Star Wars vs. Star Trek

Let the flame wars begin Star Wars Day! This is a touchy subject for all hardcore Star Wars Fans and Trekkers (or is it Trekkies?). Personally, growing up as a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” fan before getting into Star Wars, I originally didn’t care much for Star Wars other than my oldest brother liked Darth Vader and Han Solo and I thought everything he did was considered nerdy back in the 80’s and 90’s was probably something to be part of. He never embraced Star Trek like I did as a child and this was the first time, as far as I can remember, liking something my other siblings didn’t. So let’s just jump into the debate for the top five reasons to be Pro Star Wars and the top five to be Team Star Trek.

Top 5 Reasons to be a Star Wars Fan:

5. The story making of good vs. evil or in Star Wars terms, Sith vs. Jedi.

4. R2D2 and C3PO. Robots are always awesome. It’s 2018, where is my personal droid?

3. The spoof movie Spaceballs. Need I say more? I love a good Mel Brooks flick.

2. The movie special effects were ahead of its time. With creativity from Jim Henson’s practical effects to the movie gold from Industrial Light and Magic.

1. The Force: Who wouldn’t want to have various special abilities like moving objects with your mind?

Top 5 Reasons to be a Star Trek Fan:

5: Star Trek has better conventions than Star Wars.

4: Villains and adversaries in Star Trek are more complex than Star Wars counterparts.

3: The Vulcan Salute. Who doesn’t want to live long and prosper?

2: Women and multicultural cast in the 60’s was ahead of its time.

1: Tech seen in Star Trek has become real technology: Star Trek Communicators and Tricorders are today’s Smart Phones, we are seeing the first version of replicators in the form of 3D Printers, and personal assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home are Star Trek: The Next Generation’s voice activated “Computer.”

Now there are some bad that goes with each of genre. Here’s my list for both:

• Episodes 1, 2 and 3 of Star Wars: Anything with Jar Jar Binks makes a bad movie.
• Star Trek movies started out as really long dragged out star trek tv show episodes, but at least progressively became better with the franchise when J.J. Abrahams rebooted the movie series.
• The brother and sister “love” in Star Wars episode 4. Cringe much?
• Klingons keep changing their looks. If you compare Klingons from The Original Series, The Next Generation and Discovery (Latest Series), the alien race in each look like completely different species from each other.
•  Teenage Anakin Skywalker is the whiniest character seen that is supposed to be the chosen one. It makes it more difficult to see he will grow up to be a bada$$ like Darth Vader.
• Star Trek has a prime directive that always seems to be ignored, and Klingons seem to never be honorable when they should be.

So to end on a lighter note, whether you are for Star Wars or Star Trek, the franchises created a culture of creativity and fun that lead to innovations in technology and entertainment. A similar culture is found here at Five9 with as many people we work with that have similar interests. We have many clubs, like softball, golf, and hiking and later this year we hope to have a volleyball team. Our HR department and Events team promotes wellness and provides many opportunities to enjoy time at work. So, when it all comes down to it, at the very least we can say we have a great company culture. But what I’d really like to know is which team are you on, Star Wars or Star Trek?

Happy May the Fourth Be With You Day & Live Long and Prosper.