Ever since humanity first emerged across the vast grasslands of Africa we have gazed upwards
to the heavens and asked ourselves, “which is better, the Enterprise D or an Imperial
Class Star Destroyer”, “could the Galactic Empire take over the Federation” and “are
the Borg able to adapt to the Force?”
Put these questions to a hundred of the world’s greatest philosophers across history and you’ll
get a hundred different answers.
In truth, there are some things that mankind was perhaps never meant to know, and “which
is better, Star Trek or Star Wars” might be one of them.
But in this episode of Incoming, I’d like to discuss one aspect in which I believe Star
Trek is clearly superior to Star Wars and a lot of other alternate worlds as well.
Before you smash that dislike button, hear me out because I will bet that even the most
ardent supporter of the Galactic Empire is going to agree with me by the end of this.
Before I convince you all that Star Trek is superior, we’d like to thank the sponsor
of this episode: Skillshare.
If you’ve ever wanted to start working on your own alternate world, Skillshare has the
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Ok, so why is Star Trek better?
Does it have to do with something cool like weapons technology, or military strategy?
No, it all has to do with polarity in international relations.
Wait, wait, don’t go anywhere.
I recognize that probably sounds boring, but just stick with me here.
So first what is polarity in the context of international or interstellar civilization.
Well, if you imagine all the cultural, economic, industrial and military power in the world,
solar system, galaxy or whatever the case may be, polarity is how that power is distributed
between different nations.
Now there are three major ways in which this can happen.
The first is Unipolarity.
In a unipolar world, one single nation exercises a majority of cultural, economic and military
influence.
This nation might be described as a hyperpower with no significant rivals.
While other smaller states may exist, they don’t pose any realistic threat.
An example of this from our own world would be the United States of America immediately
following the collapse of the Soviet Union or maybe the Roman Empire at its height.
The second is Bipolarity.
In a bipolar system, power is concentrated in two, often rival states.
These two superpowers often develop spheres of influence, competing with one another to
gain support in neutral areas, while simultaneously engaging in proxy wars and political machinations
to destabilize their opponent.
An example would be the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The last system is Multipolarity.
In a multipolar world, numerous great powers possess nearly equal amounts of military,
cultural and economic influence.
This often leads to the rise of complex alliances, attempts to maintain a balance of power and
the risk of small conflicts escalating to full scale war.
An example from our own world would be the early 20th century, in which France, the United
Kingdom, Russia, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Ottoman Empire all competed
with one another across the global stage.
So where do some alternate worlds fit into all this?
For most of its history, the Star Wars Galaxy has existed in a unipolar state.
The Old Republic, Galactic Republic, and Galactic Empire all exerted near total control with
no significant rivals capable of matching them economically or militarily.
A brief exception occurred during the Clone Wars with the establishment of the Confederacy
of Independent Systems and while the situation between the New Republic and First Order is
rather murky at the moment, in general, the Star Wars Universe is a unipolar one.
The Halo Universe would be categorized as bipolar.
Both United Nations Space Command and the Covenant possessed enormous industrial and
military capabilities and while they were not completely equal technologically, each
side was able to sustain itself in a war lasting over 25 years.
It should be noted however that in victory, the UNSC has likely become a hyperpower in
its region of the galaxy and the Halo Universe is shifting towards unipolarity.
Star Trek by contrast exists in a perpetually multipolar state.
Over the centuries great powers have risen and fallen, but no single state has ever gained
complete superiority over the others.
The United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Cardassian Union,
the Dominion, and many others are perpetually competing with one another for power and influence.
Because all three of these systems have emerged across our own world, I won’t argue that
one is inherently more realistic than any other, but when it comes to which is the most
interesting, multipolar is the clear winner.
In my opinion, the more great powers that exist, the more compelling an alternate world
becomes.
There emerges greater opportunity for political maneuvering, shifting alliances, proxy wars,
regional power blocs, arms races and all sorts of things that just don’t exist or are far
less likely in the other two systems.
Let’s look back at Star Wars.
The Galactic Empire embarked on an enormous militarization campaign, building tens of
thousands of warships and enormous superweapons.
In its entire history however, it was bogged down in a guerrilla campaign against a rebellion
that could never hope to match its military power.
Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if the Alliance to Restore the Republic was being
financed by some other superpower, one the equal of the Galactic Empire?
Maybe one that was just as brutal as the Empire itself and manipulating the Alliance to destabilize
its major rival?
What if the entire Galactic Civil War was more akin to the Vietnam War or the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, a sideshow in a much greater ideological confrontation between
two superpowers.
Basically what I’m saying is wouldn’t it be cooler if both sides had enormous fleets
of warships and apocalyptic superweapons?
So while a bipolar system is an improvement over a unipolar system, there can still be
some problems.
My main issue with a bipolar universe is that it too inevitably winds up as a unipolar one,
there simply aren’t that many avenues to explore.
Either one side will win, or the other.
Once the Covenant were defeated there didn’t seem to be any major threat to the UNSC and
while opposing forces have since arisen, they seem to me at least to be pretty convoluted
and contrived.
The UNSC-Covenant war in my opinion also wasted a lot of the potential of a bipolar system.
What if both the UNSC and Covenant were trying to convince some other non-aligned nations
to join their cause?
Or what if some equally powerful nation was just waiting on the sidelines for its chance
to intervene and take out both its rivals in a single strike?
To be fair, the splintering of the Covenant into several competing smaller states addresses
some of my concerns, but the UNSC still seems to be unrivaled and the Halo universe has
gotten a little less interesting.
So that brings us to Star Trek, politically one of the most interesting alternate worlds
because it is continually evolving and never stagnant.
The United Federation of Planets emerged from a coalition of smaller regional powers becoming,
in an instant, a major player in interstellar politics.
Its rise alarmed both the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire who attempted to destabilize
it through war and espionage and eventually entered into a sort of anti-federation alliance.
The collapse of that alliance had the Romulans retreat into isolation and the Klingons embark
on an ever escalating cold and occasionally hot war against Starfleet.
Their prolonged military buildup ruined the Klingon economy emboldening the Romulans and
forcing the Klingons to eventually sign a new alliance with their once hated enemies,
the Federation.
The Federation found itself overstretched and unable to deal with a proxy war funded
by the Cardassians while simultaneously defending their borders against a resurgent Romulan
presence and sporadic attacks by the Borg.
This already unstable web of interstellar politics was upended entirely with the arrival
of the Dominion with former enemies becoming allies, and allies becoming enemies.
Even before the end of the Dominion War, certain elements in the Federation were already preparing
for the next major conflict.
That Star Trek galaxy is continually evolving, it is not defined by a single conflict and
there is no end to its story.
My point is that the more complex a political system, the more opportunities for interesting
stories.
I don’t know if the USS Enterprise is better than a Star Destroyer, but in terms of galactic
politics, Star Trek is way better than Star Wars, Halo, and so many other alternate worlds.
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So even though I've certainly convinced you that Star Trek is superior to Star Wars, at
least when it comes to politics, that is just my opinion.
An infallible rock of absolute truth standing firm in an ocean of uncertainty.
If you disagree though, we’d still like to hear from you.
What are some other great examples of a multipolar universe?
Is Star Wars just as politically interesting as Star Trek?
Does Halo have an interesting future ahead of it?
Should I have mentioned that other Star Wars timeline where all my arguments don’t apply?
Let us know in the comments.
Until next time, this has been Incoming.
The Templin Institute investigates alternate worlds and realities.
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