Star Wars vs Star Trek - the ultimate nerd battle

[Grey Fox]

I've never heard anyone argue so much trying to prove that something so-so was influenced by something really bad.

[Alcibiades]

Star trek probably.....Started with TNG, Voyager really hooked me( ), and DS9 was pretty entertaining with the dominion wars arc.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I love both but Star Trek edges out, having disappointed me less often over the years.

[DontSayBanana]

I dunno.  I've been having a huge relapse into Trekkiedom, lately.

I haven't felt comfortable calling myself a Star Wars nerd since Episode II came out.  Episode I was just underwhelming... II all but killed the franchise for me.  And I decided I hate most of the prequel design themes (games are still OK, though; have games running now of KOTOR and X-Wing Alliance).

I'm definitely more of a Trekkie; a friend and I were busy geeking out to TNG yesterday, and I realized I'm way too encyclopedic on Next Gen (soapbox: look at the blueprints, people; the Galaxy is the carrier, not the Akira).

[Syt]

Star Wars. Though my appreciation has gone way downhill after the introduction of the Expanded Universe (Thrawn trilogy was ok, but everything else ... yuk - except some of the short story collections that focus on background characters, like Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina) and the first two prequel movies.

I still enjoy reading the comics now and then, though, and Star Wars games, though most of the time I pretend the prequels and EU don't exist.

Me and a few friends debated recently about starting a Star Wars RPG group (the old West End Games D6 books are, uhm, available online), but we settled for the FireflySerenity RPG instead. Still, the old source books are marvellous. The new D20 RPG doesn't have anything on it.

I always liked Star Trek, but growing up, in a time when not everyone had a VCR yet, the Star Wars movies were more "exclusive" and elusive, with only the novelizations (plus the Alan Dean Foster book "Splinter of the Mind's Eye") and the Marvel comics series (which I still love) available while Star Trek kept being re-run.

Of course a lot of the fascination came from Star Wars being a kind of unique feat of film making and pushing the enevelope for special effects in an age when CGI hadn't taken over moviemaking to the point that anything was possible. As a kid that was overwhelmingly cool, from space ships to lightsabers to droids. Of course we had all the toys. Additionally, the plot was easy to follow.

Trek, on the other hand, was much more story driven, and my appreciation for it grew when I got older. Still, old Star Wars is still my favorite, even if a lot of it is childhood nostalgia.

I recently watched the movie Fanboys and a lot of it seemed eerily familiar.

[Syt]

Has Lucas ever said he was inspired by Dune?  He has certainly acknowledged the other sources that were discussed.

Googling this I get a number of sites saying that the link's something Lucas has acknowledged in numerous interviews.  It would be, frankly, more unusual if he weren't influenced by Dune.  He's making a science fiction film and Dune was by that point, I believe, widely considered a classic of the genre.

Lucas has always admitted that he drew inspirations from many areas - the old saturday matinee classic western and sci-fi shows, the Akira Kurosawa movies (he stole his screen wipe technique for scene transitions, and Episode IV is loosely based on Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress), etc.

Kurosawa clearly stands out as an influence for the first movie. In interviews Lucas said that he liked his movies, because even though they took place in a strange culture that he knew nothing about you could follow the plot line easily and get immersed in the story's world. It was something he wanted to achieve for the first Star Wars movie, which is why throughout the movie there's little explanations about aliens, spaceships, moisture vaporators etc. All those things are taken for granted within the context of the movie and not explicitly spelled out and exlpained for the viewer.

[CountDeMoney]

I love both but Star Trek edges out, having disappointed me less often over the years.

Exactly.  My Star Wars fandom was on the brink to begin with when overgrown teddy bears defeated Imperial Legions, but that abomination of the prequels totally demolished it for me.

Star Trek has its issues as a franchise, but the strength of TOS, Khan, and the superior writing of the STTNG from season 4 onwards has kept it alive.  Fuck DS9 and Voyager, and they really screwed up Enterprise, which had so much promise, but ST edges out SW for me.

[jimmy olsen]

What do you have against DS9?

[Barrister]

What do you have against DS9?

Indeed.  DS9 (about season 3 onward) was brilliant.

[DisturbedPervert]

TOS, TNG, and DS9 were all good despite bad some episodes or slow starts.  Voyager wasn't that good, and Enterprise sucked balls.

Star Wars utterly beats the crap out of Star Trek when it comes to computer games though. 

[Barrister]

Star Wars utterly beats the crap out of Star Trek when it comes to computer games though.

I booted up Birth of the Federation the other day.  It still beats Rebellion all to hell.

[katmai]

I wish I could find my BoF cd.

[Lucidor]

Trek, but the only series that I really like is TNG.

Also - damnit Psellus, you are making me read more than the first book in the Dune series!

[DisturbedPervert]

I was thinking X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Jedi Knight, and KOTOR.  Didn't play Birth of the Federation, but Rebellion wasn't good

[Duque de Bragança]

Both
*insert nerd quote*