Star Trek vs. Star Wars: Where Do Your Loyalties Lie?

For me, Trek has stood the test of time, whereas (and again this is just me) Star Wars has not.

I saw Star Wars when I was seven years old in 1977. EVERYTHING was Star Wars for me back then. Toys, posters, blankets, napkins, birthday party paper plates, shampoo, you name it! Empire came out and ZOMG IT WAS BETTER THAN STAR WARS!

I used to wish I was Luke Skywalker, and drew the Battle of Hoth in my workbook instead of doing my math work. I wanted nothing more than a lightsaber! The toys kept coming and coming!

'83 came and Star Wars seemed over... Until the mid 90s when there was a Renaissance of Star Wars collectables. Fandom happened all over again.

1997 and the Special Editions came out. It was fun back then to pick out the changes. More toys on the horizon.

1999 and the most anticipated film of the year- Episode 1. Went in with guarded expectations. Bits were cool (pod race), bits were not so cool (Jar Jar), and the climactic 3-way battle was outstanding! McGregor made an excellent young Obi-Wan.

Attack of the Clones sucked. :lol

Revenge of the Sith saw me go to a movie premiere dressed up for the first and only time (as Obi-Wan complete with a beard I grew for a few months and shaved off afterward). I thought it was great...

However after ROTS I thought it would be the end of the toys, memorabillia etc. It was anything but. Stores were SATURATED with this stuff! It all became too much for me and left a bad taste in my mouth. I gave up on Star Wars in 2008. Sold nearly all of my collection on ebay. Haven't watched one of the films or purchased a single piece of SW related stuff since.

"If" (and this is a big "if") Disney one day releases the original theatrical version of "Star Wars" on bluray it will be my last purchase in this franchise.


At the same time...

I started watching TOS reruns in the mid 70s. They were a little weird (and sometimes downright scary with the M-113 Salt Creature), but it was fun watching Captain Kirk get into a fight as it reminded me of "Batman." :lol

Saw The Motion Picture in the theater in '79. Not too sure if I remember liking it or not.

However in 1982 Wrath of Khan came out and "cemented" my love for Trek. I could not wait until the next film installment came along.

1987 saw the premiere of Next Generation. While it had its ups and downs, I watched it every week unitl the 3rd season came along and TNG kicked into high gear! Watched it religiously until the final episode that was shown on the jumbotron at the Skydome (now Rogers) Staduim in Toronto in 1994. By this point I was a full fledged Trekkie (Trekker whatever :lol).

My Trek fandom grew in leaps and bounds. The mid 90s was a great time to be a Trek fan. There were several conventions a year to go to with tons of memorabillia (most of which dried up when Paramount dropped the hammer on dealers).

I watched the movies, and the other series- DS9 and Voyager. I couldn't get into Enterprise though.

Diamond Select fulfilled my desire for more Trek stuff, while I went on a quest to have the most screen accurate WOK Monster Maroon uniform (eventually becoming an accurate Admiral Kirk impression).

But I kept craving Trek, long after I gave up on Star Wars.


Like I said, I harbour no ill-will toward anyone who loves Star Wars "more than" Trek. Trek has just stuck with me.


Kevin
 
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Star Trek is an old buddy who stuck with me for years through thick and thin.

Star Wars is the most beautiful girl I ever dated who taught me a lot about myself in high school. Unfortunately she didn't age well and, over the years, became crazy, evil and stupid.

Firefly was a pretty girl that I never got to know well because she died tragically and unexpectedly. It still gives me heartache to think about her. I think it was true love while it lasted.



But I'm starting to get worried about my buddy. Last time (Into the Darkness) he wasn't quite himself.
 
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I was born in 1965 so Star Trek re-runs were a big part of my childhood and will always have a warm spot in my heart for it, but Star Wars just changed everything for me.....you couldn't spit without it landing on some product with a Star Wars logo on it:) it was an amazing time and I loved it! So it's Star Wars for me:)

Robert
 
Star Trek. We don't deal in "Blah blah blah is a path to the dark side" crap. Also, we don't let genocidal mad men off the hook for just tossing some old guy off a catwalk.
 
Michael Bergeron said:
Apples and oranges. I love them both.
Click to expand...

dbuck said:
^ This. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Click to expand...

This. Love 'em both for different reasons.


For the fans who cite to the unevenness of Star Wars products as a part of their declining interest in Star Wars, I have to agree. In terms of the two franchises, these days I get more consistent enjoyment from Star Trek than Star Wars. That may change moving forward, when Disney starts doing more of the new trilogy stuff. Or it may not.

