I love the Star Trek series, especially the Next Generation. I also love the original trilogy of Star Wars. There has been a rather vigorous debate over which universe would win a conflict. Here are a few of my ideas about which way I think the battle would go and the advantages held by each side.

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The battle in space:

1) Shields up!

While the ships in Star Wars do have shields, they're only deflectors. They reduce the damage done by grazing hits, but a direct strike will still destroy the fighter or do damage to the hull of a larger vessel or station. Even the massive shield power output by the Super Star Destroyer was still overcome by only two fighters concentrating their attacks in Return of the Jedi.

When the shields on the Enterprise-D are hit in Star Trek, an encompassing bubble of energy is revealed. As long as the shields are up, nothing gets through.

2) Target Lock

In Star Wars small ships can evade the turbo lasers of large capital ships and stations. Fighters have to manually aim at their intended targets. Even with the assistance of a targeting computer, it's still possible to miss as was evident during the trench run on the first Death Star.

The lack of targeting systems in the Star Wars universe is strange because in Episode II, Obi-wan has to dodge a seeking missile fired from Jango Fett's ship, Slave 1. I think this is a slight hole in the story as this is supposed to be a prequel, but in the first Death Star battle of Episode IV, when the fighters are dodging the turbolasers, Vader decides the only way to destroy them is ship to ship, ordering the deployment of TIE fighters. Why would a bounty hunter ship, back in the time when Anakin Skywalker was still a kid, have access to weapon technology not available on the Empire's greatest armored space station in the present day? Another thing that makes the missile out of place is that if the tech exists for a missile to track a space fighter through an asteroid field, dodging all the debris in its way and never losing target lock, then why do the guns on ships require manual aim? As I said, I think it's a bit of a plot hole.

Targeting systems in Star Trek can be locked on for guaranteed hits every time a weapon is fired. Additionally, individual sections such as the bridge or engines can be targeted to maximize the damage and cripple opposing ships. Photon torpedoes have their own guidance systems, allowing them to track targets over considerable distances once target lock has been achieved.

3) Space Arsenal

The ships of the Star Wars universe have lasers of different sizes and forms, as well as missiles and proton torpedoes.

Star Trek is very similar with phasers and photon torpedoes. That being said, Star Trek ships can fire continuous beams of particle energy at their targets while Star Wars' ships fire individual pulses. This allows Star Trek ships to concentrate greater amounts of fire against their opponents in less time.

4) Super Weapons

Star Wars' most infamous weapon has to be the Death Star. The armored station can take out fleets of ships with its laser or obliterate whole planets. It has countless squadrons of TIE fighters and a ridiculous amount of turbo laser turrets across its surface.

However, the Death Star does suffer from the fact it's slow. It movement speed is ponderous, and it takes time between shots of its main laser, giving enemies time to do damage.  Also, it has to be facing its intended target, allowing faster ships to simply move around to the other side and avoid the main laser altogether.

Starkiller base has the same weakness in that it can't fire on anything behind it. Star Trek ships can change their phasers for drilling purposes and dig into a planet's crust, destabilizing its mantle and causing the entire planet to collapse from the inside. So, the Star Wars super weapon could be defeated by almost any ship from Star Trek.

The Star Trek universe has more than one super weapon at its disposal. Firstly, the main deflector dish of Starfleet ships can be turned into a weapon to create an even more powerful blast than anything the ship's phasers and photons could do.

Secondly, there is antimatter. In the original series a single once of the stuff was used as a bomb and blew away half of a planet's atmosphere. If antimatter were used in torpedoes, Star Destroyers could be blasted apart. It would probably take only one hit per vessel to take them out. Multiple shots could do tremendous damage to the Death Star, and by focusing attacks against the beam emitters, it would be possible to knock out enough of the emitters to prevent the super laser from firing at all.

The slow speed of the Death Star is also a severe liability against a ship with warp drive, as the Star Trek ships could simply warp out of the system and come back in on the opposing side of the Death Star, pummeling it with attacks. Because the Death Star is so slow, as it tried to turn and bring its super laser to bear, the Star Trek ship could simply move around at impulse speed and never even end up in the crosshairs.

