My Musings

Star Trek vs Star Wars

The Star Trek universe has more than one super weapon at its disposal. Firstly, the main deflector dish of Starfleet ships can be turned into a weapon to create an even more powerful blast than anything the ship's phasers and photons could do.

Secondly, there is antimatter. In the original series a single once of the stuff was used as a bomb and blew away half of a planet's atmosphere. If antimatter were used in torpedoes, Star Destroyers could be blasted apart. It would probably take only one hit per vessel to take them out. Multiple shots could do tremendous damage to the Death Star, and by focusing attacks against the beam emitters, it would be possible to knock out enough of the emitters to prevent the super laser from firing at all.

The slow speed of the Death Star is also a severe liability against a ship with warp drive, as the Star Trek ships could simply warp out of the system and come back in on the opposing side of the Death Star, pummeling it with attacks. Because the Death Star is so slow, as it tried to turn and bring its super laser to bear, the Star Trek ship could simply move around at impulse speed and never even end up in the crosshairs.

The weaknesses of the Death Star are all due to the fact it was never designed to be a weapon of war. It was designed to be a weapon of terror, frightening star systems to obey the Empire...or else. Even the Empire knew it couldn't stand on its own in a fight. This is why there were so many TIE fighters onboard, and why in Return of the Jedi, the Emperor had an entire fleet of Star Destroyers protecting it. Despite being a super weapon, the Death Star isn't meant for combat.

5) Warp Speed vs Light Speed

I'm no scientist, so I don't know how fast each one of these methods of travel actually is, so I will simply compare their tactical abilities. In Star Wars, courses must be plotted carefully by a computer before going to light speed. It takes time, and the ship is vulnerable to attack while waiting. In Star Trek, jumping to warp in order to evade an enemy can be done at a moment's notice. Since warp drive can be used at any time with no delay, it would seem to be the better choice in combat situations.

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Land based warfare:

1) Prepare for Ground Assault

Star Wars has some of the coolest vehicles around. The four-legged Imperial walker or AT-AT (all terrain attack transport) has blasters, heavy armor, and can deploy squads of stormtroopers. Only by tripping them up or getting an explosive inside the armored shell enabled them to be taken down.

Star Trek has very little in the way of ground based vehicles. The only ones I'm aware of are from the game Star Trek New Worlds. Phaser and disruptor tanks provide the main assault and defense force while photon artillery pummel from a distance. There are also shield tanks to reinforce the protection of frontline forces. Romulan tanks can cloak, allowing them to approach very close without triggering defenses.

Although the Star Wars universe has shields to protect their bases, ground units can walk straight through and attack the shield generator directly to bring down the field. With the Romulan cloaking devices, Star Trek forces could bypass the shield and destroy the generator before anyone even knew the attack had begun, leaving bases defenseless and unprepared for the primary assault. Slow moving AT-AT's would be prime targets for a photon barrage, and without shields, they'd be destroyed in short order.

2) Personal Weaponry

Star Wars blasters suffer from the same single shot limitations as their ships do while Star Trek phasers can unleash a continuous beam. Phasers can also be set to stun, and increased to a wide beam to affect entire crowds of people simultaneously.