Why Star Trek is Better Than Star Wars

In honour of the upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness' release this month I thought I'd write about my favourite subject Star Trek. I've been a fan since my older cousin Rick showed me his original Star Trek action figures Kirk, Spock and Scotty. He gave them to me when I was in high school and, unfortunately, I only have Kirk left (without his utility belt, et al). When I was in high school I taped the three action figures up in my locker. Spock was taken out of it by my buddy Neil who put it up in his locker at our rival high school. One of his acquaintances somehow squeezed Spock so hard his head popped off  and that was it for him. I managed to hold onto Kirk and Scotty through university and into the time I was living in Toronto at Yonge and Lawrence in this great two bedroom apartment. During a party there Scotty somehow fell into a candle and his leg melted into it and that was it for him,. Kirk is presently safe.

I've watched all the Treks - Star Trek; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Star Trek: Voyager; Star and Enterprise (although this one was the only one I haven't seen all the episodes of). I've seen all of the movies and enjoyed them all, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - which most people didn't like. The new franchise is awesome and JJ Abrams is a genius. I do feel that he shouldn't take on the Star Wars franchise as well because one can either be a Trekker or a Star Wars person but not both. Which brings me to why Star Trek is better than Star Wars. There are many reasons. The first is that everything in Star Trek is based on real science and real scientific theory. Today's cellular phones were inspired by the communicators used in the original series. When Stephen Hawking appeared on TNG as a holodeck character, playing poker with Data and other noted physicists such as Sir. Isaac Newton, he was on the set wheeling by the warp engines and was heard to remark that he was working on those.

A second reason why Star Trek is better is that it's based on real life politics and real life events. Many episodes in the original series were inspired by true life events. The one with the two guys whose faces were half black and half white but were fighting for 50,000 years because one thought he was superior because he was white on a different side than the other (interesting tidbit: actor Frank Gorshin aka The Riddler played one of the characters) was inspired by the civil rights movement taking place in the U.S. in the 60s. There was an episode in TNG about an asexual society where no one had sex but those who were attracted to others were shunned. This was inspired by the gay rights movement. Another TNG episode took place on a planet where the women were physically dominant over the men it was a matriarchal society. Don't think I need to make the connection here. Even the ridiculous aliens in Star Trek are based on science. The Horta (which looked liked two guys walking around with a blanket on them) was based on the theory that there could be a silicon based life-form as opposed to our carbon based lifeforms. The Gorgon was based on the fact that lizards could have developed into an intelligent, sentient, life-form.

The politics of Star Trek is indeed brilliant,. Star Fleet could be said to be based on our United Nations but a far superior one that actually has power, is without the current state of hypocrisy and accomplishes things. The Klingons of the original series could be seen as the former Soviet Union. They are the enemy but they have a conscience. The Cardassians (nothing to do with our current Khardashians) could be said to be like the intelligent, yet evil, Nazis. I won't go through all of the aliens and am not even saying I'm correct in how I see it but it does spark intelligent conversation. My friend Stefan and I used to discuss such topics long into the night at our favourite pub. Now if you're into philosophy who is a better example of Plato's philosopher king than Captain Jean Luc Picard? I dare say Captain Kirk could be compared with John Kennedy - a superstud leader who is fair but not afraid of kicking ass when needed. Marilyn Monroe would have done Kirk - now that would have been a great episode!

Star Trek is also one helluva entertaining franchise. You've got hot guys, hot chicks (anyone can see that Lt. Uhura is way hotter than Princess Leia), explosions and great one liners - "I'll call you next time I'm in this star system." Commander Riker to alien chick he did.

In closing no matter if you agree with me or not: Live Long and Prosper.
(...and yes I do have a girlfriend - had one in high school too)
Dave the Dude