William Shatner: 'Star Trek' owes a big thanks to 'Star Wars'
The war over which series is superior -- Star Trek or Star Wars -- is older than the internet itself, but Lucasfilm's stories from a galaxy far, far away just found an unlikely ally: William Shatner.
He dropped the truth bomb on attendees in typically dramatic fashion during his talk at the 15th annual official Star Trek convention in Las Vegas on Saturday.
"First of all," the Captain Kirk actor began (via CNN), "Star Wars created Star Trek. You know that?"
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Star Trek actually came first chronologically, with the TV series that Shatner starred in having aired from 1966 to 1969. But inconvenient timeslots and a small -- if passionate -- audience led to its eventual cancellation.
Shatner's point is that Star Trek's later return -- the film series kicked off in 1979 -- was made possible by Star Wars. The George Lucas space fantasy grossed more than $500 million worldwide in its first year.
As Shatner told the crowd, "At Paramount Studios they were running around bumping into each other: 'What do we got?! What do we got to equal Star Wars? This is a big thing!"
"There was this thing that we canceled, under another management, it was called Star ... Trek? Let's resurrect that!"
Star Trek: The Motion Picture didn't fare nearly as well when it was released two years after Star Wars: A New Hope. But space adventures were in the public consciousness by then, and more Trek followed -- on TV and at the movies.
"It was Star Wars that thrust Star Trek into the people of Paramount's consciousness," Shatner said.
In truth, this is something most longtime fans already recognize. It's not a "better" or "worse" value judgment to say the success of one thing helped to revive another, at-the-time-less-popular thing that was vaguely similar.
It's just jarring to hear this kind of talk coming from Shatner, one of the most widely recognized Trek faces out there. He concluded his point with a description -- that fans on both sides of the debate know well -- of what sets the two universes apart.
"Star Trek at its best tells human stories. It's philosophical. There's humanity. There's a principle involved. And it's well done. It's about people," Shatner said.
"Star Wars was grand, like opera. It was huge with great special effects. It was a marvelously entertaining film, but it wasn't specifically about people the way those Star Treks were."
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
