me- something original for a change

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The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. ~ Ernest Hemingway ...

Here is a good explanation why you almost certainly will not:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...star_trek.html

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

I'd like to see a galaxy that is indeed being colonized by humans without any other "races" competing. I think it is unlikely that several races are in the same timeframe window of a few thousand years before one of these races has colonized everything already. We're first, my opinion.
So a space opera series based on Asimov's Foundation trilogy would be nice - the rise and fall of a galactic empire.
Make it with traditional spaceships - it is kind of boring to see nothing but replicating von Neumann probes

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Mars Society.

I'd like to see a tv serialization of Niven's "known space" stories, or stories based on them.

Nick

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Nick Theodorakis

I'd like to see nothing but replicating von Neumann probes.

Would a request for buxom space vixens be too lowbrow?

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Everything I need to know I learned from hard work and dedication.

I'm writing one, on spec. Two, actually. But I don't think it would sell because it's too much like all the others, despite being entirely different... if that makes sense. In other words, "the more things change, the more they stay the same". There's only so many story arch-types. It's how you blend them into a whole universe of possibilities that makes them different. One of my series ideas might seem a lot like a combination of BSG and Stargate due to the premise and transportation system (despite my conceiving of it over 20 years ago), because there's only so many types of options available, technobabble not withstanding. The other storyline is hard and rigorous SF set in this solar system with just humanity. It all boils down to what happens to the people in the story, not what the backdrop is.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Hard science (except FTL of course! Unless the series is set in a populated solar system, then make it diamond-hard). If there is Wondertech then explore the implications.

Acting that doesn't just consist of yelling, incredulity and sex.

A truly epic scope that shows some understanding about just how BIG the universe is and how little we know of it. A sense of wonder when we find something new or unexpected.

Really good writing. Not just for space opera.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Firefly.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

Something that doesn't require deus ex machina....

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Defining science can be difficult. It’s a method, a way of looking at things. It’s a compendium of facts, knowledge, data. It’s a tool, used to investigate the world and to make sure we don’t let our biases, egos, and wishes get in the way of finding what’s real. Science (and skepticism) boil off the dross and leave the pure nugget of reality. ~Phil Plait

Maybe something that had to be written using hard science...

I'd like to see an alternate history space opera--one where China didn't turn in upon itself, but became the world-exploring superpower it could have been. Extend that scenario into their space age. The solar system is fully colonized (the planets have different names), and humanity has spread thinly out into a bubble perhaps a hundred light-years in diameter.

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman

Both already present in abundance in Lexx, out of control replicating von Neumann machines especially in the last half of the second season.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Sure, but Lexx isn't likely to be revived, much less become the "next great space opera tv series".

I can't imagine how a von Neumann probe would make interesting television, much less make space opera. Not unless it was merely an obstacle for the real people in the show to overcome. It might make a season, but a multi-season arc might get tedious.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

I'd like to see the idea of cross-overs. Showing a universe crossing vessel going to different fictional universes and meeting various other genre (Star Trek Star Wars, HALO, etc.) It would be based on the Stargate TV series, where MKay and other find alternate timelines where fiction is real and vice versa. Wrap it all up with a space battle featuring every ship imaginable.

A Tie fighter sneaks up behind a Space 1999 Eagle, only to have Spikes swordfish nail it from behind.

Just need a few billion to pay off everyones rights, that's all. Sure. But that would be the ultimate space opera as defined. Right now Youtube has some amateur shoot-em ups with Star Destroyers going toe to toe with the original Galactica. A movie base on something like this would probably be the highest grossing film of all time.

The von Neumann probes can have personalities and can have any outward shape--including that of buxom space vixens.

Pigs in Space: the Series..

either that or a Wormhole X-Treme web series or something.

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

You may be thinking about Berserkers.

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

Not especially, I just don't want to watch machines, even if they are human form replicators.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

I take it you don't want to watch the movie "Robots".

For two hours, sure. They act as human analogues. But for hundreds of hours of an alien mindset. I don't think so. I think of von Neuman probes as not being that sophisticated and entertaining.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

It's just a matter of personal preference. As for whether the robot characters have an "alien" mindset--it's purely a matter for the writers to decide. They can have perfectly human mindsets, especially if they use human simulated minds (a well worn SF trope).

At least one main character with no love interests whatsoever.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek

What's wrong with a space opera where the science problems are real? This new Defying Gravity for instance- they have some sort of instant telecomunication between Earth and the spaceship. Not having an ansible would raise a whole load of new problems that have hardly ever been seen in a space opera. Operating hours out of touch with Earth -but you've got to tell 'em what you are doing anyway; they just cant reply without minutes or hours of delay.

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How about one where a character who is everybody's best friend doesn't suddenly appear, despite never having been mentioned before in the past, does something in the episode, dies and is never mentioned again? Or one where the aliens are more than one dimensional stereotypes that quickly degenerate into self-parody? Or if a character who makes a stupid mistake and gets someone killed is actually bothered by this for more than 30+ minutes? Or a character isn't suddenly an expert in an insanely complex field, totally unrelated to the field which they work in? (It makes sense for the captain of a ship to know how to perform some repairs on the ship, it makes no sense for the captain to be an expert in medical procedures or for the ship's doctor to be an expert in stellar physics.)

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We want our children to go to the planets. Burt Rutan 6/21/04 K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Tuckers! Automotive Oddities! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs Those who would delay scientific progress for a little temporary prosperity shall have neither. MachineCast Save the planet, by leaving it! "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ.

I bet someday von Neumann probes will think the same thing about humans.

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman

In that case, they may as well be humans and the space opera may as well be soap opera. I want something different enough to be science fiction but human enough to be relatable.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

I don't really understand what you're complaint is. Most robots in mainstream popular fiction are depicted as having more or less human personalities but robotic capabilities. The science fictional aspect is usually related to their non-human capabilities rather than mentality.

Well, maybe you can clarify if you mean a series of humans who are interacting with a von Neumann machine system/probe of it the vNM is the protagonist and main focus of the story?

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau