A little premise, this thread is not meant to be a place for mindless flamewars between sociopathic fanboys.

This thread is meant to be a place where it is possible comparing the fundamental purposes of both franchises and discussing every aspect of the pros and cons of any franchise in relaxed and friendly way between conscious and intelligent mature estimators of both.

The first topic would be about the fundamental purpose of existence of both franchises.

STAR TREK main purpose obviously was a very wise way to allow the watching public to take a joyrney in exploring trough the human race historical important mooments and light phylosophical discussions. All this made entertaining by creating intelligent plots based in a futuristic Sci-Fi stage.
Everybody who was watching the series had a very uncommon experience to see everything around him in a new very different perspective trough the almost perfect becouse allready unbiased minds of neutral and objective evoluted humans, thate allready were all above the present current human misery.

STAR WARS on the other hand main purpose was merely pure entertainement for young public, by creating a huge Sci-FI based soap opera plot, with the only useful message for the pubic, which was merely Democracy of enlightened people is good and Dictatorship of evil people is bad. On the contrary this franchise is based completely on concept of escapism, where the public is not given the possibility to think about his own reality of situations parallel in real modern society, while being entertained, but given instead a vessel to empty their minds and follow up only fantasy based fairytale for teenagers.

Question:
Between STAR TREK and STAR WARS franchises which one do you prefer ?

Choices:
STAR TREK - For many personal reasons
STAR TREK - I like the parallels to real life
STAR WARS - For many personal reasons
STAR WARS - I like the fairytales escapism
Both Equally - They both got their appeal

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ALPHAKNIGHT,

I can relate to ALPHAKNIGHT's general distinction between these two movies and they encompass my personal thoughts about the two series. In reflecting on the STAR TREK franchise, I didn't respond to the survey, because while I was tempted to select "I like the parallels to real life" option, my interest in STAR TREK was more than its relationship to real life. Additionally one can make an argument (which in some ways ALPHAKNIGHT describes in part in his description of STAR WARS good and evil in his post supports this theme) that STAR WARS portrays in some ways parallels to real life. Americans have tended to be perceived as thinking in more simplistic right and wrong, good and bad categories when it comes to foreign affairs, reflecting the reality of our Country. As for STAR TREK, my fascination came from the fusion of reality and fiction (not fantasy-based). The STAR TREK franchise went beyound parallels to actual reality and introduced a step beyond premise, pushing reality into new configurations and complexities that allowed one to see new possibililities and alternatives while reflecting on ourselves.

A key difference has been suggested to be that Star Trek is science fiction while Star Wars is science fantasy.Contrasting the focus of the two franchises,the New York Times argued that "Trek fandom revolves around technology because the Star Trek universe was founded on ham-fisted dialogue and Gong Show-caliber acting. But the fictional science has always been brilliant.The science in Star Wars is nonsense, and everyone knows it.But no one cares because Star Wars is not about science.It's epic drama.It's about those incredibly well developed characters and the moral decisions they face.People do not get into debates about how the second Death Star works. They get into debates about the ethics of blowing it up.

quote:

Santos Bulus
Slacker First Class
Posted 22 January 2010 09:48 PM Hide Post
A key difference has been suggested to be that Star Trek is science fiction while Star Wars is science fantasy.Contrasting the focus of the two franchises,the New York Times argued that "Trek fandom revolves around technology because the Star Trek universe was founded on ham-fisted dialogue and Gong Show-caliber acting. But the fictional science has always been brilliant.The science in Star Wars is nonsense, and everyone knows it.But no one cares because Star Wars is not about science.It's epic drama.It's about those incredibly well developed characters and the moral decisions they face.People do not get into debates about how the second Death Star works. They get into debates about the ethics of blowing it up.

I enjoyed your comment on STAR WARS. It has a certain consistency and fit with my experience in watching the various episodes, particularly the latest incarnations.