When will the conflict end?
There are two varieties of Stars in the stereotypical Geek and Nerd community. Outside of Astronomy Nerds, there’s two kinds of Star, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
Now this is a battle that has been raging for years, but we can determine two things:
Star Wars is a series of movies, and Star Trek is a TV franchise. Thus we know they are two different mediums.
Star Wars is an epic, Star Trek is a series of science fiction stories that form a coherent whole. However! This does not resolve the debate about which is better.
The truth of the matter is that there is no absolute truth, with so many different Geeks and Nerds in the world each have their different preferences. We should count ourselves fortunate that no civil wars have been fought over the issue of Star Wars Vs. Star Trek. But because we know no civil wars have been fought over the issue, it tells us something about the nature of Star Wars and Star Trek Geeks and Nerds, we know from this that for all the cool weapons in both Star Wars and Star Trek, they are not a war-like bunch, and from what I’ve experienced, playing with toy lightsabers as a child with my twin brother, the play-fighting between Geeks and Nerds in these fandoms is not meant to be taken seriously.
It’s all a matter of opinion really. I like both either way.
A slight possible correction: Star Trek also features its own series of movies, a very large one in fact. Remember that the original series has 6 movies alone, and the Next Generation has 4, not to mention the new “reboot” one coming out in May 2009. I realize you were referring to the connotation that many have in their minds of Star Trek being TV-based and Star Wars being movie-bound, but let the masses be taught then! =)
I absolutely love Star Wars AND Star Trek, like yourself, but I find now that Star Wars was more entertaining to me as a kid, but now Star Trek is my current fancy (not a huge fan of the original series or Enterprise, but I love all the rest).
I do not really like the three newer Star Wars movies… they have their merits, but they kind of missed the feel of the originals. Not all of the Star Trek movies are great either, but there sure are a lot of them, and all are worth a watch.
So which is better? Well, I suppose they’re just both awesome… they each define nerd-dom in their special way, and to tell the truth, I imagine “true nerds” love ’em each just the same!