In science fiction and fantasy films, does Star Wars represent the most advanced technology?

No.

The StarKiller Base (yes, they really published a film that used that name LOL) weapon that destroys multiple planets at once from another star system is preposterously powerful, and basically makes the whole SW galaxy into a hell galaxy where you’d never know whether any worlds were going to end at any moment with no warning.

But Star Trek’s warp drives, transporters, handwavium, absurdium, Q Continuum, Organians, and so on massively exceed what’s in Star Wars, as do Time Lords and various others in Doctor Who, etc etc etc.

Of course, it’s often hard to distinguish between what’s “advanced technology”, and what’s writers inventing utter nonsense based mostly on their imagination and ignorance of actual sciences (and, particularly in the case of Disney Star Wars, forgetting what the limits of the tech was in previous films, and aggressively dumbing down and not caring about even basic astronomy, nor having much of anything make any sense).

If Star Wars were the most advanced, people beings wouldn’t live in caves and ride animals

I wouldn’t include the Q Continuum in this discussion, because they aren’t using technology, but the power of a super being.
Doctor Who certainly presents itself as having advanced tech. I seriously doubt most things they bring forth are actually possible. However, time travel would be beyond the tech of the Death Star.
@zenvelo is the United States the most technologically advanced nation in the world? How do you explain the presence of the Amish?

@filmfann The US is not the most technologically advanced nation. And the Amish use the internet.

@zenvelo, which is the most technologically advanced nation?

I don’t see how some people’s resistance to high tech says anything about the nation’s level of advancement. My uncle, for one, won’t have anything to do with computers; but he doesn’t prevent anyone else from using them or hold the nation back.

But do the Amish really use computers while still driving horse-drawn buggies?

@zenvelo So which nation is the most technologically advanced? In Star Wars you have a convergence of alien culture like we do here on earth with human culture. Even though we have planes and cars there are still people riding horses or using beasts of burden to do work. There are still tribes who live like they did thousands of years ago.

If we don’t count Q in Star Trek I’d say Star Wars does have the most advanced Technology contained in places.

@Jeruba The Amish can use technology, it just can’t interfere with family and religious obligations. There is also a distinction between using something in a certain context and owning it.

The Empire needs moon-sized space stations to destroy a planet.
Species 8472 just needs to link a few light cruisers together for the same task.

The last “star wars” movie showed planet smashers on individual star destroyers

I think the androids in Blade Runner are pretty up there.

Star Trek technology > Star Wars technology

Star Trek has transporters, which is pretty amazing. Time travel happens at least once a season.
Of course, I would argue these are not possible in any real future.

By the 29th century, Starfleet had a dedicated section pledged to monitor and protect the timeline. They time-travelled as casually as previous ships travelled at Warp.
By the 31st century, they had a temporal cold war, with multiple factions travelling back in time, trying to change the timeline to their favour.
The Krenim even had a weapon, that could erase you from existence, past, present and future, and force a time-line change that way.

@filmfann Transporters could happen! But we would transport the brain but not the mind.

@WhyNow I fear it would not transport the soul.

@filmfann That’s what Dr. McCoy was worried about (although he didn’t put it in those terms)

I thought perhaps Japan was the most advanced, and this source agrees.

I think US military tech is the most advanced, but I wonder where Japan would rank if it wasn’t treaty-bound from developing its own.

^^^^ Thanks @Brian1946 for answering the question posed to me above. (I was off line for 14 hours).

I still say Star Trex > Star Wars.

Star Trek is science fiction. Star Wars is a western set in outer space.

@zenvelo Star wars has space wizards and knights and stuff. I think it’s more like fantasy.
I saw Firefly as a space western

@Blackwater_Park Did you watch The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett? Pure western.

@Blackwater_Park @filmfann The Q Continuum is just one of many many examples in Star Trek of factions that eclipse the technology of the Federation in Star Trek. Other examples include the Organians, the Travelers and their Supervisors, the Metrons (the faction that teleports Kirk and the Gorn right out of their ships to a distant planet while holding their ships helpless at vast distances), and several other groups (the parents of Trellane, Squire of Gothos, the Nacene, the Nagilum) who do similar things (disable or destroy starships and/or teleport them far away with great ease) – these factions are so powerful that not only do they completely overpower Federation ships (on in the case of the Organians, ALL Federation and Klingon ships anywhere in the galaxy, all at once), that they prefer to ignore such nations’ affairs until/unless they notice something and choose to teach them a lesson.

There are also various other groups who have or had vastly greater technology than the races on a par with the Federation, such as the Iconians, Sphere Builders, the Future Federation (31st Century).

Then there are other races with notably, but not utterly, superior threatening technology to the Federation, such as the Andromedans, the Borg, or species 8472.

And single technological entities that threatened the Federation (three of which are basically the same story, but V’ger (as seen in TOS, ST:TMP, and ST4: The Voyage Home.

But even if you ignore all of those, even the main star nations (Federation, Klingons, Romulans, etc) out-class Star Wars technology levels, with devices such as transporters (SW crew use shuttles to go places), subspace communications, their super-capable sensors/scanners, and (especially in TOS) the ability to maneuver and fight far beyond light-speed, which would render Star Wars vessels impotent and unable to engage Star Trek ships.

And that’s just Star Trek. Doctor Who not only has Time Lords, but many episodes also deal with extreme technologies. Rogue technologists built a ship out of dwarf star alloy. The Logopolan mathematicians keep the entire universe from unraveling. Etc etc etc.

And that’s just two series.

Star Wars if anything, describes a galaxy stuck in a technological dead end. They have hyperdrive, anti-gravity, and what else that’s advanced for a space-faring galaxy with many thousands of developed planets and thousands of years of high-tech history? Not much, and it doesn’t change very much. Some of the other techs they have are very limited and flawed. Their shields aren’t very good. Most of their weapons are short-ranged. Their clones are problematic. Their droids are limited. Etc.

Once again, the Q Continuum (which many believe Trellane was probably a member of) are super beings. They do not require technology.

Also, in Star Trek most races were completely hostile to each other. In star Wars they largely were cooperative. Empire aside of course.

@filmfann Ok, so if that’s actually rather than probably true, remove Trellane and Q Continuum as one of the many many examples of technologies in Star Trek that are massively beyond anything in Star Wars.

@Blackwater_Park What? It doesn’t seem at all true to me that most races in Star Trek are completely hostile to each other. It’s also entirely irrelevant to this question.

and

“The last “star wars” movie showed planet smashers on individual star destroyers”
– Uh huh, that Disney one where those same Star Destroyers couldn’t “fly upwards” without the help of an external beacon to help them? The one where part of the plot included space horses charging on top of a Star Destroyer?

@Zaku Yeah, I don’t count the Disney movies as Star Wars either. They lost me when they “dropped bombs” in space.

There has not been Star Wars since “Return of the Jedi”.
The prequels only became more popular because of memes and the comparison to the sequels.
Some even disavow “Return of the Jedi”, because of the dumb forest teddy bears.

@ragingloli Completely agree. The forest teddy bears were a sign of things to come. The Disney films were such a dismal failure that they’ll be in future film school text books as a cautionary tale. I have seen much better fan fiction. They made the prequels look ok, and we all know the prequels were pretty f’ing horrible.

Chewbacca has no genitals or anus, so yeah…pretty advanced stuff.

^^ You checked?

Turned on eh?

^^ YES! I mean NO! Shit.

Do you mean mammals will be so advanced so as to not require food or water
to live? There goes happy hour!

Or genitals to reproduce? There goes happy hour!

They don’t even need brains