Perhaps the main difference between “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” lies in their respective approaches to technology. “Star Trek” mostly tried to explain how their fantastic technology works, giving ships and machines a tactile quality; a Trekkie can figure out how to operate an L-CARS computer panel or adjust the Enterprise’s shields. There’s a practical element to Trek technology. In “Star Wars”, a ship works because it works. While there may be many technical manuals and expanded in-universe knowledge that explains how a Star Destroyer works, it is more important as a parameter. A Deep Starwoid might be able to tell all about the qualities of kyber crystals, but none of that is as significant as the dramatic impact of seeing a space wizard wield a laser sword.
When it comes to real-world inspirations for “Star Wars,” Lucas was candid, saying he preferred a dramatic, historical, or literary approach. Technology was incidental. He even admitted to not being very attentive in school. Lucas said:
“I’m not really a math and science guy. I spent most of my time in school daydreaming and managed to make a career out of it. When I was doing ‘Star Wars’, I didn’t I was limited by any kind of science. I just said, “I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, that makes sense and feels like it has reality. And a lot of it comes from our literary history, our social history, like robots and so on. Some of it is based on mythological motifs, the politics is based on history. There’s a lot of cultural reality that’s not necessarily scientific but it’s more social.”
How characters relate matters more than how their landspeeders work.
