Why are all major space operas American or sometimes Japanese? I'm interested in what other cultures would do with it

Why are all major space operas American or sometimes Japanese? I'm interested in what other cultures would do with it.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=c24UYr8vXLk
youtube.com/watch?v=fL4PLm1vx0Y
youtube.com/watch?v=LxiC8yNCZwg
youtube.com/watch?v=lR8GLUppAdQ
youtube.com/watch?v=4j-Lz0D5_ck
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Because most space opera is made by Americans and the Japanese, so that's the bulk of the actors they get.

It's like asking why the Doctor in Doctor Who is British.

Doesn't it have a lot to do with Economics of scale?

In the US, we have a billion and 1 channels. If a sci-fi show gets popular, you always get a bandwagon effect where others will also put out another sci-fi show and snowballs from there.

Finnish Scifi. Admiral Pekka travels the stars and bring beer and sauna to new civilizations.

t. finn

For fuck sake. Forgot name on.

>no Ivanova
This bugs me more than it probably should.

>Shepard
>American
He is canadian if he grew up on earth. You know where bioware is.

She was never the leader.
Canadians are American.

jean luc picard is canonically french (but played by a british actor),

Does Red Dwarf not count for some reason?

>Not having Londo
>you will never climb the ladder of power by making shaky alliances
>you will be able to become emperor when the other dies
>you will never go whore hunting with the ambassador of your people
>You will never be able to enjoy Spoo and Bravari with the only one you could ever trust

Why even live?

>No option to ditch the academy and join Malcolm Reynolds

Archer, he didn't have a rule book and he did fine improvising most of what he did.

Also, what the others said: American or Japanese shows made by American or Japanese tend to have American or Japanese doctrines and ideals included in them.

Also, what show did Hercules play in space?

He should've stayed at home. His fleet could have been the difference between victory or complete destruction in the Finno Korean Hyper War

You mean, Shepard is Chinese.

Andromeda is a Canadian series.

Canada may be in North America, but Canadians are absolutely not American. They have their own demonym.

Why would you not pick Janeway? She's literally the best captain on the list.

>His fleet could have been the difference between victory or complete destruction in the Finno Korean Hyper War

The Finns were already building the Giza Mass Autism Array during the early days of the Finno Korean Hyperwar, it would have been used sooner or later.

His absence was a blessing, for it means there are still some Finns out there who have social skills.

America went to the moon first, the Japanese are always considered to have high tech thanks to being Americanized after WW 2 -- see Shadowrun.

My SJW friend says it has to do with whether your country was a colonizer or colonized.

People from former colonial empires tend to daydream about finding new lands to explore and conquer. People who were colonized tend to like stories about defending one's own land/family/clan.

95% of this guy's critiques are Marxist nonsense, but I think he's actually onto something here.

Wouldn't that mean there would be a lot more British space opera?

>Andromeda is a Canadian series.
Actually it was produced by companies in both the United States and Canada.

So the assumption is I HAVE some space skills? I can DO something and I'm not just going to be Neelix cooking space beets? Captain Archer is closer to my time so it would be the least 'space lingo' crazy and I MIGHT have a chance to keep up. They watch movies. I'm down with that. Pet friendly? Alright. Time travel shenanigans? Hell yeah. I would say Janeway but....that sucks. Being TRAPPED in the Delta Quadrant? Trapped? This crew is still flying so I'd just BE there. I want Voyager but I'd be smarter on Archers ship. I mean, I could break my leg on either and be healed in the span of a doctor visit.

Andromeda.

...

>His absence was a blessing, for it means there are still some Finns out there who have social skills.

Because when the Canadians do it, they are fucking pervs.

Then what about Lexx?

America has space travel. Japan wants to be America.

Farscape was technically Australian...

...Which might explain why it's basically about a bunch of rebel space pirates on the run from various galactic empires.

>Lexx
As far as I recall it's straight canadian, and after googling it I can't find anything to suggest otherwise.

In Mass Effect's history Canada is actually part of the United States by the time of the games, though.

Lexx was Canadian/German, not just straight Canadian. Hence all the sexual weirdness.

Janeway is easily the best choice. She brings together two enemy crews and guides them through the borg controlled territory, conquering literally everything, becoming mother to an entire new species, and stopping a civil war between gods. Most of her crew is intact at the end of the series, despite having almost no reinforcements (except for 2 hot alien chicks, and 1 annoying alien).

I honestly think Q was the one who stranded her in the Delta Quadrant, and he did it because he knew she would end up killing the borg.


Every other captain has a crew body count higher than the crew Janeway started with.

And why no Russian space opera?

Most TV in general is American, British, or Japanese. It's actually kinda shocking how much people around the world all watch mostly the same TV and movies.

>not knowing about the epic space struggle between the few remaining humans, the 2 rival flying motherships containing the cantons of Vaud and Valais as well as the neutral space station of Geneva
plebs
youtube.com/watch?v=c24UYr8vXLk

I'm now imagining depressing Soviet agitprop routines in space.

