Us public radio folk are not shy about mining the cultural zeitgeist—especially if it gives us an excuse to fully express our inner geekiness. Case in point: The recent spate of Star Trek stories.
It is a not very well concealed industry secret that most public media employees are huge Trek fans—well, at least the cool, geeky, dangerous ones I hang with—though I must take issue with my Next Gen-obsessed colleague. (Face it, Meghna, TOS rules.) I suspect the same is true for 90.9 listeners as well, though if my son is any indication, the standard benediction of future listeners of that generation fueled on “Clone Wars” fantasies is more apt to be “May the Force be With You” than “Live Long and Prosper.”
I tallied at least a half-dozen-plus Trek references in the results of my cursory search of the mothership’s website, including Fresh Air’s review of the new Trek film, Talk of the Nation’s interview with director J. J. Abrams, and an All Things Considered piece on how much dough the franchise has raked in to date. And make sure to read and listen to this gem from the archives that tells how Gene Roddenberry tech-utopia vision came to television.
Then there’s Tom Ashbrook’s interview with the original Mr. Spock, and the two recent Trek features (one here, the other here) on Here & Now.
So tell me dear public reader, are my assumptions erroneous? Do our listeners in fact—perish the thought—prefer Star Wars to the infinitely superior Star Trek?
And special thanks to @qurgh who translates “we are funded by you, our listeners” into proper Klingon: “Huch nunobmo’ ‘IjwI’pu’ mavum.”
Captain Picard >>> Captain Kirk. Deal with it!!!
star wars. no doubt.
Each universe has its own draw. The whole “force” thing in Star Wars is mysterious and appealing. However, the Trek world is based more in science and less in mysticism. Difficult to say that one is “superior” to the other. I think that they appeal to different sensibilities or, should I say, fantasies that many of us have.
Neither. Love both. Why should it be one or the other?
To be sure, at various times I’m in the mood for any of the ones listed by Chris below. Both Nemesis and Insurrection, for example, tried to be “action-packed” but I think it didn’t quite work with the TNG characters; the new film somehow did. I even mostly enjoyed the new Star Wars films, even though Lucas through canon mostly out the window.
The Genndy Tartakovsky “Clone Wars” animated shorts (which fit between II and III) are excellent, and in my opinion are the best video take on Star Wars after Empire Strikes Back (in book form, it’s hard to say no to Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy).
Also, I think Ken has discovered how to get lots of comments… get geeks riled up :oD.
It’s ….complicated.
1 (with a bullet). Battlestar Galactica (new version)
2 (distant). Original Star Wars trilogy
3. New Tennant/Eccleston era Doctor Who
4 (more distant). Star Trek movies, even numbered (II, IV, VI)
5. Next Generation / DS9 (tie)
6. New Star Wars trilogy
7. Star Trek movies, odd numbered (I, III, V, VII and all rest)
8. Star Trek TOS
9. Star Trek Voyager/Enterprise
10 (with a laser). Battlestar Galactica (original version)
Haven’t had a chance to see the new Trek movie, but from what I’m hearing, it’ll probably fit in somewhere around the Doctor Who level — fun, but not as meaty as the top two, but not as cheesy as a lot of the rest of the list either.
(What’s the magic trick to create an account such that I can set an icon the way some of the others have done?)
I think it’s pulling them from Gravatar http://en.gravatar.com/, which I set up a while ago; I didn’t have to do anything special here to get them to show up.
Why the new Star Trek movie is good:
They’ve made Captain Kirk into Han Solo.
That being said I liked The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine better, but that’s because I’m in my 20s and don’t find the original series enjoyable. The early movies were cool though, and I was in the womb when the movie with Captain Kirk and the whales came out.
Captain Picard >>> Captain Kirk. Deal with it!!!
Thanks all Trekkies and Star Warriors for responding.
Based on some of the comments above and on Twitter it is obvious there are are good chunk of public-radio listening Jedis out there.
Live Long and Prosper and May the Force Be With You.