Beware the Dark Side

I was setting a theater a few days ago, waiting to see The Force Awakens for I believe the sixth time, watching the same old litany of trailers. Civil War looks good but I am afraid that seeing those scenes so many times will make them some less impressive when it comes time for the actual movie, Zootopia looks profoundly boring (but oddly, I think that is the idea) then came the last one before the feature...Star Trek. A gentleman wearing a red alliance tee-shirt setting several rows in front me seemed indignant at this. "How dear they show a Star Trek trailer before Star Wars?" he wondered.
The night before the premier a show on CBS called The Big Bang Theory, featured the show's characters going to see the movie. One of them dressed up as Star Trek's Mr. Spock. He said he was representing "the home team" (meaning, I presume, that Star Trek takes place in our own Milky Way Galaxy as opposed to Star Wars witch takes place in the Far Far Away Galaxy)  but the Star Wars fans did not appreciate this and acted rather rude.
Why such disdain for another franchise? If its a competition, then its not a competition, at least not at the boxoffice. When adjusted for inflation the highest grossing Star Trek movie is about two thirds the lowest grossing Star Wars movie (witch incidentally is a Attack of the Clones).
Star Trek started out as a television sires in the 1960s, its themes were often philosophical and frequently used mythological imagery and a theatrical style. The focus was on writing and acting, not Fx. It had its weak episodes but some, like The Cage, were true masterpieces. Twenty years later came the next generation. It started out somewhat like the original series but its focus drifted to interstellar politics and technobabble. The spin-offs were just plane bad. The movies were basically just long versions of TV episodes with the best one (Wrath of Khan) being a sequel to one of the original TV episodes. These latest movies, like the one for witch the trailer precedes Star Wars, are basically retro nostalgia movies for those who wish to relive their childhood (sorry I just could not resist). They appear to be attempts to go back to original TV series but recast with less compelling characters and plots, the void being filled with cheesy special affects and cheep gags. I personally have no desire to see such movies but if some people like them then whats the problem? And if theater managers want to show trailers for such movies before Star Wars, they are certainly no worse than many of the others.
Time is not on Star Trek's side. One hundred, two hundred, even five hundred years from now it will be equally ease to imagine what happened "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away". But Star Trek is based on a fifty year old, cold war science and space exploration trajectory (and a rather optimistic one at that). But since the decay of western civilization in the nineteen seventies and onward we have not even been back to the Moon, much less colonized any other planets. And are not likely to any time in the foreseeable future. With each passing day the idea of Star Trek becomes less viable as an active franchise, still all things considered it has lived long and prospered. However, it getting to the point where it should probably start thinking of a way to die well. In the mean time though, there is certainly no reason why we should not be courteous to the, I believe the they prefer to be called "trekies".