"In the far future, the [human group] fights a pitched battle against the mighty [alien name] Empire, but deep in the mysterious [region of space], among the ruins of the past, a darker threat looms."

Does the above sentence sound familiar? It should. It's probably the single most popularSpace Opera premise around. In fact, you could even call it theStandard Sci-Fi Setting. Typical features of the Standard setting include:

Technology:

• Easy faster than light travel. This comes in several flavors:
  • aPortal Network of "jump gates," "wormholes," or so forth, or
  • a web ofHyperspace Lanes spanning the galaxy, or
  • "warp drive," "jump drive," or some other kind ofFaster-Than-Light Travel throughSubspace or Hyperspace.
• Space Is an Ocean and theStandard Sci-Fi Fleet sailing it.
• Mystical/Metaphysical elements, generally includingPsychic Powers,Life Energy, or something else similar toFunctional Magic (usually associated with eitherHighly EvolvedHuman Aliens orSufficiently Advanced Aliens).
• Very little, if any, ofThe Singularity, except possibly as ajustification forSufficiently Advanced Aliens. Humans themselves will almost never be post-Singularity.Transhuman Aliens andRidiculously Human Robots will be subject toFantastic Racism, possibly because there isNo Transhumanism Allowed.

Population:

• Humans by Any Other Name, usually "Terrans".
• Neglectful Precursors.
• An ancient and hideboundproud warrior race who may double asScary Dogmatic Aliens. Their ships will typically be purple, green, or gold. If anyone has anEnemy Civil War ready to break out, it will be these guys. May experience anEnemy Mine situation with theHumans by Any Other Name if a common threat appears.
• A genocidal alien race that's eitherThe Virus,Planet Looters from "beyond known space" or a full-onHorde of Alien Locusts. Rogue robots out to kill all organic life are another common variant. These guys are usually what wiped out theNeglectful Precursors. Their ships will usually be sleek and angular when they aren'torganic blobs. Either way, their ships tend to be red, purple, black, or other"evil" colors. May provoke the other races intouniting against them.
• Awise/spiritual race decked out inCrystal Spires and Togas. These are oftenHuman Aliens and/orSpace Elves, possibly theNeglectful Precursors, if they're already extinct. Their ships will be sleek, but more rounded, and usually colored white, silver, or blue (gold or copper/bronze is rare, but acceptable). If there's a metaphysical aspect, these guys will be brimming with it more than any others. Bonus points if they havea rival sect called the "Dark" something.
• Space Babes, usually blue or green-skinned.
• The Greys orLittle Green Men, the two most common type of aliens used due to them being from alleged-alien sightings. Their somewhat less common cousins,The Reptilians, pop up from time to time. The former tend to be theProud Scholar Race, while the latter tend to be theProud Warrior Race.
• As many as a dozen other races of little to no consequence beyond certain characters or as background elements. May include Robots, aforementioned rebel/heretical sects, Alien Slavers, anEldritch Abomination, non-locust Zombies, Robot Zombies,Robot Eldritch Abomination that command zombies, and on down the line.

Factions:

• The Federation,The Empire, or other space faring humans that flybig gray battleships and little gray fighters, and comprise the bulk of theStandard Sci-Fi Army. They have a good chance of beingdescended directly from theNeglectful Precursors.
  • A"rebel" faction fighting against one of these groups is a frequent option.
• Space Marines if the film was made afterAliens or the book written afterStarship Troopers; guys withray guns andtight outfits if before or homaging before.
• Oh, andSpace Pirates. Space pirates areinevitable in such a setting.
• In some more recent works, one or more of the above factions might have "Incorporated" in their name somewhere, but they'll still be the same for story purposes.

Plot:

• TheStandard Sci-Fi History asBackstory.
• An epicSpace Battle where the future hangs in the balance as a result of it, or leading up to it.

A typical plot involves the humans fighting theProud Warrior Race Guys until one or the other stumbles upon the ruins of the Neglectful Precursor civilization and unleashes theevil third race. Then a bunch of people die, there are lots of a cool explosions, and the first two racesteam up to take out the genocidal aliens. Usually they have to track down someForgotten Superweapon and use it to destroy the alien queen/mothership/homeworld, thereby saving the galaxy... for now.

Not surprisingly, this setting tends to fall toward the "soft" end of theMohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness. Examples come mostly from TV, Movies, and especially video games, where scientific accuracy oftentakes a back seat to awesome visuals and an engaging storyline. CompareSci-Fi Kitchen Sink, which takes aStandard Sci-Fi Setting, then crams as many otherSpeculative Fiction Tropes into it as it can.

