Star Trek vs Star Wars - Ultimate Battle

[Guest Lady.Lizard]

*wave*

Ok, this has probably been done somewhere in AVEN history, but demographics change and this has been amusing me for a while.

I'd like to know which is more popular, Star Trek, or Star Wars. And within those options, which 'series/era' has the most support.

Just for the hell of it really :)

LLAP or MTFBWY

Let the battle commence.....?

[ObsessedWithCats]

Trek, hands down. TOS mainly, with ENT as a not-very-successfully-secret guilty pleasure. Both have plenty of terrible/so-terrible-it's-good episodes but the good ones make up for it.

[5_♦♣]

Star Wars. But only because of the music.

[The Great WTF]

Gods, definitely Star Trek. Star Wars is a great adventure romp, but Star Trek is a series that taught me so much growing up. Star Trek told stories about equality, about a world where the petty bullshit differences of our time are a relic that humanity has proven itself capable of getting past, where people could learn to get along and respect each other's lives and stories and experiences. Even now, watching Star Trek gives me hope for the future of humanity and, though it really has very little to do with the show itself, the actors from Star Trek are to this day some of my heroes.

Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Leonard Nimoy, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, and Nichelle Nichols are all people I still look up to as an adult. Cripes, Patrick Stewart is someone everyone should look up to. It takes one hell of a man to not only be an outspoken feminist and supporter of battered women's shelters, but also to know and understand the events that led to his father abusing his mother, forgive him, and go on to try to help men like his father to not become abusers like his was. (For the sake of context, Stewart's father was a soldier who suffered from severe PTSD in the days before PTSD was considered a legitimate disorder and thus went untreated, leading to substance abuse, anger management problems, and eventually the terrorizing and abuse of his wife.)

Okay, tangent over. As I said, that last bit as nothing to do with Star Trek, really (expect of course their interactions with the fandom being part of the reason I still greatly admire these people.)

[ThaHoward]

Star Wars no doubt. Star Trek is immensley boring, it is more entertaining to watch the grass grow.

[Tja]

Star Trek - TNG! Hands down the best!

[abacct]

Star Wars was only my religion in middle school. I adore Star Trek TOS, but Star Wars will always be my number one.

[Amethystasheryn]

Definitely Star Trek. I like Star Wars as well, but of the two I will choose Trek every time.

I voted DS9 as my favourite and then saw that as of right now I am the only one to have done so. It surprised me--I rarely see more people voting for Voyager than DS9...

[schwitz]

I love how Enterprise and Episode I-III have 0 votes! The truth!

[Guest]

I've never really bothered with Star Trek. No real reason...I just never got around to watching it.

I love Star Wars though...especially the prequels. No regrets.

[noparlpf]

Star Trek TOS hands down. The original Star Wars trilogy is pretty good but can't compete with TOS. I might vote for the original Star Wars trilogy in an alternate timeline in which Star Trek started with Next Gen instead. (The DARKEST TIMELINE. Not really, Next Gen was pretty cool, but TOS was by far the best.)

[Diforto]

Only 2 votes for DS9… :(

There were no story in TOS nor in NG

Isn't this a silly pool?

[Ashmedai]

I'm a fan of both. I must say I'm leaning towards Star Wars, as I've only seen Next Gen, and only a tiny fraction of TOS.

My all out favourite would have to be Stargate.

Edit: I liked Star Wars due to its adventureness so to say, and with a good open universe with lots of stuff in it. Star Trek on the other hand had that exploration aspect to it, on top of having a "universe."

[Guest]

Gods, definitely Star Trek. Star Wars is a great adventure romp, but Star Trek is a series that taught me so much growing up. Star Trek told stories about equality, about a world where the petty bullshit differences of our time are a relic that humanity has proven itself capable of getting past, where people could learn to get along and respect each other's lives and stories and experiences. Even now, watching Star Trek gives me hope for the future of humanity and, though it really has very little to do with the show itself, the actors from Star Trek are to this day some of my heroes.

Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Leonard Nimoy, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, and Nichelle Nichols are all people I still look up to as an adult. Cripes, Patrick Stewart is someone everyone should look up to. It takes one hell of a man to not only be an outspoken feminist and supporter of battered women's shelters, but also to know and understand the events that led to his father abusing his mother, forgive him, and go on to try to help men like his father to not become abusers like his was. (For the sake of context, Stewart's father was a soldier who suffered from severe PTSD in the days before PTSD was considered a legitimate disorder and thus went untreated, leading to substance abuse, anger management problems, and eventually the terrorizing and abuse of his wife.)

Okay, tangent over. As I said, that last bit as nothing to do with Star Trek, really (expect of course their interactions with the fandom being part of the reason I still greatly admire these people.)

This.

Star Trek is much more than JUST a TV show, though it was a very entertaining TV show. The stars still to this day interact with their fans and go to conventions and they are kind of like a family. George Takei is a very cool LGBT activist and general all around cool guy. Wil Wheaton inspires young people to shake off their bullies and be PROUD to be a nerd. Patrick Stewart laughs in the face of gender roles and homosexual stereotypes, is VERY openly affectionate with his FRIEND Ian Mckellan (did I spell that right?), including holding his hand as they walk around NYC. Supports so many good charities and is very open about the abuse issues in his past. LeVar Burton is a champion for literacy, including his recent project to put FREE literacy materials in schools across the nation and relaunch Reading Rainbow. Nichelle Nichols was a pretty famous role model for civil rights and racial and gender equality. The stars were just such wonderful people as well as part of a wonderful TV show.

