star wars or star trek which came first

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek: Which Came First (And Why Does It Matter)?

T he two most impactful science fiction franchises of the 20th century, "Star Wars" and "Star Trek," have inspired generations of fans while managing to remain at the top of modern pop culture. From hyperdrive to warp drive and Rebels to Starfleet, they've saturated the public consciousness with their characters and iconography like few other properties in the media landscape. But as both continue to create new material in the 2020s and their original release dates fade into history, many people have asked: which came first, "Star Wars" or "Star Trek"?

While "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope," opened on May 25, 1977, "Star Trek: The Original Series" premiered on NBC over a decade prior, with its first episode, "The Man Trap," airing on September 8, 1966. That timeline might lead some to assume that "Star Wars" was influenced by "Star Trek," but despite both having "Star" in their titles, they are wildly different franchises.

"Star Trek" was first conceived of by creator Gene Roddenberry, who helmed both "Star Trek: The Original Series" and its spin-off "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Set in the 23rd century and beyond, episodes were focused on space exploration in a future where humanity had set aside its differences to venture among the stars. On the other hand, "Star Wars," created by auteur director George Lucas, is famously set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." Due to its Jedi Knights, Emperors, princesses, and space magic, it is often distinguished as science-fantasy rather than science-fiction.

Read more: The Entire Star Wars Story Finally Explained

Star Wars Had Several Key Influences Other Than Star Trek

There has been much debate over the degree to which "Star Trek" influenced the later "Star Wars," but while George Lucas and his team took some inspiration, it was minimal. Lucas was primarily inspired by real history and Japanese samurai films, while his science fiction influences were 1930s serials like "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon." Lucas actually sought to license the latter property for a remake and embarked on "Star Wars" after he failed to secure the rights.

When it came to history, Lucas drew from the events of World War II and the Vietnam War. This influence is evident in the Nazi-like aesthetics of the Empire. At the same time, the plot involving a band of rebels fighting a mighty imperial power was based on Lucas' understanding of the Vietnam War. The Rebel Alliance, as Lucas told fellow director James Cameron, was based on the Vietcong communist fighters who opposed United States forces in Vietnam (via AMC+ ).

Meanwhile, with characters like Han Solo (Harrison Ford) created in the mold of action heroes, "Star Wars" aped the aforementioned pulp serials. Other elements, like Jedi and their lightsabers, were futuristic reinterpretations of work by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who was known for samurai films like "Seven Samurai."

Star Trek Opened The Door For Star Wars

The inspirations Gene Roddenberry drew on for "Star Trek" were quite different from those Lucas adopted for "Star Wars." While both franchises are, when boiled down, space Westerns, Roddenberry specifically cited television Westerns when he first pitched his series. As noted by Time  in 2016, he called it a "'Wagon Train' to the stars," referencing a 1950s TV series about a wagon train exploring the American West.

While "Star Wars" has, since its inception, woven an epic tale of good versus evil, episodes of "Star Trek" are typically focused on untangling a moral conundrum. Often, there is no obvious villain present in the narrative, and the stakes rest on intellectually untangling a problem rather than fighting it head-on. When it came to politics, "Star Trek" was influenced by the Cold War, with Starfleet being allegorical to the United States and the Klingon Empire, mirroring perceptions of Russia and the Soviet Union.

However, George Lucas was known to be a big fan of "Star Trek," and Roddenberry's work did influence "Star Wars" to a certain degree. "'Star Trek' softened up the entertainment arena," Lucas said in the documentary "Trek Nation," "so that 'Star Wars' could come along and stand on its shoulders" (via Scott Colthorp on Vimeo). In other words, the success of "Star Trek" caused Hollywood executives to see the market potential of science-fiction stories set in outer space. Lucas attributes his ability to create "Star Wars" to that newfound receptiveness.

Both franchises are still going strong today, with new "Star Trek" series like "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" and "Star Trek: Lower Decks" streaming on Paramount+. And while a new "Star Wars" film hasn't been released in a few years, new streaming series continue to emerge, most recently "The Mandalorian" and "Ahsoka."

Read the original article on Looper .

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Star Trek , originally a TV series, is a space western science fiction that centers around a crew who serves in Starfleet , a space-based peacekeeping and humanitarian armada. Star Wars , originally a trilogy, is a space opera fantasy franchise set in the distant past of a fictional galaxy, revolving around princes, princesses, knighthood, and chivalry. Both these highly popular and successful franchises are now being revived with new movies directed by J.J. Abrams.

Until the recent movies, Star Trek has been more of a cult phenomena than Star Wars , and therefore did not have the same level of mainstream fandom and cultural influence. Star Wars is grander in scope and has a complex web of political agendas, alien species, personal feuds, and galaxy-wide domination. The Star Trek world is modern, sleek, and shiny, while some of Star Wars' settings are dirty and grimy.

Comparison chart

Originally a television series, Star Trek has generally used the same basic plot setup: an altruistic crew is placed in situations of moral dilemma, which are often allegorical nods to current social and political issues. Issues covered include imperialism, war and peace, racism, class warfare, feminism, and human rights. The core characters, Captain Kirk , Spock, Scotty, Uhura, and Pavel Chekov, comprise humans and humanoid alien species. Star Trek only gained mainstream fame after the release of its films in 2009 and 2013. The video below briefly touches on the history of Star Trek :

Star Wars uses archetypes of the fantasy genre, such as princesses, knighthood, and chivalry, and action unfolds in a contest between good and evil. The Star Wars universe is laden with political science elements and historical inspiration. The plot climax of the Rebel Alliance fights for freedom from the Galactic Empire was drawn from the fall of the Roman Republic and the formation of an empire. This 10 minute video gives a retrospective look into the original trilogy of Star Wars :

Science and Fantasy

Common belief is that Star Trek is science fiction, while Star Wars is science fantasy. The technology in Star Trek is supposed to be at least loosely grounded in science or potential future science , rather than supernatural forces or magic. The most visible technologies include personal communication and triangulation devices (inspirations for modern day smart phones), warp drive travel for space ships, and teleporting ( “Beam me up, Scotty” ). The chief technologist for Google Earth has said that the tricorder’s mapping capability was one inspiration for Google Earth.

Star Wars , on the other hand, is not focused on the real-world viability of its science, as it is more science fantasy than science fiction. One of the core elements of its stories is the existence of the “Force”, an omnipresent energy that surrounds all living things and that can be harnessed by those with special abilities. The Force allows for acts of telekinesis, mind control, clairvoyance, and precognition, and can also make a person more physically capable.

Production History

After two Star Trek pilots were made, the original series aired for three years in the late sixties. Despite a fervent fan base, ratings were disappointing, and the show was canceled. Except for an animated series in the mid 70s, no new Star Trek productions were released until the first feature film in 1980. This revived the franchise , and 11 more movies followed, along with overlapping television series running until 2005. The Star Trek reboot films in 2009 and 2013 directed by J.J. Abrams brought a new style to the franchise, and functioned as broad-appeal blockbusters, rather than just being events for long-standing fans of the show.

Unlike Star Trek , Star Wars began as a motion picture rather than a television series. Universal Studios first agreed to make George Lucas’s Star Wars in 1971, but it took several years and multiple script revisions for the project to begin. The original film was finally released in 1977 to worldwide fanfare and became a pop culture phenomenon. Two sequels were released at three year intervals. 16 years after the third film, the first film in a new prequel trilogy was released. A third trilogy has recently been announced: Star Wars Episode VII will be released in 2015, and is being directed by J.J. Abrams, the same director who was in charge of the Star Trek reboot.

Political and Social Elements

When Roddenberry conceived the original show, he did so with a highly progressive, liberal agenda in mind, reflecting the counter culture movement sweeping the nation in the 1960s, although he was not totally forthcoming with the television networks about this element of the show. Star Trek was Roddenberry’s vision of what society could become in the future if humanity learned from its past mistakes. It was one of the first shows to have a mixed race cast.

Star Wars is a classic epic of good versus evil. The Jedi use the Force for good, while the Sith use the Force for evil. Star Wars functions less as commentary on specific social issues, but operates on the grander operatic struggle of dark vs light, dictatorships versus democracies, etc. However, many have attempted to draw parallels between Star Wars and the reality of history and politics , as seen in this video :

Pop Culture and Legacy

Star Trek has a devoted cult following of hardcore fans known as “Trekkies”. There are various Trekkie conventions all over the world where fans dress up in costumes and may have a chance to meet cast members, or to discuss the issues of the show. Some Trekkies even learn the show’s constructed language , Klingon. There was a Star Trek -themed attraction in Las Vegas for 10 years. Two museum exhibits of props travel the world. A NASA space shuttle was named after the crew’s ship , the Enterprise.

The Star Wars movies have expanded into a massive web of spinoffs and products, including books, video games , made-for-TV movies, comic books, animated series, theme park attractions. Even several animal species have been named after Star Wars characters. References to Star Wars are common in movies and the media.

Famous Quotes

• "KHAAANNNN!" -Captain Kirk
• "It can be argued that a human is ultimately the sum of his experiences." --Benjamin Sisko
• "I would be delighted to offer any advice I can on understanding women. When I have some, I'll let you know." -Captain Picard
• "Excuse me… Excuse me. I’d just like to ask a question… What does God need with a starship?" -Captain Kirk
• "What we leave behind is as important as how we’ve lived. After all, Number One, we’re only mortal." -Picard "Speak for yourself, sir. I plan to live forever. -Riker
• The truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of imagination. -Garak
• "May the Force be with you."
• “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda
• “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” -Luke Skywalker
• “You don’t need to see his identification … These aren’t the droids you’re looking for … He can go about his business … Move along.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi
• “Use the Force, Luke.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi
• “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” -Darth Vader
• “Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” -Yoda
• “When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master.” -Darth Vader “Only a master of evil, Darth.” -Obi-Wan Kenobi
• “I’ve got a very bad feeling about this.” - Han Solo
• “Wars not make one great.” -Yoda
• “A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” -Yoda

Star Trek Stills

Star wars stills.

• Wikipedia: Star Wars
• Wikipedia: Star Trek
• Wikipedia: Comparison of Star Trek and Star Wars
• The Official Star Wars Blog
• The Official Star Trek Website
• The 10 Best Yoda Quotes - Star Wars Blog
• Top 10 Star Trek Quotes - Science Channel
• Star Trek Trivia - IMDB
• Star Wars: Episode IV Trivia - IMDB

Related Comparisons

Share this comparison via:

If you read this far, you should follow us:

"Star Trek vs Star Wars." Diffen.com. Diffen LLC, n.d. Web. 25 Aug 2024. < >

Comments: Star Trek vs Star Wars

• Captain Kirk vs Captain Picard
• Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris
• Batman vs Superman
• Disneyland vs Disney World
• American Dad! vs Family Guy
• Harry Potter vs Lord Of The Rings
• Batman vs Robin
• Batman vs Spiderman

Edit or create new comparisons in your area of expertise.

Stay connected

© All rights reserved.

Star Trek and Star Wars finally share common ground — and it's a reflection of 2020

Topic: Film (Arts and Entertainment)

With two recent Star Trek series and the Mandalorian, there's no need to pick a favourite. ( Supplied )

Growing up, I had a choice: Star Wars or Star Trek?

I adore both, but if I ever met other fans I had to choose.

If I chose wrong, I'd get a lecture about why one was superior to the other. I've heard the speech thousands of times about how Star Trek is science fiction and Star Wars is a space fantasy.

I've seen adult men get into heated arguments about space wizards. I've spent hours at parties listening to every grievance about the Star Wars prequels or why it's bad that Star Trek has too much action.

Fandom is tribal. No matter how hard I try to be diplomatic about the pros and cons of each long-running series, someone will come along with an ultimatum.

Which one will I take to a desert island?

Luckily, at the moment, I don't have to choose.

A scene from the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, featuring the character dubbed Baby Yoda. ( Disney )

Star Wars and Star Trek both have live-action television series available at the same time with new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery (season three) and The Mandalorian (season two) available to stream on Friday nights.

Teenage me would lose his mind.

But what's significant about each series is not the differences, it's what they have in common — and it's a reflection of our own political landscape.

In Star Trek: Discovery, the crew travel forward in time to the 31st century where Starfleet no longer exists and it's harder to travel long distances across space. ( CBS Interactive )

This is the way

The Mandalorian is set after the events of Return of the Jedi and the major shift in power is a fascinating backdrop to the western-inspired adventures of a bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal).

The galaxy is transitioning to the New Republic after the fall of the fascist Galactic Empire. The Star Wars universe is fractured and different groups are trying to exploit the power vacuum for their own gain.

In the first season of The Mandalorian, an Empire sympathiser (Werner Herzog) says:

"Judged by any metric — safety, prosperity, trade opportunity, peace — compare imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside, is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death, and chaos."

In Star Trek: Discovery, the crew travel forward in time to the 31st century where Starfleet no longer exists and it's harder to travel long distances across space.

With no Starfleet to keep the peace, pockets of the galaxy have become isolated and planets put up giant "keep out" signs. When the crew visit Earth, they learn it's protected by a shield and a hostile defence force.

Both Star Trek: Discovery and The Mandalorian focus on characters trying to find their ethical and moral bearings during a time of great political instability.

Each show deals with a culture disconnected with its past and the ancient cultures destroyed by imperialism. In Star Trek: Discovery it's the loss of Starfleet, and in The Mandalorian it's the Jedi order (cue the incredibly cute baby Yoda) and various indigenous cultures.

Wait, does that sound familiar?

It's always difficult to draw political parallels with the real world, because that's the difference between intent and interpretation.

But it's hard not to read into these themes overlapping in two of the biggest science fiction/fantasy series, at the same time, in the middle of the challenges of 2020.

Political bookends

Politics has been embedded into Star Trek from the beginning and it's a defining quality of the series.

It began with creator Gene Roddenberry's utopian vision of the future with an emphasis on the potential of the human race to overcome differences for a greater good.

The series then established itself with a series of milestones, including the first interracial kiss on American airwaves in 1968 and weekly ethical dilemmas exemplified by one of the series best episodes, The City on the Edge of Forever, where Captain Kirk (William Shatner) must make a decision that will alter human history.

The trend continued throughout all the Star Trek television series and films, and earlier this year the Star Trek spinoff Picard dealt with a refugee crisis and the "human" rights of artificial intelligence.

A political edge is what I expect from Star Trek. Star Wars is a little different.

In Dan Golding's book, Star Wars After Lucas, he writes that Star Wars is one of pop culture's most durable political analogies. Star Wars quotes, references and memes are consistently used as a shortcut to process our political landscape.

We all know, of course, the most famous Mandalorian of all: Boba Fett. ( Disney )

"It would be easy to suggest that it is simply Star Wars popularity and ubiquity in popular culture over the years that has drawn out these political comparisons," Golding writes.

"Yet the political uses for Star Wars are so enduring, so easily made, and so instantly meaningful that it feels like more is going on than just the borrowing of pop culture."

The underdog toppling the big guy is the major focus of George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

The heroes and villains are distinct, which is why it's so easy to draw comparisons between real world political parties and the evil Empire or the heroic Rebels. Even the much-derided prequels are being re-evaluated for their political prowess.

As Golding says: "The stakes of good and evil in this Star Wars are far more contested and unstable than ever before in the franchise."

Star Wars quotes, references and memes are consistently used as a shortcut to process our political landscape. ( Lucasfilm )

The release of the first Star Wars is vital, too, because it came out in 1977 — a decade ruled by crooked politics in America and a complete loss of faith in the government in the aftermath of the Richard Nixon presidency and Watergate.

There are so many variables that go into dissecting how Star Wars became a phenomenon, but one has to be that audiences at the time were craving a win.

In 2020, I feel that yearning for a victory but the path is not as clear cut.

The political backdrop of Star Trek: Discovery and The Mandalorian is an enticing canvas, but how each character finds their purpose in a complicated world is where it finds that sweet spot to explore real-world issues.

The political backdrop of Star Trek: Discovery and The Mandalorian is an enticing canvas, but how each character finds their purpose in a complicated world is where it finds that sweet spot to explore real-world issues. ( CBS Interactive )

I can only tiptoe around it for so long but both series hang on the H-word: hope.

I know, I know, it's such a corny catch-all for anything that hinges on the slightest bit of optimism, but it's worth scrutinising how we became so cynical about hope.

Star Trek: Discovery and The Mandalorian both exist in world where it's easier to be pessimistic and take advantage of political instability.

Star Trek: Discovery is on a mission to rebuild Starfleet and The Mandalorian uses a warrior's creed to reconnect a force-sensitive child with its kind.

The Mandalorian's principles have an added layer of intrigue because their creed dictates its acolytes wear a helmet most of the time. Identity politics are completely removed from each situation and their virtues are defined by their actions.

Star Trek: Discovery is similar, but it's the melting pot of Starfleet and what the uniform represents that sets them on a new course as a symbol of unity.

I've spent ages hearing people pit Star Trek and Star Wars against each other, so it's refreshing to see each live-action television series tackle similar issues and it's a way to reorient myself when cynicism creeps into my life.

It's hard not resist when it feels like the baddies are always winning. Sometimes it feels like we're losing touch with common decency.

Star Trek: Discovery and The Mandalorian each have main characters following ideologies that are close to extinction, but it's a way out of troubled times — it's hope.

Cameron Williams is a freelance writer and film critic.

• Stranger Things Season 5
• Deadpool and Wolverine
• The Batman 2
• Spider-Man 4
• Yellowstone Season 6
• Fallout Season 2
• The Last of Us Season 2
• Entertainment

Star Trek vs. Star Wars: which one is better in 2023?

For as long as both entities have existed, fans of science fiction and fantasy have debated the merits of Star Trek and Star Wars . But for most of the 45 years that the two franchises have overlapped, Star Trek and Star Wars haven’t actually had much in common, apart from their cosmic setting. Star Trek is an aspirational sci-fi series set in humanity’s future, while Star Wars is a bombastic fantasy adventure that takes place in a far-off galaxy. One has primarily lived on weekly television, while the other has broken big-screen box office numbers.