The weaknesses of the Death Star are all due to the fact it was never designed to be a weapon of war. It was designed to be a weapon of terror, frightening star systems to obey the Empire...or else. Even the Empire knew it couldn't stand on its own in a fight. This is why there were so many TIE fighters onboard, and why in Return of the Jedi, the Emperor had an entire fleet of Star Destroyers protecting it. Despite being a super weapon, the Death Star isn't meant for combat.

5) Warp Speed vs Light Speed

I'm no scientist, so I don't know how fast each one of these methods of travel actually is, so I will simply compare their tactical abilities. In Star Wars, courses must be plotted carefully by a computer before going to light speed. It takes time, and the ship is vulnerable to attack while waiting. In Star Trek, jumping to warp in order to evade an enemy can be done at a moment's notice. Since warp drive can be used at any time with no delay, it would seem to be the better choice in combat situations.

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Land based warfare:

1) Prepare for Ground Assault

Star Wars has some of the coolest vehicles around. The four-legged Imperial walker or AT-AT (all terrain attack transport) has blasters, heavy armor, and can deploy squads of stormtroopers. Only by tripping them up or getting an explosive inside the armored shell enabled them to be taken down.

Star Trek has very little in the way of ground based vehicles. The only ones I'm aware of are from the game Star Trek New Worlds. Phaser and disruptor tanks provide the main assault and defense force while photon artillery pummel from a distance. There are also shield tanks to reinforce the protection of frontline forces. Romulan tanks can cloak, allowing them to approach very close without triggering defenses.

Although the Star Wars universe has shields to protect their bases, ground units can walk straight through and attack the shield generator directly to bring down the field. With the Romulan cloaking devices, Star Trek forces could bypass the shield and destroy the generator before anyone even knew the attack had begun, leaving bases defenseless and unprepared for the primary assault. Slow moving AT-AT's would be prime targets for a photon barrage, and without shields, they'd be destroyed in short order.

2) Personal Weaponry

Star Wars blasters suffer from the same single shot limitations as their ships do while Star Trek phasers can unleash a continuous beam. Phasers can also be set to stun, and increased to a wide beam to affect entire crowds of people simultaneously.

Thermal detonators from the Star Wars universe are probably more powerful than the photon grenades used by Starfleet personnel, but an antimatter mine would certainly level the playing field, along with most of the planet.

The coolest weapon in either series has to be the lightsaber. A beam of focused energy capable of reflecting and redirecting enemy fire, blocking lightning bolts, and cutting through almost anything with a single pass. The hum of energy when the lightsaber is active is as distinctive and awesome as the weapon's capabilities.

Unfortunately, the lightsaber does suffer from a few limitations. It has a short range, restricted to the reach of the one using it. Although it can be thrown and pulled back using the Force, it leaves the person vulnerable to attack while the weapon is out of hand. Also, while good at blocking single shot blasters, a lightsaber would have trouble against a Star Trek attack force as they would fire continuous phaser beams. The lightsaber couldn't be moved to block a second phaser shot without exposing the Jedi or Sith to the first phaser still firing.

If the lightsaber could be angled to redirect the fire from a phaser, it could allow a Jedi or Sith to take out other phaser equipped ground personnel without having to swing the weapon, simply adjust its position. However, if a large enough group attacked, the lightsaber user still wouldn't be able to block or redirect all of them and would be taken down. If the Jedi could be taken out by droid armies or clone troopers armed with single-shot blasters, it seems likely a Star Trek force armed with particle beam phasers would be able to do the same.

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Unique Features:

1) The Force

Star Wars characters, be they Jedi or Sith have access to an energy field created by all living things. By tapping into this energy, they can do incredible things such as telekinesis, throwing lightning, accelerating healing, and viewing distant places and even the future. Despite these powerful abilities, Force users have been taken out by those lacking such abilities: droids, clones, and the Mandalorians to name a few. Even the Emperor was simply picked up and tossed off a ledge to his death.