Also, Star Trek has been inspiration to inventors world wide, for things like tablets, cell phones, etc. Even the current quantum teleportation experiments, the head scientist mentioned Star Trek in a press conference. There are even University courses about how Star Trek has influenced our technology (which, I so want to go to one of those Universities now I know they exist).

I like Star Wars, don't get me wrong. It's entertaining and who doesn't like lightsabers? But, if I had to choose one, Star Trek wins hands down. :)

TNG was my favorite.

[LenaLuthor]

Startrek: Deep Space Nine

[The Great WTF]

Damnit, how'd I forget George Takei?

[Xavy]

Star Trek TNG

[Guest]

Another NextGen Trekkie beaming in. :) I got into Trek at the time when there still were new episodes with Picard, Data, and the rest of the bunch, being produced.

(Not that I hate Star Wars, though. Except Episode II - that one is a trainwreck beyond salvation.)

[Komorebi]

This one is really hard; both are great! I will have to, hard pressed, vote Star Wars, though, because it has meant so much for me growing up.

But I LOVE Trek, and if I had voted for it, I would have voted Next Generation ^_^

[Nameless123]

Star Trek, easily. Star Wars is like so many other sci-fi/fantasy blends; it lacks philosophy and has, in my opinion, nothing to say about us as human beings. I had a hard time picking my fave Trek, because I like them all in some way (well, maybe ENT not so much), but I went with DS9 in the end because of the ongoing story line and relative darkness compared to the other shows. TNG would be a close second, though, because that is what I grew up with as a kid.

@The Great WTF about Patrick Stewart: I love that man so much! He and Ian McKellan are my heroes in their generation of older British actors.

[marki]

Lol I haven't seen either! Am I now banned from AVEN?

[iamphoenixfire]

Lol I haven't seen either! Am I now banned from AVEN?

Yes.

And now, here is the major question:

Kirk or Picard?

(although judging by the votes im guessing Picard)

[ObsessedWithCats]

I can't imagine Kirk is very relate-able to many AVENites - his reputation as a womaniser maybe be very skewed and exaggerated but it certainly didn't crop out of nowhere.

[RhuinHruda]

I can't decide......It's tooo hard. Like the Kobiyashi Maru....or picking my lightsaber color.......

[Astrochelonian]

I had a hard time deciding. I really like both. I watched Next Generation with my parents growing up, and I was big into the Star Wars expanded universe in high school. Timothy Zahn's EU books continuing the Star Wars saga are still some of my very favorite novels. Ultimately, I chose Star Trek in the poll because there are more canon stories so there is more worldbuilding and development and I can relate better to the characters.

However, I love Stargate SG-1 the most.

[Guest]

Lol I haven't seen either! Am I now banned from AVEN?

Yes.

And now, here is the major question:

Kirk or Picard?

(although judging by the votes im guessing Picard)

Picard. Kirk was more rash, impulsive and ... arrogant. More like Picard when he was young. Picard had the wisdom of age and experience.

[Guest]

I can't imagine Kirk is very relate-able to many AVENites - his reputation as a womaniser maybe be very skewed and exaggerated but it certainly didn't crop out of nowhere.

He'd pretty much be lost without Spock as his voice of reason, and Bones as his curmudgeonly nagging conscience. Back then, it took three men to make one well-rounded person, it seems. :P

Picard. Kirk was more rash, impulsive and ... arrogant. More like Picard when he was young. Picard had the wisdom of age and experience.

Intriguingly, young Kirk had a lot of similarity with old Picard, and vice versa. It's another thing JJ Abrams changed in the reboot - had he stuck with what pieces of backstory TOS dropped, Kirk at that age would have been a bit of a bookish nerd bullied around by a jock named Finnegan.

[Guest]

Picard. Kirk was more rash, impulsive and ... arrogant. More like Picard when he was young. Picard had the wisdom of age and experience.

Intriguingly, young Kirk had a lot of similarity with old Picard, and vice versa. It's another thing JJ Abrams changed in the reboot - had he stuck with what pieces of backstory TOS dropped, Kirk at that age would have been a bit of a bookish nerd bullied around by a jock named Finnegan.

Huh. I only know what I have seen in the TV show / movies about Kirk. I suppose Kirk being bullied wouldn't have been as well accepted by fans though in the new movies.

[ObsessedWithCats]

Picard. Kirk was more rash, impulsive and ... arrogant. More like Picard when he was young. Picard had the wisdom of age and experience.

Intriguingly, young Kirk had a lot of similarity with old Picard, and vice versa. It's another thing JJ Abrams changed in the reboot - had he stuck with what pieces of backstory TOS dropped, Kirk at that age would have been a bit of a bookish nerd bullied around by a jock named Finnegan.

Huh. I only know what I have seen in the TV show / movies about Kirk. I suppose Kirk being bullied wouldn't have been as well accepted by fans though in the new movies.

It might have been if he'd dealt with it like Spock did :3

[Squirrel Combat]

It was actually kind of tough. Star Trek it is, the original series!