Could a movie or series ever spike Star Trek comics like Star Wars? 1 1

[Qalyar]

There are actually positive things to say about parts of the prequel trilogy. The "Machete Order" (watching the films: 4 - 5 - 2 - 3 - 6) helps a lot. It makes the prequels into an extended flashback immediately after Luke learns about his father. The flashback ends with Anakin's descent into darkness, and then we return to the "present day" with the start of 6, where Luke, dressed in black robes, force chokes a Gamorrean guard, and you have to wonder if we're seeing him make the same descent. That viewing order also skips 1, which it turns out is almost completely skippable. Almost nothing that happens in 1 is revisited in 2 or 3, and even less is such without having events re-explained. You lose the worst of Jar-Jar's excesses, and you lose the offensive Jewish stereotype that is Watto completely. It's a win all around.

This works because the tone and overall direction of the prequels was changed starkly after 1. Which is why the sequel trilogy is mostly kind of mediocre-to-bad. 7 is not a great film, but it's not a terrible film, either. But it underperformed the (impossible) expectations. As a result (and for other reasons, some of which weren't in the studio plan), 8 is a huge change in direction. Unfortunately, it was a change for the worse; 8 is arguably the worst film in the series. But unlike 1, where you can more or less just forget it's there, you can't cut the middle out of a trilogy. But 9 tried; going out of its way to undo as many of the primary plot directions that 8 did as it possibly could. The result is a muddled, muddy mess.

What does this have to do with Star Wars vs. Star Trek? It's easy to see that Star Wars suffers when it tries to pivot its mood and direction. Star Trek does that all the time. Just look at the original run of films: between III and VI, no two consecutive films have even remotely similar mood and style. Search for Spock is a slow-paced largely cerebral film, Voyage Home is a period comedy, Final Frontier is a trash fire, Undiscovered Country is a (well-crafted) mystery/suspense film. And so forth. The Kelvin Timeline is the biggest departure yet, effectively retooling what was previously billed as sort of the thinking man's science fiction franchise into action-adventure tentpoles that are more or less "The Fast the Furious in Space". Also, in part, Star Wars succeeds as a franchise because has generally appeared in smaller doses, and had fewer opportunities to really screw up. There are, as of now, 11 Star Wars films (counting the excellent Rogue One and the largely forgettable Solo but not the holiday special that no one seriously considers), plus five television series (Droids and Ewoks -- which is safely forgotten, The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, The Mandalorian). There are 13 Star Trek films, plus nine major television series (TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks). On the Star Wars side, there's been a lot of great TV in the recent past (Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian are all excellent), even though the films have been mostly poor. Star Trek, on the other hand, squandered great ideas with Voyayer and Enterprise, put out a film so bad (Nemesis) that it ended the franchise, and then had to reboot itself with a stylistic reset to get going again.

People know, or at least think they know, what they are getting from Star Wars media. Star Trek has always been more of a vague outline that stories get inserted into. And I think that's a big part of what has kept Star Wars material's value so much higher than Star Trek's. And allowed the 'Wars franchise to shrug off the failures of its big screen efforts. I'm curious to see whether all of this holds. Disney+ has lined up a staggering future list of Star Wars franchise products. The Bad Batch, The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Acolyte, Ahsoka, Lando, Rangers of the New Republic. If those keep up the Mandalorian's quality, it'll cover for the sequel trilogy's relative failure (and, comic-side, expect things like Star Wars: The Clone Wars #1 to hit even stupider prices). If they drop the ball, and people start to think that "Star Wars" might not always be material worth watching? Well... that might be a different story.

I think the best of Star Trek easily competes with the best of Star Wars. But to catch up, in both accessory value and overall public interest, Star Trek would need to be serious about keeping a consistent tone and putting out consistently quality product. And there's just no real indication that Paramount is into such things.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Qalyar

[Ken Aldred]

I consider myself to be quite out of touch with Star Wars.

Perhaps the younger fans, readers and collectors are much more familiar with the Extended Universe in novels, animated series and comics, not just the films, and that makes a big difference.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Ken Aldred