Agree to Disagree: Star Wars vs. Star Trek

Star Wars has excitement for kids and adults

By Simon Ward

You’d be hard pressed to find a human on this planet who doesn’t know the name ‘Star Wars.’ For good reason. Star Wars was not only one of the most innovative and entertaining film series ever made, but it has become a part of our everyday lives. Who doesn’t know the phrase: “I am your father,” or Chewbacca’s famous roar, or remember Princess Leia’s slave costume in Return of the Jedi. There are kids pretending to fight with lightsabers, the thunderous theme songs of both the good side and evil sides. When is the last time you saw a kid wearing a Star Trek costume for Halloween?

Star Wars has it all, including the greatest villain ever created. (Who wasn’t scared of Darth Vader in 1977?) It has the good-hearted bad boy, the innocent and loveable hero, the trusted sidekick, the beautiful heroine who doesn’t take any nonsense, wild monsters, and the most memorable vehicle in history — the Millenium Falcon. And the fact that 50 years after the original film it has seen a massive resurgence through shows like The Mandalorian. Star Wars will never die.

For me, it beats Star Trek because Trek is more adult focused and seems to have a narrower range of fans. Frankly, I thought it was boring as a kid. Star Wars is the perfect franchise that captures both kids and adults. And which franchise has the biggest toy line? (I mean, who owns Star Trek toys?). It also has the two greatest film scores in history and the most cultural impact of any film ever made, plus the greatest twist ending in history. (Return of the Jedi, when Darth is found out to be Luke’s father.

It’s no comparison. Star Wars is the best.

–Simon Ward is the lead singer of Soup and the former front man of The Strumbellas.

 

Star Trek is the world we wish for

By Roderick Benns

In this case, the headline says it all. Star Trek is the world we wish for – and Star Wars is the world we want to avoid at all costs. Star Wars is about…war. Star Trek is about exploring, forging new partnerships, and imagining the world as it could be.

The Star Wars mythos is chaotic in nature, a dystopian mix of Donald Trump, Vladmir Putin and The Hunger Games. It’s an exploding meth lab compared to Trek’s hard-fought paradise.

Star Trek certainly has conflict, but only in the service of preserving a world we would all want to live in. Trek engages viewers intellectually, with episodes that present moral dilemmas, complex characters, and thought-provoking situations. As viewers, we are invited to think about deeper questions. It asks that we think more critically about the world we all share.

My musical friend would have you believe Star Wars is thrilling and it’s hard to deny that. But that’s just it — Star Wars is pretty much just a fantasy shoot-em-up. Star Trek has had incredible scientific impact, predicting cell phones, tablets, touchscreens, Bluetooth, and universal translators, among other inventions. On a cultural level, Trek has had cool guest stars like Stephen Hawking, Kelsey Grammar, and Whoopi Goldberg, among others.

And for richness of characters, Trek has Wars beat by a mile. We get to know the characters well through rich back stories over long-running shows like The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Not to mention the original series, Star Trek: Enterprise, and all the new series created in the past few years, all available for streaming.

There’s no way such a hopeful vision for the world – Star Trek – loses out to a space-based western like Star Wars. Beam me up, Scotty!

–Roderick Benns is the publisher of the Advocate.