Galaxy Wars: Destination Unknown

 

Star Wars vs Star Trek: One of pop culture's biggest debates.  For years, decades even, fans have questioned whether Star Trek and Star Wars is the bigger franchise and who has the bigger fanbase. In my opinion, both are great franchises and both have tremendous fanbases. I enjoy both franchises but I will say that I prefer Star Wars only because that was the franchise that was popular when I was growing up. The first Star Wars movies came out in 1977 whereas Star Trek originated as a tv show in the 60s(starting in 1966) before many decades later JJ Abrams came out with the Chris Pine starring Star Trek films. Both franchises take fans on a galaxy-hopping ride where they discover worlds never imagined. 

Star Trek has a formula that usually stays the same as far as the plot is concerned. Star Wars is willing to take more risks. Star Trek: Into Darkness and Star Trek: Beyond both in my eyes, were Star Trek films done like you would not expect. The villains were unique and the actors, Benedict Cumberbatch and Idris Elba had a very tall task. The villain in any movie has to find a way to match the energy of the lead actor and the lead cast around him, and science fiction films are no different. Star Trek and Star Wars villains are iconic and are remembered for years and even decades. In my opinion, if you rank the 3 Chris Pine Star Trek movies from best to worst, Star Trek: Beyond is the weakest movie in the franchise. The plot twist involving Idris Elba's character of Krall actually being Captain Balthazar Edison of the USS Franklin, a designated ship under Starfleet was too convoluted for Star Trek. Other plot twists could have worked better that didn't involve turning a human Starfleet captain into a grotesque alien warlord. 

Star Trek's main problem is that it does not know how to switch things up properly when it comes to its live-action material. The closest they get is their Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery. The reason that shows works so well is that it tells stories in the realm of Starfleet and the USS. Enterprise while not telling the stories from the perspective of a known character like Spock or James T. Kirk. There are other Star Trek-related shows on Paramount+ like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Picard and while I have not watched those shows personally I do know that they do what Discovery does but using characters like Picard and Captain Pike, characters who are already canonically recognizable. Both shows feature characters that are not canonically known or as known. Star Wars is different. Disney+ provides chances to tell different kinds of stories involving characters both old and new. Current shows like The Mandalorian and upcoming shows like The Acolyte, Asohka, and the Skeleton Crew have given hardcore Star Wars fans like me the chance to transport to a galaxy far far away and see worlds and even characters that have not been shown in canon and also are fresh and possibly created just for these shows. 

The main problem both franchises have comes down to the actors. I would say that Star Wars is more diverse with its casting because many of the characters within that world provide the chance for different actors of different races to play them. The one other thing is that many of the actors jump from live-action to animation or the other way around, look at Katee Sackhoff for example(played Bo-Katan in Star Wars: Rebels before being introduced in the Mandalorian). Star Trek uses the same actors and when the actors do change, either the race of the actor changes or the age. When that doesn't happen, they replace them with a different character and sometimes even an actor. Pedro Pascal, Rosario Dawson, and Zoe Saldana are great examples of this working. All three are actors of a minority and play characters who are racially defined, or in the case of Pedro and Rosario, the actor's race does not matter. Backlash can sometimes follow. For example, Rosario was hated by some fans because if you watch Star Wars: Rebels, then you know Asohka is voiced by a Caucasian actor while Rosario plays her in live-action and she is African American.

What does all this mean? For starters, you are free to be a fan of either franchise. Both provide you with a vivid viewing experience and a wide range of characters from a multitude of races and backgrounds. These worlds are not real so fan hate for the actors in them if cast in a role that was a different race or gender in a different medium is not ok. We can all love what we want. Star Trek and Star Wars are both iconic franchises and both will live on for even more generations. The world of science fiction is vast and these franchises only make up a small percentage of it. Don't be afraid to walk into these universes with your arms wide open. Myself, I know that I can watch any program from these universes and see someone like me and that is awesome. I truly believe that the true power of both Star Wars and Star Trek is to inspire multiple generations that it is ok to be different and whether you are physically strong or mentally strong and like math and science, you can eventually find your people. Embrace that. There is strength in numbers and both universes are big enough for everyone no matter the difference.