William Shatner Says "Star Wars Created Star Trek"

"First of all, Star Wars created Star Trek. You know that?"

Some people like George Takei want to bring Trekkers and Star Wars fans together, whlie others like William Shatner just wants to disrupt the peace between two of the largest sci-fi fandoms. Last year, Shatner took it to Twitter to diss Star Wars: The Force Awakens and accusing the franchise for copying ideas from Star Trek.

Shatner's at it again! At Shatner's talk at last week's Star Trek's convention in Las Vegas, thousands of fans listened and grasped in disbelief at Shatner's comments about Star Trek's success to the sci-fi classic, Star Wars. If the Star Trek legend meant what he said on a factual basis, it was factually inaccurate since Star Trek aired from 1966 to 1969 on television, while the first Star Wars film was released in movie theaters in 1977. So how did Shatner justify his claim at the convenntion?

"The blockbuster success of George Lucas's "Star Wars" film brought "Star Trek" back to life. Every year there was the threat to be canceled. The third year, we canceled and, everybody acccepted it. But then "Star Wars: A New Hope" made a mind-blowing $775 million at the box office. 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!"

So in Shatner's mind, how did Star Wars revive the Star Trek frachise?

"

It was 'Star Wars' that thrust 'Star Trek' into the people of Paramount's consciousness

"

You can consider that a valid assessment since it's fair to say that there was a rejuvenation of

Star Trek

saga post-1977. There were 624 episodes and 13 Holllywood films that spawned over the coming decades, and

Star Trek

definitely remains a massive force in the Hollywood box office today, as exhibited with the ercent release of

Star Trek Beyond

, which has grossed over $200 million worldwide. There's also a new Star Trek TV series, titled Discovery, coming to CBS next year.

However, a lot of fans wll probably disagree with Shatner's final comment:

"

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. "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 the people the way those Star Trek movies were.

"

While

Star Trek

may delve into more philosophical issues, but I think it's unfair to say that

Star Wars

fail to tell great 'human' stories. Shatner may have missed the point of

Star Wars

films. With all the grand spectacle and visual effects that fans love, it's easy to overlook at the human connections to characters on screen.

So what do you think about Shatner's comments? Do you agree or disagree?

Source:

CNN Money