In Which I Attempt To Incite A Nerd Riot

One of the more common, and depressing, things people argue about on the internet is whether Star Trek is superior to Star Wars, and vice versa.  This is so often the subject of nerd-rage that Wikipedia has an article on the topic (though sadly, the talk page is mostly devoid of rage.  If you ever need to see meaningless pedantry in action, though...).  Usually, so far as I've seen, it focuses more on "Who could blow up whose ship?" and less on "Would I really want to live there?"  The sad truth is, when you look at it that way, there's a clear answer.

The Star Wars universe is one of endless possibility.  You want a wild planet filled with witches who ride giant monsters?¹ Sure!  How about a cyberpunkish cityscape?  Got that!  Technocrats?  Yep.  Cocky smugglers?  Oh yeah.  Basically, the Extended Universe has gotten large and absurd enough that anything you can imagine is probably canonical at this point.  It's hard to deny the appeal of Darth Vader, the Force, and lightsabers (just don't mention the midichlorians).  However, the downside of all this is that you will die.  Seriously.  Do you have any idea how often in the Extended Universe there are "Rocks and/or aliens fall, the entire planet dies" scenarios?  A billion deaths here, a trillion deaths there, pretty soon you're talking serious misfortune.  Grand Moff Tarkin using the Death Star to obliterate Alderaan was freaking child's play compared to the Yuuzhan Vong.  Odds are, you're not going to be a badass Jedi, you're going to be the poor sap murdered in a bar for looking at someone wrong and nobody will ever care, even when your body turns up in the local cafeteria's steam table.  Let's also remember this is the universe where slavery is reasonably common, local squalor is really squalid, and organized crime gangs don't just run parts of Mexico, they run the whole freaking planet.  It's like when the RenFaire nutballs generally forget that the laws of probability dictate that they're not going to be riding in on their mighty steed and saving the pretty princesses, but instead will be farming mud and plague and being nailed to a pole if they ever poke their heads up.

On the other hand, Star Trek's universe basically is a bunch of hyper-advanced species who all generally live decent lives.  The starting premise of the humans is that everyone got together and has a benevolent technocratic government ruling peacefully and giving everyone a fantastic standard of living.  Whee.  I could deal with that.  Hunger and illnesses are minimized or cured, there really doesn't appear to be nearly the seedy underbelly of society that exists in the galaxy far, far away, and even if you do end up dying horribly in one of the occasional devastating wars that wracks the universe, odds are that a series reboot or a time recursion or alternate universe handwave will make it all better.  Sure, things might be marginally less exciting² and you might have slightly fewer options to do whatever the hell you want and get away with it, but I think that's a fair trade for stability, safety, and living well.  I'd rather be on a five-year mission in a top-of-the-line, science-and-kickassery-ready vessel that has all kinds of creature comforts than be stapled into an armor suit that doesn't stop handgun fire and then die horribly when the ship I'm stationed on gets blown up by a bunch of plucky rebel terrorists scum, all the while not having proper safety equipment like guardrails or shielded exhaust ports.

To sum up, let's compare a few things here.  Who wins?

1. Badass starships.
• Gonna have to go with Star Wars here.  Trek gets points for effort.
2.  Utterly annoying aliens.
•  Um.  Call it a draw.
3. That one character everyone wants to be when they grow up.
• This one is another tie.
4. Hugely detailed backstory.
• Star Wars, far and away.
5. Would I ever want to live there?
• Absolutely Star Trek.  Space socialism wins the day.

1 I am ashamed to admit I knew the name of this planet off the top of my head.^↩

2 All I'm saying is that if this is significant enough to earn a page on your fanbase wiki (shut up, I know about the movie, that was just one thing and it has its own page, my point still stands), your universe might be a bit lacking in zest.^↩