I think, perhaps, the best way I can describe it is that I loved Star Wars much, much more than Star Trek, but my love for it took some serious hits in the last 15 years. I grew up loving the original trilogy, having been born the year that ANH came out. I grew up with Star Wars. When I was in my "tween" years (which we didn't call "tween" years back then), I kinda lost interest in Star Wars, but beginning around 1992, my interest grew exponentially as new material was released. The Zahn trilogy, the X-wing/Tie fighter games, Dark Forces, etc., all drew me in. But starting around 1999, that all began to nose-dive for me and I ended up feeling very "betrayed" by the franchise as a whole. What had once seemed a sign of guaranteed quality became a symbol of mediocrity living on the strength of the brand itself.

This happened across the franchise, I felt. The novels became really awful (I read all of them up until the Black Fleet Crisis and then gave up). The games became crappy and poorly supported (largely due to LucasArts trying to become a publisher rather than a development house), and the focus shifted from the OT to the prequels. At the same time, Lucas basically seemed to be trying to deny the OT -- in the form I grew up with -- ever existed.

This really, really frustrated me. I could've ignored the PT stuff, if there were other avenues by which I could get my OT fix, but that was almost nowhere to be seen. I could've continued enjoying Star Wars if Lucas wasn't constantly messing with the OT itself. I was particularly galled by the technical ineptitude on display with the 2004 DVDs. Even if you liked the Special Editions, there were problems in those that just boggled the mind, from inconsistent color timing to audio problems, etc. It was really amateurish, and nobody seemed to care.

During that time I went back to watching ST:TOS and occasionally TNG, and really enjoyed both. I have never really gotten into any of the other shows, so aside from the rather disappointing TNG films of the late 90s/early 2000s, I didnt' feel quite the sense of disappointment that I know many fans did. For me, JJ Trek has been...a mixed bag. Visually stunning, but lacking in a sense of seriousness that I felt made Trek stand apart. And the music sucked, too, which it definitely DID NOT for the older films.

I guess, however, I had nowhere near as far to fall in my disappointment for Trek as I did with Star Wars. As a result, these days, I'm about even in my fandom, and all of that has been considerably toned down to the point where I'm more concerned with preserving what I enjoyed than I am with trying to "make" myself love the newer stuff. I take it all as "optional" rather than "required" reading, if that makes sense. If it's good, great. I'll enjoy it. If not, eh, I'll criticize it, but the emotional sense of "DAMMIT!!!! WHY CAN'T THEY GET THIS RIGHT?!" is now gone for both franchises. It's more like ">Sigh< What a waste of potential. Oh well. What's for dinner?"
 
Trek, through and through. I don't hate Star Wars, though eps 1-3 were a kick in the crotch.

There's more to love or hate about Trek, over 700 episodes and twelve movies vs. currently six movies (not counting written material). It makes us ask serious questions about ourselves using starships and aliens. In fact, I'm a host on The Delta Quadrant: A Star Trek Voyager Podcast. Here's the link: http://www.trekmate.org.uk/category/the-delta-quadrant/

The show has evolved a lot since its beginnings, I'm the eighth host it has had. If interested, I suggest starting at the most recent episode to see what it has become and then going back (it was slightly unbearable to begin with).

Enough self promotion. All in all, Star Trek is Sci Fi, Star Wars is fantasy.
 
I have a love for both Series. Between the Two I have to Choose Trek. I am a member of the 501st and do not own a Star Trek Uniform. However with all the Garbage with Special Editions and the New Trilogy was nothing but one big pile of Lucas poo.

While Enterprise was bad (IMO) it did not fail as Epically as the New SW Trilogy Did. Then with the inclusion of new Movies the EU is going to be destroyed and I have no expectations for this new Star Wars Movies. The Only thing I have been excited for about Star Wars was the re-release on the OT in 3d and now they shelved those.

Star Trek has been and always will be my trusty old friend.
 
Although I consider myself to be a fan of both franchises Star Trek has always been my favorite, it just speaks to me more. I think that because Trek is set in our future I've always related to it more, while I "played" Star Wars as a kid Starfleet was something that I would have loved to have been a part of if it were real.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2
 
Star Trek has been loads of fun for 40+ years, and I've enjoyed several incarnations on the big and small screen. But if you weren't old enough to have seen Star Wars in '77 you can't appreciate how fresh and unique it was. It really was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. So for me it's Star Wars.
 
I like both of them. I probably like SW more because I was born a week before ANH came out. I had no choice but to be a SW fan. There's plenty of room for both. I don't know why people (not meaning anyone in this thread) try to turn it into a nerd war.
 
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