Star Trek or Star Wars

[marinyork]

The problem with Star Wars is that George Lucas can't write speech for toffee in films and it all sounds a bit wooden. However some of this is deeply amusing and endearing. His grand visions and possessive tinkering is both an asset and downfall. The prequel trilogy was very mixed. The phantom Menace does actually flow better as a film than the other two prequels that are rushed, but the whole Naboo/trade federation thing was naff. The prequel trilogy lacks a rogue Solo character (and cross banter between pairs of characters) and imho is let down by other weakish performances like Natalie Portman as Amidala and Hayden Christensen (he gets a mighty panning from many Star Wars fans, but I think Portman is a big problem). Revenge of the Sith I feel could have been good, but something went wrong with it. Really there needed to be a more convincing and drawn out rise of Palpatine and dramatisation of Anakin going to the dark side. Not sure this was totally down to Christensen's complete lack of acting abilities and more Revenge of the Sith being a rushed job.

Star Trek is a funny old one. The original series was ground breaking and probably on the whole had the best characters. Some of the films were deeply amusing too. The tv series after this (next gen) onwards all tended to start slowly, then the writer decided they better expand the vision a bit by introducing a few big ideas/characters such as Borg/Q/holodeck in TNG, Founders/odo/dukat in DS9, Borg/links with Alpha quadrant in voyager and in enterprise that there were more than the crew of Blake's 7 or red dwarf on board . A lot of people on these shores prefered Babylon 5 to star trek and got particularly annoyed about DS9 (voyager and enterprise were the weakest imho). Generally a star trek series a go eventually one big character would emerge.

Thing I never worked out was why when you went round SF marts/conventions that so many people had replica star trek uniforms (especially stateside). Sounding a bit weird al there . Replica star wars stuff is way cooler.

 

[Night Train]

Blakes Seven is the best sci-fi series of all time and it's not even been mentioned. Servalan's magnificent nipples alone are worthy of giving it top spot.

Cally was the best character in Blake's Seven. Servalan wasn't even very pleasant.

 

[marinyork]

Cally was the best character in Blake's Seven. Servalan wasn't even very pleasant.

Servalan and Travis were good solid characters. Blake, Vila and Avon were too. I did think Cally was a bit weak and Jena and later Soolin didn't really do much for female characters. The problem was once the Liberator was blown up, what on earth do you do for two seasons? Season 3 had some very weak stories and four turned it around slightly.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Tricky one, Star Wars IV (as it has become known) was definitely far better than Star Trek the Motion Picture, otherwise known as Star Trek the Slow Motion Picture. Overall the characters in Star Trek were stronger than Star Wars, even though many of the later films were execrable*, especially when Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner were given full licence to indulge their egos. Only the original 60s series and cast were any good. Star Wars started to go down hill when George Lucas decided to kill off Obi Wan Kenobi half way through the first film, turned it into a total melodrama when we found out Darth Vader was Luke Starwalker's father, not his father's murderer, and totally destroyed all credibility in the third film when it looked like he'd run out of ideas by building another death star and bringing in those teddy bear Ewoks.

*execrable means 'really bad' according to MS Word.

 

[beastie]

To quote Homer (Simpson that is )

................... aaaggghhhhh Nerds!!!!!!!!!!!!


Star Wars is best of course

 

[Yellow Fang]

Servalan and Travis were good solid characters. Blake, Vila and Avon were too. I did think Cally was a bit weak and Jena and later Soolin didn't really do much for female characters. The problem was once the Liberator was blown up, what on earth do you do for two seasons? Season 3 had some very weak stories and four turned it around slightly.

I tend to agree with that. The first series and cast were good. Cally didn't have much to say for herself, but she was still better than her replacement. The replacement for Blake just seemed like a reasonably handsome bloke, while Soolin ticked the ethnic minority box because they'd hadn't had any till then. After the Liberator blew up, the series was abysmal. I am still annoyed with the actor who played Blake because he left a series that the public loved, deteriorating though it may have been. I read he only came back in the last episode on condition his character was killed. That was a shame because he had some charisma. I'm not sure about Travis. He didn't scare me much. I'm not even sure about Servalan to be honest.

 

[potsy]

Space 1999
Though I do quite like star wars.
Never a fan of star trek, though I have watched a couple of the films when I had nothing better to do.

 

[srw]

Sci-fi is intrinsically very very silly indeed. The only good sci-fi is the stuff that doesn't take itself seriously - Hitch-hiker, Red Dwarf, Hyperdrive.

 

[Arch]

I tend to agree with that. The first series and cast were good. Cally didn't have much to say for herself, but she was still better than her replacement. The replacement for Blake just seemed like a reasonably handsome bloke, while Soolin ticked the ethnic minority box because they'd hadn't had any till then. After the Liberator blew up, the series was abysmal. I am still annoyed with the actor who played Blake because he left a series that the public loved, deteriorating though it may have been. I read he only came back in the last episode on condition his character was killed. That was a shame because he had some charisma. I'm not sure about Travis. He didn't scare me much. I'm not even sure about Servalan to be honest.

Are blondes actually an ethnic minority?

You mean Dayna.

 

[007fair]

Star wars better to watch
Star Trek had that element of space exploration / discovery which is in some form relevant - and so feeds the imagination more

Neither matches hitchhikers guide!

 

[zacklaws]

Plenty of Star Trek on the telly on Saturday night, 3 films back to back from about 1825 onwards till early hours. Channel Film 4, and they are the ones with the original cast, William Shatner and Co.

The things they do on a Saturday night to try and stop me watching Strictly Come Dancing, don't they know I have a recorder.

 

[User482]

Sci-fi is intrinsically very very silly indeed. The only good sci-fi is the stuff that doesn't take itself seriously - Hitch-hiker, Red Dwarf, Hyperdrive.

Like most TV and films, really. It's a bit of harmless escapism.

Anyway, the OP. I'm torn: the three "proper" Star Wars films were hugely enjoyable, and groundbreaking at that time. I always found the original Star Trek TV series a bit lame, but derived great pleasure from some of the films (especially 2, 4 & 6), the preposterous dialogue adding to the charm. "My God, Bones, what have I done?" "What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live"

I thought the recent Star Trek prequel was pretty good too, though the plot line to get Leonard Nimoy in it was exceptionally lame.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Are blondes actually an ethnic minority?

You mean Dayna.

Probably, I can't even remember Dayna (I meant the blonde chick).

 

[postman]

Star Trek everytime.Funny scenery and all.
Star Wars space but not as i know it Jim.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

imho 2001, a space odyssey, event horizon and the first two alien films are far better that either of the star wars/trek franchises, not forgetting blade runner, which trumps pretty much everything…