Sci-Fi Origins: from Star Wars Jedi to Star Trek Vulcan

Live long and prosper, and may the force be with you! Fans of Jedi Knights (Star Wars) and Vulcan science officers (Star Trek) would definitely have spacey fun mixing and matching up catch phrases. It's the creative kind of thing fans have always loved to do, especially these days with all the merry mash ups that go on in fandom of all kinds of genres.

Despite the hard work, and creativity that goes into writing sci-fi TV and movies, the simple fact is writers must often beg, borrow and steal from all kinds of sources. It's not easy to snatch a cool thing out of the air, and effectively mold it into a story point, or hammer it into a full bodied character. When I wrote episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, I'd gain inspiration from everywhere; everything from ancient mythology, real world politics to the pet peeves, and peculiarities of my family and friends. The trick to effectively incorporating existing things from the real world - or the world of myth - into your own creations isn't easy, but can make a big difference in a literary project's ultimate incarnation.

Star Trek - Vulcan - Roman God Of Fire

Vulcans are a fiery lot, despite their cool exteriors. The most famous Vulcan of all, Spock (Leonard Nimoy & Zachary Quinto), hails from the fiery planet of Vulcan. It's mostly a desert world full of sand, sweltering heat and brilliant sunshine. The fact these logical beings evolved into such cool cucumbers of restraint is both great irony, and historic evolution. Creators of Star Trek speculated that ancient people - or even a 'Godlike' race - may have somehow left ancient and traveled to the planet of Vulcan. Later the rebellious cousins of Vulcans, the Romulans, would spring forth and their culture more than that of Vulcan would mirror the fiercely warlike ways of Rome.

Star Wars - Jedi Knight - 'Jieitai' - Unified Military Forces Of Japan

Are you a Jedi, or a Jietai? If you were trained in the Japanese military force, you'd be calling yourself the latter. With their flowing robes, their eastern tinged mysticism, and most of all their glowing light swords, it's not hard to see where Star Wars creator George Lucas gained inspiration for his fictional Jedi. Japan's real Jedi or Jieitai came into being after World War II. Today, the elite fighting force boasts a budget of around $49 billion, and number in the hundreds of thousands. Although they may not carry lightsabers, they're among the best trained, and technologically equipped fighting forces on planet Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(Star_Trek)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Self-Defense_Forces

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi