The equal strengths of Star Wars and Star Trek

[Brent]

Star Wars and Star Trek are different but equal. How?

Star Wars is more consistent, although not perfectly so. Star Wars is more clean than Star Trek. Star Wars is more popular and more mainstream, and more universal. Star Wars has a bigger and better and more integral expanded universe of cartoons, comic books, reference books, and games. Star Wars is better thought out and better done.

Star Trek is more for inteligent people. It is more interesting, and there is more of it. More of the story is commonly known than for Star Wars. Star Wars is mostly one fairly tight story, whereas Star Trek as a much larger universe with many separate but intertwining stories. There is more variety in Star Trek, and it spans a much greater portion of the universe, although its core area is smaller. Star Trek came first.

discuss amongst yourselves...

[Space05us]

Star Wars > Star Trek

.

[Brent]

This thread: bad idea. Well, unless there's a rule here against WarsvTrek threads, can you back that up?

[Japher]

A better thread, though it has been done, is SW vs. ST!

[Dis]

Star Wars is for wannabe geeks. Star Trek is for real geeks. And in this instance, I use geeks in the good way.

[Brent]

and just what is the good way?

[:) Smiley]

Re: The equal strengths of Star Wars and Star Trek

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Brent
Star Wars and Star Trek are different but equal. How?

Star Wars is more consistent, although not perfectly so.[/q]
Natural consequence of having fewer movies and no TV shows.

Star Wars is more clean than Star Trek.

And this is good how?

Star Wars is more popular and more mainstream, and more universal.

Why have there been fewer movies then?

Star Wars has a bigger and better and more integral expanded universe of cartoons, comic books, reference books, and games.

Are you sure about this one?

Star Wars is better thought out and better done.

Don't get me started on this one.

[Vince278]

And how does that differ?

[Elok]

I think they've both been ruined. The original Star Trek had absurd special effects, wretched acting, and a shaky scientific background at times, but it was fun. It was a universe where anything could happen, anything could be discovered in the next system. Due to budget constraints, "anything" usually took the form of actors with fake eyebrows and bad accents, but they tried. A world that simulates war via computer and disintegrates the "dead," thus perpetuating conflict without the horror that usually makes people stop it, is bizarre but inventive and pretty thoughtful for something that came out of the sixties. As is frequently noted by smug trekkies, ST featured the first interracial kiss on television, allowed because Uhura and Kirk were "telepathically controlled." Wink, wink. It was insane stuff and often an idiot could see the holes in it, as in the sonic weapons in space blunder from the war-sim planet example cited earlier, but it was fun and imaginative.

Now Star Trek has turned into general-purpose sci-fi dreck. It still contains inevitable scientific errors due to its nature as science fiction, not literal science, but now the science jargon is so complicated that, true or false, nobody has the slightest idea what's actually going on, and the errors are obscure ones for trekkies to gloat about on message boards and at conventions.

The actual plots are joyless soap opera stuff, due again to their insistence on adhering to the illusion of scientific possibility. That eliminates the whole exploration of a vast universe thing, since the universe is effectively confined to our current ideas and the dorks will raise hell if the writers try to get playful. What's left is the same social conflicts explored by any other show, with science tacked on top. Social interactions and conflicts are not exactly a big strength for the kind of people who write for Star Trek. The result: another show, another damned Cardassian plot. Yay.

I probably don't need to go into what's gone wrong with Star Wars. It's a similar story. Originally it was a universe of romance combined from a billion sources, samurai movies and war films and all sorts of other things GL watched while growing up. Now it's been dully categorized much like Star Trek, only in this case the details are entirely made up. You know, like "midi-chlorians." Two wonderful words that annihilate almost all the mystical appeal of the series. And alien politics, lots of 'em. Let's escape into a world of fantasy...which has stupid controversies and politicians just like our own, not to mention really lame acting. Joy.

Also George Lucas seems to be possessed by the ghost of Walt Disney or something. Jar Jar Binks and Chewbacca cannot possibly have come from the same creative impulse. But others can complain about this better than I can.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Space05us
Star Wars > Star Trek

[Brent]

Even the Star Wars expanded universe is more consistant than Star Trek canon. But then, all inconsistencies in Trek can be explained by alternate universes. The intense fandom of the few (Trek fans) outweighs the less unhealthy fandom of the many (Wars fans). Nitpicking, fictional details, alien politics and explaining things away are fun. Technobabble makes perfect sense to me. Soap opera stuff is definitely bad. I like Trek for fun, not social commentary. I see nothing wrong with the midichlorian concept. I wouldn't mind true utopian fiction, but writers insist that I would. I like fictional reference books much better than I like fictional storytelling.

[joncha]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

[Japher]

arrrrrrrrrrrrrr, prepare to die!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Why have there been fewer movies then?

You can't seriously think that Star Wars is less popular and less mainstream than Star Trek. That would be a highly absurd proposition.

Fewer movies doesn't mean less popularity, unless you think the LOTR trilogy is less popular than the Friday the 13th movies.

[Brent]

The next Trek ship needs a Spanish captain.

The Star Wars movies earned much more than the Trek ones. Greater care was put into the SW ones.