Star Wars OR Star Trek?

[RDKirk]

I'll say again, Andor is some of the best drama on television today, worth anyone watching, even if they're not a Star Wars fan.

 

[The Liturgist]

I'll say again, Andor is some of the best drama on television today, worth anyone watching, even if they're not a Star Wars fan.

Oh yes, especially the scenes on Coruscant and the nightmarish dystopian prison camp on Narkina V, which was visually reminscent of THX 1138 and also called to mind in terms of its visual appearnce the description George Orwell provided in Nineteen Eighty Four for the Ministry of Love, “The Place Where There Is No Darkness”, except perhaps in Room 101, which alas Narkina V lacked an analogue for, but to go there would probably have been too dark even for Andor.

*I feel compelled to offer as an Orwellian footnote that I felt that the 1984 film adaptation of Nineteen Eighty Four dropped the ball by making Miniluv look too grimey, when the book implied that it was doubleplus ungrimey, if you will forgive the psuedo-newspeak. Actual newspeak is sufficiently challenging for oldthinkers like us who don’t bellyfeel Ingsoc, that according to Nineteen Eighty Four, only the front page of the Times was routinely written in it, by highly trained specialists who were expert in its grammar, punctuation and ever-shrinking dictionary, in order to avoid including any oldspeak words, one might assume, assuming assumption is not a thoughtcrime in Oceania.

In addition to editing the film to remove the annoying pop music Richard Branson substituted for the beautiful orchestral score (only a few fragments of which survived in the film, like the national anthem of Oceania and the hiking song) and to restore the original color palette, removing the washed out look (both edits have already been done on a special DVD directors cut, which I really want but can’t find), a further edit to digitally remove the grime from the sets of the Ministry of Love and make the interior look brighter and more futuristic would, I think, go a long way towards making the film a fuller adaptation of Orwell’s concept.

 

[RDKirk]

Oh yes, especially the scenes on Coruscant and the nightmarish dystopian prison camp on Narkina V, which was visually reminscent of THX 1138 and also called to mind in terms of its visual appearnce the description George Orwell provided in Nineteen Eighty Four for the Ministry of Love, “The Place Where There Is No Darkness”, except perhaps in Room 101, which alas Narkina V lacked an analogue for, but to go there would probably have been too dark even for Andor.

Yes. People applaud the monologues in Andor, but to me that verbal waltz ("Who is leading, and where are we going?") between Mon Mothma and Tay Kolma as they tried to determine whether and how much to trust each other was some of the most delightful dialog I've heard from Star Wars. And again, the scene between Mon, Tay, and Davo Sculdon fairly shimmered, not just in dialog but also in the body language of the characters.

*I feel compelled to offer as an Orwellian footnote that I felt that the 1984 film adaptation of Nineteen Eighty Four dropped the ball by making Miniluv look too grimey, when the book implied that it was doubleplus ungrimey, if you will forgive the psuedo-newspeak. Actual newspeak is sufficiently challenging for oldthinkers like us who don’t bellyfeel Ingsoc, that according to Nineteen Eighty Four, only the front page of the Times was routinely written in it, by highly trained specialists who were expert in its grammar, punctuation and ever-shrinking dictionary, in order to avoid including any oldspeak words, one might assume, assuming assumption is not a thoughtcrime in Oceania.

Clever.

 

[JoeyVimsanteThePoet]

Star Wars and Star Trek are very creative and imaginative. Even if sometimes the morality can be different to mine.
Science fiction is an amazing genre.

 

[jamiec]

I like some episodes of ST - but I prefer Star Wars (without that trilogy).

 

[RageOfAngels]

Star Wars, but since Disney destroyed most of it, it's closer than it's ever been.

Great - A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, The Force Awakens
Good - The Phantom Menace, Revenge Of The Sith, Rogue One
Average - Attack Of The Clones, Rise Of Sky Walker, Han Solo

So Terrible it ruined everything after it - The Last Jedi

 

[Tuur]

According to a mem, a Star Wars Trooper vs Star Trek Red Shirt might be an interesting crossover.

 

[RDKirk]

Right now, Star Trek doesn't have anything as well written as Andor.

 

[Rebecca Jo]

Star Trek is my favourite, but I will still tune in for some Star Wars shows and movies.

I also like Babylon 5, Andromeda, Doctor Who, and other space-y shows. I'd love to watch or read some great Christian sci-fi, if I could find it. Maybe I'm supposed to try writing it myself?

 

[Tuur]

I also like Babylon 5, Andromeda, Doctor Who, and other space-y shows. I'd love to watch or read some great Christian sci-fi, if I could find it. Maybe I'm supposed to try writing it myself?

The church where a grandmother was a Sunday School teacher had a small comic-book type literature with Christian themes that they gave to children. She saved her copies for her grandchildren. When they serialized The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, it was a huge shock. By that point I'd concluded there were no Christian science fiction or fantasy writers. Later I read A Wrinkle in Time, but maybe had reached the age where it wasn't as appealing.

