By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Star Trek and Star Wars have always had a strange symbiotic relationship. George Lucas once said that Star Wars would not have been a success if it had not been able to stand on the shoulders of previous sci-fi series. At the time, Star Trek wouldn’t have been able to make the jump to the big screen (a move that made the franchise work again) without the success of the first Star Wars film.
Unsurprisingly, fans have always wanted to see some sort of official crossover between the two universes, which would do cool things like pitting the Starship Enterprise against a Star Destroyer. Although we never had any kind of big screen crossover like that, it’s a forgotten episode Star Trek: The Next Generation he tried to combine these fictional worlds. In the episode “Raise the Tall Staircase,” a computer screen casually mentions that ships in the 22nd century will be making a diplomatic mission to Alderaan!
A Tale of Two Colonies
“Lift Up the Tall Ladder” is a Star Trek: The Next Generation An episode where the Enterprise meets two very different space colonies: one that has abandoned advanced technology in favor of an agrarian life and one that embraces the innovations of the 24th century. The second colony accepted a little harder, and Dr. Pulaski quickly assumes that everyone there is. They need the working genes and kidnap Riker and Pulaski to steal their DNA. However, Riker later destroys the clones the colony begins to cook, and Picard convinces them to mate with the original colony to create a viable gene pool.
As you can see, the only thing with any real Star Wars flavor here is the emphasis on clones. However, this episode of Star Trek refers to a galaxy far, far away, not to the clone troopers made famous by George Lucas. That makes sense because back when this episode was made, “Clone Wars” was a throwaway line in the first Star Wars movie rather than the name of the popular TV show that helped spawn the prequels.
Set Course on Alderaan, the High Warp
Instead, the Star Wars reference crept into the background. Both of these colonies were established in the 22nd century, and at one point, Picard researches the different types of equipment that ships of that era started with. In the first shot of the scene where Riker visits the captain’s right room, you can see that one of the ship’s mission sections is listed in the “Diplomatic Mission to Alderaan,” which was Leia’s cover story (she was smuggling the Death Star plans) in the first Star Wars film.
Now, this was not intended to link Star Trek and Star Wars together, as much as fans of both franchises would like to see that. Instead, this was one of the many jokes that went into the set of people like Mike Okuda. For the most part, these comics were intended only for the cast and crew, as such fine detail (a small screen with even smaller text) would not have been easy to see on the small, low-definition televisions of the ’80s and ’90s.
Use the Power, Jean-Luc
However, Star Trek: The Next Generation i totally got it good A reminder of Blu-ray, the one that fans now watch (either on discs or via streaming) on their big, high-definition televisions. Most of those inside jokes from the cast and crew are easy to read now, including Mission To Alderaan in “Up the Long Ladder.” Therefore, the name was changed to rebrand, and the fictional Alderaan was now replaced by the real planet Aldebran.
Just as the Death Star completely destroyed Alderaan, those who recollected Star Trek: The Next Generation completely removed any references to Princess Leia’s home world. Still, those looking to revive this tongue-in-cheek attempt to link Star Trek and Star Wars together can dust off their old DVDs. If you don’t have one, you can always give yourself a new task: “Diplomatic mission to the Thrift store!”
