Personally, I prefer Babylon 5.
Hey, Uke, If you do not have an opinion then stay out of here.
Worf could and would kick Chewie’s butt. Nuff said on that matter.
As for the rest, Star Trek is infinitely better. No comparison.
Jeffery
I, too, was going to ignore this debate when I saw this claim by DSYoungEsq:
Pah! There are a couple of great SF films out there which are more recent than that. I recommend 2001, of course, plus these onmes:
Tarkovsky’s Solaris(1972) & Stalker(1979)
Jonzes’s Being John Malkovitch(1999)
Even the Matrix was better than any Star Trek movie ever made, and that’s not saying much for Star Trek. The movies bite. The original series made up for in humor and campiness what it lacked in acting and writing. The Next Generation (after the first season) was very well done and the highpoint of the whole franchise.
Lucas is a hack. Star Wars I & VI were awful. Episode V:The Empire Strikes Back was a great movie and the only Star Wars flick to really stand on it’s own as a film, if you ask me.
SW had far better bad guys though. Darth Vader and the Emperor versus that corinthian leather guy? Please. Vader is quite possibly the coolest villain ever. Was I the only one rooting for him? To hell with that pansey, Luke!
Yet to be reconciled with the reality of the dark for a moment, I go on wandering from dream to dream.
Star Wars is Cowboys and Native Americans.
Star Trek is Jeopardy.
One of the finest compliments ever paid to Star Trek was when the suits at NBC called it “too cerebral”.
You are unique, just like everyone else.
Sake: I think DSYoung was referring to the great SF writing of the 30s and 40s. I can’t think of many SF films made in that era that were too notable, but the writing is considered pretty fabulous.
Of course, you are right - there are some great SF films made recently.
I think that there are some great SF authors writing today too. (Not that I am the student of SF writing that I once was.) But, from my understanding, those guys writing SF fiction back in the 30s and 40s were really something.
StrTrker777: Ukelele Ike did express an opinion. Like DSYoung and myself, he said they both bite a big one.
Also, mose of the SF of the 30’s was really dreadful. The Golden Age of SF is considered to have begun with the August 1939 issue of Astounding. It contained “Black Destroyer” by AE van Vogt, “Lifeline” by Robert A. Heinlein and “Trends,” a minor story, but one that marked Isaac Asimov’s first appearance in Astounding. The 1940s and 1950s are considered science fiction’s Golden Age, Barry Malzberg claiming the form was at its peak in the 1950s.
(And, Trekkies and Force fans, if you don’t know who van Vogt, Heinlein, Asimov and Malzberg are, you don’t know enough to have any intelligent opinions about Sci Fi.)
Sorry, people, that should read most of the science fiction of the 1930s. I am on a Unix machine and it is hard to read the print to proofread.
Very simple. Star Trek has better heroes. Kirk, Picard, Sisco and Janeway are all better than callow but brave young Luke Skywalker or “scoundrel” Han Solo.
On the other hand, star Wars has a much better villain. Khan was a pretty good villain, but no match for Vader. The Borg were a great menace, but as villains, they were only in the same class as the shark from Jaws.
Plus, I suppose most Star Trek fans would grudgingly admit that Star Wars movies had better special effects.
As for me, I like a good hero more than a good villain. Star Trek by a length.
Yeah, you gonna make me, Trek Boy? You and how many Marines?
[grabs Jeffrey’s slide rule away from him and throws it over his head to the Peyote Coyote]
Uke
BTW, A.E. van Vogt passed away last week. Rest in peace, big guy.
The Peyote Coyote wrote:
Don’t be dissin’ E. E. “Doc” Smith!
– tracer, puttin’ away his plastic light saber and gettin’ out his plastic Lens of Arisia
Uke, I will pull out my phaser and blast you in the family jewels. Besides I do not use the slide ruler anymore, I have a scientific calculator.
** Zaps Uke with the phaser **
Take that you not Trek fan.
Jeffery
Please, note, everyone: I like BOTH of them, I just prefer Trek. Over in the Pit, I ripped TBS a new one for leaving out AN ENTIRE REEL of Star Wars when they showed it this past Sunday.
You got it, buddy.
If you look at the OP, you’ll note that all the men you mentioned are either fans of the series and/or are fans of Trek, though I don’t know about Anderson.
Not only have I read everyone on your list except Anderson, I’ve actually MET Ellison, Bradbury and Niven, along with Steven Barnes, David Gerrold, Alan Dean Foster (showed him a Straight Dope column on how people react to vacuum) and the late Robert Bloch (writer of Psycho).
Niven is a nice, patient guy. Bradbury can be short and impatient, but is usually pleasant and gregarious. (He loved the illustration Playboy commissioned to accompany his short story “A Sound of Thunder,” where hunters go back in time to shoot a T-rex.)
I cannot summon the words to describe Harlan Ellison. Suffice it to say that he lives up to his reputation. Whether the experience is pleasant or not, you NEVER forget meeting him! And DON’T ask to discuss his Trek script. He WON’T do it.
>< DARWIN >
__L___L
If you really want to get Ellison’s goat (not that getting Ellison pissed at you isn’t easy to begin with), ask him why he hasn’t published The Last Dangerous Visions yet.
You trying to get me killed? I hope you didn’t do that! (And I think you meant it isn’t hard to get Unca Harlan pissed.)
Is anyone else having server trouble? Access to this site and a few others has been very erratic the last hour or so.
>< DARWIN >
__L___L
Yeah, what gives with that?
I own Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions. I’d buy Final in a heartbeat, as would many others.
It’s not like he has to write the farking book. It’s an editorial gig, which is a walk in the park.
He probably got into a scuffle with the publisher and is sulking. I love his stuff, but the little jerk is insufferable sometimes.
I don’t have to do drugs to mess up my head. I went to Catholic school.
You guys do know that Ol’ Harlan spent his formative years just a hop and a skip away from where our very own PLD spent his late teens, don’cha?
wonder if it’s somethin’ in the water
Harlan Ellison tangent:
I have seen Harlan Ellison at various events. The one that sticks out in my mind is I believe at LA Con in '96. He was talking about how he only uses manual typewriters to write his works. Screw that word processor/computer bullshit. He hated those computers. I don’t remember how it came about, but somehow, during a “question and answer” session with Harlan at this convention, some smart-ass made a crack about Harlan and computers. Sort of a mild, sarcastic taunt. Harlan went ballistic - freaked out, furious, using much profanity. So, my advice is to never make any snide remarks about typewriters/computers! (Of course, for all I know, since that event, Harlan may have had a change of heart about computers.)
End of tangent.
Star Wars isn’t Science Fiction, it’s Space Fantasy.
All the Trek fans I know have always wanted more ‘space fantasy’ elements in their show - more battles, more aliens, more spaceships.
But in fact, I like both franchises. I just happen to prefer Star Wars for its overal sense of myth and fun and adventure. (Trek does get boring sometimes!)
And I hate SF novels. Ugh!
-PIGEONMAN-
The Legend Of PigeonMan - Shadow of the Pigeon
Weirdo of the Night
Aw, this is ugly.
Ugly, ugly, ugly.
Han Solo versus who? Kirk?
Maaan. Bruggahdah brouhaha.
Blade Runner
Especially the 6th working draft, when Rachel asks Deckard to kill her.
And who could forget Silent Running?
Or Capricorn One?
On the Ellison front: I’ve read most of his stuff. Anyone here read Mephisto in Onyx?
And didja know A.I. has been picked up for production where Kubrick left off?