I guess this means the great “Trek vs Wars” debate is finally over.

George Lucas, that lovable jowley saint who created Jedis, Siths, and Rebel scum, has admitted that the success of his STAR WARS films was owed to STAR TREK. Stating…

“Star Trek softened up the entertainment arena so that Star Wars could come along and stand on its shoulders. There was an effective group of people in the beginning who accepted it..that it wasn’t that far out. For the studios it was way far out, [they said] ‘what is this?’, 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 this (Star Wars) to be in the feature arena.”

While this should seem fairly obvious to modern fans, I’m not entirely sure if it’s sound logic.

Sure, Star Trek was a great Sci-Fi franchise that created an insanely voracious base. In fact, as Fox prepared for the 1977 release of A New Hope (which wasn’t titled that at the time), the studio dispersed a contingent of press crews to advertise at various Trek conventions around the US, exploiting that established following.

BUT… the majority of folks in theatres weren’t diehard Trekkies. Sure, they must’ve been familiar with Kirk and Spock, but other Sci-Fi properties existed that would’ve exposed them to the concepts of outer space and laser gun fights. Although, the majority of them played on the traditional “Aliens attack humans, humans win, for some inexplicable reason the female lead wound up nearly naked again” trope.

Hey now, maybe Lucas is onto something. Maybe Star Trek really did introduce the world to that special type of modern Sci-Fi for which Star Wars is so well known.

Good on you for admitting it, Lucas. A lesser man may try to claim all the glory for themselves. I guess that happens when you marry a hottie; you lose all that arrogance.

SOURCE: Hero Complex