Star Trek and Star Wars have both leaned heavily into fan service

The streaming era has let both franchises experiment.

• The streaming bubble is forcing Star Trek and Star Wars to pump the brakes — and that’s good

However, in recent years, both Star Trek and Star Wars have become tentpoles for their parent companies’ subscription streaming services , Paramount+ and Disney+ , respectively, each pumping out a steady stream of content in an ever-widening array of formats. This has led them to encroach further into each other’s territory than ever before. Star Trek vs. Star Wars is no longer an apples-to-oranges comparison — they are directly competing products, sharing some of the same ambitions and struggling against the same environmental forces.

We will likely never settle on which space franchise is the greatest of all time, but we can take a moment to ask: Which is better right now?

Studios have become increasingly risk-averse during the streaming era, and that’s meant relying on recognizable brands with loyal fanbases who will remain subscribed to a service as long as there are new releases within their favorite fictional universe. However, this dependence has also left streamers at the mercy of those same fans, who can now use social media to converse with creators or even make demands. While this can lead to crowd-pleasing moments like the return of popular characters or the inclusion of fan-promoted memes back into the product, it can also create a feedback loop in which creators continue to serve audiences slight variations on whatever fans say they like rather than expanding their worlds or telling new stories.

Over the past two years, both Star Trek and Star Wars have released series that are representative of this shamelessly fan-oriented approach. In 2022, Paramount+ released the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , a prequel series set aboard the original USS Enterprise and starring Anson Mount as Captain Kirk’s predecessor Captain Christopher Pike. This series was prompted by a vocal fan campaign after legacy characters Pike, Mr. Spock, and Number One were featured in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery in 2019. A petition to give these characters their own spin-off received over 30,000 signatures, eventually leading to Strange New Worlds receiving a series order. Happily, the fans were right about this one, and Strange New Worlds has become more than just a nostalgic throwback to classic Trek , but exactly the shot in the arm the franchise needed. The series retains the episodic format of pre-streaming Trek series, but benefits from modern production values, a charming cast, and a sense of joy and wonder that the serialized Trek shows Discovery and Picard have yet to deliver.

The recent third season of Star Trek: Picard  has also been a serious crowd-pleaser, reuniting the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation for one last 10-hour adventure. Though certainly the most recursive and least imaginative new installment of Trek’s streaming era, it has been wildly popular among fans, well-received by critics, and is the first Trek series to make a dent into Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 streaming charts. A petition to launch a sequel series featuring Picard ’s younger cast members has surpassed the one that demanded a spin-off for Pike’s Enterprise, with over 44,000 signatures to date. There is a vocal online contingent that wants to hand the keys to the franchise to this season’s showrunner, gushing Star Trek fanatic Terry Matalas.  

The current state of the Star Wars Galaxy should be a warning against that particular future for Star Trek . While ascended fan and George Lucas apprentice Dave Filoni has produced some of the best Star Wars television, such as the animated Star Wars Rebels and the incredible final season of The Clone Wars , his insistence upon building every new series directly on the back of the last one has left the Star Wars galaxy feeling both smaller and more confusing than it has in decades. Characters’ stories weave between animated and live-action series, making each product harder to follow on its own. Important character beats for the main characters of The Mandalorian are resolved in The Book of Boba Fett . Ahsoka is a live-action spin-off for the popular Clone Wars character, but is also a sequel to Rebels , seeded in a number of Mandalorian episodes . Die-hard fans will have no trouble following this and delight in getting to see their favorite animated characters brought to life in live-action follow-ups, but this comes at the expense of what has always been Star Wars ’ greatest advantage over Star Trek : accessibility.

Meanwhile, the desire to tickle fans’ nostalgia glands with returning characters from the franchise’s past has resulted in creative misfires like the most recent Star Wars feature film, The Rise of Skywalker , the underwhelming Obi-Wan Kenobi streaming series, and the ghoulish practice of digitally applying the faces of young Mark Hamill or the late Carrie Fisher onto new actors. These are indications that even the unstoppable forces of time and death will not dissuade Disney from recycling the most popular Star Wars elements ad infinitum. That way lies madness.

Point: Star Trek

Prior to the streaming wars, Star Trek and Star Wars each had their own clearly defined lanes. Star Trek was weekly television that occasionally spun off into feature films, aimed at adults but also fostering a family audience; Star Wars was a film series that very rarely dabbled in TV, fun for all ages but plainly angling for a toy-buying audience. There had never been a Star Trek series specifically for kids (not even the short-lived 1970s Star Trek: The Animated Series ), nor had there been a Star Wars release that was made solely for adults. Over the past two years, however, both franchises have set their sights on the other’s target audience, with encouraging results.

In 2021, Paramount+ and Nickelodeon debuted Star Trek: Prodigy , a 3D animated action-adventure series aimed at kids under 12. Sporting a cast of colorful alien teenagers and a decidedly Star Warsian tone, Prodigy explores the Star Trek Universe from the perspective of complete outsiders, making it a perfect on-ramp for a young new fan. Prodigy is like no other Star Trek show before it, and yet it is still essentially Star Trek — a show about curiosity, cooperation, communication, and tolerance — winning it the enthusiastic approval of many adult Trekkies. It’s also a lot of fun, the sort of show that could easily capture the same sort of audience that The Clone Wars garnered during its earliest, most kid-friendly seasons. Naturally, it has spawned a toy line and a tie-in video game but is unlikely to compete with Star Wars to become a merchandising juggernaut.

Conversely, 2022 saw the release of Andor , the first Star Wars offering that feels totally adult-targeted. While still not explicitly sexual or any more graphically violent than the feature films, Andor is a slow, dense, character-driven drama that would bore most kids to tears. It is, nevertheless, one of the best new shows on television, the sort of series that could ably compete with Succession or Better Call Saul  in the acting, writing, and directing categories at next year’s Emmys. Even after the relatively gritty Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , to which Andor serves as a prequel, few fans predicted that a new Star Wars series would emerge that had so little interest in being commercial or toyetic.

And yet, its radical politics and revolutionary vigor are a perfect modern extrapolation of George Lucas’ original intent behind Star Wars , a film inspired by the Vietnam War in which the well-armed, well-funded government and military are the bad guys. It’s the side of Star Wars that was buried under mountains of merchandise as Lucas built his own Empire. Rival Star Trek has always been more overtly political, but with Andor , Star Wars has delivered an incisive dose of agitprop that would make Gene Roddenberry blush.

Point: Star Wars

The streaming bubble is forcing Star Trek and Star Wars to pump the brakes — and that’s good

As recently as 2022, both Disney and Paramount were betting the farm on streaming, spending unbelievable sums to pump out new installments of their most expensive franchises year-round. Disney+ debuted three live-action event series ( The Book of Boba Fett , Obi-Wan Kenobi , Andor ) and a set of animated shorts ( Tales of the Jedi ), totaling 23 weeks of new Star Wars content on the app. That same year, Star Trek hit critical mass, with a whopping 51 new episodes premiering on Paramount+ across all five of their ongoing series ( Discovery , Picard , Lower Decks , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds ). As both services continue to hemorrhage money, it’s become clear that this breakneck pace of new content is not sustainable. Returning Disney CEO Bob Iger has ordered Lucasfilm and Marvel to slow the rollout of their planned streaming series in favor of more theatrical releases, and a trio of new Star Wars films was announced at 2023’s Star Wars Celebration event. Meanwhile at Paramount, Star Trek: Section 31 , once planned as an ongoing series, is being retooled as a TV movie, with plans for new standalone Trek specials every two years . This strategy may allow Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman’s “Phase Two” of streaming Star Trek to explore new angles for the franchise without committing each of them to a pricey ten-episode season order.

While it’s true that a more conservative approach to either franchise could result in fewer big swings like Andor , it could also strike a blow against mediocrity. During the peak streaming era, mediocre installments like Picard season 2 or The Book of Boba Fett did little damage to their streamers’ credibility, as there was always another release right around the corner that might potentially make up for it. This pattern could continue uninterrupted for years, with a steady stream of good, fine, or outright bad Star Trek or Star Wars and very little great Star Trek or Star Wars . The less we get, the more valuable each new chapter will be, and the more invested everyone — from creators to fans — will be in its quality.

Individually, both upcoming franchises’ upcoming slates represent an exciting variety. Star Trek ’s most uneven pillars, Discovery and Picard , are wrapping up, but Strange New Worlds , Prodigy , and the animated sitcom Lower Decks continue to go boldly in markedly different directions from each other (though Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks have a crossover episode coming up this year). Section 31 promises to be something totally new for Trek , a spy-fi adventure starring Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh. A new series, Starfleet Academy , is also in early development. Across the divide, Star Wars has the hotly anticipated Ahsoka coming out this summer, with more Andor  and The Mandalorian on deck. Star Wars: Visions , the exciting anthology of animated shorts created by studios around the world, is back for another season this year, and the trailer looks positively dazzling. Middling animated series The Bad Batch is coming to an end, seemingly putting the Clone Wars-adjacent era to bed for a while, while upcoming series The Acolyte and the three unnamed feature films will each take place in a different time periods, expanding a galaxy that has started to feel strangely claustrophobic.

Both of these upcoming slates look promising, but the sheer variety of announced Star Wars projects is simply too enticing to deny. However, whatever your individual preference, fans of space sci-fi will have plenty to argue over for years to come.  

Point and overall winner: Star Wars

Editors’ Recommendations

• Quentin Tarantino talks failed Star Trek movie and why he’ll never watch Toy Story 4
• The Acolyte is over, but I still have some questions about the divisive Star Wars series
• Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie finds a writer
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is better and worse than you remember
• 5 things we need to see in The Mandalorian & Grogu Star Wars movie
• The Mandalorian

In 2022, Disney+ and Lucasfilm unveiled Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, a six-part series of animated shorts. A second season was announced soon after, and it's now just a month away. However, the show has undergone a name change to Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, and it's about to dive into even darker territory. Disney+ has dropped the first trailer for Tales of the Empire, and it chronicles the story of two women who embrace the Dark Side of the Force.

Tales of the Empire | Official Trailer | Disney+

Since the launch of Disney+ in 2019, there have been four live-action Star Wars series, including The Mandalorian and Andor. But the one thing that each of those shows had in common was that they followed the hero of the story. This summer, The Acolyte is flipping the switch on that by putting the spotlight on Mae (Amandla Stenberg), a former Padawan in the Jedi Order who seems to have quite a grudge against her onetime masters. That may be why Mae is attacking and apparently killing Jedi with knives in the first trailer for The Acolyte.

The Acolyte | Official Trailer | Disney+

The great thing about a hit movie is that you tend to find out things during interviews, premieres, and press conferences that would have never surfaced otherwise. Dune: Part Two is one such movie. In the lead-up to the movie's blockbuster opening weekend, we've discovered Josh Brolin's hidden talents as a poet and photographer, Javier Bardem's dedication to his children, Zendaya's love for the sci-fi classic Metropolis, and Austin Butler's appreciation for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The most recent revelation, however, tops all of those. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Christopher Walken, who plays Shaddam IV, the film's fearsome Emperor, explains why he came out of a four-year break from acting in films and joined Dune: Part Two. One reason was due to his admiration for the first film, which cemented Denis Villeneuve's status as one of the best sci-fi directors ever, and his appreciation of the sequel's impressive cast, which also includes Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, and Dave Bautista.

More results...

Proud recipient of the following awards:

Which is better: Star Wars Vs. Star Trek?

• entertainment
• which is better: star wars vs. star trek?

*Updated 2024

Whether you’re boldly going where no man has gone before or you’re already in a galaxy far, far away, you’ve probably heard the age-old debate about which of science fiction’s two biggest franchises is better. geeks, freaks, scientists and even casual fans have long been arguing in every corner of the galaxy about  star wars  and  star trek . which is better and why they both have spawned multiple spin-offs, (including for  tv ),  prequels, video games, cartoons, merchandise lines ( baby yoda , anyone), catchphrases (like “ may the 4 th  be with you ”) and informal holidays (may 4th), and even religions , following are three arguments why star wars is better and three arguments why star trek is better. (with all due respect to the star wars prequels and sequels, including the mandalorian, as well as all the different star trek series from the next generation onward , this debate is all about the original installments of each franchise.), why star wars is better.

It’s the most successful franchise in the world

Star Wars’ massive span of galaxies, aliens, spaceships, tactical maneuvers and plot points assure there is something to satisfy many types of fans. The franchise’s first installment became one of the biggest blockbusters ever, not just because so many people went to see the movie, but also because so many fans went to see it over and over again. It was also the first movie that created  merchandise mania , a craze to follow many summer movies in the years to come. Sources say that even George Lucas  didn’t believe  his movie would be such a success. On the evening of the movie’s premiere, he didn’t even bother to attend. Instead, he was in Hawaii with his best friend Steven Spielberg, brainstorming an idea for another movie. That movie was Raiders of the Lost Ark.

You’ve got to hand it to  George Lucas , who was inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s  Hidden Fortress , for creating a fable-like battle between darkness and light. The story is a very effective embodiment of good vs. evil. Darth Vader is the ultimate unstoppable force, and Luke Skywalker, with his naïve looks and belief in the goodness of mankind, triumphs against his father’s attempts to lure him to the Dark Side. Moreover, despite it being set in the future and in a galaxy “far, far away,” the use of medieval symbols, such as knighthood, swords, princesses and wise magicians, gives the Star Wars franchise the sense of a legend.

It made sci-fi inspiring

From lightsabers to dogfights in space, from exotic planets to the cynical yet  lovable characters , the franchise is visually striking and stimulating to the imagination. Star Wars made science fiction cool and approachable, and inspired  countless movies  to follow. Could you imagine the dynamics among The Avengers gang or the Guardians of the Galaxy without being inspired by that of  Han, Luke and Leia ? Could you picture what The Matrix would look like without taking costume ideas from Darth Vader? Furthermore, the spectacular special effects used in Star Wars spawned  ILM  (industrial lights and magic), created by George Lucas, which has forever changed movie special effects – both practical and computer-generated.

Why Star Trek is Better:

It’s grounded in reality

When  Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek, he wanted to be as grounded as possible in reality, or “future reality.” This is evident in that Star Trek deals with dilemmas that could very well become reality in the coming centuries, when humanity will exhaust Earth’s resources and make its curious and necessary journey to outer space.  Star Trek debuted in 1966, just five years after  Yuri Gagarin  was the first man to journey into outer space and two years before the moon landing. At that time in history, the race to space was as real as it gets. The quest to explore strange new worlds, gapping the difference between mankind and other species, was the key theme in all of the show’s incarnations.

It’s not afraid to deal with burning issues

When it came out in the 1960’s, Star Trek tried to tackle issues of gender, race, socioeconomic differences and war. As it first aired during the Vietnam War, the peak of the Civil Rights movement, and the Cold War, the show tried – and often succeeded – in addressing these issues and educating its viewers for the better.  Nichelle Nichols , who played Uhura in the series, was the first woman to have an interracial onscreen kiss on television. While protest quickly ensued, Nichols recalls being stopped one day on the street by a fan of the show who complimented the controversial kiss and encouraged her to keep taking chances. That fan was  Martin Luther King .

It allows for complexity

Star Trek tries to educate its viewers about diplomacy and  understanding  the other side in a conflict instead of resorting to war. This is why every villain has a reason for his furious grudge and mischievous actions. The show weaves this reasoning through the conflict and outcome, even if the villain sometimes dies. The Enterprise crew will always prefer reasoning – even at the cost of losing – for the sake of goodwill and of spreading the kindness of the human species across the galaxy.

The Bottom Line: Star Wars is a massive outward adventure while Star Trek aspires to use science fiction as a metaphor for our reality. Whose characters would you like to explore the universe with?

OWN PERSPECTIVE

Disney Animated Films – Are they good for children?

Do they encourage acceptance or promote insensitive stereotypes?

Is Binge-Watching a harmless or helpful activity?

It may provide a better viewing experience, but there are potential health risks involved.

How Should We View Michael Jackson’s legacy?

How should we view Michael Jackson's legacy?

Battle of the Bonds: Daniel Craig or Sean Connery?

When it comes down to it, which James Bond would you trust to save the day?

Should Celebrities Expect Privacy?

Does having a public career mean your life belongs to the public?

Is Kanye West a Great Artist or a Great Marketer?

"Everytime I’m in Vegas they screaming like I’m Elvis, but I just want to design hotels and nail it" (K. west. Clique)

Does Nicki Minaj Empower or Objectify women?

My only motto in my life is don't lose - N. Minaj

Should We Cheer for Beauty Pageants or Call for Their Demise?

Do their opportunities for female empowerment outweigh the negative attributes and controversy surrounding them?

How great is ‘great literature’ if it needs to be studied to be understood?

Does studying The Greats enhance or diminish their impact?

(Titanic) Could Jack have been saved?

Was there enough room on that raft for both Jack and Rose?

Throwback TV: Friends or Seinfeld?

Which is the better show ? Here's a Laughable Debate.

