Star Trek Or Star Wars
Eufrasia Radich
J. J. Abrams has been heavily involved in both franchises, as director and producer of Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and producer of Star Trek Beyond (2016), and director and producer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Star Trek (2009) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) are each the first entries in expected trilogies. These films received favorable critical and commercial response and revived interest for both franchises. In addition to Abrams, actors such as Simon Pegg starred in both series. The newer films of the two franchises filmed major scenes in the United Arab Emirates. The desert scenes on the planet Jakku in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) were filmed in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi,[18] while scenes for cities in the film Star Trek Beyond (2016) were filmed in the Emirate of Dubai.[19]
Billionaire Peter Thiel told Dowd "I'm a capitalist. Star Wars is the capitalist show. Star Trek is the communist one". He further stated "There is no money in Star Trek because you just have the transporter machine that can make anything you need. The whole plot of Star Wars starts with Han Solo having this debt that he owes and so the plot in Star Wars is driven by money."[47]
Additionally, more spin-off media is also underway after the debut of Star Wars Rebels, a television series set in between the Star Wars prequels and the original trilogy, The Mandalorian, a television series set in between the original trilogy and the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and an anthology of stand-alone Star Wars films, starting with Rogue One, which was released in December 2016, and Solo following in May 2018.[61]
Crossovers are nothing new for the Star Trek franchise. That tradition began in 1987 when original series star DeForest Kelley reprised his role as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But in the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, there's a unique crossover coming between this series and the animated program Star Trek: Lower Decks. For the first time in Star Trek history, two characters from an animated series will appear in live-action, and they will be portrayed by the same performers who provide their voices. As seen in the new Strange New Worlds trailer below, Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid are reprising their respective roles as Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler.
The year is 2023, and the Fast & Furious and Mission: Impossible franchises are still as popular and successful as ever. Debuting in 2001, The Fast and the Furious has spawned 11 films, grossed almost $7 billion worldwide, and catapulted Vin Diesel from the compassionate solider who died in Saving Private Ryan to an international action superstar. Since 1996's Mission: Impossible, the six films have grossed over $3.5 billion and reaffirmed Tom Cruise as the world's biggest movie star.
The intricately made starfighter brought millions of people along for the ride as a group of plucky Rebel pilots assaulted the Death Star. Now the Star Wars scale model is being sold at auction, with bids starting at $400,000.
Who doesn't love the way William Shatner talks? "Bones ... Spock! BonesSpock! I ... can't ... believe we just got shot. I ... hope ... that this is ... over." But come on, seriously? This guy is trusted to command a star ship?
With the exception of the score to "Wrath of Khan," "Star Wars" has the better score. It is iconic. You're humming the title credits theme for "Star Wars" right now as you read this and as soon as you read about Darth Vader the "Imperial March" will start playing in your head. John Williams is a master and he crafted an unforgettable theme that defined just how memorable and iconic film music can be in popular culture.
And why should the accuracy of the physics matter? These are movies. Anybody who argues that the universe is more realistically modeled in "Star Trek" than "Star Wars" and says that matters, is wrong. Sorry Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Look, light sabers are awesome, but they're about as realistic as warp drives or an engineer who can fix any problem with a star ship simply by "Giving it a li'itle mer time cap'in!" Just because "Star Trek" inspired a generation of NASA engineers, that doesn't mean we're any more likely to happen upon a race of Klingon aliens flying ships equipped with invisibility cloaks any time soon.
Both weapons are iconic, but the light saber is a truly unique idea to come from Star Wars. Hand-held phaser-type guns have been portrayed in science fiction film and books since people started writing science fiction. And how many memes have come from phasers? Think about all of the squirrel lightsaber fights and how they'd look with phasers.
Even with all of the mismanagement and poor planning, (WTF, putting a direct open line of fire to destroy the Death Star?) The Empire had real Galactic domination in mind. They weren't after a star system or two, they wanted it all and woe be to any "Star Trek" Federation, Klingon, Romulan or even Borg that should have the misfortune to go up against Empire hardware. They wouldn't stand a chance.
That is just the beginning of a long list of "moral" lessons relentlessly pushed by "Star Wars." Lessons that starkly differentiate this saga from others that seem superficially similar, like "Star Trek." (We'll take a much closer look at some stark divergences between these two sci-fi universes below.)
It is essential to understand the radical departure taken by genuine science fiction, which comes from a diametrically opposite literary tradition -- a new kind of storytelling that often rebels against those very same archetypes Campbell venerated. An upstart belief in progress, egalitarianism, positive-sum games -- and the slim but real possibility of decent human institutions.
This truly is a different point of view, in direct opposition to older, elitist creeds that preached passivity and awe in nearly every culture, where a storyteller's chief job was to flatter the oligarchic patrons who fed him. Imagine Achilles refusing to accept his ordained destiny, taking up his sword and hunting down the Fates, demanding that they give him both a long life and a glorious one! Picture Odysseus telling both Agamemnon and Poseidon to go chase themselves, then heading off to join Daedalus in a garage start-up company, mass producing wheeled and winged horses so that mortals could swoop about the land and air, like gods -- the way common folk do today. Even if they fail, and jealous Olympians crush them, what a tale it would be.
That kind of myth does sell. Yet, even after rebelling against the Homeric archetype for generations, we children of Pericles, Ben Franklin and H.G. Wells remain a minority. So much so that Lucas can appropriate our hand-created tropes and symbols -- our beloved starships and robots -- for his own ends and get credited for originality.
Right on. "Star Wars" belongs to our dark past. A long, tyrannical epoch of fear, illogic, despotism and demagoguery that our ancestors struggled desperately to overcome, and that we are at last starting to emerge from, aided by the scientific and egalitarian spirit that Lucas openly despises. A spirit we must encourage in our children, if they are to have any chance at all.
I am a Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. I have won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for my blog, Starts With A Bang, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. My two books, Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive, Beyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe, are available for purchase at Amazon. Follow me on Twitter @startswithabang.
To the casual observer, Star Trek and Star Wars look a lot alike, beyond the obvious similarity between their names. Each has a lot of spaceships, strange worlds, ray guns, and aliens, many of whom look startlingly like humans with prosthetics and makeup. But of course geeks are not casual observers, and we know just how different they are.
First all the comments I am seeing here are taking what Stewart said way too seriously. Come on guys do you really think this crossover is gonna happen? Secondly if they can start filming in LA again why is the second season of Picard not up and running yet?
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