I think the weaknesses in the Force, and the vulnerabilities of its users, is due mainly to the writing. The Force itself is severely overpowered, and if the writing wasn't done in a way put limits on it, one Force user would be unstoppable against anything other than another Force user.

Yoda said moving stones or moving starships was no different and that size didn't matter. If that is the case, knocking a group of droids sideways with Force push could accomplish the same thing with a squadron of fighters in space. A wave of the hand, and the enemy fleet is swept away. By the same logic, if a Force user could crush a paper cup, they could do the same to Imperial walkers, ships, stations, and even planets. Vader himself said the ability to destroy a planet was insignificant next to the power of the Force. He understood the principle, but thank goodness he never used it to its full potential.

A true Force user wouldn't even need to use a lightsaber as the Force itself would be the weapon. Vader showed some of this in his first battle with Luke, standing back and simply throwing things at Luke with the Force. Lightsabers, blasters, and phasers all suffer from the fact they contain physical components and can suffer damage. A force user could crush them, warp internal components to the point of causing them to shut down, or simply rip them out of an enemy's hand.

Since Jedi and Sith can use the Force to see the future, the past, and other places far from where they are, they have access to those locations. Vader killed an Admiral on a neighboring Star Destroyer without ever leaving his own ship. The Force is everywhere, so proximity isn't an issue either. A Force user could see a distant place and cause Force related effects there because wherever there is life, there is the Force. It has unlimited range.

2) The Borg Collective

Star Trek has a race of alien cyborgs linked into a hive mind. They are the Borg. The primary ship used by the Borg is the cube. A truly massive vessel, it destroyed forty Federation starships at Wolf 359 without even slowing down. Estimates project the cube could continue to fight effectively even if seventy-eight percent of the ship was inoperable. Equipped with tractor beams to hold ships in place and drain their shields, lasers capable of cutting vessels apart with the skill of a surgeon, and even torpedoes designed to drain shields and knock out engines, the cube is a devastating weapon. The Borg also have the ability to adapt and regenerate. Energy weapons, the mainstay of the Star Wars universe would quickly become useless, including the energy blade of the lightsaber.

If the Borg were confronted by the Death Star, they could use their cutting beams to slice off the super laser's firing emitters before the energy discharge occurred, disabling the weapon. Once the primary threat had been neutralized, the Borg would begin transporting drones onto the station. The Stormtroopers would have initial successes, but it would come to an end the moment the Borg adapted to the energy of their blasters. Although the armor of a Stormtrooper might make it more resistant to assimilation, there are obvious gaps in the armor a Borg could quickly exploit, injecting microscopicnanoprobes to take over the people from within and make them part of the BorgCollective. Once the station and its crew were assimilated, the Borg would repair the super laser and the Death Star would belong to them.

At the first encounter with the Borg in sector J25, a scan of a planet in that system showed a series of roads indicating a technological society, but where there should've been cities, there were only great rips in the surface. It was described as if some great force had just scooped all the machine elements off the face the planet. In the first part of the episode The Best of Both Worlds, we get to see the devastation first hand, with only a giant crater where a Federation colony had once been.  If the Borg's city stealing armament were employed against the Death Star, they would be able to tear out a vast section of the outer hull and do crippling amounts of damage in short order.

3) The Douwd

An immortal being of disguises and false surroundings, the Douwd was only in a single episode of Star Trek the Next Generation, but it was a powerful introduction to the species. The planet where the Douwd was living as a human in disguise was attacked. Because he was peaceful and didn't want to kill, he tried to use his powers to trick the attackers into leaving. It didn't work, only making them angrier and more cruel. Everything changed when his human wife was killed. In an instant of grief, he destroyed the attackers and every single one of their race everywhere in existence. Since there is only one recorded encounter with such a being, it's unlikely they would get involved in a conflict unless it was by accident, such as the Empire unknowingly attacking a world where one of them was located.

