Star Trek or Star Wars: Which do you prefer?

[bonneyman]

A while back someone asked me who I liked better: Elvis or The Beatles. He said a study had been done, and you could tell alot about a person by which musical icon they chose. He said he was sure I was a Beatles Boy. He was shocked when I said Elvis.
I've been talking to someone recently and I thought I'd bring up a similar comparison just for fun.

Which do you prefer: Star Trek or Star Wars. Or both. Or neither. And why. No judgement, no ridicule. I won't be offended if you don't agree with me.

I prefer Star Trek. And though The Next Generation has alot of great stories, I really like the originals with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. And one of my favorite episodes from that series is "Arena", where Kirk gets into personal combat with a lizard creature called a Gorn. Once you get past the guy in the rubber suit (I met the actor who played the part - he said that suit was murder to film in on location in the desert!) it's a great story. Ingenuity, chemistry ( I still remember how to make gunpowder from wacthing that as a kid!), special effects, believable, exciting, great morale ending.

I don't consider myself a trekie. I have the movies on DVD, some of the books, and I've made an original phaser. But I don't dress up in Spock ears or Klingon foreheads

[bonneyman]

For Christmas every year my SIL seems to get me Star Trek gifts. A few years ago she bought me a Hallmark tree ornament from "Arena". (Every year Hallmark comes out with a different, limited-edition Star Trek ornament). I get alot of Gorn stuff from her!

[J.A.F.E.]

I far prefer Star Trek to Star Wars. Always have. I liked Star Wars but never as much and now it's just overdone. Too many movies it's just over commercialized and that detracts from it for me.

Not a huge Beetles fan - they did stuff I liked but C&W is more to my liking especially the twangy sigh, cry and die variety. But maybe the fact I'm not a John Lennon or Paul McCartney fan factors in.

That phaser is awesome! Well done.

[bonneyman]

I far prefer Star Trek to Star Wars. Always have. I liked Star Wars but never as much and now it's just overdone. Too many movies it's just over commercialized and that detracts from it for me.

Not a huge Beetles fan - they did stuff I liked but C&W is more to my liking especially the twangy sigh, cry and die variety. But maybe the fact I'm not a John Lennon or Paul McCartney fan factors in.

That phaser is awesome! Well done.

Thanks! The body is made of wood, and the little bits and pieces were found at the local super-Ace hardware center. The wife and I went up and down every aisle looking for things that I could modify to what I needed. The emitter on the front is a combination of a garden hose cap, short strips of wire, and a caulk tube nozzle glued together and painted.
The smaller phaser "power pack" is separate and is held on by a strong magnet.


The communicator is a prop I bought at a second hand store. Battery powered, it has lights and sounds.

[J.A.F.E.]

I am quite impressed that looks amazing.

[bonneyman]

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 didn't do much for me. Some interesting characters, a few different stories.

But I did like the USS Defiant! Really like the ship design - a radical departure from the typical ST layout, no wussy stuff, all weapons! Received the model as a gift, painting it was a challenge. Simulated battle damage was an added touch.
But mounting the finished model after all that work on the cheapo plastic rod that was included in the kit was not going to happen. I kept my eyes open for a nice big chrome hubcap. Found one that must have come off of a Caddy or something. Polished that thing up to a mirror finish and put the model on it. Always gets compliments!

[Snaparxon]

Original Star Trek, didn't much care for the later ones. Great job on that phaser Is it set to stun?

[J.A.F.E.]

The Defiant looks great and right at home on the wheel cover. I wouldn't bet money on but I think that's a Plymouth from about 57 or so.

For me DS9 was was many of the characters were kind of hard to like or downright dislikeable. But still it was much better than the series ender Enterprise. Didn't like that at all.

[bonneyman]

Original Star Trek, didn't much care for the later ones. Great job on that phaser Is it set to stun?

No, it's locked on "FUN" - so the Mrs. doesn't use it on me!   

[Brophy]

Star Wars...

Nice job on the Phaser!!...from someone who does that for a living.

...rob

[bonneyman]

The Defiant looks great and right at home on the wheel cover. I wouldn't bet money on but I think that's a Plymouth from about 57 or so.

For me DS9 was was many of the characters were kind of hard to like or downright dislikeable. But still it was much better than the series ender Enterprise. Didn't like that at all.

What I like about the hubcap base is all the paint and detail I did to the underside of the model is visible as a reflection - you don't have to flip the model over (eek!) to look at them.

Yeah, Enterprise was hard to watch. I thought the temporal cold war tangent looked promising, but it didn't really go anywhere.

[bonneyman]

Star Wars...

Nice job on the Phaser!!...from someone who does that for a living.

...rob

Thanks!
I like the special effwcts work on SW - especially during space battle scenes. And the light sabre concept is pretty cool, too!

I saw a phaser prop advertised in a TV guide ad from the Franklin Mint. They wanted like $200 for the thing, and it didn't look like what I remembered. I said to myself, "Shoot, I could make a better looking prop than that for a lot less...." . And I did. I bought a copy of the old Technical Manual which had life-size views of the phaser in fine detail, plus a color chart. So I set to work. I made the display stand in the basic shape of the Federation badge and made it in such a way that it looks like the phaser is floating unsupported. I always thought one day I'd have a office and work desk and would have it on the top as a conversation piece. The office never materialized (pun intended!)
For a while I thought about making the phaser from Star Trek: the Wrath of Khan but just never got around to it.

And the most often asked question I get is, "Are you going to make an original series tricorder?" 

[J.A.F.E.]

I only watched a few episodes and to me the whole thing was a hot mess. The one thing I did kind of like was the antenna on the Andoreans (the blue guys) moved and I thought that clever.

[DeadNutz]

Star Trek came out when I was in high school. Some guys I knew were absolute Trekkies but I watched a couple episodes and that was it. I have never watched any of the Star Wars movies and I do not plan to watch any. One day I had to visit a special effects company that we sold plywood to. They had a room with all the Star Wars props on display such as the original light sabers they used in the movie that the company made. What I found the most interesting there was the miniature cities and landscapes they were building especially the stuff for Flight of the Intruder.

William Shatner hosted a horse show every year where we kept our horses. He would get sick and tired of people coming up to him and saying "live long and prosper" while flashing the hand sign and his reply was always "get a life."

[Papaw]

I prefer Star Trek myself. Too much stuff in the Star Wars movies. My wife and kids are Trekkies, and the wife has a Star Fleet Academy decal on the rear window of her car .