With JJ Abrams and Bad Robot now involved in both Star Trek and Star Wars, I was recently revisiting the idea of the possibility of a merger of or cross-over between the 2 universes. And I mean more than just having the same director (JJ Abrams) and production studio (Bad Robot), which would tend to make some stylistic choices the same. I mean an actually in-universes cross-over or merger.
My first thought was how could they ever cross-over between Star Wars (SW) and Star Trek (ST) story lines? Star Wars happen in a galaxy far, far away [with no way to travel to ours, even with the really fast ships of the SW universe] and a long, long time ago [so no way any of the characters from the SW universe would still be alive in ST future time]. Plus, the "rules" about how the SW/science fantasy universe works is very different than the ST/sci-fi universe.
But, upon a little further reflection, this is sci-fi/fantasy after all, I guess a cross-over could happen.
One option is to totally ignore some established stuff, i.e., ret-con some stuff. Like ignoring the "long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" in order to allow the SW and ST universes to exist much closer to each other and in near-same timestream so that crossovers can occur.
Or you could just make a "bridge" between the universes. Like discovering a wormhole that just happens to bridge the two different galaxies AND two different times. Meaning characters will be traveling in time going between the two galaxies. How do you deal with Temporal Prime Directive issues?
However you work the mechanics of bringing the two universes together, some obvious stuff will have to be addressed.
How is it that the Force [and Force-sensitive people] exist in SW and not ST? Maybe it's something that is just not understood by most people in ST universe, but does actually exist. Probably, there would have to be some ST treknobabble explanation, that will probably have to draw on midichlorians. And that might lead to the use of the Force actually becoming more commonplace. After all, in the ST universe wouldn't it just be a combination of telekinetics and telepathy and mind control and clairvoyance? Except for clairvoyance, all of these have been done in ST, but in such a way that they are far more mundane and less “cool” than the SW version. And as for clairvoyance; does ST actually want to go there and say that that is possible in the ST universe? I think not; that's an element of SW that I think ST never wants to touch. It's too mystical; too much science fantasy and not enough science fiction.
How do the droids of SW fit into the tech of ST? Would we have to deal with questions of rights for AIs? SW has always avoided those issues, pretty much just treating their droids as tools and slaves. But ST has at least started to acknowledge the individual rights of AIs like Data. [Although, I might love to see a story where Data and the Doctor help R2D2 gain his rights as a free individual.]
Similar issues come up when you consider how clones are apparently treated as slaves in SW, whereas ST has clearly acknowledged them as people with independent rights.
ST weapons/shields are way more powerful than SW equivalents. That's bound to have some effect on the SW universe. SW battle fleets will shift away from fighting with fighter craft and very large carrier craft to battles between just single, smaller, more capable capital ships like ST does.
SW hyperdrive is way faster than ST warp speed or even ST slipstream. That's bound to have some effect on the ST universe. That would make the ST universe incredibly small overnight. No more exploring the "final frontier"; every point in the galaxy will essentially be just next door to the Earth, reachable by just a few hours, at most, trip.
The human characters we relate to in the SW universe are nothing but humanoid aliens in the ST universe. Would that dynamic take away from the connection we feel with those characters when they start interacting with "real" humans from the ST universe?
So, SW will lose its cool fighter-craft-based space battles and ST will lose its sense of wild frontier exploration.
So, what would be the point?
Unless you merge the two universes, keeping the best of both by exploring different galaxies now (versus planets because they are too close) and keeping battles like ST style (because SW style doesn't make as much sense with weapons as powerful as ST weapons). But, again, what would be the real point? The story will be moving way further from Earth human-centered stories (ST's focus) and further from internal power struggles in a well-established political structure (SW's focus). Sounds like the worst of both worlds to me.
My first thought was how could they ever cross-over between Star Wars (SW) and Star Trek (ST) story lines? Star Wars happen in a galaxy far, far away [with no way to travel to ours, even with the really fast ships of the SW universe] and a long, long time ago [so no way any of the characters from the SW universe would still be alive in ST future time]. Plus, the "rules" about how the SW/science fantasy universe works is very different than the ST/sci-fi universe.
But, upon a little further reflection, this is sci-fi/fantasy after all, I guess a cross-over could happen.
One option is to totally ignore some established stuff, i.e., ret-con some stuff. Like ignoring the "long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" in order to allow the SW and ST universes to exist much closer to each other and in near-same timestream so that crossovers can occur.
Or you could just make a "bridge" between the universes. Like discovering a wormhole that just happens to bridge the two different galaxies AND two different times. Meaning characters will be traveling in time going between the two galaxies. How do you deal with Temporal Prime Directive issues?
However you work the mechanics of bringing the two universes together, some obvious stuff will have to be addressed.
How is it that the Force [and Force-sensitive people] exist in SW and not ST? Maybe it's something that is just not understood by most people in ST universe, but does actually exist. Probably, there would have to be some ST treknobabble explanation, that will probably have to draw on midichlorians. And that might lead to the use of the Force actually becoming more commonplace. After all, in the ST universe wouldn't it just be a combination of telekinetics and telepathy and mind control and clairvoyance? Except for clairvoyance, all of these have been done in ST, but in such a way that they are far more mundane and less “cool” than the SW version. And as for clairvoyance; does ST actually want to go there and say that that is possible in the ST universe? I think not; that's an element of SW that I think ST never wants to touch. It's too mystical; too much science fantasy and not enough science fiction.
How do the droids of SW fit into the tech of ST? Would we have to deal with questions of rights for AIs? SW has always avoided those issues, pretty much just treating their droids as tools and slaves. But ST has at least started to acknowledge the individual rights of AIs like Data. [Although, I might love to see a story where Data and the Doctor help R2D2 gain his rights as a free individual.]
Similar issues come up when you consider how clones are apparently treated as slaves in SW, whereas ST has clearly acknowledged them as people with independent rights.
ST weapons/shields are way more powerful than SW equivalents. That's bound to have some effect on the SW universe. SW battle fleets will shift away from fighting with fighter craft and very large carrier craft to battles between just single, smaller, more capable capital ships like ST does.
SW hyperdrive is way faster than ST warp speed or even ST slipstream. That's bound to have some effect on the ST universe. That would make the ST universe incredibly small overnight. No more exploring the "final frontier"; every point in the galaxy will essentially be just next door to the Earth, reachable by just a few hours, at most, trip.
The human characters we relate to in the SW universe are nothing but humanoid aliens in the ST universe. Would that dynamic take away from the connection we feel with those characters when they start interacting with "real" humans from the ST universe?
So, SW will lose its cool fighter-craft-based space battles and ST will lose its sense of wild frontier exploration.
So, what would be the point?
Unless you merge the two universes, keeping the best of both by exploring different galaxies now (versus planets because they are too close) and keeping battles like ST style (because SW style doesn't make as much sense with weapons as powerful as ST weapons). But, again, what would be the real point? The story will be moving way further from Earth human-centered stories (ST's focus) and further from internal power struggles in a well-established political structure (SW's focus). Sounds like the worst of both worlds to me.
