Abrams And Lindelof Talk Star Trek Wars

Last weekend marked the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. As these History Channel clips show, Trek XI producer and director JJ Abrams is a fan of both ‘Star’ franchises

Trek XI co-producer Damon Lindelof is also a big time Star Wars fan. In fact Abrams says he knew he would like Lindelof because when they were first introduced Lindelof was wearing a Star Wars t-shirt. As part of their 30th anniversary coverage, Geek Monthly magazine talked to a number of celebrities about Star Wars and what it meant to them. Here is Lindelof had to say…

The only way my parents could get me into the bathtub was by convincing me it was a trash compactor. Every night, I would splash around as if something was trying to grab my ankle and pull me under. But hey, at least I got clean!

…and on what Star Wars character would best be suited for the island on Lost

As Sawyer is already pretty much channeling Han Solo and the droids would quickly run out of power, I’d go for Chewie as being the most useful character to get stranded on ‘Lost.’ Nothing beats a nice, big Wookiee when mysterious people are constantly trying to kill you. Also, you can make coats and blankets out of their fur to keep you warm at night.

VOTE in the latest poll – So are you a Star Wars fan too?

big thanks to Rick Kelvington for the video clips

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I never understood how people could only like one or the other. Star Wars and Star Trek are both great Sci Fi franchises with entire universes the feed the imagination.

I guess I’m not the only one who believes you can be a fan of Star Wars AND Star Trek.

Couldn’t agree more. I have enough geek in me to love both!

I have always wondered what Star Wars would be like if Star Trek had never existed.

The first three Star Wars movies were great. I can watch them over and over. The 3 Prequels were not so great. I can’t say I hate them, but never a burning desire to rewatch them.

yea Ryan i see what you mean , before star trek sci fi was never really taken serious *cough* lost in space , so i am sure star trek had a big effect on star wars , and the other way around , after they saw how well star wars done, they went and made Star Trek TMP , instead of phase two show.

I like both, but I like Star Trek more.

I almost agree with you, Stanky. Return of the Jedi was the beginning of the downward slide, or as Dante summed it up in Clerks: “all Jedi had was a bunch of muppets.” And the prequels, great effects aside, just plain sucked. I can’t even remember what the hell happened in Episode II.

I am a full-hearted Trekkkie! I dont really like Star Wars, I can at least stand the first 3 (make, STUPID GEORGE LUCAS, LEARN TO COUNT!! :-), but I dispise the the newer ones. If I had a choice, I would never watch Star Wars, just because I dont like them. Its not because I’m a trekkie and CANT like Star Wars, I just dont like the movies.

I dont like them mainly because they are more war are battle based and have very little storyline; at least thats how I feel. The only trouble that I have with JJ and others on the producing team being such avid fans, is that I dont want them to have the new movies turn out more of a Star Wars feel than that of the Star Trek movies and tv shows.

I’ll throw in my voice with those who like both. I love Trek, but I enjoy the first three Wars. I like Episode III as well (except for the mention of younglings and C3PO’s lame humor, which make something come up in the back of my throat)
Trek is still the Gold Standard, but it’s a big universe.

Abrams’ speech pattern is a bit like Shatner’s. Maybe there is hope for…the…universe.

^ He’s prepairing for Trek XI, he won’t just produce and direct he is finally the answer to who will play Kirk! Also while Trek is my big favorite I also like the Star Wars movies. Mainly the original 3, prequils are allright but not too big on Ep I.

I always looked at Star Wars as a movie franchise and Star Trek as a television franchise. To me comparing Star Wars and Star Trek is like comparing Lost with Gilligan island. Both of those show are about the same thing but different. I think this whole Star Wars VS Star Trek is stupid and childish kind of like 14 year old girls fighting over Nsync vs the Backstreet Boys. I think die hard Star Wars fans are more fanatic about this whole fued then Star Trek fans. When Star Wars first came out I doubt Star Trek fans look at the movie as a threat or the popularity as a threat. I believe they looked at it as good Sci-fi. I’m sure when Star Trek was popular in the 90 a lot of Star wars fans hated it.

Merely mentioning “Star Wars” on what’s purported to be a Star Trek fan site is a slap in the face to all true Trek fans, and MUST never be allowed to…oh, who am I kidding. Both franchises are great. Not so much the Star Wars prequels, though.

The first three Star Wars movies were sooooo much fun. Lucas made a very rich, enjoyable, and engrossing fairy tale, in my opinion. I really liked the first movie a lot in particular and saw it many times.

But in my view, there is no comparison between SW and ST. This is not a dig at Star Wars. Star Wars is a great fantasy epic. However, Star Trek, unlike Star Wars, comments on so many aspects of the human condition, society, psychology, philosophy, etc. Star Trek, unlike Star Wars, at least tries to stay within the laws of science and reality (of course sometimes it fails but it makes the attempt), while Star Wars is pure fantasy.

