-32- “Star Wars or Star Trek? This is Important…”

~ Rob Drapeau

Two Kinds of People

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don’t. I recently applied for a position at a marketing firm run by (it would seem) the first kind of people.* Their application included (and required a response to) this question: “Star Wars or Star Trek?” In case it wasn’t clear, they added, “This is important.”

Hells yeah, it’s important. Who wants to work with a bunch of weirdos who don’t give the correct response to that question, amirite? Especially when everyone knows it’s Star Wars. Trek. Wars. Wrecks. Bucks. Star Trek Wars. Star Tech Wreck Wars. Star (grumble, cough, hrramph! cough, mumble, mumble).

Crap.

When did this become a hard question to answer? It’s Star Wars, right? I mean, c’mon: light sabers.

The Case for Star Wars:

  • Light sabers (see above). And, you know, the fact that Han floors it when the Millennium Falcon enters an asteroid field.

The Case for Star Trek:

The Case against Star Wars:

  • George Lucas.
  • Jar-jar Binks, but not the actor who played him. It’s not his fault. (See previous.)
  • The -equels. Ugh.

The Case against Star Trek:

  • Tribbles
  • Sub-space anomalies. (Thanks, Gene, for a future with no interpersonal conflict…)
  • “Set phasers to ‘stun.'”
  • “Move ahead, one quarter impulse power.”

A Third Kind

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don’t. . .and then there is a third kind of person who talks about “third ways.”

The Case Against Star Wars and Star Trek:

Firefly.

If you don’t know, Firefly, you should. It’s a fantastic little Joss Whedon show that aired on the Fox network from 2002 to 2003. It was wonderful in every way, so naturally, Fox cancelled it before it could get an audience.

Firefly has been described as “Han Solo meets the United Federation of Planets.” That’s just about as perfect a description as you could come up with. Give it a try. It’s shiny.

*Alas, they are also the kind of people who don’t hire Rob Drapeaus. 🙁