Star Trek

[IAMJEDI]

This topic is destined to go very badly because allmust know that it is my sworn duty as a Star Wars fanatic to proudly hate anything that is Star Trek! To some extent this has always been true, but I will give credit where and when it is due...Star Trek has made a few good movies. And yet, some have reeked so bad when I've had to write columns saying as much. One of my fellow crewmembers will debate this up and down with me, but I truly think most Star Trek efforts have been nothing more than glorified television movies that don't deserve to be in theaters. And the biggest gripe I have with Star Trek is their lack of "order" within their universe...authors contradicting each other, too much television garbage, and an inability to know when to say when! One only need to examine the bookshelves of the sci-fi section to realize the crap that Star Trek has released...I mean, what qualifies William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to put pen to paper and write anything, let alone a decent science fiction novel. Still don't believe me? Have you forgotten the Shatner's oh so wonderful literary works known as Tech Wars? Yeah, right! Does Star Wars have a lot of books? Oh yeah! But do Star Wars books contradict each other at each and every turn of the page? Heck no! Has Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, or Harrison Ford ever been given the opportunity to write a Star Wars novel? Of course not! Star Wars books follow specific guidelines set forth by George Lucas himself. While Gene Roddenberry, the crazy old coot, had his ashes spread in space! Uh...STUPID!

Don't get me wrong now; Star Trek should not be disrespected because of all their many shortcomings...should it? Well, yes and no would be the most appropriate answer in terms of this forum. Yes, it is true that some of the Star Trek movies have been visual masterpieces that were deserving of every ounce of praised received. Heck, I love First Contact, Insurrection & Nemesis, however; I simply can't overlook some of the crap that Star Trek has made its of so clueless fan base endure. Uh...it's no wonder why Voyager and Generations were cancelled. Cancelled is a word that you will never hear uttered in reference to anything Star Wars related...and yet it is something Star Trek fans have become accustomed to! Ouch! Hit a sore spot with some of you, huh? Let me also say I am so thankful that Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford haven't released any CD's...it must suck for all you Trekkies to have to listen to ole' Captain Kirk and Spock try and fail miserably at singing. That must be brutally embarrassing for all those poor Trekkies as well!

Let me get baack to this whole order/disorder thing before I deliver the deathblow to all you Trekkies out there. How hard is it for a Star Trek author to follow a simple timeline our a guideline without stepping on the toes of another author. No wonder they have to get Nimoy and Shatner to write half their garbage because other authors are constantly getting their stories compromised. Did the Star Trek Universe ever maintain any order? I think it's very possible that order was being maintained during the television series and perhaps throughout two or three of the movies. Star Trek did their best to tie the first few films together. However, they were really grasping for straws when they started with the whale garbage...oh, and puhlease..."What does god need with a starship?" That storyline was so dumb I actually kind of liked that movie. But, apparently that's the movie most Trekkies hate. Go figure!

The bottome line is this: Star Wars has been and will always be better than Star Trek (the entire franchise: figures, collectibles, soundtracks, actors, impact, anything you can think of...heck, we even have the better Hallmark ornaments. Star Wars is BETTER!).

Disagree with me all you want. Hey, that's your right to do so, but just remember George Lucas would never cast Whoopie Goldberg in a Star Wars project of any kind! BURN! BURN! BURN! How can a Trekkie even hope to debate that! They can't. So just accept the fact that although Star Trek has come up with some great stuff, Star Trek will never be in the same league as Star Wars!

Hey, wait a minute! The question is, "Are there any similarities between Star Wars and Star Trek?" I don't think anyone can deny that it's possible that one or both may have influenced the other. I mean, "proton torpedo" and "photon torpedo" is all one needs to know to see the similarities between the two! The ships are certainly very different although I would wager a view Super Star Destroyers are more similar to the starships on Star Trek that some may imagine...actually, they are probably much more devastating than some Enterprise ship. Read Legacy of the Force: Inferno if you don't believe me! So thank you, George Lucas, for making something so much better than that Star Trek crap. However, much respect should be given to Gene Roddenberry for creating the imaginative Star Trek universe. Perhaps had Roddenberry left a better outline or guidelines for his universe of Star Trek, then perhaps this forum would be different but unfortunately for all you Star Trek fans that's not the case...sucks to be you!

