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 .

[john k]

Star Trek came out when I was in school,  my dad would tell me to turn off that junk, but I still like it.   Probably the power of the writing, and the strong main characters.   Star Wars came out when my wife and I were dating,   had to see it of course,  the last two stank, but still watch them for the escapism and  entertainment value. 

[Hootbro]

Star Wars until Disney took over the franchise.

[strik9]

Keep then both forever for others.  I prefer Red Dwarf and Dr. Who.

  That goofy typical American Hollywood macho crap ruined all the later trek stuff.

[skfarmer]

i like bits and pieces of both but star trek comes out on top. good memories of watching at a s a kid.

both have become too commercialized.

[highland512]

Neither, I would much rather a good historical documentary. Think history channel pre 2005.

[fatfillup]

Never got into either, watched the series when it came out on TV as a kid but haven't seen any of the movies, just bits and pieces here and there.


Now, James Bond on the other hand,,,,,,,,,,,,,I'll go the first weekend everytime

[bonneyman]

Never got into either, watched the series when it came out on TV as a kid but haven't seen any of the movies, just bits and pieces here and there.


Now, James Bond on the other hand,,,,,,,,,,,,,I'll go the first weekend everytime

I liked pretty much every Bond until Daniel Craig took over.

Although Roger Moore was my favorite.

[J.A.F.E.]

To me Craig looks like a Russian Bond villain. Never got how he was cast in the role.

[fatfillup]

I'll watch regardless of who is playing bond but I don't mind Craig.  Sean Connery is my fav though.  I liked Roger Moore when I was young because he had more gadgets and gizmos then the other Bonds.

[Lookin4_67GalaxieConv]

Neither, Mad Max! 

[J.A.F.E.]

The first Mad Max was good. Second not so good the third better but honestly I had a hard time following what was supposed to be happening at times. Never even bothered with 4 and there are supposedly two or three more in the works I won't bother watching.

Bond is really the only one that holds up over many sequels (and apparently Harry Potter that I never saw).

[fatfillup]

Haven't seen a Harry Potter either.  I did see the first Hunger Games

[Rusty]

Star Trek who can't love a basically Navy show written by a WW2 AAC bomber pilot?

[TWX]

Star Trek over Star Wars, at least prior to Abrams.

Star Wars is basically a fantasy coming-of-age story set in space.  Young man learns of a quest to save a princess, seeks the help of the sage, finds his old life destroyed and must now go on the quest, the quest turns into a bigger thing and he saves the day at the end using the mythical power that the sage taught him to use.

Star Trek in all its Roddenberry forms was about a crew exploring space and what they encountered.  TOS was a lot more the Kirk-show, and I would argue a bit to a fault (the captain should not leave his ship, the flagship of the star nation, at the drop of a hat), but generally the crew had to work as a crew and had to support and watch each others' backs as a crew.  As far as I'm concerned, TNG is the best Trek because the captain was a good captain, he remained at his post, he commanded his ship, but he trusted his crew to do their jobs.  When he left the command deck to personally get a status update he didn't micromanage those he visited, and his XO more rightfully was the working-man, forced to run around and lead away teams, etc.  Even that might have been a bit of a stretch, but it made more sense than the captain doing it.  Additionally the crew in TNG occasionally found themselves in situations where they didn't prevail, like some encounters with the Borg, or in dealing with a Romulan spy in, "Data's Day," or they only just prevailed like against the Borg in, "Best of Both Worlds."

Contrast that to Voyager, Janeway was the warrior, the engineer, the scientist, the tactician, the diplomat, at all times.  She was constantly telling the Torres what to do in Engineering.  It's OK for her to occasionally take on these roles like Picard did on rare occasion, but the captain is supposed to put their trust in their officers.

I have mixed feelings on DS9.  It bothered me that the ranking officer of a starbase in such a diplomatically sensitive area had such a low rank (full commander) and their promoting the character to captain and giving him a ship to go exploring didn't seem to make a lot of sense when the duties at the station still should have been full-time.  Frankly a low-rank admiral should have been in overall command of the station and the sector, and there should have been some real demarcations between station personnel and ship personnel.  Unfortunately ratings didn't work well for that.

I didn't really watch Enterprise.  When Scott Bakula's character didn't beam-in and say, "oh boy," at the beginning it lost something for me.

[bonneyman]

Star Trek over Star Wars, at least prior to Abrams.

Star Wars is basically a fantasy coming-of-age story set in space.  Young man learns of a quest to save a princess, seeks the help of the sage, finds his old life destroyed and must now go on the quest, the quest turns into a bigger thing and he saves the day at the end using the mythical power that the sage taught him to use.

Star Trek in all its Roddenberry forms was about a crew exploring space and what they encountered.  TOS was a lot more the Kirk-show, and I would argue a bit to a fault (the captain should not leave his ship, the flagship of the star nation, at the drop of a hat), but generally the crew had to work as a crew and had to support and watch each others' backs as a crew.  As far as I'm concerned, TNG is the best Trek because the captain was a good captain, he remained at his post, he commanded his ship, but he trusted his crew to do their jobs.  When he left the command deck to personally get a status update he didn't micromanage those he visited, and his XO more rightfully was the working-man, forced to run around and lead away teams, etc.  Even that might have been a bit of a stretch, but it made more sense than the captain doing it.  Additionally the crew in TNG occasionally found themselves in situations where they didn't prevail, like some encounters with the Borg, or in dealing with a Romulan spy in, "Data's Day," or they only just prevailed like against the Borg in, "Best of Both Worlds."

