STAR TREK WARS

Brief rant ahead . . . not intended to be taken as anything beyond the thoughts of a fan in the moment . . .

I love Star Wars and I absolutely adore Star Trek . . . I am thrilled that both of these franchises are now pushing forward into new territory to explore the universes of these imaginative realms we love.

However (you knew there was a “but” coming didn’t you? since just like Sir Mix-A-Lot I like big buts and I cannot lie ) . . . while I am enjoying the continuing stories of Trek and Wars, I find it a little grating that while the new series are all being showcased as entertainment a family can enjoy (I know I enjoy watching them with my family), the new Star Trek television shows (as well as the films) are much more mature and tend to have more meaningful tales than the Star Wars series (and films). It is clear the writers for Star Trek try to be thoughtful with characters revealed through depth of storytelling while the writers of Star Wars are more interested in fan service and kiddie level two dimensional characters which will appeal to children or adults who are attracted to immature simplistic tales of escapism that don’t require too much thought.

This is partly the nature of the stories of these worlds from the get-go. Old farts like me watched the original pieces when we were young (I grew up devouring the original Star Trek series reruns on television since I was a child and it’s maturity helped me understand complex issues hidden in the escapism and I saw the original Star Wars films in the theatre from their original release). While I have incredibly fond memories of Star Wars, I know now looking back that most of the depth I might have seen back then was projected and that at it’s heart Star Wars has always been rather two dimensional in its representation of the world and that kiddie moments or characters (Ewoks and Jar-Jar Binks were always intentional features). As my daughter pointed out, even the Star Trek cartoon shows feel more mature and less childish than the Star Wars show.

Star Wars still writes in the shadow of the style and manner of George Lucas and anyone who has paid attention to the original films followed by his prequels should be able to see he never grew as a writer and neither has his universe even after it’s been passed on to others who repeat the same tropes because those made money before.

Star Trek from the beginning has been about great writing, Lucille Ball pushed hard to save the original series because she rightly had faith in the original vision and that original series had real proper great writers like DC Fontana and Gene Coon and attracted even more such as David Gerrold and Harlan Ellison and that maturity of writing holds even through to today.

Yes, there is fan service in both franchises but to me it feels less forced in the Trek pieces than it does in the Wars.

Don’t get me wrong . . . while I do and always have consider the Star Trek pieces better writing, I still enjoy the simplistic escapist entertainment of the Star Wars pieces, although I do wish they’d grow into some originality (It felt like Leia in the first Obi-Wan was taking on a Grogu role except with more speaking but we’ve seen that – also, seriously adult assassins couldn’t catch a child who can barely run?).

Pet Peeve, both franchises have had issues with “diversity” casting because there are asshats in the worlds who claim to be fans but have obviously misread things and have never truly understood the shows. Star Trek is too woke for casting a diversity of races or taking sides on progressive issues? Uh, go watch the ORIGINAL series again as Star Trek’s always included social commentary and cast a diverse mixture or races in the cast (not as much as some of us might have liked but much more than anyone in the day – Martin Luther King famously and rightly encouraged Nichelle Nichols to continue with the show as she was inspiring so many young Black kids by letting them know they can be more than a maid). Having said that, it kind of bugs me that the bad guy hunting the hero in both The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi happen to be Black actors and while the actors are awesome, it’s weak that the best role for a Black actor in the two shows is as the villain. I hope this is genuinely accidental and not on purpose, Star Wars has enough of a white supremacist fan problem as it is without seeing conspiracies where none exist. Speaking of good acting . . . The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi have some fine example of actors who are not the best in the craft (this is partly the acting and partly the directing but there’s a strong sense of Saturday Morning kiddie show phoning it in often – I really hope it gets better but I don’t have those reservations for any of the Star Trek shows – second season Picard was not as strong as first season but I never had the sense folks might be phoning it in on their performances).

Okay, getting into much more heavy duty rant territory so going to end this.

Live Long and Prosper,
Brian