Star Wars is a science fantasy/fiction multi-media franchise created by George Lucas . From its very inception in the form of the first 1977 Star Wars film installment, there has been a definite rivalry between the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises , which Rod Roddenberry – son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry – learned of through first-hand experience, though he was a much bigger fan of Star Wars than Star Trek during his childhood. His father approved of Star Wars , considering it "fun" with "nothing wrong" about it. In 1986 , he commented, " I like Star Wars . It was the young King Arthur growing up and… slaying the evil emperor, finally. "

Gene Roddenberry had actually viewed the first Star Wars installment several times a few months after its release on 25 May 1977. When the television series Star Trek: Phase II , then in development, was upgraded on 21 October 1977 to the theatrical feature Star Trek: The Motion Picture because of Star Wars , Roddenberry, accompanied by then-Director Robert Collins , made several trips to the cinema to get a feel for what they wanted their film to look like visually. ( Star Trek Movie Memories , pp. 78, 83) Roddenberry himself had stated in 1979, " At the time Star Wars came out and turned box offices into money-making machines, Paramount said, and rightfully so, " Good Lord, what are we doing making a television show out of it, when we have what is really the original property of this type? " This, of course, was what I had been trying to tell them all along, through all these starts and stops . I saw one of those great, long lines around the block for Star Wars one time, and I recognized face after face from Star Trek conventions . There were so many Trek fans , we could have held a convention right there in the parking lot. Eventually I saw Star Wars myself. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it, but I kept wishing it was Star Trek up there on that big screen. " ( Return to Tomorrow - The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , pp.47-48)

As history has shown, The Motion Picture never came close to the phenomenal success the first Star Wars film had, both in critical as well as financial terms, which did not at all come as a surprise to then- Phase II / Motion Picture Production Illustrator Mike Minor , who said " I love science fiction, but it's proved itself to be costly, damaging in Human terms, costly in terms of money and time, and it is just much of a bankroll to bet too often. And the only person who seems to know how to do it right now, forgive me, is George Lucas, because I firmly believe Steven Spielberg [note: director of the contemporary science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind , released after the upgrade decision, which the Roddenberry/Collins pair also screened several times for the same purpose] hasn't the slightest idea what storytelling is all about. He's proved that rather conclusively. " ( Return to Tomorrow - The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , p. 165)

Before devising the origins of Star Wars , George Lucas attended a few Star Trek conventions. When interviewed by Rod Roddenberry in 2011 , Lucas recalled, " I started writing Star Wars sort of in the heyday of the syndication part of Star Trek . I think the thing I was attracted to the most about Star Trek is that it completely got rid of all the mundane, boring angle of real space. And just said, 'Well, let's just go out and go where no one else dared to go' […] Star Trek and Star Wars are not reality shows; they're imagination shows. The story is really the thing that makes it work. " Lucas went on to point out that portraying the stories of both Star Wars and Star Trek was limited by resources such as the amount of money and technology available. Comparing Star Wars to Star Trek , he noted, " What I was doing was more space opera than sort of science fiction. Star Trek was more sort of intellectual mystery. It wasn't action oriented. Star Wars was action oriented. " Lucas also acknowledged that both Star Wars and Star Trek have affected many millions of people. He did not put much stock in the fan-based competitiveness between Star Wars and Star Trek , remarking, " I couldn't even contemplate what would happen if you put the Enterprise up against the Millennium Falcon . You know, it's an intellectual exercise which, you know, could have any outcome you want. " ( Trek Nation )

Roddenberry (l) and Lucas (r) – Two legendary franchise creators meet, with Dan Madsen (c) bearing witness to the event

On 25 May 1987, Gene Roddenberry himself had actually already returned the courtesy by showing up as a surprise guest at the first official Star Wars convention, the 24-26 May " Star Wars 10th anniversary convention " held at the Stouffer Concourse Hotel in Los Angeles, California, jointly organized by Creation Entertainment and Starlog magazine. [1] [2] Arranged by the two organizers (both of them having had good relations with either creator), it has resulted in the only known (public) face-to-face meeting between the creators of the two most influential science fiction franchises in media history, and Roddenberry is reported to have said to a genuinely surprised and honored Lucas that "he could never do a film like Star Wars ". [3] At a time when both respective fanbases were still deeply embroiled in their intense rivalry, Roddenberry's appearance was a clear-cut public statement that there was no professional rivalry as far as the two creators were concerned and very much in line with Lucas' later statements on the subject matter.

At the 2016 Las Vegas Star Trek convention, William Shatner attributed the existence of The Motion Picture and all subsequent projects to Star Wars ' popularity. [4] Yet, Shatner's assertion has to be seen in a somewhat more nuanced light; attempts to revitalize the live-action Star Trek franchise preceded the premiere of the original Star Wars film in 1977 – Roddenberry's previously mentioned "starts and stops" – eventually resulting in the Phase II television project. Nevertheless, Shatner had a point in his assessment of Star Wars ' phenomenal success at the box office, at that time considered a fluke (and thus disregarded at first by Paramount), becoming instrumental in the studio's eventual decision to upgrade the television project into a major theatrical film project.

20th Century Fox was the distributor of the first six Star Wars films, though they only co-owned the first film along with Lucas' own Lucasfilm Ltd. , until The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. on October 30, 2012 and thus the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. [5] Disney, incidentally, was in the 1980s-2000s headed by Michael Eisner , the former Paramount executive responsible for the studio oversight of Phase II / The Motion Picture and its two film successors. His boss at that time, Paramount President Barry Diller , established for his subsequent employer a fourth national television network, 20th Century Fox, later known as Fox Television, something he failed to do for Paramount and for which Phase II was intended to serve as flagship before its upgrade to a theatrical film. With the 2018 acquisition of Fox by Disney as well, all rights and title to the entire Star Wars franchise passed firmly over in full to one owner only.

Especially intense in the early decades, the rivalry between the two fanbases had been such that it even became part of popular culture itself as exemplified by the release of the 2001 documentary Star Wars vs. Star Trek: The Rivalry Continues . However, the intensity of the rivalry has abated considerably over the last decades. The immensely popular and heavily Star Trek referencing sitcom The Big Bang Theory featured almost as many Star Wars references as well, but rarely pitted the two franchises against each other – the four main protagonists in the show are actually fans of both without exhibiting any of the acrimony. And indeed, in this it mirrored the position Dan Madsen had already taken in the 1980s when he served as the concurrent president of both the Official Star Trek Fan Club and the official Lucasfilm Fan Club at a time when most of his fellow fans of either persuasion were deeply embroiled in the intense rivalry with each other. Still, the more partisan elements of each respective fandom still do their best to keep the rivalry alive in full force as evidenced on countless internet blogs, even though they presently appear to be a minority.

• 1 Star Trek in Star Wars
• 2 Star Wars in Star Trek
• 3 Crossovers
• 4 Franchise performances
• 5 Documentaries
• 6 External links

Star Trek in Star Wars [ ]

The Keldon -class starship

In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars 2008 episode " Rising Malevolence ", a Keldon -class ship can be seen on a tactical monitor behind General Grievous at one point.

The two-part episode finale of Star Wars Resistance collectively entitled "The Escape" features a scene that seemingly pays homage to the shield-dropping scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . When the Resistance droid CB-23 hacks into the Star Destroyer Thunderer and deactivates its shield, the graphic displaying the ship's blueprint is shown to be similar to the USS Reliant 's, with an identical disappearing dotted pattern to represent the ship's shields dropping at a rapid rate. A bridge officer then says " Agent Tierny, sir. Our shields have somehow been deactivated. " Agent Tierny replies, " Well raise them. Bring them back online! " To which the bridge officer replies, " I- I can't! "

The short story " The Whills Strike Back " seemingly acknowledges some elements of the Star Trek universe existing within the current Star Wars canon. In the story two Whills are arguing over the content that one of them is writing which will later be seen in the opening text crawl of The Empire Strikes Back . When they reach the part that says "Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet" one of the Whills interjects " Wait… "Starfleet"? Did you just say "Starfleet"? Are Kirk and Spock going to show up next? " while the other Whill replies " I don’t even know what Kirk and Spock are! "

During the development of Star Wars , George Lucas took inspiration from Star Trek , recalling that, like Lucas himself, Gene Roddenberry initially hadn't been entirely comfortable with developing a series and refining or pulling together the vision of a fictional world. ( The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film , pp. 245-246)

Star Wars in Star Trek [ ]

Millennium Falcon cameo in Star Trek: First Contact

R2-D2's cameo in Star Trek

R2-D2's cameo in Star Trek Into Darkness

The 1982 theatrical trailer for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , included on the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (The Director's Edition) DVD release, features sound effects from Star Wars in the segment where the USS Enterprise and the USS Reliant do battle. Conceivably this had been an in-joke by ILM , the VFX company ( see below ) which has served both franchises, starting with The Wrath of Khan for Star Trek .

A scene in DS9 : " Valiant ", involving the USS Valiant battling a Jem'Hadar battleship , was intended to be evocative of the Battle of Yavin in the original Star Wars . Episode writer and show producer Ronald D. Moore explained " that whole sequence, that technical thing that they found, it's all a deliberate homage to Star Wars . " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 61)

• ISS Avenger
• Calrissian chameleon
• Gand sector
• Kashyk (see Kashyyyk )
• Millennium Falcon
• Nar Shaddan
• Skywalker Division
• On close inspection, the drug dispensers that Q and his fellow soldiers from World War III wear as part of their uniforms are labeled "Army R2D3PO -D", a reference to the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO . [6] (X)
• L. Skywalker

Some aspects of Star Trek were deliberately meant to not have a Star Wars style. For instance, Makeup Supervisor Michael Westmore once described the background aliens in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as being "basically within Gene Roddenberry's realm of not going into a Star Wars -type of creature." ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine  issue 1 , p. 28) During the production of Star Trek: First Contact , efforts were made to reduce the resemblance of the Borg sphere model to the Death Star .

In the Star Wars prequel trilogy a character, Jar Jar Binks , appeared that was very poorly received by its fanbase, who had made that abundantly clear to such an extent that it has become a pop culture element onto its own as being synonymous for anything ill-conceived or despised. In the fourth season "The 21-Second Excitation" episode of The Big Bang Theory for example, the character Sheldon deemed Wil Wheaton (at the time of setting, Sheldon's arch-nemesis due to his opportunism and exploiting of his fame) "the Jar Jar Binks of the Star Trek universe", thereby referring to his Wesley Crusher character he played on Star Trek: The Next Generation , after which Wheaton drives the Sheldon character mad by imitating Jar Jar Binks.

Crossovers [ ]

• Ian Abercrombie
• Philip Anthony-Rodriguez
• Gerald W. Abrams
• Michael Aron
• Ed Begley, Jr.
• Dee Bradley Baker
• Michael Bell
• Michael Benyaer
• David Birney
• Billy Brown
• Clancy Brown
• Hamilton Camp
• Larry Cedar
• Nazneen Contractor
• Eugene Cordero
• Jim Cummings
• Keene Curtis
• Olivia d'Abo
• Grey DeLisle
• Charles Dennis
• D.C. Douglas
• Kevin Dorff
• Larry Drake
• Fionnula Flanagan
• Cully Fredricksen
• Brian George
• Michael Giacchino
• Wayne Grace
• Greg Grunberg
• Bennet Guillory
• Francis Guinan
• Olivia Hack
• Jennifer Hale
• Jerry Hardin
• Mike Hawthorne
• Adrian Holmes
• Clint Howard
• Sherman Howard
• Jason Isaacs
• Diana Lee Inosanto
• Alexis ("Lex") Lang
• Phil LaMarr
• January LaVoy
• Scott Lawrence
• Christopher Lloyd
• Patty Maloney
• Trula M. Marcus
• Jason Marsden
• Vanessa Marshall
• Ralph Maurer
• Malcolm McDowell
• Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
• Richard McGonagle
• James H. McGrath, Jr.
• Sumalee Montano
• Phil Morris
• Christopher Neame
• Nolan North
• Timothy Olyphant
• Derek Partridge
• Ron Perlman
• Brock Peters
• Ethan Phillips
• Daniel Riordan
• Charles Rocket
• Stephen Root
• Clive Revill
• Kevin Michael Richardson
• Mark Rolston
• Raphael Sbarge
• Armand Schultz
• W. Morgan Sheppard
• Armin Shimerman
• Alexander Siddig
• Felix Silla
• Jimmi Simpson
• Christian Slater
• David Sobolov
• Brent Spiner
• Daniel Stevens
• Tara Strong
• Carel Struycken
• Keith Szarabajka
• George Takei
• Fred Tatasciore
• Tasia Valenza
• Kari Wahlgren
• Frank Welker
• Titus Welliver
• Valerie Wildman
• Gary Anthony Williams
• Debra Wilson
• Jason Wingreen
• Keone Young
• Time Winters
• J.J. Abrams , director, writer, executive producer
• Philip Barberio , special effects
• Joe Bauer , visual effects supervisor
• Maryann Brandon , film editor
• Bryan Burk , producer
• Ben Burtt , sound designer/sound mixer
• Todd Cherniawsky , art director
• Ryan Church , conceptual artist
• James Clyne , conceptual artist
• Hanelle M. Culpepper , director
• Ryan Dening , conceptual artist (online computer gaming)
• John Dykstra , special effects
• Judy Elkins , sculptor
• Steve Gerber , writer
• Bill George , model maker, visual effects art director
• Michael Giacchino , composer
• Tommy Gormley , co-producer, first assistant director
• Barbara Hambly , writer
• Tommy Harper , executive producer
• Greg Hildebrandt , poster artist
• Nilo Rodis , conceptual artist, costume designer
• Michael Kaplan , costume designer
• Kevin Kiner , composer
• John Knoll , visual effects artist, visual effects supervisor
• Jeffrey Lombardi , property master, additional photography
• John Paul Lona , illustrator
• Mary Jo Markey , film editor
• Ralph McQuarrie , model designer
• Dan Mindel , cinematographer
• Andy Nelson , sound designer
• Michelle Rejwan , co-producer
• Ben Rosenblatt , co-producer
• Jessica F. Sherman , casting associate
• Drew Struzan , poster artist
• Joe Viskocil , pyrotechnics special effects artist
• April Webster , casting director
• Alyssa Weisberg , casting director
• Kevin J. Anderson
• Steven Barnes
• Cecil Castellucci
• Chris Claremont
• A. C. Crispin
• Peter David
• J.M. DeMatteis
• Patricia Rose Duignan
• Alan Dean Foster
• Christie Golden
• Marc Guggenheim
• Jody Houser
• Tony Isabella
• Shane Johnson
• Scott Lobdell
• Vonda N. McIntyre
• John Jackson Miller
• Mark Cotta Vaz
• Wil Wheaton
• Laura Allred
• Mike Allred
• Jordie Bellaire
• Derek Charm
• David Messina
• Elsa Charretier
• Howard Chaykin
• Brian Ching
• Dave Cockrum
• Joe Corroney
• Denys Cowan
• David Garcia Cruz
• Thomas Deer
• Luis Antonio Delgado
• Terry Dodson
• Rachel Dodson
• Jan Duursema
• Tommy Lee Edwards
• Steve Epting
• Triona Farrell
• Julianna Ferriter
• Francesco Francavilla
• Jenny Frison
• Arianna Florean
• Ed Hannigan
• Gabriel Hardman
• Corin Howell
• Adam Hughes
• Klaus Janson
• Charlie Kirchoff
• Leonard Kirk
• Scott Koblish
• Marc Laming
• Megan Levens
• Emanuela Lupacchino
• Rick Magyar
• Chris O'Halloran
• Terry Pallot
• Jimmy Palmiotti
• Sara Pichelli
• Craig Rousseau
• Ramon Rosanas
• Declan Shalvey
• Bill Sienkiewicz
• Walter Simonson
• Chris Sotomayor
• Chris Sprouse
• Sarah Stern
• Art Thibert
• Caspar Wijngaard
• Patrick Zircher
• Bad Robot Productions The J.J. Abrams-owned Bad Robot Productions is a production company that had teamed up with Paramount Pictures in 2006 for the production of the alternate reality Star Trek films. They concurrently did so with The Walt Disney Company, or rather Lucasfilm Ltd., for their revitalized Star Wars film franchise, starting in 2012 with The Force Awakens , incidentally directed by Abrams himself, just as he had Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness . As with those of ILM, many of Bad Robot's employees have worked on both franchises.
• Double Negative Likewise, the London, UK-based Double Negative (DNeg) VFX company had been contracted as support for ILM for the main saga prequel trilogy, [7] and like ILM the company and many of its employees went on to work for the Star Trek live-action franchise from 2015 and beyond as well, starting with Star Trek Beyond . [8]
• Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a VFX and animation company, was formed in 1975 as part of Lucasfilm Ltd. for the express purpose of realizing the optical and miniature effects for the first Star Wars film, continuing to do so for all the subsequent ones. The company has contributed effects work to nine of the thirteen Star Trek films in addition to " Encounter at Farpoint ". Many of ILM's VFX staffers have worked on both franchises. Due to the sale of Lucasfilm, ILM is now currently part of Disney, reunited under one roof with its former subsidiary, now known as Pixar Animation Studios (renowned for its digital VFX for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ), which was already Disney property since 2006.

Franchise performances [ ]

With Star Wars having become the most successful science fiction franchise in media history, it was ironic in hindsight that the Hollywood studios United Artists and Universal Studios declined the opportunity to become part of it when they were approached by Lucas in the mid-1970s with the proposition for what was to become the first film installment. [9] United Artists was ended after its disastrous 1980 western Heaven's Gate ; Universal Studios did ultimately manage to produce a modestly successful science fiction franchise of its own in Battlestar Galactica .

The original Star Wars film is to date the second all-time highest domestic grossing film in history adjusted for inflation , only surpassed by the 1939 film Gone with the Wind . By early 2018, it had been joined in the top two hundred by all the other up-until-then produced Star Wars films, including the eighth and ninth ones, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016, the first spin-off film) and The Last Jedi (2017), whereas none of the Star Trek films have made the list. [10] In absolute dollars, four Star Wars films, including Rogue One , have as of 2018 passed the US$1 billion mark, with The Force Awakens reaching the exclusive status as one of only four US$2 billion plus worldwide grossing films at that point in time. With Star Trek Into Darkness over two hundred places below at US$467 million as the all-time best box-office performing Star Trek film, no Star Trek film has managed to pass the US$500 million mark, with only the three alternate reality films grossing more than US$150 million. [11] The commercial failure of the 2018 second spin-off film, Solo: A Star Wars Story , at US$393 million, marked the first financial setback for the film franchise, whereas the Star Trek film franchise had already had at least four (see: Star Trek films: Performance summary ).

