Why is the SW-verse stronger than the Trekverse?

[DocHorror]

So Q fears Guinan, gets hurt by Sisko, and they're just holding back. Uh-huh. I doubt it.

Is Q omniscient? While he may have great powers perhaps he was just caught by surprise by Siskos punch.

[Ghost Rider]

So Q fears Guinan, gets hurt by Sisko, and they're just holding back. Uh-huh. I doubt it.

Is Q omniscient? While he may have great powers perhaps he was just caught by surprise by Siskos punch.

Actually Q can hardly be omniscient given he is constantly surprised by Picard and Janeway.

He's really just shown he's powerful, that's really about it.

[Drooling Iguana]

Getting back to the original question, I think it's mostly due to the fact that conflict in SW is pretty much always between two advanced civilizations with relatively equivalent technology (Naboo vs Trade Federation, Republic vs CIS, Empire vs Rebellion, etc.) and in those circumstances, as long as you scale the technology levels of both sides in proportion to each other, the threat level that each side poses to the other remains pretty much the same. Since two super-advanced armied duking it out looks cooler on screen than two relatively primitive armies doing the same, the tech level in Star Wars was set quite high.

On the other hand, most of the Star Trek episodes take place during peacetime, and so the writers had to make their technology suceptable to a wider range of threats in order to keep the episodes interesting. They were also limited to a TV show's budget which meant that they couldn't blow holes in their sets every time someone fired a phaser. Thus, the Federation's tech level is quite low.

[Enigma]

So Q fears Guinan, gets hurt by Sisko, and they're just holding back. Uh-huh. I doubt it.

Is Q omniscient? While he may have great powers perhaps he was just caught by surprise by Siskos punch.

Actually Q can hardly be omniscient given he is constantly surprised by Picard and Janeway.

He's really just shown he's powerful, that's really about it.

I think he's also stated that the Q Continuum isn't omnipotent. They've stagnated and they're bored. Obviously the Q aren't omniscient but if they need to know what was going to happen they'd just peak into the future.

[Trekdestroyer]

It's been stated before that SW has many thousands of years of experience to draw on as well as technologies that have been perfected over that time.

[Praxis]

As for the "of course" part, a society that's been travelling through space for a very long time will not necessarily be stronger than a society that's been doing the same for a shorter time.

Come again? Given that the older civilization has had shitloads more time for technology to advance and to broaden its resource base, yes, the older civilization IS damn well going to be more powerful.

The Borg are a lot older than the Federation. Thousands of years older. Yet they get their rear handed to them by Janeway

[General Zod]

As for the "of course" part, a society that's been travelling through space for a very long time will not necessarily be stronger than a society that's been doing the same for a shorter time.

Come again? Given that the older civilization has had shitloads more time for technology to advance and to broaden its resource base, yes, the older civilization IS damn well going to be more powerful.

The Borg are a lot older than the Federation. Thousands of years older. Yet they get their rear handed to them by Janeway

the borg were even more idiotic than janeway, and she was only able to beat them by pulling some deus ex machinaes. i'd hardly consider that an example of an older civilization not being more powerful. by all rights the borg should have handed the federation their collective asses.

[Praxis]

<snip>
The Q are the only ones I'd be concerned about, and to be frank, their demonstrated powers aren't as snazzy as people keep insisting blindly.

Why do you say that? Who in the SW universe could defeat Q or the Continuum?

The Vong aren't superbeings as you said, but the Aiing-Ti monks ARE. They would do some SERIOUS damage. In fact, they could *easily* wipe out the Borg collective with very little effort (one ship maybe? A single person, if they have some time to spare?)

[Metrion Cascade]

When he was helping a girl to become a Q, there was a scene in which they were out in space on the E-D. Q reducing that white cloud to a size that would fit in the palm of his hand. The Q civil war that caused supernovas. Q stating that his baby was able to knock a planet out of orbit for the first time. Q changed his son into a virus\amoeba\some single celled organism. Q's son materialized several Borg cubes. Q shoved E-D 7,000 light years away and into the path of a Borg cube. etc...

Yes, they can teleport objects and shapechange objects. Transporters can do this. Yes, they can do interesting tricks with forcefields to be outside without decompression(Oddly enough, so can Borg Drones). The Q Civil War weapons were so VASTLY POWERFUL.. That human beings could use them and not suffer instant death from the energy release or recoil.

Jesus Frickin' Christ! Weren't you and I debating why Borg survive in vacuum? The forcefields are a fucking perfect, unassailable explanation and I concede. Why didn't you mention it before?

If it wasn't you I'm sorry. I decided to humor Mike and pretend the search function allows sufficiently specific searches to be invariably useful. My pretense was mistaken.

And I don't get why we still fail to understand the difference between a holographic interface for controlling a weapon and having the weapon go off right in front of you.

[Metrion Cascade]

As for the "of course" part, a society that's been travelling through space for a very long time will not necessarily be stronger than a society that's been doing the same for a shorter time.

Come again? Given that the older civilization has had shitloads more time for technology to advance and to broaden its resource base, yes, the older civilization IS damn well going to be more powerful.

The Borg are a lot older than the Federation. Thousands of years older. Yet they get their rear handed to them by Janeway

The Borg don't get defeated. They commit suicide. At least that's what I call their tactics, especially in comparison to what they could be doing if they only had a brain.

