William Shatner: Star Wars created Star Trek. You know that?

William Shatner saying that Star Wars created Star Trek has the science fiction world in an uproar, but if you put the quote in context it makes sense.

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William Shatner made a statement at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention that thanks to the media has sent shock-waves through the science fiction world. What Shatner said however isn’t nearly as controversial as it seems if you put it in context.

"“Star Wars created Star Trek. You know that?”"

On the surface that quote looks like it’s going to lead to another round of Star Wars vs Star Trek battle, but let’s look at everything he said…

"“At Paramount Studios, they were running around bumping into each other. ‘What do we got?! What do we got to equal Star Wars? There was this thing that we canceled, under another management, it was called Star Trek? Let’s resurrect that!”"

So is William talking about all Star Trek or Star Trek: The Motion Picture? It’s pretty clear that he means the movie. There’s no denying that the success of Star Wars helped science fiction see a renaissance in the early 1980’s. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that.

Star Wars of course also benefited from the conventions and style of fandom that Star Trek had first inspired with its original run in the 1960’s.

So in the end both of these franchises have benefited from the existence of the other. It’s so silly that Star Wars vs Star Trek has become a competition of some sort, in the end we are all nerds.

Besides Star Trek is clearly superior to Star Wars and here are four simple reasons…

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