While the gross box office takes of the Star Trek film franchise, US$2.2 billion as of 2018, are easily accessible, it is the gross revenue from other franchise elements that remain shrouded in mystery. Reporter Mark A. Altman disclosed that the entire Star Trek franchise – which, contrary to the Star Wars franchise, reports less frequently on the other revenue streams themselves, apart from the box office takes – had already passed the US$1 billion dollar mark in total studio revenues by 1993 ( Cinefantastique , Vol 24 #3/4, p. 16), which was upped to US$2 billion gross in Entertainment Weekly 's Special Star Trek Issue of 18 January 1995, implying a rough fifty-fifty split at that time between box office income and other franchise revenues. In his 1998 book A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager (p. 55), Stephen Edward Poe cited a Los Angeles Times article that claimed nearly US$2 billion franchise revenues in retail sales alone. In December 1998 the Los Angeles Times reported a US$3.5 billion aggregate customer merchandise turnover, which did not include the box office takes and their derivative home video formats sales, [12] whereas Richard Arnold has reported a US$10 billion total turnover in July 2016, which constituted a franchise total up until then, including box office takes and home video format sales, and thus implying a roughly 80/20 split between all merchandise and box office takes. Star Trek Beyond had just been released at the time of Arnold's report, with its total box office take therefore not yet known. [13]

Despite the reluctance of the Star Trek franchise to divulge more detailed figures itself, but with revenues undoubtedly running in the billions over the decades, Star Trek has become one of the most successful media franchises in history. Yet, it is the financial success of the younger Star Wars franchise, a franchise rival from the start and until 2015 sporting far fewer film or television productions, that is truly staggering, dwarfing that of Star Trek , which has never even come close of attaining the levels its rival achieved. Shortly before the release of the seventh film installment in late 2015, gross aggregates were divulged by its franchise; they consisted of US$4.3 billion in box office revenue, US$12 billion in toy sales alone , and US$10.7 billion for all other franchise elements, including home video format sales. [14] The four films released afterwards have in the 2015-2018 time span more than doubled the box office takes on their own.

The box office revenue was realized over six films, as opposed to Star Trek 's twelve at that time (2015), meaning that on average a Star Wars film had performed nearly five times better than a Star Trek film. This was already abundantly exemplified by the very first 1977 Star Wars installment, grossing US$775 million against a budget of US$11 million worldwide, [15] as opposed to The Motion Picture 's US$139 million and US$35 million respectively. While the runaway success of the first Star Wars film, considered a fluke at first by Paramount, was a major influence in the decision to produce The Motion Picture in the first place, it was also a major source of Paramount's chagrin over the Motion Picture 's performance, becoming the main reason for them to consider the film a failure in public.

The discrepancies in financial performance between the two franchises, also reflected themselves in the financial fortunes of its two respective creators. Well into his sixties, Gene Roddenberry only became affluent because of Star Trek in the last decade of his life, while George Lucas was already a multi-millionaire by the time the original Star Trek trilogy was completed, yet to turn forty, moving up into the exclusive ranks of multi-billionaires at age 68 when he sold his Lucasfilm company to The Walt Disney Company in 2012 for US$4 billion. In all fairness though, contrary to Star Trek , Star Wars became a runaway success right from the bat and Lucas "lucked out" in a big way. In 1976/1977 Lucas needed additional funding to complete his first, original Star Wars installment, and offered to sell his production partner, 20th Century Fox (the Hollywood studio that had picked up his pitch in the mid-1970s), the merchandising and licensing rights. Fox declined, and the rights have remained where they have been ever since, at Lucasfilm, with Lucas paying for the shortfall by foregoing on his, and some of his closest associates, salaries at the time. In stark contrast, Roddenberry lost all rights and title to his creation, save for his "created by" credit, the moment he sold his Star Trek is... pitch to Desilu Studios in April 1964, as was customary in the motion picture industry at the time.

Whereas, as per Herbert Solow , Paramount's acquisition of Star Trek was "one of the most spectacular business moves in entertainment history" ( NBC: America's Network , p. 220), Fox's refusal was assuredly one of its most spectacular blunders, starkly reinforced by the Lucasfilm sale to Disney; with a new, highly anticipated and promising third trilogy in the making as of 2015, Fox subsequently missed out entirely on its share of the box office and home video sales revenues. How huge this missed income was became readily apparent on 21 December 2015 when newscaster CNN revealed the opening box office take of the seventh installment, The Force Awakens , at US$518 million worldwide, discounting the second largest theatrical film market in the world, China, where the film premiered later and obliterating the previous weekend record, held by Jurassic World only achieved in the previous summer. The opening weekend box office take alone for this one film, already accounted for over a quarter all twelve (at the time) Star Trek features had generated in their entire runs. [16] Incidentally, holding on to that record for two years, it was virtually obliterated by the film Avengers: Endgame , the 2019 outing from the Marvel Comics sister franchise (owned by Disney from 2009 onward and having, ironically, acquired the distribution rights from Paramount as well in 2011; [17] ) at US$1.2 billion, not only the gross opening weekend box office take record was shattered (the year previously already held by the Avengers: Infinity War prequel), but most other records as well. [18] In the intervening years, the Marvel Comics franchise had become a serious Star Wars contender for the position of the all-time most successful science fiction media franchise, each of them separately leaving Star Trek far behind in the dust. Endgame went on to write motion picture history when it hit the US$2.8 billion mark in the last week of July 2019, inching past the ten-year-old record of Avatar as the all-time highest grossing motion picture. That film alone earned more at the box-office than all thirteen Star Trek films combined – surpassing it by the box office takes of all six Original Crew films – whereas The Force Awakens had "only" been shy of US$200 million (or 10%) of equaling the Star Trek total.

Already a multi-media entertainment franchise juggernaut to begin with, Disney became with the acquisition of two of the most profitable franchises (with the March 2019 acquisition of the 21st Century Fox corporation – including 20th Century Fox and all its assets – to boot, reuniting Fox and Lucasfilm under one roof) a behemoth in the entertainment industry, eclipsing in scope all its competitors, including National Amusements , owner of CBS Corporation (in turn the current owner of the Star Trek franchise) and Viacom , the current holding company of Paramount Pictures.

Incidentally, Paramount Pictures had been the distributor of the Indiana Jones films, and the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney also meant that Paramount lost the revenues from that franchise as well, aside from having already lost the entire Star Trek franchise to CBS Corporation in 2006 and the Marvel Comics franchise distribution revenues to Disney in 2011 as stated above. While not the root cause, the loss of these income sources contributed to the financial adversities the studio found itself in the 2010s, eventually leading up to the cancellation of Star Trek 4 . Reportedly, the stupefying box office performances of the relaunched Star Wars ( Solo excepted), and those of the post-2011 Marvel Comics film franchises, became a major consideration for Paramount to cancel the fourth, yet untitled, alternate reality film in January 2019. While not overtly evident at that time, this decision had for all intents and purposes all the hallmarks of the definitive termination of the Kelvin timeline in the Star Trek film franchise, [19] and conceivably of the Star Trek film franchise proper as well for the time being (even though a Star Trek XV film project is apparently still on the table, though it has not even evolved beyond the writing stage as of 2021), especially in the light of the film franchise being virtually rendered insignificant by those from the Star Wars and Marvel Comics ones in particular, as has been amply demonstrated by Endgame alone. [20]

Documentaries [ ]

• Star Wars vs. Star Trek: The Rivalry Continues , 2001
• Episode 1, Season 1: " Star Wars ", 2017
• Episode 1, Season 2: " Star Trek ", 2018

External links [ ]

• StarWars.com – official site
• Star Wars at Wikipedia
• Comparison of Star Trek and Star Wars at Wikipedia
• Wookieepedia , the Star Wars wiki
• 1 Bell Riots
• 2 Daniels (Crewman)

5 Reasons Star Wars is the Best (& 5 Reasons Star Trek is the Best)

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Charlie Cox Reveals His Spider-Man: No Way Home Cameo Nearly Featured a Classic Daredevil Reference

The crow is set to stream for free after reboot flops in theaters, this 17-year-old cult classic comedy has gotten even better with age.

It's been 43 years since Star Wars changed the movie and pop culture landscape for all time. The story of the young moisture farmer named Luke Skywalker learning to control the Force and become a Jedi like his father before him broke box office records, created a seemingly endless parade of knockoff movies, books, shows, and toys and, perhaps most importantly to some, helped revive interest in a decade-old TV series; Star Trek .

RELATED:  Mara Jade & 9 Other Star Wars Characters Who Don't Exist Anymore

And you can be sure that well before the first screening of Star Wars started, sci-fi fans were arguing over which now iconic sci-fi saga was better. Was Han Solo cooler than Captain Kirk ? Was the Millennium Falcon better than the Enterprise? Which was the better weapon; a lightsaber or a phaser? There is no one right answer to the question of which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek, because there are at least five reasons why each one is better than the other.

10 Star Wars: The Force

There's no simple explanation for what the Force is, but everyone knows it's very cool. Obi-Wan Kenobi explains that the Force is "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together" which sounds cool but doesn't make it easy to understand. And that's on purpose.

George Lucas was using the Force as a catch-all for faith. Not faith in any type of diety or person, but in the Buddhist meaning of the word; trusting that the practice of the Buddha's teaching will bring fruit. For Star Wars, there is no Buddha, but there is faith in practice, patience, and teachings. In any case, when you are one with the Force, you get cool superpowers.

9 Star Trek: Utopia

While Star Wars is focused on having faith in an external source (although the Force is also an internal source. It really is hard to explain), Star Trek is about faith in humanity. Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future is one where Earth is a utopia. Mankind has moved passed prejudices based on skin color, sexual orientation, gender, or place of birth.

RELATED:  Star Trek: The 5 Coolest Aliens (& the 5 Lamest)

In 1966, when Star Trek first aired on TV, this idea of a utopian society seemed impossible, and even today it's hard to imagine, but Roddenberry knew that to make it to the far reaches of space, coming together is something humanity will need to do. Most importantly of all, Star Trek doesn't ignore the great suffering it will take to reach enlightenment. In the history of Star Trek , the 21st Century is a period of great turmoil, including a nuclear war. Only after the collapse of society can it be rebuilt.

8 Star Wars: Destiny

Star Wars is based around destiny. The Force needs to be in balance - the light and the dark - and midi-chlorians, microscopic sentient lifeforms help keep that balance. Anakin Skywalker , some Jedi believed, was the prophesied "Chosen One" who would bring balance to the Force, and in some ways, he did just that by destroying the Jedi Order and leaving only a handful of trained Force users behind.

The overall saga of Star Wars, from The Phantom Menace to The Rise of Skywalker is about people who are chosen by a higher power to chart the course of the galaxy. It is Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" across nine movies.

7 Star Trek: Hard Work

Where Lucas was inspired by Joseph Campbell, Gene Roddenberry found his inspiration in the work of C. S. Forester, who wrote the Horatio Hornblower series of books. Those books focused on a Royal Navy officer and his crew during the Napoleonic Wars, and that sense of naval adventure is built into the DNA of Star Trek .

To Roddenberry, no one person is destined for greatness, they work towards it. The crews that make up the various Star Trek shows are not brought together by fate, but by administrative planning. No one, except for Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine , has a higher calling. The heroes of Star Trek are everyday people doing their best during extraordinary moments.

6 Star Wars: Good vs Evil

In Star Wars there is good and there is evil, and the line between the two is pretty clear. The bad guys are often called Storm Troopers and control an Empire. They use the Dark Side of the Force to get what they want and enslave others. The good guys use their powers to help others and believe that there is hope for everyone.

They fight for the downtrodden and never kill unless they have no choice. Most importantly, the good guys wear bright colors while the bad guys are in darker shades. This is all on purpose, and while it can seem simplistic, Star Wars is at heart a fairy tale, one that starts with "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away."

5 Star Trek: The Grey Area

Star Trek plays in grey tones when it comes to good and evil. The Federation is clearly the good guys, but that doesn't mean they are always right, nor does it mean that everything they do is "good." There are many instances in Star Trek where good people do horrible things to save others. It doesn't make them bad, it makes them human.

As for villains, there is no simple answer to any of the adversaries in Star Trek. The original foes, the Klingons , became part of the Federation. The Borg is made up of people who have no control over themselves. When the Dominion declared war on the Federation, the Romulans put aside their hatred for Vulcans and humans and offered to help. Even the Dominion, arguably the most clearly evil group in Star Trek, is only trying to protect their own quadrant of space after the Federation begins to encroach on their space.

4 Star Wars: Family Matters

In the long run, Star Wars primarily focuses on two families; the Skywalkers and the Palpatines . It is a story of legacy, familial bonds, and dealing with the failures of the past generations. Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa dedicate their lives to fixing the damage their father did to the galaxy while Rey Palpatine fights against her family's past to forge a new path.

Even Kylo Ren is trapped within his family, torn between idolizing his grandfather Darth Vader and feeling the love and empathy he gets from his parents.

3 Star Trek: Friends Matter

In Star Trek, there are a lot of families, from Mister Spock and his rather dysfunctional family to Benjamin Sisko and the close relationship he has with his son Jake. but the heart and soul of each series is the friendship.

This comes from the format of the original series where the crew was made up of people of different backgrounds, all coming together to make the universe a better place. Starting with the Kirk, Spock, and Bones, Star Trek is built around friendships created over time and forged in fire. These friends won't always agree, and will often argue, but they also always have each other's backs.

2 Star Wars: Cultural Significance

Star Wars is possibly the biggest and best-known story in the world. No other book, show, or movie has had as much of a cultural impact. It brought science fiction to the mainstream, turned marketing into a science, and most importantly of all, filled thousands of minds with endless dreams.

RELATED:  Star Wars: Top 10 Shadiest Things Obi-Wan Has Done

Star Wars took elements of old movie serials, blended it with the mythology of samurai, and put in a dash of childlike wonder to create something never before seen. Now, four decades later, Star Wars continues to be a major force in popular culture, with live-action shows like The Mandalorian , animated series like the upcoming The   Bad Batch , and theme parks like Galaxy's Edge , not to mention toys, video games, and comics. And there's no end in sight.

1 Star Trek: Building the Future

On September 17, 1976, NASA invited the cast of Star Trek to join them in as they revealed the first reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft to the world. The name of that shuttle was, as you may have guessed, the Enterprise .

From cellphones and tablets to transparent aluminum, Star Trek not only saw what the future of technology would be, but it also inspired the people who made these things into aa reality. Over the years, Star Trek has served as the gateway that opened up the world of science and technology to some of the smartest people on Earth.

NEXT:  The 10 Weirdest Star Trek Guest Stars

This Is The Correct Order In Which To Watch The Star Trek Franchise

Don't look now, but "Star Trek" is a thing again. It's been a while — after redefining television in the 1960s and enjoying a resurgence in the '80s and '90s, the final episode of ""Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2005 marked the beginning of a dark period in which there was simply no "Trek" to be had. Then, in 2017, the drought ended with the premiere of " "Star Trek: Discovery ," and when it rains, it pours. "Discovery" heralded the arrival of a whole new era of ""Star Trek," and that's just the beginning — Paramount+ will soon play host to two new "Star Trek" shows, with three more currently in development, and there's a new movie scheduled for release in 2023 . Suddenly, we are awash in "Trek," which means that if you're unfamiliar with Gene Roddenberry's universe, it's a pretty good time to jump on board. Only where do you start with a franchise this big — and more importantly, what's the proper watch order?

These are the questions we're here to answer. While it's tempting to try and watch "Star Trek" chronologically, using either the fictional timeline or release dates, we recommend an order that's a bit of a blend of both. Following this list should result in an experience that provides a complete picture of what "Star Trek" is while also remaining easy to binge. With that in mind (and with the understanding that a few spoilers are unavoidable ), it's time to boldly go where every previous "Star Trek" installment has gone before!

The Original Series

When you watch "Star Trek," you really need to begin at the beginning. Not with Enterprise, which is set earlier in the "Trek" timeline than any show, but with "Star Trek" — or as it's lovingly called these days, "The Original Series." This is the show that ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969, forever altering the television medium, the science fiction genre, and the experience of being a fan. While some viewers may find the special effects laughable or the political themes unsubtle, the most astonishing thing about "TOS" is how well it holds up, even more than 50 years later. The first two seasons, in particular, are absolutely riddled with classic episodes, and while the third season is significantly worse due to changes in the creative team, it's still fun to watch William Shatner ham it up as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy raise a single Vulcan eyebrow as Mr. Spock, and the original Starship Enterprise soar through space. Most importantly, though, those first 79 episodes introduce rules, concepts, and even characters that "Star Trek" is still playing with today, from Class M planets and the Prime Directive to Khan and the Klingons.

The Animated Series

The unofficial fourth and fifth seasons of "Star Trek," "The Animated Series" aired on NBC from 1973 to 1974, after tempers had cooled somewhat between NBC and Roddenberry, who left "Star Trek" after its second season out of frustration with the network. Not only was the entire original cast back (minus Walter Koenig), but so was Roddenberry, and so was D.C. Fontana, Roddenberry's longtime assistant who had grown into one of the most celebrated "Trek" writers and had also departed after Season 2. Between the return of some of the show's original creative minds and cast, and the fact that animation allowed them to do so much more than live action special effects of the era, "TAS" is pure, undiluted "Star Trek."

It's never been made explicitly clear whether "TAS" is canon, but considering the number of "TAS" ideas re-used in later live-action shows, plus the introduction in "TAS" of canon pieces of backstory, like Kirk's middle name, it's silly at this point to believe otherwise. And it's required viewing for completists who want to see every televised adventure undertaken by the original Enterprise crew.

The first six films

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was released by Paramount in 1979, and while it's not an especially good film, it holds historical importance as the launching point for the "Star Trek" movie franchise. The real highlights in this part of the list, though, are the three films that followed. The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home essentially form their own trilogy of movies within the larger "Trek" saga, and are some of the most popular and critically acclaimed installments in the franchise. "The Wrath of Khan," in particular, tends to show up near the top of "best science fiction films in history" lists, making the titular Khan such an iconic villain that he was recast for the J.J. Abrams reboot movies, while "The Voyage Home" is probably the most charming "Star Trek" film, as the Enterprise travels to the past to rescue the humpback whale species from extinction.

