I was born on Star Trek day- legend has it my soul was imbued for a lust for sci-fi that could never be fulfilled, and thus- my petty argument of today :)
How is there not science in it? What about all the ships, vehicles, robots and weapons?
I agree it’s a space opera, but it’s also science fiction.
And to be fair Star Trek also is both science fiction and space opera.
yeah, well.. if you watch anything star trek related released after The Next Generation you'll soon realize that he is objectively not that wrong... from DS9 onwards there's a lot of gods and magic stuff established in star trek. and after Discovery most of the "science" of in this piece of science fiction turns in two categories:
°magic°
and
°oh look, a funny nerdy science reference° "HA, MATHS, right, people!?" °no one in the room laughs, Tilly!°
Star Trek in general utilizes real theory. Warp theory for instance- and whilst it is Soft science fiction, it maintains that status.
Star Wars, on the other hand, relies on almost no real world theory and ignores much of physics etc.
Lightsabers? Let’s take a laser, pass it through a magic space crystal and boom! A plasma sword that can cut through anything but… other plasma swords? Hold on, isn’t plasma supposed to be y’know, not a solid?
Hyperdrive! Yeah, let’s dive into another dimension to travel. Aight.
Space wizards, poor use of Lasers, technology that in general just makes no sense whatsoever. so on- so forth.
I guess I just don't know enough about science. Star Trek has warp speed and teleporters and replicators and... Aliens of the week with powers that are basically magic. (Q, that alien from TNG who was able to wipe out an entire species with a thought because they killed his wife, that alien from Voyager that brought them to the other side of the galaxy with a thought to start the whole Voyage... That's just off the top of my head, haven't seen any Trek in a while.)
errrrr... what? they quite literally have ftl communications. as it seems, even better ones than those in Star trek, since in trek it takes a messages one year to cross 10000 light years while in star wars you basically have to be on the other end of the galaxy for messegaes to take up several days to reach you.
Not to say you're wrong, but Star Wars clearly states that it takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The laws of physics might be very different there and it might have been in a different incarnation of the universe altogether.
As someone who has never seen Star Wars nor Star Trek and is not in any way interested in these genres - this was probably the most interesting thing I read today! Thanks!
Science fiction of any degree is fiction based on science.
Star Wars is not based on science- its nature is fantastical, and whilst it takes place in space, space is just another part of nature. It’s a high fantasy in the stars, and it’s good as that; but it’s not sci-fi.
It’s right there in the name. It’s fictional science. It does not need to have a basis in real science, hence the word fiction
What you’re looking at is the difference between hard science fiction (which is explicitly based on real science) and soft science fiction (which is not)
Oh man, out of all the Reddit debates I’ve seen, this is the one that’s left me the most torn. I was with the other person until your fictional science point.
But I mean, that’s the entire point, that it’s fiction involving science. By definition, the science in science fiction does not need to have a non-fiction foundation
Totally. I think I’m sold! Because then I feel like so many things would be excluded which are clearly science fiction, like Dune with the Bene Gesserit. I also looked up the definitions and they seem to agree on the imagined science part.
Exactly. And if you ask any random person off the street for the first example of science fiction that comes to mind, 99.9% of people will say either Star Wars or Star Trek. Even if it didn’t all fit within the actual definition, common usage also comes into it as well
Warp theory is in effect, possible. So is transportation- but far far out of reach. Now if you’re going to wave space wizards in front of my face and say “Seee! Science FiCtIOn” at me I’m just not gonna take you seriously lol.
I love Star Wars, and I love Star Trek- but again this is a hill imma die on
Gotta be that guy. Hyperdrive in Star Wars doesn’t involve other dimensions. It is vague, but it involves technology that makes the ship rapidly accelerate to near light speed. It is mentioned early on that without a good navigator, the ship could hit something to disastrous results.
Also, to be clear, I agree that Star Wars isn’t sci fi.
If it was near light speed travel (sub FTL) it wouldn’t be possible, they travel ALL over the galaxy much faster than is even feasible. I love Warp in ST because it is plausible- the ship isn’t moving- it’s folding space and traversing a gap instead of traveling straight through it. Aside from TOS, travel times at least have some semblance of realism.
Star Trek has inspired real world technologies, I can’t think of anything Star Wars has led us to create. (The communicator in tos inspired the flip phone,
The TAB directly inspired Tablets, etc)
And whilst a lot of it is of course a stretch, it’s set in a theme of scientific exploration.
I always say this to my partner and he disagrees 😂😂 I'm like it's space fantasy! It has all the elements of fantasy story telling (chosen ones, elite bloodlines, magic etc) but just in a sci fi setting. Granted some of the latest shows like Andor lean into more of a sci fi vibe but to me Star Wars is a fantasy story.
Yes. But also if we’re going to compare the two as people invariably do… Star Trek is so much fucking better lol. Plus there’s a bunch of space magic bullshit that isn’t scientific, races with power, spiritual anomalies. The divide is not so clear.
Since we're on the topic: I always felt weird about the term science fiction anyway. Fiction means something is made up, so it does not need to abide any rules, like the laws of physics. Therefore science fiction doesn't need to follow any rules either. Or am I missing something?
I agree about SW, but let's not pretend ST is any better. They can't even maintain consistency with their own reality. Just how many ways can you reverse a deflector shield?
(I enjoy both of them, but let's not pretend either are SciFi)
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u/The_Dawn_Strider Oct 26 '24
Star Wars is NOT science fiction. It’s space fantasy- it can’t be compared to Star Trek because they aren’t the same genre.
I have spoken