Star Wars is Fantasy to Star Trek’s SciFi, IMO. These genres get lumped together in libraries and publishing, and there is significant crossover between them, but they are still distinct.
George Lucas always said he hates it when people call Star Wars SciFi as he always considered it to be a space opera with very little Sci and heavy on the Fi.
Likewise, doctor who is pure fantasy as well, and it grinds my gears when people call it sci-fi.
The technology is “wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff”, and just pulled out of someone’s ass (sonic screwdriver, immortality chip, phone that works across time, etc etc) there’s nothing science about it at all.
Right, and even when sci-fi hand hand waves its technology it’s about its impact on society.
For example, Star Wars never directly addressed that droids are a slave race, in a society with apparently unlimited energy, and yet poverty is just absolutely everywhere.
That is outright insane. Lucas never addressed it because the story is about good space wizard samurai fighting bad space wizard samurai, and even when he dips his toes into political allegory it’s a commentary on modern society and not “how would it be different?”
I’d say Doctor Who occasionally verges into sci fi for this reason though. There are at least some episodes that go “how does life work when space whales?”
I think the distinction is a focus of drama vs action. Star Trek is mostly drama with a Sci Fi dressing and Start Wars is more action with a Sci Fi dressing. Neither are really based on science and both have magical space transportation that lets them move between planets.
They are both great examples of doing what they set out to do, and why I am not a fan of the newer Star Trek movies and shows that try to be closer to the epic fantasy action of Star Wars. Just let them be their own things!
I’ve never really agreed with this. In the scale of sci-fi softness, they’re both in about the same territory. Star wars is slightly softer because of Jedis, but star trek has empaths for example.
The main difference is that star trek tends to do a bit more of speculation about tech, and star wars is more about telling stories about fascism in space, but both do both at times.
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Star Wars is Fantasy to Star Trek’s SciFi, IMO. These genres get lumped together in libraries and publishing, and there is significant crossover between them, but they are still distinct.
George Lucas always said he hates it when people call Star Wars SciFi as he always considered it to be a space opera with very little Sci and heavy on the Fi.
Likewise, doctor who is pure fantasy as well, and it grinds my gears when people call it sci-fi.
The technology is “wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff”, and just pulled out of someone’s ass (sonic screwdriver, immortality chip, phone that works across time, etc etc) there’s nothing science about it at all.
Also half the aliens are welsh
Right, and even when sci-fi hand hand waves its technology it’s about its impact on society.
For example, Star Wars never directly addressed that droids are a slave race, in a society with apparently unlimited energy, and yet poverty is just absolutely everywhere.
That is outright insane. Lucas never addressed it because the story is about good space wizard samurai fighting bad space wizard samurai, and even when he dips his toes into political allegory it’s a commentary on modern society and not “how would it be different?”
I’d say Doctor Who occasionally verges into sci fi for this reason though. There are at least some episodes that go “how does life work when space whales?”
I hate that I agree with George Lucas.
I think the distinction is a focus of drama vs action. Star Trek is mostly drama with a Sci Fi dressing and Start Wars is more action with a Sci Fi dressing. Neither are really based on science and both have magical space transportation that lets them move between planets.
They are both great examples of doing what they set out to do, and why I am not a fan of the newer Star Trek movies and shows that try to be closer to the epic fantasy action of Star Wars. Just let them be their own things!
I’ve never really agreed with this. In the scale of sci-fi softness, they’re both in about the same territory. Star wars is slightly softer because of Jedis, but star trek has empaths for example.
The main difference is that star trek tends to do a bit more of speculation about tech, and star wars is more about telling stories about fascism in space, but both do both at times.