Explicit
BT 26: Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Apr 30, 2020 ·
2h 4m 32s
BackTrekking returns again to look back at the real-world inspirations of classic Trek episodes! It's the eternal debate, the championship bout for all the credits. . . Star Wars vs....
show more
BackTrekking returns again to look back at the real-world inspirations of classic Trek episodes!
It's the eternal debate, the championship bout for all the credits. . . Star Wars vs. Star Trek: which is better? One seems more suited to conflict; it's literally got "war" in its title. The other's name suggests perhaps a performance fleece and one of those water things you carry on your back with the straw that runs up your sleeve. Assuming you're not mispronouncing it as "track", that is. One conjures images of screaming fans under a sea of waving, day-glo lightsabers, the other a vision of William Shatner yelling at an assemblage of sad men in pointed ears. Put all my money on the 'wars, please.
The reality is somewhat more complicated. Trek incontrovertibly arrived first, beaming onto American TV screens on September 8th, 1966 (September 6th, if you were lucky enough to be Canadian). Star Wars premiered on May 25, 1977, fizzling out of some theaters completely before returning several weeks later on a wave of word-of-mouth positivity. Both franchises are clearly indebted to earlier properties. Star Wars famously began life as George Lucas's desire to do a Flash Gordon-esque space adventure after he lost out on directing the genuine article. Star Trek was preceded by space travel shows and even genre-themed social commentary series, but draws most of its inspiration from Horatio Hornblower novels and Gulliver's Travels (weirdly). Star Trek influenced Star Wars, full stop. George Lucas has said as much, although it was probably within earshot of Gene Roddenberry and its greatest influence may have been Lucas saying "Well, I don't want to do *that*." Star Wars, in turn, influenced Star Trek by making $220 million in its initial box office run (almost $900 million in 2020 bucks). Screw Star Trek: Phase II; Trek was going back to theaters with the entire original cast intact and it was going to be gritty this time! Colors would be drab, the technology more crunchy, two people would be melted by the friendly transporter. Star Trek: The Motion Picture would go on to make $139 million after spending 5 times the budget of Star Wars, which would effectively end Roddenberry's involvement with the franchise until the development of The Next Generation 8 years later. He'd still hang around but be mostly ignored as Trek cinema continued to chase Star Wars and its ever-increasing returns. It wasn't until 1986, when Star Wars had left the cinematic field, that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home would earn $133 million, 6 times its budget, proving definitively that a Star Trek film can be a runaway success as long as George Lucas is counting money instead of making movies. So who wins? Which is superior: Star Wars or Star Trek? Well, the show isn't called BackWarsing . . . you figure it out.
On this episode, we talk about the Star Wars and Star Trek and what defines them, the surprising artistry of the original trilogy, the perfect casting of Star Wars, the series's light-touch spirituality, the magnetic momentum of the narrative, how TMP served as a template for future Trek films, the breathtaking mise-en-scene of V'ger, the film's theme of self-examination, and staying close to your roots. We also discuss the bone-headed changes of the Special Editions, whether or not we live on a TOS planet-of-the-week, how George Lucas is the biggest Star Wars fan, having too many chores to Antifa, laser sword-fighting a space wizard, editing Wookiepedia, vibe check on Vader, googling "the motion picture", turning Spock off and on again, neck pinch acting, V'ger's info was boring, and the etiquette of starship interaction.
Who's behind this Maclunkey?
Get Star Wars and Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Blu-ray!
https://amzn.to/3cUod4C
https://amzn.to/2yc39bc
Join us in the Just Enough Trope Discord!
https://discord.gg/EAx5VGX
Tweet at the show or your hosts with your suggestions for future episodes!
http://www.twitter.com/backtrekking
http://www.twitter.com/ka1iban
http://www.twitter.com/gooeyfame
Check out the other shows on the Just Enough Trope network!
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
Theme: Disco Medusae Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
show less
It's the eternal debate, the championship bout for all the credits. . . Star Wars vs. Star Trek: which is better? One seems more suited to conflict; it's literally got "war" in its title. The other's name suggests perhaps a performance fleece and one of those water things you carry on your back with the straw that runs up your sleeve. Assuming you're not mispronouncing it as "track", that is. One conjures images of screaming fans under a sea of waving, day-glo lightsabers, the other a vision of William Shatner yelling at an assemblage of sad men in pointed ears. Put all my money on the 'wars, please.
The reality is somewhat more complicated. Trek incontrovertibly arrived first, beaming onto American TV screens on September 8th, 1966 (September 6th, if you were lucky enough to be Canadian). Star Wars premiered on May 25, 1977, fizzling out of some theaters completely before returning several weeks later on a wave of word-of-mouth positivity. Both franchises are clearly indebted to earlier properties. Star Wars famously began life as George Lucas's desire to do a Flash Gordon-esque space adventure after he lost out on directing the genuine article. Star Trek was preceded by space travel shows and even genre-themed social commentary series, but draws most of its inspiration from Horatio Hornblower novels and Gulliver's Travels (weirdly). Star Trek influenced Star Wars, full stop. George Lucas has said as much, although it was probably within earshot of Gene Roddenberry and its greatest influence may have been Lucas saying "Well, I don't want to do *that*." Star Wars, in turn, influenced Star Trek by making $220 million in its initial box office run (almost $900 million in 2020 bucks). Screw Star Trek: Phase II; Trek was going back to theaters with the entire original cast intact and it was going to be gritty this time! Colors would be drab, the technology more crunchy, two people would be melted by the friendly transporter. Star Trek: The Motion Picture would go on to make $139 million after spending 5 times the budget of Star Wars, which would effectively end Roddenberry's involvement with the franchise until the development of The Next Generation 8 years later. He'd still hang around but be mostly ignored as Trek cinema continued to chase Star Wars and its ever-increasing returns. It wasn't until 1986, when Star Wars had left the cinematic field, that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home would earn $133 million, 6 times its budget, proving definitively that a Star Trek film can be a runaway success as long as George Lucas is counting money instead of making movies. So who wins? Which is superior: Star Wars or Star Trek? Well, the show isn't called BackWarsing . . . you figure it out.
On this episode, we talk about the Star Wars and Star Trek and what defines them, the surprising artistry of the original trilogy, the perfect casting of Star Wars, the series's light-touch spirituality, the magnetic momentum of the narrative, how TMP served as a template for future Trek films, the breathtaking mise-en-scene of V'ger, the film's theme of self-examination, and staying close to your roots. We also discuss the bone-headed changes of the Special Editions, whether or not we live on a TOS planet-of-the-week, how George Lucas is the biggest Star Wars fan, having too many chores to Antifa, laser sword-fighting a space wizard, editing Wookiepedia, vibe check on Vader, googling "the motion picture", turning Spock off and on again, neck pinch acting, V'ger's info was boring, and the etiquette of starship interaction.
Who's behind this Maclunkey?
Get Star Wars and Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Blu-ray!
https://amzn.to/3cUod4C
https://amzn.to/2yc39bc
Join us in the Just Enough Trope Discord!
https://discord.gg/EAx5VGX
Tweet at the show or your hosts with your suggestions for future episodes!
http://www.twitter.com/backtrekking
http://www.twitter.com/ka1iban
http://www.twitter.com/gooeyfame
Check out the other shows on the Just Enough Trope network!
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
Theme: Disco Medusae Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Information
| Author | justenoughtrope |
| Website | - |
| Tags |
Copyright 2024 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company
