Why Do We Compare Star Wars to Star Trek (2024)

I’ve never found the comparison of Star Wars and Star Trek to be a fair comparison. I’ve always liked them equally and found them to have strengths and weaknesses of their own. Do we compare them because they are both set in space? Because that, my friends, is where the similarities end. Star Wars is about a completely different galaxy set “long ago” where wars and rebellions rage. Space is not the final frontier in this film. The galaxy has been conquered and populated. City planets have been established. Problems between civilizations are at the center of this story. It’s mythical and fantastical and science fiction-y rolled together.

Star Trek is about people who could be like us, set in the future, exploring space much like we do but with better technology. It’s much more down to earth which I’m not sure is a pun but it sounds like some underlying space joke so go with me on this. Star Trek may feature conflicts with alien species, and some conflicts happen in each episode. However, this is a story about scientists trying to understand what is beyond the Solar System, beyond the Milky Way Galaxy. The story is simple and never goes beyond human flight crews, except for Klingons and Vulcans and whatever species Eric Bana played in the JJ Abrams adaptation. It’s not that space isn’t established in Star Trek. It’s just different. The main characters are Earth-based. The story is set in the future. The encounters are not between species that are well known to the crew (at first), and there is no active rebellion plot. Jedi do not exist.

I could have this same argument about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. They happened to come out at similar times (the films, not the books, obviously), and people were dead set on being in one camp or the other. I remember very distinctly being told that if I liked Harry Potter over Lord of the Rings, I must be immature because Harry Potter was not as well-written. Their words, not mine. I happened to be a huge fan of both, spending my days rereading the Harry Potter books instead of running around outside with the neighborhood kids, and soaking up each extra minute of the extended editions of Lord of the Rings. It was the more difficult of the two book series to read, in my opinion, purely because Tom Bombadil would not stop singing. The point is that the similarities between these two books ended at the fact that they were both fantasies about good versus evil and had wizards. Quite a lot of books have similar story plots about good and evil, nature versus industrial destruction and God versus Satin. To compare these books as if only one can exist in the world is ridiculous.

Now if you really were to compare film franchises, the two to compare would be Star Wars and Dune. There, I said it. Or, what do the kids say these days? I said what I said?

Dune came first, we know this. Star Wars seems heavily influenced by it. Both have an empire. Both have some mystical substance that powers the world. Spice, in Dune, is used to power space travel between worlds but also does weird things to your dreams and brings forth the visions of “the chosen one”, the Lisan Al Gaib. The Force, in Star Wars, is used by the Jedi to move things around, manipulate other people, and intuit the moves of one’s opponent. Or would one compare Spice to Midi-chlorians instead? There are so many more things. Again, there is a chosen one, the one who will bring balance to the Force. And, although I have not read the Dune series, having watched the first two films, I am confident that Paul’s character will take the same turn as Anakin’s. It’s the tale that repeats itself in many of our favourite stories, including Game of Thrones. I realize I’ve just added a new story to the mix, but we’ve got a Messiah character who is supposed to restore something whether that be balance or good or a family name to the Galaxy, the Empire, or Westeros. The characters seem good but do bad things in the name of bringing change or saving life or whatever their cause might be. We follow them believing that the ends justify the means. In the end, the power overtakes them turning them into the very thing they mean to destroy.

Back to Dune and Star Wars. They both have an open rebellion against their respective empires. They both have a council of meddling power-wielding characters who can control your thoughts and actions through “the voice” or the wave of a hand. “You will believe this article. You will love my writing”. Both main characters have a mother who propels them either by choice or inadvertently into fulfilling the prophecy.

And yet, I still don’t think these films should be pitted against one another. The truth about stories is what I’ve said above, there are only so many stories, only so many original thoughts in the world. The way you tell the stories is your own, and the way these writers and creators have told these stories is unique even if just in the small details. Did we enjoy them? Did we learn a lesson? Did we gain a new perspective? If you answered yes, the rest probably doesn’t matter.