Contrast that to Voyager, Janeway was the warrior, the engineer, the scientist, the tactician, the diplomat, at all times.  She was constantly telling the Torres what to do in Engineering.  It's OK for her to occasionally take on these roles like Picard did on rare occasion, but the captain is supposed to put their trust in their officers.

I have mixed feelings on DS9.  It bothered me that the ranking officer of a starbase in such a diplomatically sensitive area had such a low rank (full commander) and their promoting the character to captain and giving him a ship to go exploring didn't seem to make a lot of sense when the duties at the station still should have been full-time.  Frankly a low-rank admiral should have been in overall command of the station and the sector, and there should have been some real demarcations between station personnel and ship personnel.  Unfortunately ratings didn't work well for that.

I didn't really watch Enterprise.  When Scott Bakula's character didn't beam-in and say, "oh boy," at the beginning it lost something for me.

DS9 was interesting because it was the first series that took place aboard an alien vessel, not a Federation one. So the rule book had to be adapted, and -with all the aliens dropping in - it made for exciting possibilities. Though the Dominion War did drag on too long.

Voyager was OK, never really liked Janeway and how she hammered home the prime directive all the time then disregarded it when it suited her. And how they ended the series was a real let down. Too quick, too neat, nothing about the crew re-acclimating to earth life. The final episode or two should have been about how all of the crew were adjusting to home life.

Enterprise had such potential - a clean slate to do all sorts of things and fill in the blank century between ST: First Contact and TOS. All they had to do was make sure they didn't get too far out of what was to follow. Instead they dithered with recycled stories, and the two big story lines (Xindi and the Temporal Cold War) are never mentioned afterwards. You'd think that things that big would have been mentioned later on. Though they did have that Borg connection and the thing with the Tholians and the USS Defiant (Connecting to "The Tholian Web" TOS).

[TWX]

DS9 was interesting because it was the first series that took place aboard an alien vessel, not a Federation one. So the rule book had to be adapted, and -with all the aliens dropping in - it made for exciting possibilities. Though the Dominion War did drag on too long.

Voyager was OK, never really liked Janeway and how she hammered home the prime directive all the time then disregarded it when it suited her. And how they ended the series was a real let down. Too quick, too neat, nothing about the crew re-acclimating to earth life. The final episode or two should have been about how all of the crew were adjusting to home life.

Enterprise had such potential - a clean slate to do all sorts of things and fill in the blank century between ST: First Contact and TOS. All they had to do was make sure they didn't get too far out of what was to follow. Instead they dithered with recycled stories, and the two big story lines (Xindi and the Temporal Cold War) are never mentioned afterwards. You'd think that things that big would have been mentioned later on. Though they did have that Borg connection and the thing with the Tholians and the USS Defiant (Connecting to "The Tholian Web" TOS).

My biggest complaint with DS9 was their heel-face-turn to come up with the Dominion War in the first place.  You'd think that with their early visits to the Gamma Quadrant, they'd have figured out that the wormhole was dumping them off in the middle of another star nation, or that the Federation would have instantly assumed that this was happening, fast-tracked the Bajorans into the Federation, and reaffirmed its alliances with adjacent groups like the Klingons and worked to make peace with the Cardassians.  If the Dominion War had been conceived-of with the series, there would have been talk of its existence before it was met head-on, possibly even by a couple of seasons.  It could have been a bogeyman equivalent to how the Borg was for TNG.

But then, over the last several years I've been big into David Weber's Honor Harrington series, which features wormholes and their exploitation for both commercial and military use, including when two adversaries control opposite ends of a wormhole.  In that scenario, basically both sides go crazy with militarization, ready to destroy anything that comes through on almost a hair-trigger, and ideally, one entity has the forces to control both sides of a wormhole, even if the far-side's radius of control is limited something short like a light-minute.


I wasn't thrilled with Voyager's end either, but in some ways the abruptness actually made sense.  Long, slow, arguably boring history is punctuated by important events that fundamentally change things.  Perry's sailing into Tokyo Harbor to force Japan to open to trade.  The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip that led to WWI.  Germany's roll into the Sudetenland.  The two nuclear bombings that led to the surrender of Japan, all fundamental changes that happened quickly amidst the otherwise slow-burn that is human history.  They didn't cover the psychological effects of the return of the crew to the Federation, but I'm not sure how they could have done that without it being, well, kind of boring to watch.  After all, neither Picard's post-Borg storyline nor Sisko's post-Wolf-359 storyline were especially popular with the audience, and that was even having time to continue back to normal stories.


I did realize something else though, back on Star Wars vs. Star Trek that is important.  In Star Wars they're way, WAY too cavalier about the destruction of planets.  Planets are valuable, they're places to live that don't require vast amounts of labor and machinery to maintain livable.  Destroying planets themselves is extremely foolhardy.  Sure, wiping-out the existing population might in-universe make sense, but the ecosystem and the rock itself has huge value as a place to have one's population live.  Destroying that is extremely foolish and short-sighted.