The Space Opera

Looking back at my life-long pursuit of dramatic cerebral science fiction, starting with the original black-and-white 'The Twilight Zone', I believe the animated 'Buzz Lightyear of Star Command' was my first space opera. I feel this unique feature film and TV show worth mentioning because of its impact on my taste in scifi early on.  Buzz Lightyear, an interstellar law enforcement officer, leads a small team of two aliens and a robot on missions that feature a broad range of complex topical conflicts that few shows for young children were capable of dealing with such as the moral implications of artificial intelligence and the singularity, inter-species cultural relationships, and the misuse of advanced technology by underground criminal organizations.  This introduction to space opera laid a firm groundwork for me to move into Star Trek Next Gen and more mature speculative fiction.

 

For this week I completed Shards of Honor.  Though it is the first entry of a long saga, I felt the plot arc for this book was a bit weak, but the characters and situation are pretty compelling.  I am particularly fond of Vorkosigan and the reaction of Cordelia to returning home to her highly socialized and demilitarized society after having come to identify with regime that was supposed to be the enemy to find the ways of her former home suffocating and unjust, an experience to which I can personally relate pretty well.

This setting is designed to deal with a speculative issue which deeply concerns me.  As the prospect of planetary colonization comes closer to realization, It must be acknowledged that a successful colony will inevitably strive for autonomy and that the physical divide of space will certainly create cultural if not evolutionary division between the isolated branches of humanity, and these differences may likely breed serious conflict.  Technology is still far behind giving us the capacity to start an interstellar war with ourselves, but the principles are still applicable when scaled down.