May 5, 2013 by

So IGN has a poll up about this.  It's possible I'm overreacting (or reacting where reaction isn't really necessary cause the whole thing's somewhat rhetorical) but whenever the question comes up, I have to ask, why is that I have to choose between?  Why can't I love both?  Why is it that we as fans have to pit them against one another, and try to proclaim one superior to the other?  What does this accomplish?

Again, I get that there's a competitive thought process that I'm possibly overthinking.  This contest has been going on for years, and I'm sure there are fans that love debating the subject simply for the sake of debating it.

So here's my response to the question, in choosing between Star Wars and Star Trek.

When I was kid, my family watched all of Trek.  We watched TOS in syndication (Spock was my favorite character since before I can remember), as well as all of TNG as it aired.  I remember the first time Riker had a beard, and I remember all of the kookiness of season seven (like when Data has dreams where other crew member's have mouths on their bodies and it turned out to be some kind of parasite; my sisters and I got a good laugh out of that one).  I also remember the episode where crew members are being kidnapped and being experimented on as it gave me nightmares (I think it's called, appropriately enough, Night Terrors).  Once upon a time, I knew every episode from TOS, TNG, and DS9 and could tell you its corresponding title.

I remember when both DS9 and Voyager premiered, as I watched both.  I remember watching DS9 in its entire run - including the fact that new episodes aired on Sundays when we weren't allowed to watch television, so we'd tape the episodes, and watch them at midnight.  I even remember one week when it got pre-empted due to a sporting event and local fans rallied to the station and forced them to give us an extra airing the next week to make up for it.  I also remember when I stopped watching Voyager (it was the week that The Rock was going to be on it).

I saw and knew all the TOS movies as they came out (IV was my favorite as a kid, for obvious reasons).  And we saw First Contact in a first-run theatre (a rarity growing up), eventually followed by Insurrection and Nemesis. (Though Nemesis got overshadowed by the release of The Two Towers.)  And my sister and I saw the new Abrams Trek at midnight on its opening day.  Even to this day, I still know the franchise - my family will watch (and affectionately mock) classic episodes of TOS, and I consider DS9 one of the most interesting and important series of the 90s.

As for Star Wars, my Mom had to ban the films a couple of times when I was growing up because she was so tired of seeing them.  When I was about five, we got a brand new tv and VCR setup and after my brother got it all put together, first thing we did was watch the original trilogy.  By the time I was an adolescent, I had watched them so much I had all three films pretty well memorized.

With the release of the prequels, I was ecstatic.  I saw them all on opening day, as well as multiple times, and even started reading some of the EU books (specifically, the Jedi Apprentice ones).  When the original trilogy was re-released in 1997, my sisters camped out so that we could go to the opening night showing of Return of the Jedi - a showing where pretty much everyone was dressed up, and people marched around the theatre in their stormtrooper outfits while spinning their lightsabres.

My sisters and I would have Star Wars days, where we would hang up posters around the living room (and we owned lots and lots of posters and puzzles, among other things) and then spent the whole day eating food that made us think of Star Wars while discussing the films in-depth and concocting wilder (and more ridiculous) theories about the characters and universe.

When Revenge of the Sith came out, we drove all over town to every Burger King we could find in an attempt to get as many of the little toys they were handing out with their value meals.  When my brother got married, on the way to the reception, my sister announced that from that point on, we were only allowed to speak in Star Wars quotes.  (It's a wonder my parents didn't kill us.)  When my family had conversations online, my oldest sister (who is not a fan) had to request that we please start labeling which conversations were Star Wars related so she would know which ones to avoid (as they had become so incessant).

So I guess my response to the question, do you love Star Wars or Star Trek, my answer would be: Yes.  I love them both.

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