As many have pointed out, Star Wars and Star Trek represent opposite ends of an American pop-cultural dialectic. Whereas Star Wars is serious, Star Trek is jokey. Whereas Star Wars is fundamentally religious, Star Trek is decidedly secular. One could create a long list of such oppositions.
But only this week did it occur to me that these differences are embedded in the very names of the characters. Here are a few names from each, together with notes on likely influences or meanings:
| Star Wars: | ||
| Name: | Suggests: | |
|---|---|---|
| Luke Skywalker | One who strolls among the stars | |
| Leia | Lei + Geia (Hawaiian princess as earth goddess) | |
| Han Solo | Exotic loner | |
| Yoda | Yoga + Buddha | |
| Star Trek: | ||
| Name: | Suggests: | |
| McCoy | “The real McCoy” — an honest guy | |
| Scotty | A guy from Scotland | |
| Chekov | A guy from Russia | |
| Uhura | A gal from Africa | |
| Spock | An guy from Outer Space |
As you can see, Star Wars names are all about exotic mysticism, whereas Star Trek names are about a bunch of regular folks hanging out and getting along, despite their ethnic diversity.
On the other hand, the original meaning of “Kirk” is “Church”, so I could be wrong about all this. Besides, it’s not as though the same person will ever direct a movie in each of these fictional worlds. One human being could never be permitted to have that much power.
In any case, if there were another Star Wars movie, it would be seven of nine, which everyone knows is part of the Star Trek universe.