Star Wars is like the defining fantasy space opera. Star Trek is peak episodic sci fi. The fact that such wildly different genres can fall under sci fi is part of what makes the genre both fascinating and nonsense as a categorization. And that’s not even bringing space westerns into the fold.
As a fan of both, neither are truly Sci-fi. They both use it as dressing, but one is an action fantasy and the other is drama with emphasis on social commentary. Neither are really harder sci-fi than the other in the grand scheme of fiction. Star Wars may even be a bit better in that at least they don’t try to explain most of the tech so it can’t self contradict as much as Trek does.
![[SWSW] The Star Wars Trek, or the Star Trek Wars?](https://i.imgflip.com/7zs8d8.jpg){kind=link}
Star Wars is like the defining fantasy space opera. Star Trek is peak episodic sci fi. The fact that such wildly different genres can fall under sci fi is part of what makes the genre both fascinating and nonsense as a categorization. And that’s not even bringing space westerns into the fold.
As a fan of both, neither are truly Sci-fi. They both use it as dressing, but one is an action fantasy and the other is drama with emphasis on social commentary. Neither are really harder sci-fi than the other in the grand scheme of fiction. Star Wars may even be a bit better in that at least they don’t try to explain most of the tech so it can’t self contradict as much as Trek does.
So is Arthur C. Clarke sci fi? Is Asimov?