Has George Lucas just quashed the decades-long beef between “Star Trek” nerds and “Star Wars” dorks? For years, dudes with tape holding together their glasses and pocket protectors protruding proudly from their shirt pockets have debated amongst themselves about which franchise had the most sci-fi bonafides. Well, now that he’s left Lucasfilm, maybe Lucas should just get a job at the U.N. because he just provided the most diplomatic and humble assessment of the relationship between the two mega-series, quietly in a bonus feature on the recently released documentary “Trek Nation.”
” ‘Star Trek’ softened up the entertainment arena so that ‘Star Wars’ could come along and stand on its shoulders,” Lucas said in an interview featured on the DVD. “There was an effective group of people in the beginning who accepted it.. that it wasn’t that far out. For the studios it was way far out, [they said] ‘What is this?’, but there was a fanbase out there — primarily the ‘Star Trek’ fanbase — who understood sci-fi, understood visual sci-fi, and was ready for something like this ‘Star Wars’ to be in the feature arena.”
And as JoBlo rightly acknowledges, it was actually the success of “Star Wars” that made it possible for “Star Trek” to make the leap to movies. Circle of sci-fi geek life, right? You know, generally opinions about both franchises tend to be hot-headed, fueled by emotion and nostalgia, so it’s actually kind of refreshing to see the man that birthed “Star Wars” be pretty reasonable about why it was even possible for it to live on and become the blockbuster creature that it is. Maybe at Comic-Con next week dudes in Captain Kirk and Han Solo cosplay gear will take a moment to hug?