Why is that insane. If Star Trek is science fiction, so is Star Wars. I have read a lot of science fiction. I’ve watched a lot of science fiction. I do know the genre. If you are telling me that something in Star Wars does not belong in science fiction it means you aren’t as familiar with what you find in science fiction. Nothing found in Star Wars cannot be found in Star Trek (except light sabers, but those can be found in other science fiction).
There seems to be several people on the same page that thinks the force makes it fantasy and the Star Trek is science fiction. Well, Star Trek has more examples of the Force and it is by no means alone in the science fiction genre. Sometimes it is a machine that gives the powers, but usually it is some innate ability, just like in Star Wars. Jedi can lift things, so do characters in Star Trek. Jedi can read minds and implant ideas in other mind and so can characters in star trek. Star Trek characters can even make things appear from nothing, manipulate time, teleport, and a bunch of things Jedi don’t do. So… you can’t say Star Trek is science fiction and Star Wars isn’t. And both have stories based on myths and legends. In both is is people making decisions that drive the story. The force gives some characters tools to aid their journey, but the pivotal moments are all reality based character decisions and interactions.
Let’s take one Star Trek episode in particular. Plato’s Stepchildren. They encounter a planet where some aliens who interacted with the ancient Greeks live and all but one has great mental powers. They can levitate things, control the minds and bodies of others. Along comes Dr. McCoy and he figures how how their power works and concocts a formula to give the lone alien without powers and themselves the power (with a dose to make them stronger than the other aliens). McCoy’s concoction amounts to Midiclorians for all the science behind both. The episode never does really explain how the aliens have this power or how the concoction gives it to Kirk and company. It’s just that the aliens have this in their system so if we have it we would have the same powers. How is that not identical to the Force? And how, when this is a staple of science fiction in the first 2/3 of the 20th century, is Star Wars somehow not science fiction?
From my perspective, saying Star Wars is not science fiction is insane. Doubly so if you claim Star Trek is science fiction.