Even the most dedicated binge-watcher can safely skip the horrendous fifth movie, "The Final Frontier," but "The Undiscovered Country" is an absolute masterpiece, and taken together, these six films provide a worthy capstone to the franchise's inaugural era.

It might seem counterintuitive to follow up the oldest "Star Trek" series with one of the newest, especially given that "Star Trek: Discovery" actually takes place prior to "The Original Series." But there's a good reason to jump from the tales of Kirk and Spock to the tales of Michael Burnham and...well, and Spock, who shows up in Season 2. "The Original Series" and its accompanying animated and film extensions are foundational to "Discovery," which is set shortly after the events of the rejected "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage." And characters from "The Cage" show up in Season 2 and are also appearing in their own spinoff, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

While an in-universe chronological watch order would put the first two seasons of "Discovery" before "TOS" and the third season at the very end (as the crew travels forward in time to the far future) it makes more sense to us to treat "Discovery" as its own story. The third season does occasionally reference "past" events from other shows, but that does lead nicely into the next "Trek" installment...

The Next Generation (Seasons 1-5)

For many Trekkies today, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was their introduction to the franchise, and for good reason. If any one series beyond the original can lay a claim to being the single most iconic "Star Trek" story, it's Next Generation, which premiered in 1987 and went on to not only have seven seasons of its own, but to jumpstart a chain of interlocking "Star Trek" shows that would thoroughly dominate the 1990s. Before that, though, the first five seasons of Next Generation stood alone, and if you're trying to get somebody instantly hooked on Trek, this might actually be the place to start, despite the fact that the first couple of seasons don't hold up incredibly well.

If you're absorbing all of "Star Trek," though, "Next Generation" has to be the place to start. After all, it's the next generation of what, exactly? The answer is the Starship Enterprise, which comes with an entirely new cast and crew, introducing the world to Worf, Data, Counselor Troi, and Geordi LaForge, and permanently branding the hearts of a thousand Trekkies with the image of Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard .

The Next Generation (Season 6) / Deep Space Nine (Season 1)

Okay, this is where it gets weird. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" debuted in January 1993, just a few months after "Next Generation" kicked off its sixth season — a season full of unmitigated classics, incidentally, from the return of Montgomery Scott in "Relics" to the legendary two-parter "Chain of Command." Picard even makes a cameo in the first episode of "DS9," which takes place aboard a space station and uses the ideas and events of earlier "Next Generation" episodes to inform characters like Commander Benjamin Sisko and Quark. It's essentially impossible to understand Sisko's backstory, for example, without first having seen the "Next Generation" episode "The Best of Both Worlds."

Despite the fact that they take place over roughly the same time period, we recommend watching the entirety of Season 6 of "Next Generation" followed by the entirety of Season 1 of "DS9," if for no other reason than the former has more episodes than the latter, making it a complicated process to intercut between them. But however you choose to do it, these two seasons really should be watched back to back.

The Next Generation (Season 7) / Deep Space Nine (Season 2)

Similarly, the second season of "DS9" coincides with the last "Next Generation" season. While it might lack the standout episodes of earlier seasons, Season 7 manages a few achievements. For one thing, it puts a bow on one of the most beloved shows in television history with a flourish, ending the program with an ambitious, timeline-jumping two-parter that ties directly into the events of the very first episode. It also inadvertently lays the groundwork for a much more modern "Trek" show with an episode about junior officers called "Lower Decks." But most importantly, it ties into and reinforces "Deep Space Nine," most notably in the penultimate episode "Preemptive Strike," which deals with concurrent "DS9" problems like the Cardassians and the Maquis.

By the end of Season 2, "DS9" has already proven capable of standing on its own, having picked up and ran with the Maquis threads from earlier "Next Generation" episodes, returned to the Mirror Universe first introduced in the original series, and introduced the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar, who will serve as the series' primary antagonists. But the stories of Picard and company were far from over...

Generations

The four feature films built around the cast of "Next Generation" are a direct continuation of the movies that came before, not least because the first one, 1994's "Generations," serves as a bridge between "TOS" and its descendant, and between Kirk and Picard, in about the most literal way you could imagine. This movie marks the final appearance of several characters from the original show, including Kirk himself (the one played by William Shatner, at any rate) which makes it a crucial piece of the "Star Trek" timeline, as does the introduction of Data's emotion chip. Of course, some might consider the movie worth it just to see Malcolm McDowell chew the scenery like he hasn't eaten in three days, and we can't say they're wrong.

"Generations" launched Picard's crew onto the big screen almost immediately after their exit from the small one, meaning they would continue to be the face of "Star Trek" for the remainder of the decade. But back in the realm of "Trek" TV, things were only heating up, as a new series prepared to take the field and challenge "DS9" for television dominance.

Deep Space Nine (Season 3) / Voyager (Season 1)

Once again, it's time to switch between two seasons of "Star Trek," as the third season of "DS9" overlaps with the debuting "Star Trek: Voyager." The first "Trek" series to feature a woman (Kathryn Janeway) in the captain's chair, "Voyager" also had a unique and fascinating premise. Much of the "DS9" action is driven by the existence of a nearby wormhole that leads to the Gamma Quadrant, a section of space far away from the Federation's native Alpha Quadrant. This allows the titular space station and its intrepid crew to encounter any number of new and dangerous alien species. "Voyager" goes even farther, literally — a solitary ship finds itself transported to the even more distant Delta Quadrant and spends the rest of the series trying to get home.

Due to this premise, there's no reason whatsoever to jump between individual episodes of these two seasons, as the events of one show don't affect the other in any way. But jumping between shows by the season provides a fun and accurate experience of what it was like to watch the interlocking "Star Trek" programs of the 1990s.

Deep Space Nine (Season 4) / Voyager (Season 2)

Like most "Star Trek" shows, "Voyager" takes a couple of seasons to find its feet, and Season 2 in particular contains some of its most notoriously bad episodes, from the tone-deaf Native American implications of "Tattoo" to Janeway and Voyager pilot Tom Paris turning into salamanders and having salamander babies together in "Threshold" to the utter abomination that is "Tuvix." At least it has the consideration to get them all out of the way early on.

"DS9," meanwhile, was encountering its own problems in Season 4, which took a sharp turn away from the burgeoning conflict with the Dominion and instead spent most of its time dealing with the newly antagonistic Klingon Empire. Fortunately, even as the overarching plot went briefly off the rails, the writing was getting better and better, and the diversion is, if nothing else, entertaining. As a bonus, Season 4 features one of television's first lesbian kisses, and also brings in Worf, the Klingon security officer from "Next Generation" — until Picard, Michael Dorn was the only actor to star in the main casts of two different "Star Trek" shows.

First Contact

As a result of his dual roles, Worf would spend the next several years hopping back and forth between television and the movies. One reason it's important to watch Season 4 of "DS9" prior to watching "First Contact," the second film starring the "Next Generation" cast, is because in order to include Worf in the story, the latter is obligated to include a scene in which the Enterprise rescues another ship called the Defiant, introduced in "DS9" and captained by Worf himself. Future "Next Generation" movies, which decline in quality moving forward, come up with increasingly hand-wavy reasons for his presence on the Enterprise bridge.

"First Contact" itself, however, is by far the best of the "Next Generation" films and one of the best "Star Trek" films in general, as the crew travels back in time to prevent the cybernetic hive mind known as the Borg from altering history. Not only is "First Contact" a great movie (and the film directorial debut of Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander William Riker), it also kicks off a spectacular "Star Trek" run that can stand up against any other period in franchise history.

Deep Space Nine (Season 5) / Voyager (Season 3)

With Season 5, "DS9" gets back on track after the previous outlier season, quickly focusing around a single unified threat thanks to an alliance between the show's original antagonists the Cardassians and the Dominion. The presence of the sinister Changelings adds an intrigue element to the story, as any character could potentially be a Changeling in disguise — a concept that would be used to great effect years later in the 2004 reboot of "Battlestar Galactica." The season concludes with the official start of the Dominion War, a conflict that would dominate the remainder of the show.

"Voyager," meanwhile, was also getting back on track in its third season, which generally sees an uptick in quality — particularly toward the end, with episodes like "Before and After," "Real Life," and "Worst Case Scenario." Robert Picardo, who plays Voyager's holographic doctor, also gets to make a cameo in "DS9" as the Doctor's creator, Lewis Zimmerman, in the episode "Doctor Bashir, I presume." And Season 3 ends with the first installment of "Scorpion," which catalyzed "Voyager's" official rise to greatness in part thanks to a memorable new character.

Deep Space Nine (Season 6) / Voyager (Season 4)

These two overlapping seasons, airing in late 1997 and early 1998, represent the pinnacle of "Star Trek's" '90s golden age. In "DS9," the Dominion War is in full swing, the series' much-discussed religions themes are building in prominence, the mysterious Section 31 is introduced, foreshadowing its prominent role in both "Enterprise" and "Discovery," and most memorably, the showrunners do what almost no iteration of "Star Trek" has ever dared to do: permanently kill off a member of the main cast.

Casting changes are also a major part of Season 4 of "Voyager," which jettisons the little-loved character of Kes and officially introduces Seven of Nine , a liberated Borg drone played by Jeri Ryan who quickly joins the ranks of the franchise's most widely known characters. It's an oversimplification to suggest that the overall brilliance of Season 4 is the direct result of Ryan joining the cast, but no matter how much of it you attribute to her, it's a phenomenal season of television, filled from start to finish with some of the best "Voyager" episodes (and also "Retrospect," but we don't talk about that one).

Insurrection

It's not "First Contact," but 1998's "Insurrection" is still a pretty good "Next Generation" movie, another solid offering from Jonathan Frakes. While "Insurrection" doesn't interact much with the events of "DS9" or "Voyager," watching it at this point in the "Trek" timeline provides an overall context for the state of the Federation, which has been intermittently challenged, as the movie's primary villain points out, by the Borg, the Cardassians, and the Dominion. A sense of the Federation being assailed from all sides isn't strictly necessary for the film's story of familial betrayal on a planet that confers immortality, but it does make viewing it a more interesting experience (though again, the perfunctory inclusion of Worf simply because he's expected to be in "Next Generation" movies is potentially jarring for "DS9" fans who have become invested in his character development, which "Insurrection" largely ignores).

"Insurrection" is Frakes' last "Star Trek" movie as director (though he would later direct episodes of "Discovery" and "Picard") and marks the beginning of the end of the '90s "Trek" boom. There's still plenty of great "Trek" ahead, but the curve is now pointing down.

Deep Space Nine (Season 7) / Voyager (Season 5)

The final season of "DS9" represents one of the single greatest creative accomplishments in "Star Trek" history, as no "Trek" show to date has managed to stick such an ambitious and satisfying landing. In a unique move, the last 10 episodes of the season form a single, series-ending story, and the feature-length finale, "What You Leave Behind," is considered one of the greatest "Trek" episodes of all time. "DS9" had been great for at least two seasons prior to this one, but the success of Season 7 cemented it as a foremost jewel in the crown of the "Star Trek" franchise.

"Voyager," meanwhile, continued its stellar run of episodes, capping off a three-year rehabilitation effort that saw one of the franchise's shakiest shows become one of its best. It was good timing, too, because with "DS9" wrapping up ("What You Leave Behind" aired the week after the Season 5 "Voyager" finale, "Equinox"), Captain Janeway and her crew were suddenly the only starship in the galaxy. And you, intrepid binge-watcher, can finally stop switching between two different shows.

Voyager (Seasons 6-7)

Unlike "DS9," the final seasons of "Voyager" are not its best, though admittedly, after Seasons 4 and 5, that's a high bar to clear. Season 6 comes close with a steady stream of classics, introducing both the popular Holodeck scenario Fair Haven and the "Pathfinder" storyline that sees "Next Generation" vets Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi join up as recurring characters. By Season 7, however, the quality of "Voyager" has begun to dip noticeably — the final season contains few memorable episodes and at least one extremely ill-conceived romantic subplot. It earns some redemption, however, with the two-part series finale "Endgame," which, whether you like it or not, at least fulfills the promise of the show's premise and comes to a definitive conclusion about whether the ship and its crew are ever getting back to the Alpha Quadrant. It's a moment that would have been easy to shy away from, and "Voyager" meets it head on.

"Endgame" aired in May 2001, and in retrospect, the title didn't only apply to "Voyager." The continuous story that "Star Trek" had been telling for the past 14 years over the course of three different shows and three different movies was over. There was, however, one last (incredibly depressing) chapter to get through.

The final "Next Generation" film, released in 2002, is by far the worst of them, and the worst "Star Trek" movie in general since 1989's "The Final Frontier." It was so bad, in fact, that it notoriously killed "Star Trek" — plans for a fifth "Next Generation" movie were scrapped after "Nemesis" bombed at the box office, and creatively, it's an absolute nightmare, introducing a Romulan sister planet with the unfortunate name of Remus, blatantly attempting to restart Data's entire character arc via a literal copy with the also unfortunate name of B-4, and tying these and other unfortunate decisions together with a nonsensical plot featuring Tom Hardy as a secret clone of Picard. After "Nemesis," the scuttling of future franchise installments can honestly be seen as a mercy killing.

"Star Trek" wasn't quite dead in 2002, however. While we've now officially made it through the combined stories of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager," there's one more show, independent from the others, that now enters the viewing order. And watching it involves going back to the very beginning... and even before that.

In a chronological viewing, "Star Trek: Enterprise" would actually be the first show you watch, since it takes place a hundred years prior to "The Cage." Indirectly spinning off from the events of "First Contact," it tells the story of Earth's first warp starship, appropriately named the Enterprise and captained by Scott Bakula's Jonathan Archer, and of humanity's early relationships with alien species like the Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, and Andorians. Despite its status as a prequel, the sheer degree to which "Enterprise" relies on its audience having knowledge of other "Star Trek" properties makes it almost impossible to recommend as an entry point. It fits much better here, as the official end of the franchise's second major era, especially given that the final episode, "These Are The Voyages...," frames itself as a holodeck simulation being watched by the Enterprise crew from "Next Generation."

"There Are The Voyages..." aired on May 13th, 2005. There wouldn't be another "Star Trek" show for more than 12 years. At this point, our watch order breaks away from order of release, but we feel strongly that it's how "Star Trek" from 1987 to 2005 should be watched.

Lower Decks

If you think 12 years is a long gap between "Star Trek" installments, that's nothing compared to the 45 years that went by between "Trek" stories told via animation. "Short Treks" was technically the first "Trek" show since "The Animated Series" to include animated episodes, and that aired in 2019, but 2020 gave us the first season of "Lower Decks," an entirely animated show about the people who don't get to hang out on the bridge.

The first franchise installment to ever concern itself primarily with characters who are not in command of a starship or space station, "Lower Decks" is the "Star Trek" equivalent of shows like HBO's "Harley Quinn" — an irreverent, adult-oriented comedy that revels in its TV-MA rating, delivering violence, sex, and swearing at warp speed frequencies. Chronologically, it's set shortly after the events of "Nemesis," but more importantly to the binge-watcher, it's the dessert following a feast — a vital dose of pure fun after absorbing almost four full decades of space drama.

The Kelvin timeline

After the box office failure of "Nemesis" brought an abrupt end to the "Next Generation" movies, there wasn't a new "Trek" film until 2009. And far from being a continuation of the existing movie franchise, this new version, simply called "Star Trek," was a reboot of "The Original Series," casting new, younger versions of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the first Enterprise crew. Sequels to the reboot followed in 2013 and 2016.

Watching these three movies as part of a "Star Trek" binge is pretty much entirely optional, since they take place in an alternate timeline created when the USS Kelvin was destroyed in battle with time-traveling Romulan ship from the 24th century, leaving an infant James T. Kirk without a father in the process. Moreover, the trilogy is widely considered to be of uneven quality (though the third movie, "Star Trek Beyond," is considerably better than its predecessor, possibly due to the departure of director J.J. Abrams). Still, if you're going to watch them, this is the place in the viewing order to do it, as a key plot point of the first film — the Romulan sun going supernova — plays a major role in "Picard."

Short Treks

The Kelvin movies might not exert much direct influence over the larger plot of "Star Trek," but they played a major role in the future of the franchise by bringing in Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman is the showrunner on "Discovery," and with the exception of "Lower Decks," he has been directly involved in every modern "Trek" series. In 2018, after the successful first season of "Discovery" led to a new expansion of the "Star Trek" franchise, Kurtzman and co-creator Bryan Fuller (formerly a writer on "DS9" and "Voyager") premiered "Short Treks," an anthology series of short, unrelated stories. As of this writing, there have been two seasons and 10 total episodes, some live-action, some animated.

"Short Treks" spans almost the entire "Star Trek" timeline — two episodes are set in the period of time between "Enterprise" and "The Original Series," while a third takes place in the far future. As a result, watching it requires a sense of the entire scope of the "Trek" universe. It's the penultimate entry in this watch order, however, because the Season 2 finale, "Children of Mars," leads directly into the final entry: "Picard."

"Star Trek: Picard" is the first of the modern "Trek" offerings to look forward rather than back, giving us a story set after the events of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager." Indeed, not only does the series follow up with Jean-Luc Picard 20 years after we last saw him (and 12 years after the Romulan sun went supernova) but it also brings in an older version of Seven of Nine, once again portrayed by Jeri Ryan. As mentioned, Picard also ties into the most recent installment of "Short Treks," which involves a terrorist attack by synthetic life forms that eventually leads to a ban on their creation — one of the many plot elements of "Picard" that has drawn criticism for being inconsistent with the original utopian vision of "Star Trek."