[Metrion Cascade]

So Q fears Guinan, gets hurt by Sisko, and they're just holding back. Uh-huh. I doubt it.

Is Q omniscient? While he may have great powers perhaps he was just caught by surprise by Siskos punch.

Q can travel time at will, but apparently can't see outside of it. Kind of like the difference between Janeway with her time-shuttle, and the wormhole aliens.

Anyway...Sisko just punched an image Q was using. Why not be realistic if you can create any image you want?

[Cao Cao]

Q can travel time at will, but apparently can't see outside of it.

Can Q really travel time though? IIRC I've never seen any time travel event of his that can't be explained as an illusion, such as "All Good Things".

[Patrick Degan]

Neither Gene Roddenberry nor George Lucas thought of one another when creating their respective fictions —especially as Roddenberry started work on his project in 1962 or thereabouts. Roddenberry needed the Enterprise to have weaponry better than and very different than guns, missiles, or atomic bombs, so he equips the ship with phasers and photon torpedoes —futuristic and very easy to depict in bugetary terms. George Lucas needed a planet-destroying superweapon to demonstrate in stark graphic terms the evil of the Empire, so he created the Death Star. Makes the point in one twenty-second scene and is easier to depict than a full-scale planetary bombardment with multiple weapons and therefore also quite easy on the budget. He couldn't have given a toss about outdoing Star Trek in terms of power and it's doubtful he even thought of Star Trek at all when crafting the first Star Wars script. These little pissing-matches are important only to obsessives like us.

[Metrion Cascade]

Q can travel time at will, but apparently can't see outside of it.

Can Q really travel time though? IIRC I've never seen any time travel event of his that can't be explained as an illusion, such as "All Good Things".

There was a Voyager episode where he did it to escape another Q who chased him (meaning if it was an illusion they would have to be cooperating, which they were not). And without evidence, "All Good Things" was not an illusion. And anyone who says the Q are corporeal didn't see the Quinn episode or pay attention in the Q civil war episode. If the Q were corporeal they'd have depicted themselves as such, and accurately (their ships, buildings, etc.). But they can't, because it's a contradiction.

Another question I saw once was the question of whether Q could beat the Marvelverse super-beings. That would depend on what they embody. It's probably not possible to integrate a sentient law of physics into a universe that doesn't have them - they'd have to be lobotomized to remove their free will. Perhaps by definition they can only be engaged in their own universe. And in most cases I'd expect that if Q were in their universe, his powers would consist of controlling their thoughts a la "The X-Files" Robert P. Modell. He does change certain laws of physics at will, with the certain exception of time. He can travel through time, but is still subject to linear existence like any other Trek time traveler.

Oh, and Nit - hope my sarcasm wasn't too subtle.

[SirNitram]

Q can travel time at will, but apparently can't see outside of it.

Can Q really travel time though? IIRC I've never seen any time travel event of his that can't be explained as an illusion, such as "All Good Things".

There was a Voyager episode where he did it to escape another Q who chased him (meaning if it was an illusion they would have to be cooperating, which they were not). And without evidence, "All Good Things" was not an illusion.

For those who didn't actually watch, I could see how this might confuse. The fact that Q says openly it was just another test, and then that no one notices a single thing from the whole shebang except Picard, causes Parsimony to engage and call it an illusion.

[Metrion Cascade]

Can Q really travel time though? IIRC I've never seen any time travel event of his that can't be explained as an illusion, such as "All Good Things".

There was a Voyager episode where he did it to escape another Q who chased him (meaning if it was an illusion they would have to be cooperating, which they were not). And without evidence, "All Good Things" was not an illusion.

For those who didn't actually watch, I could see how this might confuse. The fact that Q says openly it was just another test, and then that no one notices a single thing from the whole shebang except Picard, causes Parsimony to engage and call it an illusion.

And there it is. Picard and the rest of humanity should simply have disappeared. Instead each timeframe acted like its own timeline. Reminds me of the ENT shit where Daniels said the changes in the timeline hadn't 'caught up' with his time yet. Because it takes time.

[SirNitram]

There was a Voyager episode where he did it to escape another Q who chased him (meaning if it was an illusion they would have to be cooperating, which they were not). And without evidence, "All Good Things" was not an illusion.

For those who didn't actually watch, I could see how this might confuse. The fact that Q says openly it was just another test, and then that no one notices a single thing from the whole shebang except Picard, causes Parsimony to engage and call it an illusion.

And there it is. Picard and the rest of humanity should simply have disappeared. Instead each timeframe acted like its own timeline. Reminds me of the ENT shit where Daniels said the changes in the timeline hadn't 'caught up' with his time yet. Because it takes time.

'I don't like Parsimony because it's outcome sucks. Therefore I will ignore logic and declare myself the winner'. Whatever, Metrion. The logic is clear to those willing to use their brains. If you come up with an actual argument, PM me and I'll rebutt it. Until then, have fun declaring yourself the winner.

[His Divine Shadow]

Star Wars, from the get-go, was pretty damn powerful, and has continued that trend (even continued it upwards...).

It was also roughly modeled after Isaac Asimovs empire.