So, after getting the Battlestar Galactica series 1-4 boxed set for 35 GBP (27 GBP after a very effective trade-in of a Nintendo DS game), I've been re-watching BSG. I'm currently about halfway through series three. One thing Battlestar Galactica is very good at, among many things, is getting across the vastness of space. It's vast, empty and not populated by a millions of habitable planets full of alien species. While it's interstellar, it uses many of the tools and techniques you'd adopt for a single solar system space opera.

One of the beautiful things about the show is how it approaches planets. The few planets in the show aren't disposable locations that are quickly seen off with a few panning shots, they are beautiful orbs hanging in the vastness of space. Remote, lonely bastions of life making a stand against the coldness of space. This is reinforced on numerous levels, but the most notable is the visuals. The series takes it's queue from NASA images of the Earth with respect to how it depicts planets. They feel realistic. Ironically, this makes them more majestic. When the various vessels of the show are shown close to planets they invoke the iconic space walk images. The vessels are small in comparison to the planet, with the planet itself taking up a large portion of the screen or serving almost as the whole background. It reinforces the scale and size and the relatively infinitesimal, insignificance of the vessels in comparison to the planet and in turn space.

It makes planets something that are a wonder to behold.

This is the approach that would have to be taken with single solar system space opera. Planetary orbit would have to be a location that provides wonder and inspiration, rather than just a throw away comment. The moon is a foreboding and inhospitable location? Of course it is, until you see the Earth rising over the moon horizon reminding you of the miracle of life. The large floating city in orbit, a testament to human endeavour, until the camera jerks back in that semi-silent fashion adopted to 'simulate space' to be shown as a spot against the background of the white, blue and green Earth. In reverse, the cold, vast and remote asteroid belt, the frontier home to the space opera equivalent of oil rigs, has a sense of freedom and pioneering spirit matched only by the harshness of the environment.

In short, while not needing to be brought crashing into the domain of hard science fiction due to scientific reality, the single solar system space opera needs to adopt the 'realistic' imagery of space as a tool for backdrops and colour, and through that it would find enough majesty, awe and romance to go around. The one significant result of this is the planet Earth becomes something more unique, majestic and beautiful and as a result, offers something worth protecting. The whole thing becomes more humanity centred.