Empire or Federation: Where would you rather live?

Because I’m a geek, and because I have plenty of time, I’ve been thinking lately about Star Trek and Star Wars. Comparing and contrasting, listing pros and cons, entertaining questions for which I’ve never had satisfactory answers, etc. I’m a fan of both franchises (how I hate that term!), and, in my idle moments of Walter Mitty-like fantasizing, project myself into their respective universes. While I’m (mentally) there, these are some of the things that occur to me…

In Star Trek*, you never see any private or commercial space traffic. How come? Is that by design, or merely a practical consideration of Trek’s limited budgeting? Alien ships aside, Starfleet appears to be the only authorized human venue for space travel. Which would be kind of like, in our present day, having only Navy ships at sea; no freighters, no yachts, no tankers, no runabouts — only armed-to-the-teeth warships, even for the most benign exploratory or scientific purposes. And, I guess, only Air Force planes in the sky. Hey, that would be like living in a military dictatorship!

Star Wars, on the other hand, is positively loaded with all kinds of spacecraft, some of dubious purpose — The Millennium Falcon, as a perfect example. If the Empire is so evil, so oppressive, why does it allow almost unfettered access to seemingly anywhere in the galaxy, and to seemingly anyone? For what looks to be a military dictatorship, the Empire is pretty liberal on civil liberties! Especially with an active rebellion going on…

Getting back to Gene Roddenberry’s creation, we’re told explicitly (by Captain Jean-Luc Picard,) that 24th century human civilization “has no need for money.” Which is a nice thought, sure. That opens the way for human endeavor to be about something more than mere survival, or the greedy acquisition of even greater riches. Everybody’s taken care of… Which is just dandy for Starfleet officers, who can devote their lives to going where no one has gone before. But who cleans the bathrooms on the Enterprise? Metaphorically speaking, of course. What’s the reward for doing the really crappy jobs that, for whatever reason, require a human touch? Or the really hard, dangerous jobs, like, oh, let’s say… construction of the Enterprise? The trailer for J. J. Abrams’ upcoming STAR TREK film shows exactly that: welders and crane operators working on building the dome of the fabled starship. Do those guys go home to the same creature comforts that high-ranking Starfleet or Federation personnel do? What about the poor “redshirt” bastards whose job it is to get killed on an away-team mission? What’s in it for them, or their families? In Nicholas Meyer’s STAR TREK II : THE WRATH OF KHAN, we see a short scene set in Admiral Kirk’s San Francisco apartment. Apartment?? That’s all a Starfleet admiral gets to live in? Just a freakin’ apartment? What’s a Galactic hero gotta do to get himself a house around here? 80 years later, we see Robert Picard’s beautiful vineyard and winery, so how does he rate a nice chunk of property?

Meanwhile, over in George Lucas’ Star Wars universe, everybody’s gotta make a living. Some are scrabbling at it, like Owen Lars or Watto, and some are doing quite nicely, like Jabba the Hut or Lando Calrissian. Institutionalized slavery is even factored in to the economy! But my point is, there’s an economy. Han Solo requires payment — quite a bit of it! — to ferry Luke and Ben to where they want to go. He’s got bills to pay. (And his bills are nothing compared to the economic and trade issues that open up Episode I, and ultimately lead to the consolidation of the Empire.) Again, it’s funny that this oppressive Galactic Empire should have such an apparently loosey-goosey economic policy; it’s like if all of China were like Hong Kong, they’d be a more capitalistic society and even our American one.

From a couple of observations like these, it might appear that it’d be better — or at least more fun! — to live under Star Wars’ Galactic Empire, than it would be under Star Trek’s (seemingly more benign) United Federation of Planets.

Except for those stupid goddam Jedi. Those clueless, blind, master-race-spouting, mutant theologians… they couldn’t even detect, much less prevent, their best and brightest falling into the dark side. The one guy, that they pretty much recognized as being the fulfillment of the prophecy, who instead became the greatest mass murderer in all of history. Maybe the take-away lesson is that any sort of theocracy, even a benign and new-agey one, ultimately produces a Darth Vader. Where there are Jedi, you will, eventually, always get Sith Lords. And that, dear friends, takes a whole lot of the fun out of Lucas’ fantasy playland. Life under the rule of gods and monsters is distinctly unappealing…

At least the vaguely militarized bureaucrats who make up Trek’s Starfleet Command (who, let’s face it, pretty much run the whole show,) are mortal beings. If, eventually, they go from benign to malignant, there’s always the possibility of uprising, revolution, and removal. Equilibrium for all the races can be restored, under a new and better form of government. (Until that one turns to shit.) Hey, maybe they’d even allow private ownership of spaceships! Now, that would be a fun place to live…

* In using the terms “Star Trek” and “Star Wars,” I’m referring to their respective fantasy universes, as shown in all incarnations of each, i.e. all movies, TV episodes, novelizations, etc., not the (respective) TV show and movie that went by those specific titles.