4) The Q Continuum

Beings of tremendous power, the Q are almost without limits in terms of what they can do. With a snap of their fingers, they could fling a ship clear across the galaxy, transport someone through time or space, even project them into an alternate reality created specifically by the Q. Everything from impassible energy barriers to armies of monsters can be summoned instantly the moment a Q wishes it. Q even showed the ability to bring back the dead, something no Force user has ever accomplished. A Q can be stripped of all powers by the rest of the Continuum, leading to the conclusion, the Q might have the power to remove the Force abilities of a Jedi or Sith. Normally, the Q don't get involved with what they consider "lesser" species, unless it's for their own amusement, so it's unlikely they would be involved in a conflict between the two universes, unless they were the cause of it.

5) Transporters

The Star Trek universe has the ability to transport matter from one location to another. This can be used to beam in explosives or invading troops to strike at strategic areas behind the front lines. Shields block the energy stream required for transporting, so it's impossible to beam while the shields are up. Lowering the shields while in battle with Star Wars ships would involve significant risks to all but the Borg, who would simply regenerate any damage taken immediately afterward. The Enterprise D made a temporary stop in a planetary system to drop off an away team before jumping right back into warp, so it might be possible for the Star Trek ships to arrive in a Star Wars system, deploy their away teams or explosive charges inside their intended targets and escape before a response could be made.

In Star Trek VI, the Klingon prison Rura Penthe was equipped with a magnetic shield to prevent beaming, so the magnetic field mentioned during the approach of the Death Star might have a similar effect, protecting the station from transporter attacks at a distance. Since the X-wings passed through the field without trouble, it stands to reason a Star Trek ship could do the same, but it would still make the ship vulnerable to attack when its' shields drop for transport.

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Conclusion:

I think Star Trek has numerous advantages that would ensure its victory over the Star Wars universe if they were to meet in battle, shields that absorb incoming matter and energy rather than simply deflecting it, particle beams weapons that can fire continuously instead of individual pulses, hand phasers that can be set on wide beam to take down whole crowds of people instead of one at a time, and targeting computers that guarantee hits rather than simply increasing the probable chance. Star Trek ships are faster than the slow-moving bulk cruisers and stations, allowing them to easily outmaneuver their opponents in virtually any situation. All of these put Star Trek clearly in the lead in space or land battle situations.

As for the unique features, Star Trek still has the clear advantage, but only because of how each universe has been written. The Force, if used to its full power, would be unstoppable by anything other than the Q or Douwd, and it's doubtful they would interfere, leaving the Force users unchallenged by anyone. Since no one has used the Force to its maximum potential EVER, it seems unlikely it would happen in a fight between Star Trek and Star Wars. The Jedi and Sith have been eliminated by ordinary people before, so I think it would happened here as well.

The Borg could easily assimilate Star Wars' ships and planets, adapting to every energy based weapon in the galaxy and rendering the Collective immune to damage. A Force user might be able to stand a chance for a time, electrocuting or pushing away enemies, but the Borg would just keep advancing until the Jedi or Sith was exhausted and assimilation would begin.

The one thing I think no one in these match-ups has considered is the time difference. Star Wars is a long time ago, and Star Trek takes place in the 23rd and 24th centuries. This would be the equivalent of asking if the Star Wars ships and vehicles would be able to take on the Allies in World War II.

To stage a proper challenge between the two universes, Star Wars would have to be advanced to the proper year. It's possible they might have better tech at that time and be able to hold their own, possibly even win. However, in the Star Wars game, Knights of the Old Republic, the story takes place 4000 years before the rise of the Empire, but they have basically the same tech as they do in the movies. The Star Wars universe is mired in conflict with whole planets being reduced to asteroid fields and industries being sabotaged or destroyed in the various battles trying to take them from the hands of the enemy. As a result of this, I think Star Wars is stagnant in technological development. If you notice, they aren't building anythingnew, just larger versions of weapons that already exist, bigger StarDestroyers, Death Stars and Imperial Walkers. It's not new, just bigger, and without newinnovations, Star Wars would never be able to match the tech level of StarTrek. 

It is for these reasons I believe in a fight between the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, Star Trek would be the decided winner.