Who can give me a crash course on Star Wars?

You are asking a lot, so let me answer a couple of these…
Star Trek is a western in space. Star Wars is an opera in space.
The biggest difference between the two is that Trek involves the future, and Wars happened a long, long time ago. The Force is a major part of Wars, and those who have it are either Jedi or with the Dark Side, which is evil. The Force is the ability to move things with your mind, confuse the weak minded, communicate with other Jedi telepathically, and see the future.

In Star Wars, the main character is a farm boy who is called by destiny into interstellar space. He is shy and awkward around women, kisses his long lost twin sister, and later sends her into bondage slavery in order to save his cocky best friend. He can move stuff with his mind, but lacks confidence that he can really pull off saving the universe.

In Star Trek, the main character is a farm boy who is called by destiny into interstellar space. He has supreme confidence in his ability to do anything, and women who should know better melt in his presence. His two best friends always have to bail him out of trouble, one is super smart with no emotions, the other is really smart and all cranky and emotional.

Star Wars in 3 minutes

Star Trek in 5 minutes (this one’s not nearly as much fun as the last one).

I know pretty much nothing about Star Wars, but I do know that the setting goes back in time with every new movie that comes out, which is interesting.

@dxs Not exactly. I’m not a Star Wars expert, but my understanding is that the project was originally conceived as 9 films. The first three to be released were episodes 4, 5, and 6 in which the time line was sequential. The next three films were 1, 2, and 3, prequels to the first released trilogy. Star Wars 7 is expected to be set some time after the end of #6.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
Stuff happens.
The end.

The Force was with them.

All I can say is Star Wars crashed after the crappy prequels. : )

A one minute animation of the first Star Wars film.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought You forgot about the third friend; the wise Scotsman. Maybe not quite as close as the other two, but probably saved his ass more times.

I really, really, really want to answer this Q, but I fear it would be the longest post of my Fluther career LOL.

I think we should seek out Zen and SeekKohlinar for Star Trek, but I’m not sure who, if anyone, is our resident Star Wars geek. Anyone know?

@Kardamom I know @rangerr is a huge Star Wars fan, but I’m not sure how active she is.

OMG! I just soooo want to talk about Mark Hamill and William Shatner and Brent Spiner and Kate Mulgrew, but if I start, I will not want to shut up. Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re My Only Hope. Someone help us!

Otherwise, you will get a 3 billion word essay, and nobody wants that!

I wonder if the Borg Cube could withstand a blast from the Death Star. Adaptation be dammed.

In the meantime, can I at least post some cute pictures?

Brent Spiner as Data, from Star Trek The Next Generation

“Captain Picard of the starship Enterpise, from Star Trek The Next Generations”: http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/10/102855/2214502-jean_luc.jpg

Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise, from the original Star Trek Series: http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/publicity/kirk/kirk-pub.jpg

Han Solo from Star Wars

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, from Star Wars.Princess Leia

The only thing you need to know is that Star Wars is entertaining, while Star Trek is a seemingly never ending stream of putrid crap :-)

Hello! Local Trekkie here. Since anyone can tell you the basic stories, I’ll focus on the differences between the two.

((Before I do anything… * smacks @ucme *))

Star Wars is, effectively, a Western that takes place in space. The characters are idealised: Vader is the evilest evil thing that’s ever been evil. Han Solo is the awesomest awesome guy who’s ever been awesome. Leia is the too-cool-for-school princess who doesn’t need saving thank you very much, and Luke is what anyone who reads fanfiction will call a “MaryJane”: That is, Luke is the character that the 8 year old boy watching the movie can replace with himself. The plot is a good-vs-evil, Man vs. Man/Man vs. society, save the world tale.

Star Trek is in essence, a morality play. It is a man’s vision of what the future could be if humanity would get their heads out of their collective asses long enough. Each episode of the Original Series can be watched in any order without feeling lost, and most of the time there’s a moral at the end of the story. It’s a group of people – volunteer paramilitary explorers – basically surveying space to see what’s out there. They have many adventures along the way. The characters are idealised here as well: Captain Kirk, the handsome, daring, funloving hero; Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy, the older, wiser, grumpy Country Doctor; Spock, half-Vulcan, half-Human, the logical voice of reason.

The morality play continued into The Next Generation. There you have Captain Jean-Luc Picard, unlike Kirk, Picard was on a hunt for knowledge more than adventure. His first officer, Riker, was the dashing hero-type, and the second officer, the android Data, was the Spock-type, but with a Pinocchio complex. Whereas Spock conceived of his humanness as something to be downplayed or avoided in general, Data wanted nothing more than to be more “human”.

After Next Gen, in my opinion, the Trek Universe becomes more a Space Opera – like Battlestar Galactica. We’re following characters through their life cycles, coming back week after week to see if Jadzia and Worf are going to hit it off, or if Odo will ever be able to shape-shift again…

@talljasperman I believe it would work once. The process is too slow – the Borg Cube would have time to communicate what was happening to other ships in the Collective before the destruction was completed, and the other ships would adapt.

@Geordi… I mean, @jordym84 – If you only sit down once to watch Star Trek, to give it a fair bash, I’d recommend watching the movie Star Trek: First Contact. It’s kind of a crash-course in the history of Trek, along with some really awesome action. You don’t have to already understand the Trek universe to “get it”, unlike a lot of the other movies.

@Seek_Kolinahr I’d get that habit of striking out at folks sorted if I were you, it’s becoming a disturbing trend, trekkies…{{shakes head}}

Meanwhile, us Whovians think they’re both rather pants :p

@Kardamom What? No pics of “Slave Leia”?

@Seek_Kolinahr When time is viewed in a non-linear, non-subjective manner, Borg adaptation may be a moot point.

Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. I’m a Whovian, as well as a Trekkie and a Toaster Lover.

I’m certainly not a Star Wars fanboy, just have always considered Trek complete & utter garbage.
Doctor Who was at it’s best under Tom Baker, although Chris Ecclestone did a grand job in it’s comeback, since then though…shite.

Baker is my first Doctor, but I wouldn’t kick David Tennant out of my Tardis, if you know what I mean.

David Ten-inch, it’s much bigger than it looks on the outside…ahem, his tardis I mean.

Best thing to do is watch them.

Then we’ll chat if you have questions.

Engage.