A response to 'Why do people have to choose between Star Trek and Star Wars? Why can't we just love them both equally?'

I have never understood why some science fiction/fantasy fans insist that there has to be an “either/or” choice and that one has to like one franchise but not the other.

I was three years old and living outside the U.S. when Star Trek: The Original Series premiered on Sept. 8, 1966, and the show did not air in the South American country where we were until 1970. Thus my introduction to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the voyages of the Starship Enterprise was not under the most optimal of circumstances. We only had black-and-white TV (even if you owned a color set, that country didn’t yet broadcast in color), and of course the series was dubbed in Spanish. I was a kid who had forgotten any English that I’d learned as a toddler, but even at the age of seven I noticed one detail about Latin American TV: every imported American show used the same voice actors to dub the Spanish-language audio track. As a result, the US shows, which at the time included Star Trek, Hogan’s Heroes, The Flintstones, and others, all sounded alike. This tended to bore even a TV-crazy kid like me, so I didn’t watch it then.

Suffice it to say that I didn’t become a Star Trek fan until I saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. I was 16 then and had already been back in the States since ‘72. Before then, I had tried without much success to watch The Original Series (and its short-lived animated sequel). but I just couldn’t get into it. I had re-learned English (pretty quickly, too) and sort-of liked the premise of the show, but I tended to focus too much on the low budget production values and not enough on the stories or themes. (Hey, I was a kid.)

In 1977, I saw Star Wars in the theaters and…well, let’s say that I got into George Lucas’s galaxy far, far away with a lot more enthusiasm than I felt for Gene Roddenberry’s utopian vision of the 23rd Century. Part of it was that the special effects were better and Lucas’s “used world” style were easier to suspend belief than the “looks like it was shot in a studio” visual vibe of Star Trek. So, yes. I admit it. I only bought into Roddenberry’s franchise after I watched the first two Star Trek features…and it was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that sealed the deal for me more than Star Trek: The Motion Picture (aka Spockalypse Now).

I have seen (and own in home media) all of the currently available Star Trek TV shows and feature films (mostly because I tend to be a completist). I think that as a franchise, Star Trek generally holds together continuity-wise, although quality-wise some series are great (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is my favorite) while others are watchable but not as great as they seemed to be when they first aired. (I’m looking at you, Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

As for Star Wars, I love the 10 currently available films (including the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) unabashedly, and I also enjoy the canonical TV stuff, including The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series.

If you press me to choose which one I enjoy more….well, I’m a Star Wars fan first, a Trekkie second.