Tomorrow War my man

>humanity is united and Russia is the leader
>the US has collapsed and isn't allowed to have a military
>everyone except Russians just spends their time enjoying the globalist utopia, drinking beer and doing nothing
>while Russians build starships, do science, explore space and save humanity all of the time
>the BBEG is evil alien Zoroastrians for some reason

There's also a ton of stuff by the Strugatskies and Bulychov, to name a couple

Bollywood literally puts out 2-3 times more content than the US

Canadians are Canadian

youtube.com/watch?v=fL4PLm1vx0Y

Bollywood doesn't reach anyone with money. Just people who poo in loo.

>no firefly

That's the United North American States or whatever.

>people who poo in loo
So, everyone but the Indians?

youtube.com/watch?v=LxiC8yNCZwg

Yeah, i read that, but we are talking about tv.

Quantity over quality

I am now imaging massive 40K style ships, but based off Hindu temple architecture rather than Gothic.

>tfw no telepathic big headed dog buddy to explore the far reaches of space with

>tfw the meme becomes so ingrained in your vocabulary that you forget its actual meaning.

youtube.com/watch?v=lR8GLUppAdQ

They turned The inhabited island into a movie.
Bondarchuk's son is a huge fagget and made it crap though.

Brits were SUPER influential in the romance and adventure types of stories that eventually became Space Operas.

I think that post-WW2 though, that they became more akin to a 'conquered' culture, in that you see a lot of writers doing stuff about defense of the home and surviving apocalypses and shit.

...

>Earth and Concordia sign a threaty of eternal bortherhood and peace
>Concordia backstabs and lunches an all-out war against Earth almost on the same day
>later we find out Earth was planning to do exactly the same
>they even had posters celebrating victory over Concordia printed in advance
that was great

Not a space opera though.

Series 11 is in production... smeg ed'.

Because it's cheaper and less risky to just dub an already popular show from the US than to produce your own.

That's especially true for Fantasy/Sci Fi because A: those shows usually need a lot of unique set/props/effects to bring their worlds to live, and B: the world the characters live in being unfamiliar/strange is not a drawback, it's part of why people watch in the first place.

Thinking back on the last decade of films from my country, the only stuff in the two genres were a bunch of parodies by the same guy.

There's quite a lot of French, Italian, and British sci-fi in books and comics. TV and film is heavily over-saturated by American content.

Also, I'm not sure I'd call Star Trek space opera.

Ivanova wasnt the leader, but nor was Lochley.
Ivanova commanded the fleet a bunch of times and became an admiral, I'd rather have her than Lochley any day.

>literally one of the most tyrannical captains in science fiction

Mal is a great character and runs a tight ship but he'd also give you a solid punch in the jaw if you disagree with him.

This thread says otherwise. You just assume one of those two but at that far into the future identity politics have been mostly dealt with so you there isn't really a point to bringing it up in setting to let you know.

But no one outside India cares. Where as even crappy American movies get released internationally.

>if you disagree with him.

The entire crew disagrees with him regularly and the only one to get punched is Simon a few times.

You just gotta have faith in your cap'n. He's usually right, after all.

During summers in Sweden there used to be a morning show called Tillbaka till Vintergatan (Return to the Milkyway) that was basically space opera for kids. Shit was dope

He is usually right, and he's more than fair. He's just a lot harsher than most men would be because he and his crew are a bunch of petty crooks. Which I guess is the biggest problem I'd have with working on Serenity. I'd rather join Starfleet and have all the resources and training of a government organization behind me instead of living hand-to-mouth stealing medicine.

>Why are all major space operas American or sometimes Japanese? I'm interested in what other cultures would do with it.
Maybe it's because of their navies? Even now, the US Navy is one of the major sticks that America has to use on the world, and the Imperial Japanese Navy still evokes glorious memories even though they were defeated. The British would be the outlier here given the story of the Royal Navy, but I think Doctor Who and later 2000AD have influenced their sci-fi away from space opera and towards more surreal shores.

The best one, of course.

There is absolutely nothing that could go wrong under his command.

Space exploration is still a nerd touchstone for American culture, thanks to the impact of the space race on American history. Astronauts are, or at least were, considered national heroes.

Nobody else has that cultural touchstone, so nobody else gives a fuck. The Japanese do it because Japanese culture has become a funhouse mirror of trickle-down American culture filtered through their own traditions and prejudices.

Plus which, space exploration stories touch on an older American cultural tradition as well - the western expeditions and their stories. Star Trek itself was described as a 'wagon train to the stars'. That's another thing that's fairly uniquely American, mind-set wise, since it ties into ideas of manifest destiny and optimistic pioneers bringing civilization to the untamed reaches.

Space opera tends to be optimistic. Brits don't really do optimism (with the exception of international sporting competitions) these days.

Then there is the fact that the British are heavily involved in American-produced space opera/sci-fi

>Canadians are American.

If you're one of those insufferable assholes who insists on calling everybody in the Western Hemisphere "American," ignoring that the United States adopted the title as a national identifier long before other independent nations even existed in the hemisphere.