Comic Books

• The Legion of Super Heroes has a 1000-years-from-now setting that was so close to the Standard Sci-Fi Setting (at least until the threeboot) that you'd think it's clearly based onStar Trek had it not actuallypreceded Trek by a good 8 years. FTL? Original has warp drive, reboot adds Stargates. Threeboot isn't so stock, as transmatter gates have rendered spacecraft obsolete. The United Planets isThe Federation (it was at least once erroneously called "the Federation of Planets"). Mysticism? Check. Not just psionics, but explicit magic, since it takes place in theFantasy Kitchen SinkDC Universe. Proud warrior race? The Khunds, sometimes specifically based on Klingons. Alien hordes? Check. Space pirates? Check.
• DC Comics'Star Raiders graphic novel features one of this. EasyFaster-Than-Light Travel,Psychic Powers,Scary Dogmatic Aliens,The Empire,La Résistance, and lots of Epic Space Battles.

Film

• Star Wars is more or less theTrope Codifier in modern fiction. While it's far from the first and has its own unique quirks,Star Wars made the Standard Sci Fi Setting palatable for the masses.
• Equally important isAliens. While the movie lacks other alien civilizations and faster than light speed, it single handedly defined human culture, technology, military, and visual style for Standard Sci Fi Settings for decades to come.Babylon 5,StarCraft,Free SpaceHalo, andMass Effect are more or less directly based on this movie.

Literature

• Star Trek may have picked this trope up from the older pulp science fiction like theLensman series.
• The Saga of Seven Suns uses this, but it sometimes borders onCliché Storm. However, as with everything,Your Mileage May Vary.
• TheUplift Universe ofDavid Brin.
• Andrey Livadny'sThe History of the Galaxy series fits many parts of the trope. There's theConfederacy of Suns, the lateEarth Alliance, animal-likeForerunners,easy FTL travel,Space Marines (although less of theStarship Troopers variety and more of the pilotingHumongous Mecha kind),Space Pirates, and severalNeglectful Precursors (many of whom are still around). There's a notable absence ofProud Warrior Race Guys andCrystal Spires and Togas. Rogue robots are the main theme of several novels (one novel deals with a completely automated gigantic alien mothership attacking a small human colony). There is only one race ofHuman Aliens, and they're blue.
• Pandoras Star does it brilliantly.
• Tour of the Merrimack fits this, with the US asThe Federation, Palatine as theProud Warrior Race at war with them, and the Hive as theHorde of Alien Locusts that forces the two into anEnemy Mine.
• TheHumanx Commonwealth universe, with the titular Commonwealth asThe Federation, the AAnn asThe Empire with elements ofProud Warrior Race, scads ofPrecursors, including the Xunca as theNeglectful Precursors, along with theirLost Technology, and the galaxy-devouringGreat Evil as theBigger Bad.

