this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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Pffft, star trek is just as bad as star wars. Somehow people conveniently ignore everything with vulcans. Mind melds, horny/kill/die mode...
Where's that space opera switch meme? Trek is great, but it's science fiction in the same 'setting only' way that star wars is.
Star Trek and Star Wars are fundamentally different in their worldbuilding, storytelling and overall narrative direction, the only thing they share are spaceships and spacewar.
Maybe try watching some of the more famous Star Trek episodes and try analyzing the plot and events with a more critical eye, you will find entire interesting conversations, ethical dilemmas and perspectives you never considered unfold from doing this with the best of Star Trek.
Star Wars? This is far less commonly a fruitful endeavor to undertake (with the glorious exception being Andor of course).
Bullshit. The Death Star novel, most of NJO, KotOR II, Allston's parts of the X-Wing series, Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest and the Last of the Jedi, Medstar and Coruscant Nights, I can go on, - there's plenty of good things.
Ok fair I meant only the main movies and tv shows, I am not comparing the full universe of Star Wars to the full universe of Star Trek, especially because didn't Disney make all of that non-canon?
Also noted, Knights Of The Old Republic II is good, I mean it was peak Bioware so definitely I will take that note.
There is a DNA that is fundamentally different to Star Trek though, an ability to be both epic and everyday, big existential war and small micro story, philosophical and then action packed. There is plenty of awful Star Trek... ooof plenty of it.. but there is also a spirit to Star Trek that I think makes it different than Star Wars which isn't to say there isn't good Scifi within the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars is about syncretic understanding of life and story and morality, - say, I'd trust a Star Wars fan who's not a humanities major to understand what anti-fascism is more than a humanities major who's not a Star Wars fan. I don't think I can describe it better than Lucas himself does, and he seems to have achieved the opening of his museum telling lots on the subject.
Star Trek I haven't watched enough to judge. But I think they are orthogonal, where Star Trek has idealism, Star Wars has life and chaos, and where Star Trek has philosophy, there Star Wars has just the story, and where Star Trek has neutrality, Star Wars has choice.
No, you can't call Star Trek idealistic, or at least you can't contrast it to Star Wars as more idealistic.
Star Trek is VERY cynical about the capacity of humans and other sentient species to do evil.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Star_Trek
Star Wars is far more idealistic, evil is about power and a cynical leaders that do anything to get more power... Star Trek has a consistently much more unnerving portrayal of evil as a much more nuanced force that is often irrational and difficult to resolve into pure pursuit of power that it is always attracted to it.
Star Wars has different kinds of evil. It has YV, it has Killick hives, it even has drug addicted sects. In any case that's not the meaning of the word "idealistic" I meant.