ANY SIMILARITIES:
I would be lying if I said there were no similarities between these two sci-fi giants...one giant is just bigger than the other! STAR WARS!

Oh, and I should know...
Because,
IAMJEDI

[RC-1701]

I disagree with a few things there...Some of the movies are worthy of the big screen (Wrath of Khan, Undiscovered Country, First Contact, maybe Nemisis). The rest well , yeah they are arguably not big screen material compared to some other good sci fi shows. Part of the comes down to the semi joke of the odd and even movies, they do have a hard time doing them consistantly good, but to be fair I still have a hard time sitting thru Episode for all the horrid whiney Anakin lines. Don't get me wrong I love Star Wars but we can find gripes with it too (I'll admit I understand why the lines are there, they just get on my nerves).

I will fully agree with the book problem. Several of them are good reads but they make very little sense next to each other except for the multipart ones. They would have probably done better to kept with a more consistant storyline. They've done it with a few spin off series (IE: New Frontier) but those also have almost if not entirely new crews.

To the TV Shows the decided to end TNG similar to the now ending Battlestar Galactica, they wanted to go out on a high note, they had suggested it could have gone on some more seasons. The assorted series that have followed have had various problems that made it harder for them to get over. DS9 is about a space station.....part way thru it occurred to them there's only so much you can do with a space station and a handful of shuttles so they got their own ship....then got bogged down in a war they ran wayyy to long. Voyager alas is sort of dubbed the black sheep of the Trek shows. Similar to DS9 they got hung up fighting the same group for too long at first. Some people could not stand Janeway. Finally, Paramount stuck it on it's own network as the flagship show...a network that was not available everywhere at the time. Overall I thought it was okay, but you can tell from it's rushed feeling the ending gave they wanted to be done with it. That brings us to Enterprise, probably the best spin off and the shortest run as well.

As to casting Whoopie...well Lucas did cast Mace Winwho.....I mean Samual L Jackson ;)


RC-1701

[IAMJEDI]

This reply to my forum topic is not even worthy of a response, but I feel it my duty as a Star Wars fan to give one. First and foremost, the spelling errors in this pitiful response were enough to simply make me sick! The fact that you would have a gripe with Episode I: The Phantom Menace is but a joke. I would put Phantom Menace against any of the Star Trek movies! Why you would have a problem with the casting or the acting of a young Anakin Skywalker is beyond me. He played the part the way it was written and did an excellent job in doing so. The fact that you didn't like how a "child" would behave is foolish. That was how the part was written! Might I remind you that Star Trek defined terrible child acting in their pitiful waste of a movie "The Search For Spock".

Your excuses regarding Star Trek's idiocy in the world of television perfectly illustrate my point exactly. Because unless someone speaks the language of "stupid", then your paragraph regarding Star Trek television is jibberish. I doubt you would even understand what you've written if you were to go back and read it! "Trekkies" will all be humbled when Lucas makes his journey into the world of live action television. Let me once again remind you of my main point regarding Star Trek television..."CANCELLED".

You've said all that needs to be said regarding Star Trek literature. You admit that it's flawed beyond measure! Need I say more?

In conclusion, perhaps you'd best be served if you returned to your Jedi studies. Then perhapes you'll think more carefully before replying and perhaps use a better spell check as well. Go and rest easy my young Padawan.

Oh, and I should know...
Because,
IAMJEDI

PS. Do you really want to compare the acting careers of Whoopie Goldberg and Samuel L. Jackson? You need professional help!