Live Action TV

• Star Trek is one of the main sources of this setting and has used the basic plot for bothThe Next Generation with The Borg asThe Virus andDeep Space Nine where they fought against the Dominion, not to mention countless one-off episodes that have used this plot to preachAn Aesop of cooperation.
• Andromeda hadThe Commonwealth, theNietzscheans, theMagog, and variousPrecursors. It was following the standard plot pretty welluntil the mysticism took over and itgot weird.
• Stargate SG-1 - originally a planet-of-the-week adventure centered around the titular device, with not that much overall continuity - mutated into this slowly, picking elements over time (especially starting with season 6), although it took the addition ofStargate Atlantis to complete the transition. The Ancients are theNeglectful Precursors, the Wraith and Replicators are the genocidal planet looters orPlanet Eater (and the former wiped out the Ancients), the Tau'ri (us, modern Earthlings) are the spacefaring humans with grey ships, and the Jaffa areProud Warrior Race Guys serving the Goa'uld, a race ofScary Dogmatic Aliens.
  • TheStargate Verse differs from the Standard Sci Fi Setting in a number of ways. First and most importantly, the characters are mostly modern Americans, and all the high-tech stuff is unknown to the general world simply because of aMasquerade. Morality is moreblack and gray than in many Sci-Fi settings because the military often has toShoot the Dog. This is almost unique in that most of the protagonists areGenre Savvy. However, by the end of the series Earth basically is playing the role ofThe Federation, thanks partially to theVery Neglectful Precursors and partially to Earth's role in freeing theProud Warrior Race Guys from millenia of slavery.
• Babylon 5 has the Narn as theProud Warrior Race Guys, The Minbari as theCloser to Earth race, and the Shadows and Vorlons being both theNeglectful Precursorsand thePlanet Looters at the same time, in varying amounts.
  • It's worth noting that B5 sets the cliches during the first season and then proceeds toDeconstruct them in short order. The Narns mellow down considerably, the Minbari demonstrate serious flaws and hypocricy, the Centauri who initially seemed to be ineffectual, comical figures develop a darker edge, and so on. The less significant races keep to their cliches pretty tightly, though - the Drazi for example demonstrate theProud Warrior Race traits quite a bit, when the Narn set them aside.
  • The dark side of the Minbari is shown almost right away though they always have an attractive side as well as a dark side and the Narns don't really mellow although G'kar does(they simply change fromthe would-be Empire intoThe Revolution Will Not Be Civilized). The Minbari curiously are both aProud Warrior Race and aProud Scholar Race. The Centauri are a big surprise; no one would expect them to be good enough at fighting to be brutal conquerors anymore. EarthGov is a surprise; we expect it to beThe Federation and instead it evolves into aPolice State but with the twist that it is an isolationist and nativistPolice State rather thanThe Empire and spends more time supressing internal rebellion then in aggression. Interestingly most of the characters including the command staff and all the main ambassadors, at one time or another end up asLa Résistance to their own government in various ways and degrees. The Vorlons are a real surprise turning out to be almost as evil as the shadows except for kosh. The shadows follow the generic description above almost exactly being theSealed Evil in a Can that forces leaders from other races to formThe Alliance.
• Firefly is arguably a Standard Sci Fi Setting adapted to fit closer to the realistic end of theSliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic. It clearly has many of the elements, as listed below, but lacks the more fantastic ones like aliens.
  • There's no faster-than-light travel, but it's still easy to travel between dozens of inhabited planets and moons.
  • Space Is an Ocean
  • Psychic Powers: River.
  • The Alliance and theIndependents.
  • The Virus: Reavers, who come from the edge of known space and turn some of their victims into Reavers.
  • Space Pirates: commonplace.
  • EpicSpace Battle where the future hangs in the balance: the series was seemingly slowly building up to this before it was cancelled. The movie does give us one.
  • Mega Corp: Blue Sun.
  • Plot:a couple of defeatedIndependents try to make a living away fromthe Alliance and stumble across agirl that was experimented on by the Alliance who leads them to discover the ruins of an abandoned planet where nearly everybody died because of anAlliance experiment, but which also turns out to be the origin of theReavers.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40,000 is something like this paintedblack and covered in skulls, with a lot more races, a great deal ofGothic Punk and a heaping helping ofCosmic Horror Story.
• Rifts'sPhase World setting. The Consortium of Civilized Worlds isThe Federation, the Transgalactic Empire isThe Empire ofScary Dogmatic Aliens, and theCrystal Spires and Togas are handled by the United Worlds of Warlock. Any examples ofThe Virus orPlanet Looters are, for the time being at least, nascent and/or lying in wait.
• Fading Suns uses a setting which falls nearly exactly into this trope. The Excints Ur have littered space with floating portals that allow for travel ans strange technologies, the Known Worlds are United under the new Phoenix Emperor, harboring numerous races amongst the humans. The Vau are the wise race living in their own world outside the empire. And constantly straining to get in the Empire are the Symbiots, a metamorphic plague/virus/infestation. Of course, space pirates, political conflicts and psychics manifestation abound.
• Traveller has many fairly familiar tropes. However it develops them extremely well.
  • Precursors=Ancients
  • Humans "classic"=Solomani
  • Venerable Race=Vilani
  • Psionic Race=Zhodani
  • Proud Warrior Race=Aslan
  • Space Pirates=Vargr
  • The Federation=The Imperium

