Disjunction of the Week #2

Well, I have committed myself to coming up with a new disjunction for us to discuss once weekly, and it shall always be on Friday, and so I shall do that now. Keeping in mind that these disjunctions are explicitly intended to induce humor, I give you:

Star Trek, or Star Wars?

My answer: Star Trek

For me, this is truly a tough question. Going far back into my childhood, I can actually remember staying up late on the weekend with my parents and watching The Stargazer with Jack Horkheimer, followed by reruns of the original Star Trek That's right, despite being born in 1987, I was raised on the original, the real McCoy (pun most definitely intended). The Next Generation was also there, but I always enjoyed the original more, for some reason or another. Watching Star Trek with mom and pop is one of the fondest memories that I have, and it was through that experience that I developed a life-long interest in science fiction in general. I remain very much a Trekkie.

Still, Star Wars has not been without its impact on my life. While the Trek is undoubtedly a means to examining certain germane cultural questions in a fictional setting, Star Wars is a science-fictional re-presentation of some of humanity's eternal struggles, like any good literature often will be. Star Wars explores the "big questions" of good and evil, love and hate, destiny and free will, and life after death. The films (I speak particularly of the original three, though I am not entirely averse to the CGI-laden second trilogy) also have a formidable soundtrack, fantastic battle and hand-to-hand scenes, some great jokes, and, perhaps most important to me, the archetype of the wise old sage. I love the wise old sage, and Star Wars was gracious enough to supply two of them, Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda. As the sages get older and physically more feeble, they only become wiser and their command of the Force becomes greater. It's fantastic. Still, despite the profound contribution of Star Wars, it does suffer from some stolen themes and plot devices. I fully encourage you to read the Baghavad Gita and discover that Hindu monks came up with Star Wars thousands of years before George Lucas was born.

In all, I think that Star Trek is just more perennial, more fun, a better vehicle for social commentary and exploration of new ideas, and has had a greater social impact. I think more people identify with the phrase "Live long and prosper" than they do with "The Force be with you," and I think society is justified in that.