With so many new "Trek" shows on their way, this list will quickly become outdated. But all the upcoming series will reward previous "Trek" viewing, from Janeway's return on "Star Trek: Prodigy" to a show focused entirely on Section 31. So if you're going to binge all of "Star Trek," you might want to get started now!

You are using an outdated browser. Upgrade your browser today or install Google Chrome Frame to better experience this site.

Star Trek vs Star Wars, which sci-fi universe is more interesting?

Source: Composite image by G_marius

Star Trek and Star Wars are the most influential sci-fi sagas. We debate these two universes and outline some of the best quotes. Also check out some of the most iconic scenes of Start Trek and Star Wars. Join our debate and vote!

Star Trek and   Star Wars  are the most influential sagas in the history of science fiction . Both sci-fi franchises  successfully created rich universes which have inspired multitudes of books, video games, toys, and TV series. We compare the two and select a few of the best quotes the characters of these sagas left us.

Star Trek vs Star Wars

Star Trek  is a science fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry.  The Original Series was released in 1966 and ran for three seasons on NBC. Star Trek narrates the space exploration and interstellar adventures of James T. Kirk, Captain of the starship USS Enterprise , and its crew, which included Spock, Leonard McCoy, Montgomery Scott, Pavel Chekov, Nuota Uhura, and Hikaru Sulu among others. The Enterprise explored the galaxy on behalf of the "United Federation of Planets". They searched new life and civilization, and often fought the extraterrestrial Klingons. The series were so sucessful that several  TV spin-off series were launched afterwards:  Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Pickard. Ten films were also produced from 1979 to 2002.  In 2009, the film franchise underwent a relaunch with Star Trek, a prequel to the original series directed by JJ Abrams. A  sequel to this film, Star Trek Into Darkness, followed in 2013 and new one Star Trek Beyond has been anounced to mark the 50th anniversary of the interestellar saga in 2016. The trekkies are surely delighted that their favorite characters will be back soon.

Star Wars  is an epic sci-fi space opera franchise created by the film director and producer George Lucas. Star Wars Episode IV:  A New Hope  (1977) was the first movie of a trilogy that was completed with  The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Star Wars   became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. Iconic characters such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Yoda or Darth Vader have left a deep imprint on many of us. Some of the scenes and scenarios in the movies also stimulated our imagination, such as the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine, the battle on the icy planet Hooth or the destruction of the Death Star. And what about its music? who doesn't recognize the fantastic John Williams soundtrack? A prequel trilogy was later released Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). The first movie of a third trilogy,  Star Wars Episode VII:  The Force Awakens  was released 2015. It was followd by Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). As with the reboot of Star Trek, for this new Star Wars JJ Abrams was chosen director to bring back to the big screen some of the most glorious elements of George Lucas saga.

Some of the best scenes of Star Trek and Star Wars

Some of the best Star Trek quotes

• "They seemed to have been spared the agony of your first three World Wars, doctor" . Mr. Spock
• "Live long and prosper."  Mr. Spock
• "Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."   Captain Kirk
• "I have been, and always shall be, your friend ." Mr. Spock
• "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one ." Mr. Spock
• "You look quite well for a man that's been 'utterly destroyed', Mr. Spock." Captain Kirk

Some of the best Star Wars quotes

• "Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son." Darth Vader
• "You can’t win, Darth. Strike me down, and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine ." Obi-Wan Kenobi
• "It's a trap!"  Admiral Ackbar
• "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Princess Leia
• "Laugh it up, Fuzz ball ." Han Solo
• "No. I am your Father." Darth Vader

Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. Your vote is anonymous. If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option.

Voting results

New to netivist?

Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. You will not receive any promotional materials from third parties.

Or sign in with your favourite Social Network:

Join the debate

In order to join the debate you must be logged in.

Already have an account on netivist? Just login . New to netivist? Create your account for free .

 Report Abuse and Offensive language

Was there any kind of offensive or inappropriate language used in this comment.

If you feel this user's conduct is unappropriate, please report this comment and our moderaters will review its content and deal with this matter as soon as possible.

NOTE: Your account might be penalized should we not find any wrongdoing by this user. Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service .

Our moderators will now review this comment and act accordingly. If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized.

Posting Comment

Your comment is being posted. This might take a few seconds, please wait.

Error Posting Comment

  error.

We are having trouble saving your comment. Please try again .

Most Voted Debates

Start a Debate

Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? We will help you do it!

Found a technical issue?

Are you experiencing any technical problem with netivist? Please let us know!

Help netivist

Help netivist continue running free!

Please consider making a small donation today. This will allow us to keep netivist alive and available to a wide audience and to keep on introducing new debates and features to improve your experience.

• What is netivist?
• Entertainment
• Top Debates
• Top Campaigns
• Provide Feedback

Follow us on social media:

 Share by Email

There was an error...

Email successfully sent to:

Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free You will not recive any promotional materials from third parties

 Join netivist

Already have a netivist account?

If you already created your netivist account, please log in using the button below.

If you are new to netivist, please create your account for free and start collecting your netivist points!

You just leveled up!

Congrats you just reached a new level on Netivist. Keep up the good work.

Together we can make a difference

Follow us and don't miss out on the latest debates!

The Star Dispatch

Star Trek News From All Timelines

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek: Which Came First (And Why Does It Matter)? – Looper

The two most impactful science fiction franchises of the 20th century, “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” have inspired generations of fans while …Google Alert – "Star Trek" Read More

SDCC 2020: The Psychology of Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Moderator Brian Ward of “The Arkham Session” posed four topics to pop culture psychologists Dr. Drea Letamendi (“Lattes with Leia”) and Dr. Ali Mattu (“The Psych Show”) and special guests Todd Stashwick (“Star Trek: Enterprise”) and Jennifer Muro (“Star Wars: Forces of Destiny”) to analyze “The Psychology of Star Trek versus Star Wars.”

Ward did a switcheroo and changed Muro from Team Wars to Team Trek and Stashwick from Team Trek to Team Wars.

·  Dr. Ali Mattu

·  Jennifer Muro (“Star Wars: Forces of Destiny”)

·  Dr. Drea Letamendi

·  Todd Stashwick (“Star Trek: Enterprise”)

First Topic

The Mandalorians and the Klingons have largely been defined by their strong sense of cultural identity, creed and code. How do these two groups demonstrate real-world group dynamics and which group actually shows more promise in terms of social justice? Whose set of principles seems more realistic?

Letamendi of Team Wars : The Mandalorians have a strong code, not unlike the Klingons, that emphasizes strength and bravery in combat. For the Mandalorians, separate pieces of armor have specific significance. The Mandalorians are not a race and they welcome other ethnic groups unlike the Klingons. The Mandalorians “seem to embody what a sophisticated group would think about in terms of actualizing everybody” and “those two components include belongingness and individualism.” While she loves Star Trek, with the Klingons, she struggles to understand the concept that a race such as the Klingons are “characterized by aggression and combat and violence.” It seems to be implied that “this is an inherent part of this race.”

Mattu of Team Trek : Mattu told Letamendi, “You need to watch more Star Trek.” While he found that Letamendi brought up some great points, Mattu felt the Klingons “are a better parallel to the world we are living in right now.” He also noted that the Klingons “have always been a reflection of the world that we live in.” In the 1960s (TOS), even with Mr. Chekov on the bridge of the Enterprise, the Klingons were “kind of the Soviet Union villain.” He added, “We didn’t really know much about them; we just knew that we hated them.” With Worf in “The Next Generation,” he noted, “You begin to see that there’s actually a lot more diversity to the Klingons, to their beliefs.” In “The Next Generation,” the Klingons are not so driven by aggression and war, “but they do have this very strict honor code.”

In the newer series, “Star Trek: Discovery,” the experience with Klingons is mixed. In the first episode of “Star Trek: Discovery,” you see that “there are actually different tribes of Klingons that have evolved on different planets. Worf’s journey from “The Next Generation” to “Deep Space 9” to the movies, is “a great parallel for how we all experience culture” because in some ways Worf is very much Klingon in that “he’s very much integrated with his Klingon identity.” He speaks Klingon very well and appreciates Klingon cuisine and music, but in other ways he’s separated and “more estranged from his Klingon heritage.”

Stashwick of Team Wars : Stashwick stated, “Mandalorian is a choice; it’s not a state of birth.” There was a planet that had a social hierarchy, but where it stands today, “they have come to the aid of the oppressed.” As for Klingons, what he has seen, they have been presented as a very aggressive and Worf is the exception, but not the rule. He is an outlier.

Muro of Team Trek:  Muro was 50-50 on this. When she thinks of diversity with Klingons, she thinks there is a psychological diversity. When Worf talks to other Klingons, some are honorable, and some are really bad to him. She feels it is very relevant now because “It is one race, but there is so much psychological diversity in that race. That is kind of how humans are.”

Mattu of Team Trek:  Mattu added there’s something inspirational to have the “these villains who just a few years later are at peace with the Federation and have a Klingon serving on the bridge of the Enterprise.”

Second Topic 

Ward wanted to talk about emotional intelligence in the context of “someone who started out as an idealist” but who “dipped their toes in the waters of darkness.” The hubris and self-doubt of the characters sent them into hermitage, meaning both Luke Skywalker and Jean-Luc Picard. How do their lives show experience of trauma and how do they grow emotionally?

Mattu of Team Trek:  Mattu said he was really stressed “because honestly, I love Picard and Luke’s journey so much and I think they’re just such beautiful stories of trauma.” Picard has experienced many traumas. He was assimilated by the Borg and was responsible for the deaths of many humans and humanoids. Picard also lost his brother, his sister-in-law and his nephew in a fire (“Star Trek: Generations”), and then he had to face the Borg again and again. Through this all, “what has helped Picard to stay emotionally intelligent to understand what he’s going through to get what he needs, to emotionally be resilient and bounce back, it’s his ship; it’s his crew.” The support of Troi and the meaning and purpose behind being a Starfleet officer is what gave him that resilience and this is “compromised” in “Star Trek: Picard” where he was trying to save Romulans and the Starfleet wouldn’t support him. He could not handle that compromise and went into hiding. “That is something many people do who experience trauma.” Mattu is also a big fan of the journey seen in “The Last Jedi” with Luke. In both, he thought we’re reminded to learn from our failures.

Letamendi of Team Wars : Letamendi agreed that these two stories are about the development of emotional intelligence. EQ is about how we try to override the logic and “just tap into the emotions that we’re experiencing.” EQ is not just about our emotions, but also being able to empathize and understand the emotions of the people around us and letting those feelings drive our behaviors. She said, “I’ve always looked at Trek to help understand social relationships and Star Wars is more about the interpersonal.” When Luke goes into isolation, he is “not yet learning from his setback; he feels responsible for Kylo Ren becoming darkened in his path…he lets that resentment and feelings of self-doubt and failure permeate.” When Rey comes, he’s able to understand that it’s not about himself all the time.

Third Topic

What do Rey and Michael Burnham show us about healthy coping and self-care? How do they preserve or deny their heritage and identity to maintain their mental well-being? What’s the importance of legacy when it comes to saving the universe?

Letamendi of Team Wars : Rey had to adjust and adapt to being a scavenger and this gives her great resilience. Her journey is about developing this sense of resilience. Resilience is “our ability to mentally and emotionally cope with hardship,” but also how we use external resources and ask for help. Despite the hardships she faces, Rey finds contentment and joy which is not only difficult to do, but “also shows that she’s holding on to a sense of hope.”

Mattu of Team Trek:  Mattu mostly agreed and added that she “struggled deeply with her being a Palpatine.” The notion of legacy is “really what you make of it and what you learn and who you want to be.” With Burnham, we find out that she has been raised by “probably the most famous parents in Star Trek and she is a sibling to probably the most famous character, Spock.” Mattu highly recommended watching “Short Treks” because there’s one about her and her father (“Star Trek: Short Treks,” Season 2, Episode 9, “The Girl Who Make the Stars”). She lost her parents and was raised on Vulcan after being adopted by Sarek and Amanda. Burnham has been able to code-switch which adds to her ability to see things from different perspectives. In a sense, this shows how diversity is better. It is harder, but “diversity is a superpower that will help you solve problems you could never do, you could never solve with everyone coming from the same place,” Mattu explained.

Stashwick of Team Wars : Stashwick noted that while many people criticized “The Force Awakens” as being a retread of “A New Hope,” Rey was looking for a sense of family and belonging while Luke was running away from family and looking for adventure. Rey’s newfound family fortified her enough to be able to overcome the darkness.

Muro of Team Trek:  Going last left Muro with little to say and expand upon, but she noted that with Burnham, she has invested a lot in attempting to emulate the Vulcan culture, but finds her resilience is from “giving in to the passion of her humanity.”

Fourth Topic

The Kelvin Timeline was, according to the Official Star Trek Online Wiki, the alternative quantum universe created when a Romulan starship traveled back and destroyed the USS Kelvin.

Mattu of Team Trek:  Mattu talked about “Star Trek Beyond,” and how it begins with Kirk and Spock really struggling with their positions. Kirk feels that things have become “episodic.” Spock is struggling with the loss of Spock prime “as we all were with the death of Leonard Nimoy .” The whole story is about reconnecting with what is Starfleet. Reconnecting with the meaning of what you do can help you through tough times, including living under COVID-19 restrictions.

Letamendi of Team Wars:  Letamendi doesn’t know enough about the Kelvin timelines to be critical. These stories have given us purpose. Star Wars “is storytelling around concepts of redemption” and that’s something that we struggle with. The human experience is filled with making mistakes, having flaws and dealing with not only our own flaws but the flaws and mistakes of others. The Star Wars story has always been about a sense of “can we work on rebuilding connection and harmony.” If you can come back to the good of yourself, “you can accept some of the mistakes you’ve made.” That’s something that is hard to do.

Stashwick of Team Wars : Stashwick noted that with J.J. Abrams, he “clearly was a Star Wars man” who was “handed the keys to the Star Trek kingdom and he made a Star Wars version of Star Trek,” but Stashwick then noted that with Star Wars, “just because you blew up a Death Star once, your problems aren’t over.” Beating back the demons is “an eternal struggle” and “a noble pursuit.” He concluded with “the struggle is real,” and we need to “be strong and be together.”

Live Long and Prosper and May the Force be with you in 2020.

Jana Monji, made in San Diego, California, lost in Japan several times, has written about theater and movies for the LA Weekly , LA Times , and currently, Examiner.com and the Pasadena Weekly . Her short fiction has been published in the Asian American Literary Review .

Leave a comment

Related articles.

“Risky Business” Remains One of the Most Daring Films of the ’80s

Experience the Star Trek Movies in 70mm at Out of this World L.A. Event

13 Films Illuminate Locarno Film Festival’s Columbia Pictures Retrospective

Book Excerpt: A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda by Carrie Rickey

Popular reviews.

The Young Wife

Family Portrait

The best movie reviews, in your inbox

Covering the business and politics of space

Star Trek vs Star Wars Debate at 39th Space Symposium: Who Won?

• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Clipboard (Opens in new window)

However, the outcome wasn’t without contention. Team Star Wars walked away with the victory, but the crowd audibly leaned in favor of the arguments put forth by Team Star Trek. 

Who won the Star Trek vs Star Wars debate? — SpaceNews (@SpaceNews_Inc) April 12, 2024

Brian Berger

Brian Berger is editor in chief of SpaceNews.com and the SpaceNews magazine. He joined SpaceNews.com in 1998, spending his first decade with the publication covering NASA. His reporting on the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident was... More by Brian Berger

Sign up for a SpaceNews newsletter

Get top stories, military space news and more delivered to your inbox.

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Dec 7, 2021

Discovering the First Star Trek Movie, the Second Time Around

How one fan's journey into Star Trek's past resulted in a new appreciation for its present.

StarTrek.com

This article was originally published on December 5th, 2019.

After my first work of scholarly sparkliness, Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016 , was published in March 2017, an old itch returned: a desire to write a book about Robert Wise's Star Trek —The Motion Picture . (No, not Star Trek: The Motion Picture . I’ll get to that.)

The next book I was under contract to write was about the history of film credits, a seemingly banal subject which had fascinated me ever since I watched Robert Altman's M*A*S*H on VHS for the umpteenth time as an 8 year-old in 1981. Aside from the occasional age-appropriate Peanuts movie or Michael Schultz's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , the only tape I asked my parents to rent from our neighborhood video store more than the M*A*S*H movie was the first Star Trek movie. This was the theatrical cut, mind you, two years before the Special Longer Version and two decades before the Director’s Edition .

In 2014, I began but never completed a proposal about Star Trek—The Motion Picture for the BFI Film Classics series, knowing damn well that nobody but me considered it a classic. But in 2017, my publisher proved willing to push back the deadline of the screen credits book and allow me to scratch that old itch, and it was published in October 2019 as The First Star Trek Movie: Bringing the Franchise to the Big Screen, 1969-1980 .

I decided to tell the story of Star Trek ’s resurrection from the ground up using primary sources, meaning that with very few exceptions The First Star Trek Movie is based on the facts as they were recorded at the time, not how they were remembered offhand decades later. As existing books go, this meant “yay” to using Preston Neal Jones’ 2014 oral history Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , since the interviews were conducted by Jones with people who worked on the film from mid-1979 through early 1980.

This also meant “nay” to Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman’s The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years , because the timeframe of a given quote is unknown, and the book is full of secondhand rumors and anecdotes. Don’t get me wrong, The Fifty-Year Mission is a great read if you enjoy Trek -related snark and acrimonious axe-grinding — and don’t we all? — but as a history book? Not so much.

The majority of The First Star Trek Movie ’s sources turned out to be digitized periodicals from the 1970s such as Variety , Starlog , non-fiction fanzines , and countless local newspapers . I must also give a shout-out to Star Trektennial News , the newsletter edited by Gene Roddenberry’s right-hand woman (and my own personal hero) Susan Sackett for twelve issues from 1976 through 1977. It’s the second-best $40 I’ve ever spent on eBay!