I think my first personalized rejection was for a fantasy story with a slightly Christian theme. Evidently it divided the slush readers on whether or not to publish. The editor wrote that he was open to a story with a Christian theme, but it would take exceptional writing. It would be years later that I realized no writing today would be considered exceptional for one of the literary SF & F magazines to run a story with Christian themes. They'll run stories critical and mocking Christianity, but never one that's pro-Christianity. It was already that way when I was a child, and had picked up on that without realizing it, and it's worse now. Unless there a specific Christian SF and F genre, you're not going to find it and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a movie along those lines.

I encourage you to write those stories you want to find. That's how I ended up doing a series: It was secular, for advanced readers without the themes that would be problematic for their age. Never gained traction, but my children loved them while growing up, and that really was the point from the start.

 

[JesseRaymondBassett]

I like Star Wars. And call me loco but I DO love the new Disney stuff in terms of Star Wars. The Acolyte is well written and directed, despite its fake negative stories and reviews.

 

[RDKirk]

The Acolyte is decidedly not well-written or well-directed. The Acolyte is barely above the level of fan fiction in both cases.

Andor was well-written and well-directed.

 

[Rebecca Jo]

I didn't make it past the first episode of Andor - characters just didn't appeal to me. (There was at least one interesting droid, though. Why do I tend to love the droids the most?)

The Acolyte is so-so. Good lightsaber fights in some episodes, but the writing and characters could use some polishing. Another fun droid, though, with Pip. (And I liked Bazil, too.)

 

[RDKirk]

I don't see a point to Pip. The seventh episode of Acolyte was just ridiculous. It was so bad even Grace Randolph turned on it. Nobody showed the least bit of obedience to their leaders. Everyone acted stupid.

Seven weeks on Brendok, and they hadn't yet told Torbin why they were there. Indara failed Leadership 101: At least tell your people what their mission is. But Indara failed as a leader all the way through. She not once insisted that they follow her instructions, and not even the Council's instructions...she just went along with Torbin and Sol on every stupid thing they did.

Seven weeks on Brendok, with technology snooping devices and all being Force-sensitive, yet the Jedi hadn't found a big doggoned castle with its own high technology and full of Force sensitives... _within walking distance of their camp._

Sol was plain irrational in his fixation on Osha...it got actually creepy. And even though Indara had told him up front that he didn't deserve a padawan, even though he'd made stupid move after stupid move, Indara actually concocted a lie to the Council so that Sol could take Osha as his padawan. Sol was the last person who should have a padawan, and ezpecially not Osha.. She was already too old and thus unlikely to succeed. On top of that, Sol was so attached to her that he was irrational...and he'd killed her mother.

I'd recommend you watch at least the first three episodes of Andor, the first story arc. The story is being told in arcs, with the first three as one arc, the second three as another arc, the seventh is a "stand alone" episode, the 8-10 is an arc and the final two make up the finale arc. Andor is one of the best-written television shows ever. Not just in Star Wars, but some of the best television ever. The dialog especially is amazing.

 

[MikeBurke]

I'm a Trekker! Star trek has been heavier on the science than the fiction vs. Star Wars which was heavier on the fiction than the science. Then there's Battlestar Galactica

 

[Tuur]

I'm a Trekker! Star trek has been heavier on the science than the fiction vs. Star Wars which was heavier on the fiction than the science. Then there's Battlestar Galactica

Ahem.

I gave up on Star Trek: Voyager when they slipped through a crack in an event horizon. I gave up on Star Wars pretty much after the first, then saw the next two two when they came out on video. That was interesting because the special effects didn't translate over onto VCR very well in that first release.

 

[P1LGR1M]

Well personally I'm a Star Wars person. Our entire family has grown up with it! Hee hee. So here's the big question "Star Wars Or Star Trek?" If you want to put why, that would be super too. (also my favorite dude, and movie is : The forth one (So the first one that came out) and then the Storm Troopers!)

C-3P0 rocks my socks too

Definitely Star Wars, though the newer Star Trek movies were excellent, in my opinion.

For me, it began with going to see Star Wars at the theater. It blew me away, and after that all sci-fi was judged by that standard. If not for Star Wars, I might have enjoyed Battlestar Galactica a little more, lol.

Favorite one? I'd have to say The Empire Strikes Back. It has a darker quality I enjoy, and of course, this is where we learned Darth Vader was Luke's father. No one saw that coming. Or maybe it was just me? I was probably about ten or so at the time.

Why Star Wars rather than Star Trek? I just didn't think it was a very good show. And you know what they say, "Too much of a good thing isn't necessarily a good thing." I did like Spock, though.

Favorite character? Obi Wan, in episodes 1-3, Han in 4-6. The jury's still out on 7-9. Maybe Fin. None of the characters really stand out for me.

I'll just add this, as a lifelong fan: I've seen some of the Disney Star Wars series, and to be honest, I think there's something taken away from the movies. I did enjoy some of the plots, and back-fill on the movies' characters was kind of cool, but it has commercialized Star Wars a little and, for me, that "Gee, I can't wait until the next one!" has been tempered by it. Particularly when some of the movies lack the music. John Williams is a hero of mine, lol.