SALT LAKE CITY — Star Wars and Star Trek have operated in different mediums for 40 years. They’ve had different stories, characters and taken us to different planets and galaxies among the stars.
But are they the same in more ways than we think?
At the 2017 Salt Lake City Comic Con, five panelists debated how the two franchises actually can work together, admitting that there is no major rivalry between the two entities. They said that fans can build themselves better lives when they watch or pay attention to both Star Wars and Star Trek.
Leigh George Kade, who appears on the Geek Show podcast, said there’s this misconception that the two stories are rivalries and, therefore, vastly different.
Kade said the rivalry was born of “petty tribalism.”
“Love your geekdom and don’t worry about it,” he said. “We’re better off with both of them.”
Holly Frey, host of the Stuff You Missed in History Class and Full of Sith podcasts, said people outside the fandom think there’s this rivalry and disparity problem, but among fans, there isn’t a problem at all.
“I really do think it’s a construct built completely (outside) of fandom," she said.
In fact, Cameron McVey, science fiction author, said both series are one in the same. They’re both post-World War II, trying to tell different depictions of how to rebuild human civilizations.
But Larry Nemecek, expert on Star Trek and editor of Star Trek magazine, said this shows a difference between the two series. While Star Trek is optimistic, showing characters who are searching for a greater future, Star Wars is looking to return to glory.
Nemecek said Star Trek characters have built a society where they can search for planets and new civilizations because they have a society.
But in Star Wars, people are trying to find optimism that once existed, while Star Trek is trying to keep its optimism going.
“It’s about optimism and the human condition,” Kade added.
Bryan Young, podcaster for Full of Sith, said that Star Trek is a society that we can look forward to if we put these petty things behind us and not fight against each other.
But Star Wars is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong if you let these petty problems grow larger.
The two series have begun to grow together in more recent years, despite these small differences, according to the panelists. Star Wars has its roots in movies, but has now shifted to TV with “Star Wars: Rebels” and “The Clone Wars.” With that, it’s taken lessons from Star Trek, like delving into psychology.
Similarly, Star Trek, an episodic show with its roots in TV, has begun making major motion pictures, drawing lessons from Star Wars to focus more on action and space opera-themes.
Frey said that Star Trek offers good life lessons, and that shows how similar they are.
“It’s kind of a good life lesson to me … It’s a reminder that you can’t sit back and be passive and hope that the world you want is gonna happen,” she said.
She added, “To me, that is a beautiful message we should all be walking through the world with."