Star Wars vs. Star Trek: Part 2 of 7

Before getting into today’s topic I want to make sure we are clear on something. When pitting these two titans against each other, I am talking about pre-1999 Star Wars and pre-2009 Star Trek. Why is this important? Because fans of the classic Star Wars Trilogy tend to hate the prequels and fans of the classic Star Trek franchise tend to dislike the new J.J. action adventure films.

See, if this were a debate between the Star Wars prequels and the new Abram’s version of Star Trek, Star Wars fans would probably tend to side with Star Trek being the better films. Abram’s is not a Trekkie. Some would argue that he didn’t even make Star Trek films. He kind of made two Star Wars films starring Kirk and Spock as action heroes.

So I admit it. Right now, in the early 21^st century Star Trek is better than Star Wars. Star Wars prequels have a 57%, 67%, and 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The two Star Trek films have a 95% and an 87%.  But this is a passing phase. Star Wars will hopefully return to its roots when Episode VII is released next year and someday Star Trek will probably return to its geeky, science-y, space-debate roots as well.

So with that in mind let’s get to the good stuff.

Star Wars vs. Star Trek: Part 2 of 7

The Humans

Last time I focused on Aliens and Robots and made the point that Star Wars is more creative and plentiful when it comes to these aspects of science fiction. Yet aliens and robot characters play a supporting role to the much needed human characters. In science fiction humans are the anchor that grounds the audience and are essential to any good space tale.

The first Star Wars film has some incredible human characters. There are the big three (Luke, Han, Leia) but there is also Obi-Wan Kenobi and Grand Moff Tarkin. The only problem is that in an entire galaxy of people, the human range includes young people with American accents and old people with British accents. And only one girl. A single girl in the whole damn galaxy.

Compare that to the first Star Trek series, released a full decade earlier. You still have the American leads (for the American Audience) but you also have the Scottish guy, the Japanese guy, the Russian guy, the Black girl, a second girl. Seriously, two girls on one spaceship, almost unheard of in the Star Wars galaxy!

This is a fault in Star Wars- a fault that even the prequels don’t remedy. The Star Wars galaxy is full of white men. What about Leia & Padme you ask? What about Lando and Mace Windu you ask? These are the exceptions that prove the rule. Seriously, Mace Windu was typecast. It was Samuel L. Jackson playing himself.

In regards to women, does Star Wars even pass the Bechdel Test? The three rules of the Bechdel test, for those unfamilar is that there has to be at least two women with names and lines in a film, they have to talk to each other and they have to talk about something other than men. There are technically two women in the first film (If you count Aunt Beru) but they never talk to each other. No women talking together in 'Empire'. None in 'Jedi'. I guess if you count Padme and her handmaidens, then 'Menace' and 'Clones' pass this test but once her handmaidens are gone, 'Revenge of the Sith' does not pass the test. I know there are a lot of girls in the real world that love Star Wars, so why can’t we infuse some more women into this galaxy?

The fact that women and minorities only play a small role in the Star Wars films reveals something even darker about the franchise. The characters tend to fit a certain stock character type and they don’t stray much beyond those stock characters.  There’s the Heroe's Journey (Luke), the Wise Old Man (Ben), the Damsel in Distress (Leia), the Reluctant Hero(Han).

Star Wars is based on mythology and these characters are important to the genre, but there isn’t much room for moral ambiguity. There’s just the Light Side and the Dark Side. I think people hoped- really, really hoped that Anakin’s path to the Dark Side would have been more subtle, more morally ambiguous. But in the end he was just kind of a douche-bag. He started out as a douche-bag was tricked by Palpatine and ended up a bigger douche-bag.

Now the exception to all these points can be found in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I think the EU is filled with strong female characters and complex characters and questions of right and wrong. Jacen Solo’s fall to the dark side is amazing! It is what Anakin’s fall should have looked like. But the EU is not the films. It isn’t even considered canon anymore.

In regards to human characters the Star Trek franchise has everything that Star Wars doesn’t. They have lots of women in powerful roles. They have characters with all shades of skin color. They have humans questioning what it means to be human.  These are things that Star Wars can aspire to. 

However, today’s winner is “Star Trek”

Here is the scorecard so far:
Part 1: Aliens and Robots – Star Wars
Part 2: Human Characters – Star Trek