My journey through Trek ’s past coincided with an unexpected renaissance in the present, beginning with Justin Lin’s 2016 Star Trek Beyond . Rewatching The Motion Picture was the first time since the Voyager finale that I’d watched something which felt like Star Trek , and since I’ve always considered the third film of the original movies to be the first to get Star Trek right, I hoped it meant history was repeating itself. While it didn’t end up tantalizing me in the way I’d expected, Rihanna’s “Sledgehammer” was my jam that summer (with all due respect to Beyoncé’s “All Night” ), and the poster which paid homage to The Motion Picture was a nice touch.

Excited to take home this #LimitedEdition poster #StarTrek #StarTekBeyond #StarTrekFan pic.twitter.com/z8q1qFaVf3

By halfway through the first season of Discovery in November 2017, the impossible had happened: Star Trek wanted me to like it again! The First Star Trek Movie is full of Discovery references as a result (for all things on the mycelial network are connected) and in an act of unmitigated gall I refer to myself in the book as “this wayward Burnham.” (But Worf admires gall, so that’s okay.)

Something I noticed early on during my research was that Paramount’s official title for the film was not Star Trek: The Motion Picture with a colon, but Star Trek—The Motion Picture with an em-dash, as demonstrated in this college of 1979 press materials. It was little things like this which made me realize how much of the true story has been forgotten.

Star Wars and Jaws are often considered the beginning of the blockbuster era, but after researching and writing The First Star Trek Movie , I now believe it truly kicked off with the release of The Motion Picture .

It’s well-known that the unalterable December 7, 1979 release date resulted in a rushed post-production period and what can be charitably described as the “uneven” final product. What is less discussed is that the product which premiered that day across the United States and Canada did not unspool in American states which had passed anti blind-bidding legislation. I didn’t have space to properly discuss the mess that is ‘ Blind-Bidding ’ (selling multiple films from the same studio, often unseen by the theatre owners, to a single theatre as a unit, outlawed via supreme court decision in the 1930s) in The First Star Trek Movie , let alone here, but what matters for our purposes is that the movie did not open in Alabama, Ohio, Louisiana, South Carolina, or Virginia until December 21. Further, I’ve found no evidence that it opened in Alaska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or West Virginia at all in 1979.

This means that of the 850-odd prints which opened on Pearl Harbor Day, at least 13 of them were in Canada, and the rest were spread out among 39 American states in mostly single-screen theaters. That doesn’t sound like much now, but this sort of massive nationwide, same-day release for a movie based on long-canceled television show was big news.

Part of what made the film news irresistible was that Star Trek fans were a source of near-morbid curiosity in 1979, often discussed in terms reserved for religious cults. It had been a little over a year since the Jonestown tragedy ; Gene Roddenberry had said “I'm not a guru and I don't want to be” in a 1976 AP article about “the near-fanatical cult that continues to follow the series”; and as seen in Amy Rose and Ryan Estrada’s wonderful comic “ My First Contact: Connected to the Truth ” on this very site, at least one capital-C Cult really did form around the franchise.

The point is, if The Motion Picture had been just a huge day-and-date release, or if it was just a film based on a television show which conventional wisdom said was only enjoyed by children and weirdos, it might not have gotten so much coverage. In my research, I found about 45 locally-sourced articles about the film’s opening from newspapers in 18 different states. For example, there were articles in five different papers in New Jersey, another five in Minnesota, four in New York state, three each in California, Kentucky, Florida, and so on.

I’m glad local newspapers were on the job, because many of them printed pictures of the lines, and those images of fans standing outside movie theaters from forty years ago this week fill me with joy. Again, lines outside of movie theaters for big premieres were nothing new in 1979.  There was media coverage of such things as recently as the unexpected hit Star Wars in 1977 , but it had more often been for expected-hit pictures such as Robert Wise’s own The Sound of Music in 1965 , Mary Poppins in 1964 , The Ten Commandments in 1956 , and at least as far as back as The Wizard of Oz in 1939 .

Those crowds tended to be red-carpet affairs in major markets, however. But, Battle Creek, Michigan, was not a major market.

Nor was East Lansing, Michigan, where the long-shuttered Campus Theater has my undying respect for putting Nichelle Nichols on the marquee where she belongs.

There were lines in Binghamton, New York…

…and Poughkeepsie, too.

In Santa Maria, California, the audience didn’t have to worry about whether the film would have the Original Crew—and, hey, someone brought an Omicron Ceti III spore plant ! That’s very neighborly.

Ponder your cosmic insignificance outside the monolithic, neon-lit Showcase Cinemas in Louisville, Kentucky, where some people were turned away due to lack of seating.

The first showing at the Paramount Theater in St. Cloud, Minnesota, was at 7 p.m., but which time the temperature was below 20F . As a lifelong Californian, I cannot even imagine.

The biomass often got closer to its Schwarzschild Radius once inside, such as these lines in the Southtown Theater in Minneapolis…

…or the West Mall Theater in Sioux Falls, South Dakota…

…or this claustrophobia-inducing huddle at the Somerville Circle Theater in Somerville, New Jersey, in front a lobby standee which makes the Original Crew look like Your Action News Team. This is the joy of primary-source research: I had no idea these existed until I started scouring newspapers.

A closer look at one of those lobby standees at the nearby Cherry Hill Cinema. I always imagine Walter Koenig saying, “Really? That’s the picture you went with?”

If I could hop through the Guardian of Forever to attend any of these premieres, it would be Miami. First of all, unlike most of the rest of the country, the weather didn’t suck . Secondly, I so want to attend the Star Trek Party at the Longshot disco in Hialeah that night.

Sealing the deal is the picture from the party run in the Miami News .

The headline “Trekkies in their Glory” was probably sarcastic, but it all looks like so much fun, y’know? On the one hand, I have no truck with long lines and packed theaters; as I write this I’ve already reserved my favorite seat at my favorite theater for the 9 a.m. showing of The Rise of Skywalker on Christmas morning, which I’m hoping will be relatively under-attended. On the other hand, my brother and I camped out overnight for the premieres of the fifth and sixth Star Trek movies in 1989 and 1992 as an excuse to hang out with dozens of other fans, and the process of writing The First Star Trek Movie has brought back that old familiar glow.

Sherilyn Connelly (she/her) is a writer and a youth librarian from San Francisco, and was the head film critic for SF Weekly from 2013 through 2019. She's on Twitter at @sherilyn, and her books Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016 and The First Star Trek Movie: Bringing the Franchise to the Big Screen, 1969-1980 would have had even lengthier titles if she could have gotten away with it.

Get Updates By Email

Screen Rant

Star trek: every war in the franchise, chronology explained.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Star Trek Reveals Trelane's Final Words, As the Original Series God Finally Dies

After 57 years, star trek settles the truth about trelane's godlike species, star trek's next show can rediscover ds9's lost klingon relic.

Star Trek has had many wars over the decades, ranging from smaller conflicts between species to galaxy-wide battles that have gone down as defining points in history. The Star Trek franchise began in 1966 with Star Trek: The Original Series , and to date has produced nine television shows and thirteen films. With the sheer amount of stories that have been told, it isn't surprising storylines about war have popped up so often.

Generally, Star Trek's goal has been to depict a utopian future. Creator Gene Roddenberry was interested in showing an optimistic vision of the future, with humans having overcome their differences as a species to become players on the galactic stage. Conflict, however, is what makes television and films inherently interesting, and not every alien species humans come into contact with in Star Trek  have been friendly

Related: Star Trek Has More Wars Than Star Wars: Here Are The Greatest

The franchise has its fair share of important wars, ones that have laid the groundwork for ongoing storylines and established their own mythos. The series contains ten such wars, plus four other conflicts that mark definitive points on the Star Trek timeline. Not all of these were depicted on-screen in their entirety, but all have been explored in some way by various Star Trek shows or movies.

The Eugenics Wars

One of Star Trek's earliest wars was the Eugenics Wars, which took place from 1992-1996 in canon. The Eugenics Wars were never shown directly on-screen but were referenced heavily in episodes of  TOS and Star Trek: Enterprise . They began when a group of scientists sought to use genetic engineering to improve humanity, creating a race of superhumans who had superior strength, stamina, and intellect. Unfortunately, these individuals also possessed enhanced cruelty and ambition, and took over large portions of the planet, ruling as tyrants and dictators. They were eventually defeated but many escaped on a sleeper ship and were found centuries later by Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise. Star Trek's most famous superhuman was Khan, who first appeared in the TOS episode "Space Seed".

World War III

The Eugenics Wars also gave rise to World War III , which was explored mostly in TOS ,  Enterprise , and briefly in  Star Trek: Discovery . World War III started in 2026 from lingering issues surrounding genetic engineering and went on to reap an enormous loss of life until its end in 2053. Many factions during the war controlled their soldiers with narcotics, and eco-terrorism as well as nuclear weapons were used heavily, resulting in nuclear fallout that lasted until at least 2079. Luckily in 2063, humanity made first contact with the Vulcans as depicted in Star Trek: First Contact . The existence of extraterrestrial life united humanity in a way nothing else had, and within 50 years Earth had eliminated issues of poverty, disease, and hunger. Still, World War III had a profound effect on the planet and its consequences were felt well into the 22nd century.

The Temporal Wars

The Temporal Wars were a series of conflicts fought across both space and time, but humanity first became involved in 2151 when Captain Jonathan Archer and his crew were pulled into a portion of the conflict involving the Klingons and the Suliban. This was explored in the pilot episode of Enterprise  and the Temporal Wars went on to become a major plot point throughout the series. Much of the conflict was considered a cold war, which became a full-scale war in the Enterprise two-parter "Stormfront" when Earth's history was changed by the Na'kuhl. Archer and his crew were able to end the conflict with the help of Temporal Agent Daniels. The conflict was not explored again until season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery , where it came up in conjunction with Discovery's time jump to the 32nd century, the time period around when many of the Temporal Wars had originated.

Related: Star Trek Hints Temporal Wars Happened In The Background Of The Franchise

The Earth-Romulan War

The Earth-Romulan War was the last major conflict between Earth and an alien species before the United Federation of Planets was formed and was mostly shown or discussed on  Star Trek: TOS and Enterprise . The war lasted from 2156 to 2160, although tensions had been building during the early 2150s as Romulans sought to keep humanity from becoming a major galactic power. Open hostilities ended in 2160, when human, Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite forces allied to defeat the Romulans. The end of the war resulted in the creation of the Romulan Neutral Zone, and the four allied forces in the battle became the Federation's founding members. However, the war had lasting effects on Romulan and Federation relations, and hostilities between Starfleet and the Romulans have been depicted in nearly every Star Trek series.

The Federation-Klingon War

The Federation-Klingon War was the biggest of many conflicts between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, although hostilities had existed for a long time. The official war was not initiated until the Battle of the Binary Stars in 2256, which was depicted in Star Trek: Discovery.  While the war itself wasn't shown until Discovery , conflicts with the Klingons were explored in Enterprise and  TOS , including the Klingon invasion of Organia in TOS episode "Errand of Mercy". Official peace would not be achieved between the two powers until 2293, as shown in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .

The Klingon Civil War

The Klingon Civil war was a short-lived conflict from 2367-2368, mostly explored in the Star Trek: The Next Generation  two-parter "Redemption". The war was fought over who had the right to be Chancellor of the Klingon High Council, with current Chancellor Gowron on one side and the supporters of the House of Duras on the other. Although the war was fought mostly amongst the Klingons, several other forces came into play, including the Romulans and the Federation. The character of Worf from TNG was heavily involved, at one point even resigning his Starfleet commission to join the fighting. Ultimately, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D helped to expose a plot between the Duras sisters and the Romulans, putting an end to hostilities and reaffirming Gowron as Chancellor.

The Occupation Of Bajor

The Occupation of Bajor by the Cardassian Union was first introduced as a plot point in Star Trek: TNG  but went on to set up several interconnected conflicts in Deep Space Nine and Voyager . It began officially in 2328, although the Cardassians had maintained a military presence on Bajor since 2319. During the Occupation, the Cardassians imposed their militaristic form of government on the Bajorans, strip-mined the planet for its resources, and forced the Bajoran people into slavery, committing genocide on a massive scale. Over the course of the Occupation, the Bajorans mounted a resistance movement that used guerilla warfare and terrorist tactics to attempt to drive the Cardassians out. Fighting between the Resistance and the Cardassians lasted until the Cardassians withdrew in 2396, due to pressure from Cardassian Central Command and the Federation.

Related: Star Trek: Where The Cardassians Are In Picard

The Federation-Cardassian War

At the same time the Cardassians were occupying Bajor, they were engaged in a series of battles with the Federation over disputed territories that later became known as the Federation-Cardassian War. The war started in the 2340s, and the conflicts were largely explored over the course of Star Trek: TNG . During the war, both Cardassian and Federation forces battled for control over locations along the Federation-Cardassian border, but by the mid-2360s, the fighting had come to a stalemate, which led to the peace treaty and armistice being drawn up in 2367. The armistice created further problems however when it established a demilitarized zone along the border. During the creation of the demilitarized zone, a number of planets with both Federation and Cardassian colonies on them fell into dispute, giving rise to the formation of the Maquis.

The Maquis Insurrection

The Maquis were first introduced in Star Trek: TNG but went on to play a major role in both  Deep Space Nine and  Voyager . As discussed, the establishment of a demilitarized zone between Federation and Cardassian space caused a number of Federation colonies to become stranded. The Federation attempted to help the colonists evacuate, but many refused to leave and instead asked for help from Starfleet in protecting themselves, help which Starfleet was unable to provide because of the treaty. Once it was clear to the colonists they were on their own, they formed a group called Maquis and began fighting back against both Cardassian and Starfleet forces. The Maquis grew into a full-blown resistance movement from 2370 to 2373, but once the Cardassians joined forces with the Dominion, they used their newfound military power to wipe out the Maquis, putting a bloody end to the rebellion. Starfleet considered any remaining Maquis terrorists, and those left alive were imprisoned by the Federation.

The Dominion War

The Dominion War was the central focus of much of Deep Space Nine  and was arguably the biggest war depicted during any Star Trek series. Although the official war only lasted two years beginning in 2373, the conflict had been building from 2370. The Dominion was a coalition of planets from the Gamma Quadrant, ruled over by the Founders, a race of shapeshifters who sought to expand their empire into the Alpha Quadrant. Using infiltration tactics, the Founders insinuated themselves into Alpha Quadrant politics in an attempt to destabilize established power structures. This lead to several conflicts between the Federation, the Klingons, and the Cardassians, before all three realized they were being manipulated. The Federation and the Klingons united themselves against the Founders, but Gul Dukat allied the Cardassians with the Dominion in exchange for power. When all-out war broke out between the Federation powers and the Dominion, it took several large-scale battles and a Cardassian rebellion before the Dominion was defeated and forced to retreat to the Gamma Quadrant.

Other Notable Star Trek Conflicts

While the ten wars already discussed make up the majority of important conflicts in the Star Trek franchise, there have been others that aren't necessarily all-out wars but deserve mention. The most important is the Battle of Wolf 359, which was the first battle fought between Starfleet and the Borg. Wolf 359 was depicted in the TNG two-parter episode "The Best of Both Worlds" and was arguably the opening salvo of the Federation's ongoing war with the Borg-  a war that the Star Trek franchise has yet to resolve. In addition to Wolf 359, a few other important battles should be mentioned. These include the battle with Control at the end of Discovery season 2, the Khitomer massacre, a Romulan-Klingon conflict from TNG , and the Attack on Mars in Star Trek: Picard season 1, a Romulan-orchestrated attack that resulted in the Federation's ban on synthetic life in 2385.

Related: All 5 Changes Star Trek: Picard Made To Romulans

Although Star Trek was first conceived of as a utopian ideal of the future, the franchise has seen more than its fair share of conflict. While many of the big wars in the franchise's history took place before humanity's first contact with the Vulcans and the formation of the Federation, just as many took place during a period of time when peace was supposed to be the order of the day. With new Star Trek content being produced for the franchise all the time, it is likely audiences will continue to see storylines about war going into the future.

More: Every First Contact In The Star Trek Movies

• SR Originals
• Star Trek: Discovery

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Newsletters
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides
• Labor Day sales

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Online checking
• High-yield savings
• Money market
• Home equity loan
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Options pit
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

‘Star Wars Outlaws’ Video Game Star Humberly González on Being the First Latina Lead in Franchise History and Hopes for a TV Adaptation

Ubisoft and Lucasfilm’s open-world video game “Star Wars Outlaws” launched Friday, giving fans of the galaxy far, far away a chance to play as a new character, Kay Vess (voiced by “Tarot” and “Star Trek: Section 31” star Humberly González) in a story set in between the events of the original film trilogy’s “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.”

This new lead isn’t a Jedi or Sith, a rebel or an Imperial sympathizer — she’s a scoundrel trying to survive the crime-ridden “Star Wars” universe with little to no knowledge of the crime syndicates that rule and no one but a little sidekick companion named Nix to help her out.

More from Variety

Ubisoft Promotes Cécile Russeil to Executive Vice President

'Star Wars Outlaws' Launch Date Set, Trailer Released

'Star Wars Outlaws' to Release Before End of Year, 'Assassin's Creed Codename Red' Will Launch by March 2025, Ubisoft CEO Says

“It is such a fun timeline, and I know this from the creative team — Nikki Foy, the lead script writer, and Navid Khavari, who is our narrative director, when this opportunity came to them and they found out the timeline that they were going to be playing in was in the original trilogy between ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi,’ I think everybody was in shock,” González told Variety . “And they always say, ‘We got out of there before they changed their mind,’ because this is a dream timeline. It is a time where the crime syndicates are thriving. The underbelly of ‘Star Wars’ is rampant. So insert this new scoundrel story where she’s a young girl that isn’t a Jedi. She’s not a Sith. She doesn’t want to belong to anybody, not the rebels, not the Empire. She simply has a dream of getting rich and being free out there in the galaxy. She doesn’t know what that means, but we get to explore with her through her rookie ways of becoming this incredible scoundrel, but not having the experience like the ones we’ve seen portrayed in ‘Star Wars’ before, like Lando Calrissian and Han Solo. She is different because she doesn’t have that experience. So getting to explore the underworld with someone who doesn’t know the dangers of it is very exciting.”

