George Lucas on how Star Trek helped Star Wars
In a new documentary, George Lucas recalls the important part Star Trek had to play in getting Star Wars moving...
There’s an interesting sounding new documentary coming, by the name of Trek Nation. In the documentary, Rod Roddenberry embarks on a personal journey to uncover the impact and importance of his father’s work. His father, you might have guessed, just happened to be Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek.
One of the interviewees in the documentary is George Lucas, and some of what he has to say in the movie has popped up in a clip over at Hero Complex. Given that there was a period where it felt like Star Wars and Star Trek fans were at some kind of loggerheads, Lucas nonetheless argues that Star Trek proved vitally important to Star Wars.
“Star Trek softened up the entertainment arena so that Star Wars could come along and stand on its shoulders”, he argued. “There was an effective group of people in the beginning who accepted it, that it wasn’t that far out”.
He continued, adding that “for the studios, it was way far out… but there was a fanbase out there, primarily the Star Trek fanbase, who understood sci-fi, understood visual sci-fi, and was ready for something like [Star Wars] to be in the feature arena”.
Trek Nation is released on DVD in the US next week. We’re keen to check it out, and will report back when we have…
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Editor, author, writer, broadcaster, Costner fanatic. Now runs Film Stories Magazine.