I braced myself before writing this. But like anyone telling truth to “power,” I told myself that I need to be strong. So, for the May the Fourth–themed issue of What’s Up Yukon, I’m throwing this down: Star Trek is better than Star Wars, in every way.
We’re going to get some hate mail.
Some people say you shouldn’t “yuck” someone else’s “yum.” They tell us to just let people like what they like. But you know what? People confuse and conflate and compare Star Wars and Star Trek all the time. People who are too cool for nerds even purposefully mix up the two, just to get a rise out of fans. Fairly or unfairly, the two are connected by more than just a name, and I am going to be furthering that association by stating my case: Star Wars does not deserve a day of recognition when Star Trek has none.
Ready your phasers, we’re going in for a closer look.
I first watched both Star Trek and Star Wars as an adult. This is a significant strength in my ability to judge both, because I am not hindered by nostalgia. And let’s face it, nostalgia is most of what Star Wars has going for it.
Most fans of the series love being transported back in time to the moment when, as children, they first enjoyed the movies. This makes sense, given that the simplistic morality of the original Star Wars film is in-line with what one might read in a children’s story. Where Star Trek is philosophical social commentary on how humanity progresses into the future, Star Wars reduces everything to that primordial duo, Light and Dark. It doesn’t get any more nuanced or sophisticated than that. On top of all that, the acting isn’t great.
When a friend sat me down to watch all of the Star Wars movies, in a marathon session (in release order), I found the first film boring. But I gave it some grace; it was released in 1977, after all. But it never redeemed itself. A few years later, when the most-recent films came out, I watched those, too, still waiting for the series to grab me. I’m not a particular movie snob; I like most things fine enough. But 20 hours and 39 minutes of my life, spent trying to give Star Wars a chance, and it’s failed every time.
Star Trek is science fiction, whereas Star Wars is science fantasy. The Star Trek universe employs futuristic technology that solves (and creates) many of humanity’s problems and barriers to space exploration. It imagines how humanity might tackle poverty and emerge from a racist past. It asks us to challenge our ingrained notions of human superiority by pairing human space explorers with the technologically and intellectually superior Vulcans. Meanwhile, Star Wars is about uncomplicated hero characters who harness magic.
Star Trek characters are complex, flawed and they change and grow—and only more so in the later series. This makes them seem more real. By comparison, Star Wars characters are very much in the tradition of your basic hero storylines—predictable and not relatable.
Even though Star Trek preceded Star Wars by more than a decade, it was far ahead of its time, right from the start. The first series, set in the future, promised that there would be a day when the world would move on from injustices being felt at the time. In the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, the series creator put a Black woman, Lieutenant Uhura, in an officer position on the bridge. The Cold War had no end in sight, and tensions with the USSR were high—and the series featured Russian navigator Lieutenant Chekov. Only 20 years before, anti-Japanese racism was rearing its head, with Japanese Americans having their homes and livelihoods erased and being forced into internment camps, and Japanese character Lieutenant Sulu was put at the helm of the USS Enterprise. Roddenberry tried to make the first officer a woman, as well, but studio executives put their foot down. In a later series, the show explores other themes, including gender, sexuality, religious tolerance, artificial intelligence, poverty and more. But tragically, Star Trek has no commemorative day.
Star Wars is undeserving of a commemorative day. It’s clear that it is only celebrated because “May the Fourth” is a pun, and this is a poor reason for annual celebration. This is especially true, given we are already subjected to endless Star Wars propaganda, every couple of years, as new films are released. The Star Wars propaganda machine knows no limits in the quest for profit, from home décor to sponsored fast-food meals. It has made the film series’ founder, George Lucas, a billionaire, and May the Fourth only lines his pockets further.
May the Fourth has also been used by political interests who like to pander to fans and make themselves more relatable. In fact, that may be how the tradition got its start—the first-recorded reference of the phrase being used was in 1979 when the British Conservative Party ran an ad stating, “May the Fourth be with you, Maggie” (referring, of course, to newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher).
I would contend that commemorative days that we celebrate as a society should not be celebrated just because a pun happens to work with the given date—and especially when the topic being feted is so overrated.