González, who not only lent her voice to Kay Vess, but also did the full-body motion capture for the video game character, says she influenced the way the character was ultimately portrayed through her own ideas about who Kay should be.

“I know that when she was first crafted, they were making her a bit more cynical, a bit more snappy and sassy, but me coming in meant I wanted to bring more vulnerability to her — the cracks in the shield, the flaws that she had to have composure through, and that, to me, that makes her so complex, so layered,” González said. “Because if she’s a rookie, how does that show up in the world, and what is she learning? And so we got to experience this timeline in ‘Star Wars’ that everybody knows so well, but through fresh eyes, a new point of view. What happens when Kay Vess is meeting face to face with Jabba the Hutt, who we know runs one of the baddest crime syndicates out there? She has no idea who he is. It’s a very fun experience to input this rookie scoundrel in a world that we so know and it’s so dangerous.”

Kay is also unique in the “Star Wars” universe in that the character is the first Latina lead in the history of the franchise. This fact is a huge point of pride for González, who was born in Venezuela, who says she has met Latinx fans at preview events who have tears in their eyes over seeing themselves portrayed in “Outlaws.”

“I met this young girl who came dressed as Kay Vess. She built everything herself. She created the classic bomber leather blue jacket that Kay Vess wears, and track pants, the boots, she had her hair done, and the makeup. She even had this backpack, and it was Nix,” González said. “I was in awe, because it was a moment in real time of how important representation is — and especially having female protagonists in the gaming industry. There can be so much toxicity, a lot of misogyny, a lot of just trolls on the internet, that when women enter this space, there can be a lot of sexism, even though there is so much creativity and expertise when it comes to women in the field. And this young girl came to me and just said, ‘I have been waiting for a project like this for so long, for me to play as a strong female lead and explore an open world.’ And she just wanted to thank me. We were both in tears because I said it means just as much for me because I didn’t grow up seeing myself represented on screen, and being a Latina and being the lead of one of the biggest franchises in our time, means so much. That was a moment that made me realize the magnitude of what we’re doing and what it means for me to enter this franchise.”

González spoke with Variety about starring in “Star Wars Outlaws” amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA video game actors strike , which began July 26. While the Ubisoft-developed “Star Wars Outlaws” is exempt from the work stoppage and not among the struck titles, González addressed the central issue behind the strike for herself and other actors, which is increased protections surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), and how she believes her work as Kay Vess proves the importance of the issue.

“I love this job so much, I would love to keep doing it for many years to come. I think it’s important to fight for our rights, to respect the actors’ craft, and I hope that with the actors on the picket line and bringing these issues to the front, that they realize that no AI could ever take over what a real human can do,” González said. “I feel so blessed to be able to play Kay Vess, because what infuses her is my own experience of growing up in Venezuela and being an immigrant. Leaving everything behind, starting over and me following my own dream, which is such a big parallel to Kay Vess, having grown up the way she did, coming from nothing, and having this idea of what freedom is and what it means for her. So when it comes to that, I will always be on the side of, let’s protect our rights.”

González who recently wrapped the Paramount+ film “Star Trek: Section 31” starring alongside Michelle Yeoh (yes, she’s aware of the unique nature of her starring in competing iconic space franchises) is currently in production on the third season of Netflix’s “Ginny & Georgia” would love to take her acting as Kay Vess one step further with a TV adaptation of “Star Wars Outlaws.”

“I think it would be incredible to see Kay Vess in live action, because one thing that we don’t see in animation is those micro expressions of a real human being on screen,” González said. “And it would be incredible for me to experience what it would be like to be literally in her costume, in her appearance, her likeness, in the landscape, to see her interact with real characters, the creatures. It would be a dream come true. I certainly would not say no to the opportunity. And I think there’s so many opportunities to see Kay Vess and other aspects of established roles in ‘Star Wars,’ because we’re in the original trilogy, and there’s so many opportunities for her to exist or show up and in different places. So it would be amazing, and I think fans would love it.”

Best of Variety

What's Coming to Netflix in September 2024

What's Coming to Disney+ in September 2024

New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 

Sign up for Variety's Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

Recommended Stories

Star wars jedi: survivor is coming to ps4 and xbox one on september 17.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is coming to PS4 and Xbox One on September 17. Respawn’s sequel was originally released last year.

‘The Chosen’ star Jonathan Roumie on the pressure of playing Jesus and how the ‘little show that could’ became a global phenomenon

Actor Jonathan Roumie said the show is able to reach its full potential because it's "completely independent" from Hollywood.

These fan-favorite tummy-control undies aredown to $4 a pair for Labor Day

'Flatter my natural curves': Over 68,000 shoppers rave about these supportive, full-coverage briefs.

The car vacuum with 167,000+ 5-star fans is just $21 with Yahoo's exclusive code

It's way more powerful than its size and price suggest, shoppers say — don't miss our limited-time Labor Day discount.

A cheaper weight loss drug, more heat-related deaths and new restrictions on tobacco sales: Here's what happened in health this week

Catch up on what you may have missed in health and wellness news.

Shohei Ohtani makes MLB history with unprecedented 43-43 season

No player had ever posted 43 home runs and 43 stolen bases in a season before the Dodgers star.

Caitlin Clark scores career-high 31 points while Angel Reese sets double-double record in Fever win

Caitlin Clark scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Indiana Fever to a 100–81 victory over the Chicago Sky. Indiana wins the season series, 3–1.

White Sox approaching MLB record for losses draws sympathy from surviving 1962 Mets

As the 2024 Chicago White Sox approach setting a MLB record for losses, the 1962 New York Mets sympathize with their misery.

'Confident about my feet again': Nix rough skin with this $9 callus eliminator

Just because summer's winding down doesn't mean you should be walking around with gargoyle feet.

Jennifer Garner uses this Neutrogena serum daily — it's just $15 for Labor Day

The hydrating formula is a winner for more than 6,500 Amazon shoppers too: 'My skin drinks it up.'

Star Wars movies in order: Chronological and release

Watch all the Star Wars movies in order and prove you’re strong with the Force.

• Chronological order
• Release order

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

Star wars: episode ii – attack of the clones, star wars: the clone wars, star wars: episode iii – revenge of the sith, solo: a star wars story, rogue one: a star wars story, star wars: episode iv – a new hope, star wars: episode v – the empire strikes back, star wars: episode vi – return of the jedi, star wars: episode vii – the force awakens, star wars: episode viii – the last jedi, star wars: episode ix – the rise of skywalker.

Watching the Star Wars movies in order is a fantastic way to prove you are one with the Force (the Force is with you). Whether you prefer watching them in chronological order or release order, we have you covered.

Watching the Star Wars movies in chronological order allows you to experience the Skywalker saga as it unfolds, getting the prequel trilogy (which didn't score highly on our ranked list ) out of the way early. On the other hand, if you opt to marathon this iconic franchise in release order, you get to relive the story as it was originally presented.

— Best lightsaber fights

— Best Lego Star Wars deals

— Best Lego Star Wars sets

— Best Star Wars books

If you don't own physical copies of all the movies, don't worry — Disney Plus has you covered. As the current home of all things Star Wars, it allows you to stream every movie and TV show in the franchise. They offer both monthly and annual subscriptions, so if you're not interested in a long-term commitment, you can subscribe just long enough to enjoy all the top Star Wars content.

If all the Star Wars movies in order aren't enough for you to get your sci-fi fix, it could be worth checking out our guides for the best sci-fi movies and TV shows to stream on Disney Plus , Paramount Plus , Nextlix and Amazon Prime . Our guide also includes Star Wars TV shows, for added context and in case you want to watch those too. So, read on below to get the round-up of Star Wars movies in order. Oh, and one last thing: watch or watch not, there is no try.

Note: This page does contain spoilers.

Star Wars movies in chronological order

• Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (2023)
• Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (1999)
• Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones (2002)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2003-2005)
• Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-2024)
• Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
• Star Wars: Rebels (2014-2018)
• Andor (2022)
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
• Star Wars: Episode 4 - A New Hope (1977)
• Star Wars: Episode 5 - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• Star Wars: Episode 6 - Return of the Jedi (1983)
• The Mandalorian, season 1 and 2 (2019-2020)
• The Book of Boba Fett, season 1 (2021)
• The Mandalorian, season 3 (2023)
• Ahsoka (2023)
• Star Wars: Resistance, season 1 (2018)
• Star Wars: Episode 7 - The Force Awakens (2015)
• Star Wars: Episode 8 - The Last Jedi (2017)
• Star Wars: Resistance, season 2 (2019)
• Star Wars: Episode 9 - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
• Star Wars: Visions (2021-2023)*

*These aren't really canon, so they don't fit into the proper chronology.

Star Wars movies in release order

• Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-2023)
• Star Wars: Visions (2021-2023)

• Release date: May 19, 1999
• Cast: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman

If you want to watch all the Star Wars movies in chronological order then sadly your marathon starts with the very first (and pretty awful) prequel movie. And it doesn't get much more prequel than Darth Vader as a 10-year-old kid. This film sees Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi discover a slave boy on Tatooine called Anakin Skywalker who's chock full of Midi-chlorians. 

Unfortunately, the Jedi council isn't keen on training the child as a Jedi. But, while trying to protect Queen Padmé Amidala, Qui-Gon Jinn is killed by Sith Darth Maul and in honor of his memory Obi-Wan Kenobi promises to train the kid. Biiiiig mistake. 

• Release date: May 16, 2002
• Cast: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen

A few years later, Anakin is training as a Padawan under Obi-Wan Kenobi when the now Senator Padmé Amidala’s life is threatened once again. While Obi-Wan investigates, Anakin and Padmé fall in love, despite the Jedi Code which forbids attachments. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi discovers an army of clones being created for the Republic, as well as an attempt by the Separatist group led by Count Dooku to overthrow the Republic using a droid army. 

Obi-Wan is captured, along with Anakin and Padmé who try to save him, and all three are eventually rescued by the clone army, authorized by the newly powerful Chancellor Palpatine.

• Release date: August 15, 2008
• Cast: Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor

Not long after, the Republic's clone army and Dooku’s droid army are at war, with Dooku's  Sith Master Darth Sidious kidnapping gangster Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta, to try and frame the Jedi. Anakin and his new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, must try and save the little Huttlet, while Obi-Wan negotiates a treaty with Jabba. Worried for Anakin's safety, Padmé attempts to contact Jabba's uncle, Ziro, only to discover that he's actually in on the plan to kill Rotta so he can take over the Hutts. 

Anakin and Ahsoka eventually rescue Rotta, but Jabba tries to have them killed anyway, believing they're responsible for kidnapping him until Padmé reveals what she knows. Jabba is so grateful, he signs the treaty with the Republic.

• Release date: May 19, 2005

After Anakin rescues him, Chancellor Palpatine appoints him to the Jedi Council, but the Jedi are suspicious and order Anakin to spy on Palpatine. Padmé reveals she's pregnant and Anakin starts to have nightmares of her dying in childbirth. Palpatine lures Anakin to the dark side with the promise of saving Padmé's life, and orders the clone army to kill the Jedi, declaring himself Emperor. 

Padmé and Obi-Wan try to convince the new Darth Vader to return to the light side, but they fight which leaves Vader mortally wounded. Meanwhile, Padmé dies giving birth to twins, Luke and Leia, and Obi-Wan decides to go into hiding with the children. Palpatine rescues Vader, giving him a suit to keep him alive, and telling him that he killed Padmé. 

• Release date: May 25, 2018
• Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke

Nearly 10 years later, Imperial Flight Academy dropout Han Solo is thrown into a cell with a Wookiee called Chewbacca and the pair team up to escape. Once free, they join a gang trying to steal a shipment of coaxium for crime lord Dryden Vos. They’re thwarted by marauders, the Cloud-Riders, but convince Vos to give them another chance as long as his lieutenant (and former love interest of Han's) Qi'ra tags along. 

Teaming up with smuggler Lando Calrissian, they use his ship the Millennium Falcon to steal the coaxium, but are discovered by the Cloud-Riders who reveal they're actually rebels fighting against the Empire. Han sympathizes and lets them have the coaxium, betraying Vos (who’s eventually killed by Qi'ra), but declines to join the rebels.

• Release date: December 16, 2016
• Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn

Jyn Erso is rescued from an Imperial labor camp by the Alliance who want her to find her father who's working on a superweapon called the Death Star. Along with rebel spy Cassian Andor, she tracks down her dad only for him to be killed before he can tell them anymore. Jyn wants to steal the plans to the Death Star so they can learn how to destroy it, but the Alliance council doesn’t agree, so Jyn, Cassian, and a group of rebels attempt to steal them on their own. 

They travel to Scarif, eventually finding the plans and transmitting them to the Alliance, but at great cost to themselves. As they die on the planet below, the plans eventually make their way into the hands of Princess Leia.

• Release date: May 25, 1977
• Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

Not long after, Darth Vader captures Princess Leia, but not before she hides the plans in an R2-D2 droid who escapes to the planet Tatooine in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's found by Luke Skywalker and takes him to Obi-Wan who reveals he knew Luke's father, claiming he was killed by Darth Vader. 

Luke convinces Obi-Wan to let him help rescue the princess and the pair team up with smuggler Han Solo and his co-pilot, Chewie. They rescue Princess Leia and escape, but Obi-Wan is killed by Darth Vader in the process. After delivering the plans to the Alliance, Luke becomes a rebel pilot and helps destroy the Death Star.

• Release date: May 21, 1980

Three years later, Darth Vader locates Luke, Leia, and Han on a rebel base on Hoth and sends his forces to destroy it. They escape, with Luke traveling to Dagobah to train as a Jedi under Yoda as Obi-Wan wanted, and Leia, Han, and Chewie taking the Millennium Falcon to Cloud City to ask Lando Calrissian for help. Unfortunately, Darth Vader is waiting for them and captures Leia and Chewie, giving Han to a bounty hunter who plans to sell him to Jabba the Hutt who's been after him for a while. 

Luke realizes his friends are in trouble and tries to rescue them, but ends up dueling Darth Vader who reveals he’s Luke's father before cutting his hand off. Luke is rescued by Leia, Chewie, and Lando, and they all escape together.

• Release date: May 25, 1983

Luke, Leia, Chewie, and Lando rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt, and Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his training only to discover Yoda is dying. Before he dies, Yoda confirms that Darth Vader is Luke's dad and then Obi-Wan’s Force ghost reveals that Leia is Luke's sister. Meanwhile, on the Forest Moon of Endor, Han and Leia destroy the shield protecting a second Death Star with the help of the native Ewoks. 

Luke surrenders himself to Vader who takes him to the Emperor, but when the Emperor cannot turn Luke to the dark side he tries to kill him. Vader, unable to watch his son die, kills the Emperor before dying of his wounds. With the Death Star unprotected, Lando and the rebel fighters destroy it and then everyone has a big party.

• Release date: December 18, 2015
• Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford

30 years later on Jakku, scavenger Rey finds droid BB-8 who claims to have a map to the missing Luke Skywalker. Along with defected stormtrooper Finn, they escape aboard the abandoned Millennium Falcon and are eventually found by Han and Chewie. Traveling to Takodana to make contact with the Resistance, Rey is captured by the First Order's Kylo Ren (actually Han and Leia's son who's been seduced by the dark side) and taken aboard Starkiller base.

Han, Chewie, and Finn try to rescue Rey, but Kylo Ren kills Han before battling Rey, who discovers she's strong with the Force. Starkiller base is eventually destroyed and Rey goes in search of Luke.

• Release date: December 15, 2017
• Cast: Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver

Rey finds Luke in isolation, but he's not in the mood to help the Resistance, despite reluctantly giving her some Jedi training. Kylo and Rey realize they have a Force connection and Rey goes to him, believing there's still some good inside him. 

Meanwhile, during a dramatic space battle, Vice Admiral Holdo sacrifices herself to save what's left of the Resistance, who escape to Crait. Kylo's master, Supreme Leader Snoke, orders him to kill Rey, but Kylo kills him instead and becomes Supreme Leader, as Rey escapes. He then attacks the Resistance only to be stopped by Luke who shows up at the last minute. The pair battle and Luke ultimately dies, but Rey manages to save everyone else.

• Release date: December 20, 2019
• Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher

Rey is continuing her Jedi training with Leia when they discover Palpatine has been resurrected. Rey, Finn, and Poe try to find him, with Kylo Ren in pursuit who eventually reveals to Rey that she's actually Palpatine's granddaughter. Meanwhile, Leia dies and feeling it, Kylo Ren finds his way back to the light side of the Force, reclaiming his identity as Ben Solo. 

Rey goes to confront Palpatine, who demands Rey kill him so his spirit can transfer to her, but when she refuses he tries to drain her lifeforce. With the help of Ben, Rey eventually destroys Palpatine, but Ben dies saving her life.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

Lauren is a sci-fi and fantasy geek through and through. She's passionate about the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU), but there's few sci-fi or fantasy worlds she hasn't visited whether that's through books (Dune), TV shows (Game of Thrones) or movies (Star Wars). 

'Alien: Romulus' has the same problem as 'Prometheus' and 'Alien: Covenant' — and it's bad news for the franchise

How did Wesley Crusher turn into a time-traveling space god on 'Star Trek?'

Boeing Starliner astronauts will spend at least 240 days stuck in space — is that a new record?

Most Popular

• 2 'Doomed' comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS survives brush with sun — may be visible to naked eye this fall
• 3 Early galaxies weren't mystifyingly massive after all, James Webb Space Telescope finds
• 4 How AI is revealing the universe's original 'settings'
• 5 Aurora season is here: What to expect from the northern lights in 2024/25