NEW YORK – December 01, 2015 — (UPI) — Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has thrown his hat into the ongoing debate between Star Wars and Star Trek.
While appearing on National Geographic’s Star Talk Sunday, Tyson was asked whether he’d choose Han Solo’s Empire defying Millennium Falcon from ‘Star Wars’ or Captain Kirk’s galaxy exploring Starship Enterprise from ‘Star Trek.’
“Oh, that’s easy! Oh my gosh. The Enterprise — there’s no question,” Tyson said enthusiastically before adding that the Enterprise was “fake-real” through its use of scientists and engineers to explore space while the fantasy-like Millennium Falcon was “fake-fake.”
“There are real scientists and real engineers on staff [who are] on the ship, monitoring its engines, its warpdrive and photon torpedoes,” he said explaining his reasoning. “It is the first-ever spaceship represented in storytelling that was not designed to go from one place to another — it was only designed to explore.”
When it came down to the two iconic spaceships battling it out, Tyson still preferred the Starship Enterprise. “In a battle with the Millennium Falcon, the Enterprise would just wipe its [expletive],” Tyson said before joking, “Can I say that?”
While fans continue to debate, The Millennium Falcon will return on Dec. 18 in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ while the Starship Enterprise will next be seen in ‘Star Trek Beyond’ in July 2016.