The Best Space Operas (That Aren't Star Wars)

Let's be honest here: When most of us think of space operas, we're really thinking of Star Wars. And with good cause! Star Wars took the oft-maligned genre of the space opera - essentially, an adventurous melodrama in set in outer space and/or on distant planets - and found just the right way to take it seriously. George Lucas took the fantastical locales, costumes and weapons from the old Flash Gordon serials and filtered them through World War II "men on a mission" films (complete with space Nazis), epic samurai dramas and Western fantasy tropes to create a world that was both alien and lived in. You can really believe in the world of Star Wars. That's why it endures to this day.

And that's probably why so many other space opera movies fail to find a large audience, no matter how interesting they are, or how much fun. Space operas give filmmakers a license to go completely nuts and create larger-than-life characters, costumes, locations and storylines. The only limit is the imagination, and sometimes the imagination flies off the handle.

But the darnedest thing is, many of the reasons why people criticize space operas that aren't Star Wars (or, arguably, Star Trek, which also grounded its sci-fi storylines, albeit with scientific and bureaucratic realism) are actually the reasons why they're great. The fact that these movies are weird, or silly, or seem like they were made by people who did a LOT of drugs isn't a bug... it's a feature.

With that in mind, we now highlight our picks for the best space operas (that aren't Star Wars or Star Trek). Some of them are legitimately great by any reasonable measure. Some of them require a code key to fully appreciate how wonderful they are. Some of them might just not be for everyone. But they all deserve a chance to take you to incredible new places and save the galaxy along with their heroes. Watch the video above or check out the slideshow below!