That is the reason why people from the US call themselves Americans, while other Western Hemisphere nations have different national identifiers.

>Then there is the fact that the British are heavily involved in American-produced space opera/sci-fi

Like much of their role in the real world, they're often kind-of "tacked on" to American things, and while they're often "British" (or at least not explicitly American) they're either on the same side as the Americans or their direct antagonists (such as The Empire in Star Wars).

USSR had pretty much the same conditions. Space race, cosmonaut heroes and so on. Their arctic explorers were hyped as pioneers too. Its not like they werent producing tv, they just focused on ww2 and comedy stuff. Question is, why? Commies always liked to talk about the glorious future of the comintern, why not show it in a nice propaganda tv show.

That's not a space opera

Then he realizes he HATES them and just holes up in the north with a nice and cozy personal space.

Spanish space opera.
It's just a porno.

I would watch it
t. Spaniard

Wait 1600 years for it to be a thing.

She would give me the hugest boners.

I think it had something to do with realism, there were a couple of space movies and couple of fantasy/fairy-tales movies, but mostly it was realistic stuff, i guess it was dictated by ideology.

Because the world only cares about American media, and Japanese media by proxy (Americans are weebs).

Pretty sure nobody would care even if a Spanish high budget space opera was produced.

India and China also do a lot of domestic television. Several SEA countries like Philippines/Malaysia/Indonesia tend to do their own domestic soaps and the like.

The reason space opera isn't seen is that it requires a larger budget (at least if you want some believability). Space opera is generally pretty rare even for live-action Japanese media - a great deal of it is animated. Space opera series often require scratch-built sets, complete costume sets, art design teams - they're far more expensive and risky than a comedy set in the modern 21st century.

Chinese (mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese) studios also have the budget, but prefer to do safer historical fiction.

The other big thing is that the PRC broadcasting administration has also issued guidelines that "strongly discourage" works with that "fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking" - in other words, stories that suggest subversive political thought. In this sort of environment it's just safer both financially and politically to make.

tl;dr the reason space opera is not often produced by other countries is due to a mix of financial and political factors.

There is one, but like all spanish is shit-tier budget.

Ours is more perverted, literally called "party slut"

Also, we had a lot more Space Opera and similar earlier in our history. We went through a shit-ton of fantastical colonial literature, Dan Dare, all kinds of shit in the pre-TV age and by the time of Star Wars Sci-Fi was actually sort of unfashionable over here. There were notable exceptions, Blake's 7 and Doctor Who and Space 1999 and so on, but they were poorly funded (as they were considered unfashiionable and childish) and thus were loveably hokey.

Also, we were importing the American works and they were high-quality enough that it was simply uneconomical to compete.

By the time of the 1990s, the BBC and Channel 4 were in a continuous cycle of commisioning short-lived and poorly received series that now languish in "cult" bargain bins, and while there are forgotten gems the British sci-fi felt inauthentic compared to the longstanding American imports.

But...Indian architecture is colourful and uplifting.

The Yew-Essian demonym is Yank.

>More 80s quasi-porn camp IIIIN SPAAAAAACE!
yes plz

Hm. I wonder if it's a difference in creativity?

youtube.com/watch?v=4j-Lz0D5_ck

Short version: Creativity requires the ability to be wrong, play around, do weird shit that's probably not going to work. Producing Soviet state propaganda probably doesn't allow for much of that, whereas a bunch of faggots preaching about race relations or laser sword wizards in space can afford to go off the rails a bit.

And of course, part of it's probably just inertia. Once scifi or specific types of stories are A Thing, it's probably a lot easier to keep making more of them. Hence Japan pumping out softcore harem cartoons like there's no tomorrow and nobody else really following suit, even if they're perfectly willing to import them.

Yeah its possible. There was this literature style called soc-realism which was the most boring thing on earth, all the stories were about these super diligent workers inventing methods to increase production n shit.

The war really devastated the UK and the rest of Europe in a way that is hard for Americans to understand.

>Quasi
it's full porn.
it's a documentary.

>>Also, I'm not sure I'd call Star Trek space opera.

WTF are you talking about? "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

I don't know why other cultures don't do space stories, but the distressing lack of trees and saunas in space seems to be the primary deterrent for Finns. Oh and also the fact that it would be utterly impossible to get anything like that financed.

and can be covered in colorful statues of women with tusks licking blood from a beheaded demon, while wearing a skirt of severed hands and a necklace of eyeballs.

Its possible that sci-fi authors' tendency to criticize current events with allegories in their works (like the Strugatzky did) has something to do with it too. The politburo wasnt known for taking criticism well.

Look into Raumpatrouille Orion. German sci-fi series that was a contemporary of the original Star Trek.

Bruh have you seen TOS?
All they do is get into barfights and tussle with weird space gangs, it's basically a Western.

Picard was French

That looks delicious and I want to eat it.

Sheridan

I'd go with him to z'ha'dum and probably die