Am I too wishy-washy? (one of a series I hope to complete)
Robert Frost allegedly said “A liberal is a man too broad
minded to his own side in a quarrel.” Since I am a liberal my husband has often
said that I’m reluctant to offend anyone
by being this open minded.
This has led me to ponder several somewhat amusing conflicts
that well, quite frankly I’m not really caring about but nonetheless I have
random thoughts on. Since today is May 4th
aka Star Wars day I’m starting off with-
Star Wars V Star Trek.
Ah yes, the Force vrs the Trekies. Some would argue you can’t love both the way
I do and have to pick one franchise over the other. Some argue that Star Wars is pure fantasy
nonsense whereas Star Trek is more appropriate because it has Earth, takes
place primarily within the Milky Way galaxy sometime in mankind’s semi-distant
future and has realistic scientific applications of the science in this Sci-Fi franchise. Some
would argue that Star Wars is better with its epic modern mythology and
retelling of Joseph Campbell’s hero with a thousand faces and character archetypes
that have touched the human dramatic spirt for over three thousand years in
faraway outer space. Star Wars has
made an intergalactic cruise ship more money as compared to Star Trek ($51.1
billon v 10.6 billion). On the other
hand Star Trek has more overall content with 13 movies vrs Star Wars’ 11 and 879 episodes of various
Star Trek series as opposed to the 423 episodes of the various Star Wars series.
And a quick google search produced at
least a dozen memes where fans of one franchise accuse the other of having the
worser of the two.
One of the most hysterical illustrations of this rivalry can
be found on YouTube in College Humor’s Star Wars Vrs. Star Trek video from 2016
where they ask the question which sci-fi fantasy franchise is nerdier. The video goes back and forth between Jean Luc
Piccard and Darth Vader on the various reasons why each franchise presents an
implausible reality of how their respective universes work. Piccard accuses Vader of using magic (video
ironically at this moment inserts an image of Q a.k.a. Star Trek TNG magical
alien behind Piccard) because the force is unscientific. Vader on the other
hand disses the transporter technology which, if per Piccard you use actual
logic/science the beam me up process is a near impossibility given the complex physics/physiology
in having human beings instantaneously move 40 trillion trillion worth of atoms
from the Troposphere to the Exosphere and making sure your arms and legs end up
back where they belong. Piccard then
retorts with Midi-Chlorians which Vader dismisses even though per George Lucas’
own vision he planned on the Midi-Chlorian beings being that which bound his
entire Star Wars universe together. There’s
also a lot of fun easter eggs referencing each franchises’ tropes like how
Riker is always leaning his foot on the back of a chair and how an Ewok managed
to capture a troop of Storm-Troopers. Both loathe to acknowledge the less than
stellar entries in their franchises (odd number Star Treks, the Star Wars prequel
& sequel movies) and I suppose the whole reason why College Humor tackled
this subject matter is because if your macho like James T. Kirk or Han Solo you’re
too busy being a man of action to argue things like if Han or Greedo shot 1st
(it was Han) or nitpick about how often
Data used contractions(I think at least 26) even though the showrunners kept
emphasizing as an android his positronic brain was incapable of processing them.
Still the reality is both would not necessarily exist if it
weren’t for other earlier Sci-fi movies/shows that both Gene Roddenberry and
George Lucas no doubt saw like the 1930’s Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers movie
serials or the 1950’s with Forbidden Planet where Roddenberry copied the 3
person exploratory trope from that movie the way George Lucas stole the opening
scroll of Flash Gordon for his movie.
George Lucas has even admitted he attended a Star Trek convention and if
it weren’t for Star Wars’ massive success Paramount Pictures wouldn’t have
decided to try to take a decade old & theoretically dead TV show and revive
it with a major motion picture.
Furthermore, most fans of both franchises share the same attitude with
those Wars/Trek media projects that came after that which they were exposed to
around 7 years of age. This is better
known as the Star Wars/Star Trek that wasn’t my Star Wars/Star Trek growing up sucks
phenomenon. I’ve taken to watching just
as many YouTube channels decrying how badly Star Trek “Discovery” or Star Wars “The
Last Jedi” are as I have the actual Star Trek/Star Wars shows & movies.
Since I consider myself a fan of both I feel I can be
objective about both. I agree with Star
Wars fans that Episode IV and V are the best and starting with the Ewoks on “Return
of the Jedi” the movie franchise has gone downhill movie-wise. Nonetheless
even in Star Wars IV some of the dialogue between Leia and Governor Tarkin was
a bit soap-opera-ish (Per Mark Hamil the dialogue was horrible in the initial script)
and obviously no one consulted Mr. Lucas about the fact Luke & Leia were
supposed to be brother & sister (although in hindsight I’m not sure if Mr.
Lucas wanted Luke & Leia to be brother & sister) hence the now creepy
passionate kiss Leia gives Luke in “Empire Strikes Back”. I also
agree the "Clone Wars" TV show was much better than the actual "Clone Wars" movie
and some of Disney+ forays into Star Wars TV like "Rebels" & "The Mandalorian" are good.
As to the Star Trek franchise. Yes Gene Roddenberry set the bar high with
an intellectual show.
Yes, there were plenty of good episodes like “City on the Edge of
Forever” where Kirk had the heartbreaking decision to let his girlfriend die
because that’s what was supposed to happen in the 1930’s. But there were also plenty of bad episodes
such as “Spock’s Brain” and “The way to Eden” AKA the space hippie
episode. Star Trek Next Gen didn’t really
begin to produce good episodes until Season 3 and Season 1 featured a rehashing
of a plot from the original Star Trek episode “The Naked Time” along with other
questionable entries. Even after Star
Trek Next Gen hit its stride there were still bad episodes like how Lt. Barkley
caused the entire ship to de-evolve. Overall, I’d say that most episodes run the
gambit from very excellent to very awful with most forming a nice large mediocre
meh bell curve in the center.
So both Star Wars/Star Trek are good and I am OK with liking
both. Does that make me wishy washy flip
flop-y. Maybe. But what’s wrong with loving both of these universes
for their own reasons and not really wasting the time to argue about which is
better. Just open up the Disney+ or
Paramount+ app and enjoy 😊
