Was "Star Trek" socialistic?

[Tonio]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/05/09/DI2005050900325.html?nav=sc

Do you think that liberal science-fiction fans prefer "Trek" while conservative science-fiction fans prefer "Wars"?

Frank Ahrens: Can't depart without taking on the Star Wars vs. Star Trek debate.

i have found very few overlapping fans of the two. You're either one or the other.

For my money, I find Trek much more satisfying that Wars. Star Wars is a fairy tale for children, and even starts out that way (A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...). It is all Wookies and Ewoks and princesses and dark lords and so forth.

Trek is about grown-up reponsibility and Prime Directives and quantum mechanics. Star Trek's space is a grown-up place for grown-ups.

The one area where Wars is superior to Trek is in its vision of the future. We know now that Roddenberrys and other utopians are doomed. Star Trek said that with time, we would get better. That, of course, is wrong.

Star Wars correctly tells us that, with time, we'll be pretty much the same with better technology. Case in point:

Walk into Ten Forward, the bar on NextGen's Enterprise. It's a clean, well-lighted place where nattily attired species of all kinds converse in appropriate tones.

Now, walk into the cantina in the first Star Wars. As my friend David Von Drehle correctly observed, it proves that any bar, anywhere in the universe is filled with losers.

 

[ylexot]

I prefer Babylon 5 over either of them. It has far more realistic characters IMO.

Common themes in Star Trek:
"There's an anomoly...let's check it out. Uh oh, it's going to kill us."
"The holodeck has a malfunction. It's going to kill us."
And the morons keep doing the same thing over and over and over again.

 

[Lenny]

Was that Michael Moore, the publicity-whore?

 

[Llwynog]

I prefer Babylon 5 over either of them. It has far more realistic characters IMO.

But I think Dr. Who was my favorite series. Emeny Mine is one of my favorite si-fi movies.

 

[SamSpade]

"Star Wars correctly tells us that, with time, we'll be pretty much the same with better technology"

*WHY* does everybody keep forgetting that the whole story *starts* with ----

"A LONG TIME AGO in a galaxy far, far away....."

Star Wars is about the past.

(I'm amused by the "correctly" tells us turn of the phrase - like anyone has any idea what the future holds.)

 

[SamSpade]

But I think Dr. Who was my favorite series. Emeny Mine is one of my favorite si-fi movies.

Read the Barry Longyear story in a magazine WAY before the movie. I remember wondering if the movie was actually the same story, or if the name was just coincidence and it was about something totally different. When I went to see it, there were a couple rows of obnoxious Boston University students behind me who made jokes all through the film, and made watching almost unbearable. When I complained to the usher, the skinny little kid told them to "shush" and when they ignored him, he just shrugged and left.

Babylon 5 also was one of my favorites, and I enjoyed the fact that it WAS a mapped out, 5-year story arc, with foreshadowing from the very first episode of its ending. I liked the fact that the characters changed - and died - and sometimes redeemed themselves - and sometimes sank further into the Abyss. I liked how intrigue tended to drive the stories, and not peculiar technology. But overall, I still have found Stargate to be the most consistently entertaining of all Sci-fi series.

 

[ylexot]

I do like Stargate, but I liked Bab5 better. I'll have to get the series.