I’m a nerd, and it’s all my mother’s fault. As a child, I was exposed to TV shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Lost in Space, as well as real-life science and technology like Americans walking on the Moon. Mom loved Fantasy and Sci-Fi movies like Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad the Sailor, Voyage to the Center of the Earth, The Magic Time Machine, Silent Running, and Westworld. If one was on TV, we watched it, and if it came to the movie theater, that’s where we were going to go. So, it’s no surprise that when I was about eight years old, my Mom introduced me to Star Trek.
The show was in syndication by that time, but I remember how excited my mother was to find it running on one of the stations in our hometown. She loved that show, and by the time I had watched a few episodes, I did, too. I watched them all, and when the TV station played an episode I had already seen, I’d watch it again. It didn’t matter that I already knew the outcome…it was worth watching over and over.
I don’t know what first attracted me to Star Trek. Maybe it was the sense of adventure, like Peter Pan and his Lost Boys, if they were flying through space and meeting Klingons instead of Captain Hook. Or maybe it was the beautiful female cast and crew wearing glamorously exotic costumes or striking uniforms of short skirts and go-go boots who were treated as equals in this far-off, feminist society. I aspired to be them. I remember playing pretend and imagining I was Yeoman Janice Rand with a crush on the handsome, young Captain Kirk. But as I grew up, what I appreciated about Star Trek was the underpinning of real science and the dedication to social justice that often painted “today’s” issues in a futuristic light. It is exactly what good Science Fiction is all about.
Then, in 1977, along came Star Wars. I was there…opening night, waiting in a long queue for the movie theater doors to open. I’m not even sure how I managed the invitation to go – I don’t think my two younger siblings were there – it was just my parents, my mother’s cousins, and me, out on a Friday night at the movies. Within minutes of the opening sequence, I was once again hooked.
My love for Star Wars has a distinctly different foundation. Sure, there’s the glamorous and regal Princess Leia, who is also sometimes scantily and exotically clad. There’s also definitely a high sense of adventure, and even humor at times. But rather than a futuristic, egalitarian society where the galaxy’s ills are solved, one episode at a time, Star Wars is founded on the age-old battle between good and evil. Dark and light. Order and chaos. Despite its space fantasy setting, this epic franchise tackles that subject without the idealism and simplistic resolution offered by Star Trek. Star Wars illustrates that no one is inherently good or evil, that good doesn’t always win, that people can change, and that we all have our part to play, no matter how big or small. In a way, that almost seems more real to me.
So, this week, as our regular weekly podcast drops on Wednesday, May 4, a day that has come to be known as “Star Wars Day”, I am faced with the seemingly age-old question, “Star Wars or Star Trek”, and I find that my answer is still an emphatic, “Both!” I do hope that someday we can live in that idealistic world where women can embrace their sensuality while serving as starship captains right alongside their male (or even non-binary) counterparts without prejudice or discrimination, and where technology allows us to manipulate matter in such a way that we can materialize a cup of “Earl Grey, hot,” out of whatever waste materials we happen to have on hand. But I also know that we have a long, long way to go, and in the meantime, we humans are still sometimes fighting that battle of good vs. evil, and we need that reminder that life is made of messy stuff, that small choices often lead to big consequences, and that we can change. So, I think both have great lessons to teach us, and I don’t understand why it has to be one or the other. Can’t we just appreciate both?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the two sagas. Is there some reason why you think one is better than the other? Leave your comments below, or join us on our Facebook Group, MMC Chat. We’d love to hear what you think! And be sure to listen to the podcast – we’re going to have fun with this topic. You can find us on Apple, Google, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Oh…and May the Fourth be with you….
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