Very positive feelings about both, but there is no comparison.

Episode 1: Sucked! The only good thing in the movie was Darth Maul, and Palpatine.

Episode 2: Sucked! The only good thing was Jango Fett, Darth “What’s his name” (British horror actor – very good) and Palpatine.

Episode 3: Not too bad. The transformation of Palpatine to the Emperor is great. Battle at the beginning is good. General Grevious could have been used better (awful voice… cartoon version was better)

Episode 4: Fantastic!

Episode 5: By far, the best of the series

Episode 6: Jabba the Hutt and the palace muppets where lots of fun. Death Star battle and Luke/Vader final battle, and the death of the Emperor where all well done.

Lucas lost me in the first of the prequels when he had that stupid talking camel. “Meesa weesa gleesa sheesa!”

Where’s Han Solo when you need him to shoot an annoying alien, anyway?

Episode 3 was great.

TTM

Star Trek is science fiction, Star Wars is space fantasy. I like them both but for different reasons, just like any other two different TV shows or movies.

As you can probably tell from my name I’m a SW fan first and foremost, but the Trek TOS movies are definitely a huge part of my childhood as well.

Anyway, ROTJ is a great movie, I’ve never understood all of the hatred for it. For a movie that had to follow possibly the greatest sci-fi/fantasy film of all time, I think it did pretty well, and it’s without a doubt light years ahead of any of the prequels, including the highly overrated ROTS. There are some serious things happening in the last hour of Jedi, and it was a really good movie to wrap up the trilogy. It just gets a bad rap because of the Ewoks, even though they’re in it for all of about 15 minutes.

However I’ve always wondered what could have been if Lucas were allowed to let Spielberg direct.

trek is my first love. i like star wars too but somehow i find it more soapish then trek. and the prequels were so silly and just for 10 years old ones imho.

Yes, what some have said is true. In comparing the two the similarity is basically just that they both have something to do with space and spaceships.

Another possible comparison is the that the spinoffs (Star Trek) and the prequels (Star Wars) are not as good as the real deal. That won’t upset anyone, will it? :)

I earlier stated that I can watch the first three Star Wars over and over. This is true, but I often fast-forward through the Ewok crap. :)

I love all six STAR WARS movies but when it comes to STAR TREK my heart belongs only to TOS and its films.

Anthony… you should post the clip of Shatner at the Lucas tribute, saying “Star Trek changed everything…” then being corrected.

I was always under the impression that Star Trek fans could generally find value in the action packed Star Wars saga as well…

However, I didn’t always think it a given that Star Wars fans would automatically like the more esoteric Star Trek franchise.

It’s sort of like Spock’s quote in “Mirror, Mirror”:

“It was far easier for you as civilized men to behave like barbarians than it was for them as barbarians to behave like civilized men.”

Just kidding… ;)

Star Wars has always been tremendously overrated.

The last three films display overwhelming evidence that Lucas has been breathing his own fumes for far too long.

Star Wars– make it STOP already!!!

im not a star wars fan i don`t mind them and like so many other don`t get this star wars v star tek they did it with star trek v b5 dose it real mater good sci-fi is good sci-fi

Love both Trek and Wars… just hope that Trek XI doesnt turn out like Star Wars II

Hmmm…. The difference between Trek and Wars is one is Science Fiction and on is more like to Fantasy. When you watch Trek you can see depth of the science thought involved in helping to carry the story. Wars you see more of the fantasy element such as many main characters having mysterious powers like wizards, main characters all using a form of sword like a knight of old (even being called knights), and naturally don’t forget about one thing that this show pointed out extensively is that Star Wars is a true Quest type tale with one character going on a quest in which that character matures and learns life’s lessons. Other examples of this would be Bilbo in the Hobbit, Frodo in Lord of the Rings, Odysseus in the Odyssey, the list of fantasy tales with this format is long. That is the main difference between Trek and Wars. This is also why I feel Battlestar (New Version) is more true science fiction at heart than Star Wars. Science Fiction as a genre lately seems to be at its best when it is very dark and nitty gritty as is a trend of fantasy as well, just look at Lord of the Rings. My sincere hope is that Abrams understands that Trek needs to change to keep up with the change of the film industry around it. Trek MUST still have its core message about humanity and the hope for the future however also be darker and show that sometimes the universe is not the friendliest place to be and peace sometimes must come at a dear cost.

I love Trek because its technology to me seems much more fundamentally realistic as opposed to Wars. Don’t get me wrong I am not one who hates Wars but I do feel both Trek and Battlestar are more the theme of Science Fiction. As the TV special even stated Star Wars is Mythology/Fantasy not Science Fiction.