Can’t nerds all just get along? I guess not, when it comes to the age old ‘Trek’ vs. ‘Wars’ rivalry. Not only do the fans remain divided, but even the stars of the franchises have been known to fire shots at one another. Now the original Captain Kirk, William Shatner, never one to play nice, has picked up his sass phaser and taken aim at ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ The movie that doesn’t come out for another month and has already become a pop culture juggernaut.
Shatner took to space… well, cyberspace to hand in his two cents regarding the highly anticipated new sequel.
Via Twitter, the first shot he fired compared the orange flight suits worn by Rebel– wait, are they still Rebels? Didn’t they win and assume control? Er anyway– pilots. Shatner showed a picture of one ‘Star Wars’ pilot (I believe it’s Poe Dameron) next to a bulky, but not dissimilar suit from low-budget 70s TV show ‘Space: 1999’:
Check out SW vs Space 1999 pic.twitter.com/PymvpbzRJi
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 20, 2015
Sure, there’s some similarity, but it’s unlikely that Lucas drew inspiration from the BBC series. A lot of stuff was orange in the 70s. It was an ugly, ugly time. After ‘Star Wars’ became a groundbreaking phenomenon, it inspired knock-offs galore, on the big screen as well as on TV. One of these wannabes was the cult TV classic ‘Battlestar Galactica‘. Perhaps the coolest part of the show was the design of the villainous storm troopers the Cylons. Shatner can’t help but notice the similarity between the look of these chrome-plated baddies and at least one from ‘The Force Awakens’, Captain Phasma. Check out his next tweet below:
And SWs versus BSG pic.twitter.com/CVmRqnECg0
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 20, 2015
Mmmm. That one is a bit more of a stretch. I guess the helmets have a similar shape, but that’s about where the similarities end.
Shatner then delivered a final catty swipe:
Those that can; do Star Trek. Those that can’t; do SWs https://t.co/6UqpNBgtwo
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 20, 2015
Shatner really has no horse in the race. It isn’t as if he is still invested in ‘Trek’ and the next movie in that series doesn’t come out until next summer, well between this December’s ‘The Force Awakens’ and next winter’s ‘Rogue One’. It’s not as if the two franchise are going head-to-head. It sounds like just pot shots for the sake of it. Sour grapes? As big as a institution as ‘Star Trek’ is, it’s never inspired the rampant fandemonium that ‘Wars’ currently has. Some have referred Shatner’s jabs as “trolling” fans and that may very well be true. The candid Shatner seems to love kicking up a Shat Storm.
What do you think? Are Shatner’s barbs on point? Or is he just jealous of the impact ‘The Force Awakens’ is awakening with fans?
Source: Cinema Blend