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"So J.J. Abrams, director of the rebooted Star Trek series, has officially been tapped by Disney to direct the next movie in the ever-expanding Star Wars saga. And by the tone of the tweets floating around the ether Thursday night, you'd be forgiven for thinking a Protestant had just been elected Pope. \nStar Trek and Star Wars have some major built-in sectarian differences, which aren't immediately apparent to outsiders. One is science fiction, the other science fantasy. One is resolutely humanist, the other revolves around a mystical religion. One is set centuries into Earth's future, the other who-know-how-long ago in the past of a whole other galaxy. One began on TV and got canceled after 3 seasons, forcing its creator to beg for financing; the other hit the big screen like an atom bomb, and when its creator attempted to abandon it after 3 movies, the fans wouldn't hear of it.\nSo it's not surprising that Trekkers (as they prefer to be known) tend to nurse a little resentment towards their more popular Jedi counterparts. (After all, nobody is describing themselves as \"Federation\" on census forms.) Abrams' defection could only exacerbate that sense of ill-deserved inferiority. This reaction from a movie critic and StarTrek.com columnist says it all:\n\nI think JJ is a great choice for STAR WARS. Problem is this: I feel like he took STAR TREK (and me) to the prom and left w/ a hotter girl.\n\u2014 Jordan Hoffman (@JHoffman6) January 25, 2013\n\nBehind the scenes, however, the two franchises have been inspiring each other, and sharing personnel, for years. Abrams will hardly be the first player to switch sides. \nAlan Dean Foster, who wrote the first two Star Wars novels, also did the script treatment for the first Trek movie. George Lucas' special effects giant, Industrial Light and Magic, was a major player in bringing Star Trek: The Next Generation to TV screens in 1987. Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll was the guy who figured out how to make the Starship Enterprise do that famous \"stretch and snap\" in the opening credits:\n\nKnoll (who is also the co-developer of Photoshop) stuck with the Star Trek series until 1995 \u2014 whereupon he promptly turned around to help Lucas with the Star Wars Special Edition, and then on to the prequels. Lucas himself appeared in a documentary called Trek Nation, praising Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry for his \"moral lessons.\" \nAnd then there's George Takei, hero of the Internet and the first major actor to crop up in both franchises (he voiced a character in the Clone Wars series). When Carrie Fisher (Leia) and William Shatner (Kirk) got into a supposed feud over the franchises \u2014 and really, given the obvious affection they have for one another, it was the fakest thing since pro wrestling \u2014 Takei stepped in to broker \"Star Peace\" between the fans and direct them both against a greater foe. \nHere's how it all played out:\n\nNote the part where Fisher claims that Shatner once wore her infamous metal bikini from Return of the Jedi? I'll leave you with that mental image, which explains better than most how close the franchises have been all along behind the scenes.\nPhoto via Flickr, JD Hancock\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/01/25/star-trek-star-wars/>