make it look like Alien."
And the term "space opera" was coined after "horse opera" to describe stories with epic proportions and melodramatic stories. These are (or were originally) derisive terms; people in Hollywood *do not like opera.*
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