Video Games

• TheHalo games have less of a mystical bent than other examples but otherwise fits perfectly. The Covenant are theScary Dogmatic Aliens, The Flood areThe Virus, and The Forerunners are theNeglectful Precursors. The plot is largely as above.
• Free Space: The Terrans play this trope completely straight, but while the Vasudans certainly fit theProud Warrior Race Guys stereotype, thexenocidal Shivans are slightly anomalous. Whilst certainlyColor Coded for Your Convenience, from beyond known space, and responsible for wiping out the (downright maliciously imperialistic)Ancients, the Shivans are neitherThe Virus, aHorde of Alien Locusts, norPlanet Looters. They don't bother with conquest, looting, or assimilation, all they care about is getting to thexenocide. FTL drives are bothsubspace drives and require aPortal Network of jump nodes to travel between systems. There is a total lack of any metaphysical aspect or aliens aside from the core 3 races. Aside from those minor details, it's a Standard Sci Fi Setting.
• StarCraft: The Terrans are the humans, the Protoss are the Warriors, the Zerg are theHorde of Alien Locusts and the Xel'Naga are the Precursors.Psychic Powers are everywhere.
• Galactic Civilizations used this as part of its "nothing you haven't seen before" approach to game design.
• Mass Effect, though the Spectres are closer to Space Secret Agents thanSpace Marines. Otherwise, replaceThe Virus with a roboticEldritch Abomination and throw the Krogan in as theProud Warrior Race Guys.
  • It's the perspective of many that humanity is the come-latelyProud Warrior Race Guys. They're trusted enough to be considered for the Council and Spectre membership, but not that much more than the Krogans.
  • Don't forget the Turians, they have as much claim to it as the Humans if not more.
  • Also, don't forgetthe Reapers, very literal "Robot Eldritch Abominations that command zombies" (if you see Husks as zombies).
  • The Asari double as bothpsychicSpace Elves and anentire species ofblue-skinned space babes.
• Freelancer is kinda like a conspiracy story withCasual Interstellar Travel,Space Clothes to some degree (mostly the LSF uniforms),and genocidal aliens who come to claim back their old turf. There are no Psychic Powers though, and the closest thing to The Federation are the four Houses that are kinda like our countries.
• Halo's forerunner,Marathon, decides to mix things up. You have the so non-proud warrior race/Alien Slaver Pfhor, then the indigenous Flick'ta replaced the plannedfungal zombies, and anEldritch Abomination shows up in the final game. The S'pht and their long-lost cousinsEnemy Mine with the humans to take on the aforementioned threats. Other than the above alterations, the plot pretty much follows the above discription to a T.
• Sins of a Solar Empire. The Trader Emergency Coalition (or TEC) isThe Federation, The Advent areCloser to Earth, Vasari arePlanet Looters, and there'sSpace Pirates andeasy faster-than-light travel, by means of "phase jumps" along "phase lines" in "phase space." Most beyond that is uncertain, since the developers decided to drop a campaign in favor of better multiplayer. Reviewers did not take kindly to this.
• TheStar Control universe does all of the above both straight and with a light-hearted tone.
• Sword of the Stars has a wealth of this, although it plays with a lot of them, like different races using different faster than light drives (all the standard methods are used, but by different races) and a wealth ofbackground information on the different races and their inner workings that would put several sci-fi TV series to shame.
• Lovingly parodied byGratuitous Space Battles; the back story is pure fluff, used as a tongue-in-cheek excuse for the eponymous space battles. The main thing it lacks is the wiseCrystal Spires and Togas civilization: the Tribe comes close, but they'reWell Intentioned Extremists, just as violent as everyone else.
• TheWing Commander series is all about this. Initially it's theTerran Confederation versus theKilrathi Empire, but in the fifth game theHorde of Alien Locusts shows up.
• EV Nova is no exception to this trope. The main twist is thatall the major factions are human (noGSSBs, Greys, or lizardfolk). There's also no Horde faction, and since the game takes place entirely in space,Space Marines are present but largely ignored. As for the precursors, little remains of their leavings and even less is understood; they're just gone.

Web Comics

• Zap has a fairly similar setting. Aliens (almost allhumanoid), psychics,A Is with very human-like personalities, an Empire (in all but name), aGovernment Conspiracy or two,Space Pirates, lost technology,Mad Scientists andBungling Inventors, ahot redhead, etc, etc.
• Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire takes place in a setting very similar to this, except Humans are relative newcomers tothe Gallimaufrey and only become notable due totheir possession of the Winslow. Oh, and their invention of the popsicle.

Web Original

• Averted / subverted inOrion's Arm, which tries to be ahard sci-fi setting without sacrificing any of the appeal of the more traditionalSpace Opera. The result is a transhumanist setting ruled by godlikeArtificial Intelligences called Archai, which have experienced not one, but severalSingularities and rule over their lesser subjects like benign deities. Advanced nanotechnology and relativistic spaceflight are commonplace, and while true FTL is impossible,wormholes andReactionless Drive technology have been created by the Archai.Creating Life is also not that hard, and baseline unmodified humans represent only a tiny part of the extremely diverse terragen (originating-from-Earth) civilization composed of genetically modified transhumans and sentient animals and sentient human-animal hybrids, cyborgs of all kinds, sentient robots, and several kinds of infomorphic lifeforms. And that's just the lower toposophic (read: number of Singularities crossed) levels, before you get to the various planet-sized AIs,Dyson Sphere-sized AIs, and the wormhole-based AIs that are the higher toposophic beings (the 'godlings' and full godlike Archai). And that's just the terragens, not counting the handful ofvery alien aliens that the setting features. Basically, any technology or lifeform that isn't banned outright by physics in in there, somewhere.

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