h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Spook, if you take a look at the current EG entry on Star Wars (link in my first post on this thread) you'll see how direly it is in need of an update.
Oberon2001

well, i can't disgree with the drastic improvement. i think this entry would definitely be good, i was just thinking of updating in the future. but, i guess in the future we may be lucky enough to ahev a volunteer group of updaters and the entry could get updated much quiker!

I've been talking to Jimster about that so *fingers-crossed* (don't hold your breath though!)
Oberon2001

It would seem silly indeed to hold off for another year just because the third film will be released. There will be some means of updating this by then, surely!

I remembered something about the story after the sixth episode that I was thinking about earlier but forgot to mention. My sister is a life-long Star Wars fanatic and had told me at one time that Lucas no longer has any intention of completing the last trilogy (although he entertained the idea at one time). However, apparently he has endorsed the novels by Timothy Zahn as the continuation of the story of Luke, Leia and Han. I don't know where to find anything to back this up, but it might be worth looking into and adding to the entry.

My high school English teacher just drove up in his Green SAAB (he also drove a Harley in the summer). He gave me this link: http://scifi.about.com/library/starwars/bl-sixornine.htm

(actually, I just googled "Star Wars" "twelve episodes". This page was near the top. I haven't looked at the rest yet. It seems my English teacher was talking to us before Lucas cut it back to nine.)

Here you go. Time Magazine, March 6, 1978:

"Lucas has set set up four corporations:
Star Wars Corp. will make STAR
WARS II, and then, count them, ten
others planned sequels."

hello! being a star warsian (my name is a star wars joke, don't you know ) i was naturally delighted to find this article here. well done! i think you guys have covered quite a fair amount of ground -all the necessary details are there. i just have a couple of comments (not necessarily for inclusion to the article, but it makes for good conversation):

1. if you're going to put 'blue harvest' there, maybe you'd also like to mention that the original title of episode vi was 'revenge of the jedi', but was later changed to 'return' because george didn't think that jedi were into the whole revenge thingy?
2. jedi powers include the ability to heal; sith abilities include the power to destroy things with the force (we're talking about big KABOOM)
3. have you maybe considered discussing a little bit more on the jedi? as in, how the jedi and sith arose? (you know, the whole thing about how the old order banned powers of destruction and all, but then one renegade thought that power wasted was power lost...) or do you think it would make a good article on it's own?
4. here's an idea for a possible subtopic - or another star wars article(!): how george lucas' new trilogy is clashing abominably with the star wars expanded universe. i love his stuff, really i do, but i don't think i'll ever be able to forgive him for going his own way and making boba fett a clone of jango (!!! what kind of a name is that for a *bounty hunter*??? *jango* sounds like the name of a c-grade porn star) instead of maintaining him as what the expanded universe made him - journeyman jaster mereel-turned bounty hunter. (not to mention how lucas contradicted himself first by claiming that the force was an energy that surrounded everything, and bound everything together, THEN saying that it was caused by midi-chlorians... which, by the way, sounds *suspiciously* like mitochondrion. are we feeling the force, anyone?)

as i said, those were only comments, and not necessarily to be taken seriously, because as i've said before, you guys *have* done a good job.

er, speaking of which, would you guys be interested to write an article about the *expanded* star wars universe? there's plenty of exciting issues *there*... not least the yuuhzan vong!

Argh! So many questions! I'll try to answer them all (if I don't, just re-post them)
Miloso - Yeah, Timothy Zahns novels are endorsed by Lucas. They even promote them in the Star Wars newsletter.
Anhaga - The first link you gave -> It's in the entry already! Right at the top, in the 1st paragraph. Maybe you gave it to me in the old PR thread? 11 sequels? Certainly something to think about (it's take about a day to watch them all)
Farlander - That revenge thing. I think some posters were even mocked up by Lucasfilm, that's how close they were to calling it that. And yeah, Lucas thought that Jedis wouldn't take revenge (I've now put a bit about this into the entry)
for the feedback everyone!
Oberon2001

I didn't give you that link in an old thread and I didn't realize it was in the entry because I figured if you'd seen it you'd have realized that it mentions that there were going to be twelve episodes!

"If you go back to the early days, when Lucas knew he would be able to continue the series after the
success of Star Wars, he was saying that he planned a total of twelve episodes. But by the time The
Empire Strikes Back rolled around, he had cut that back to nine."

I'm going to teach skiing now.

Got a few more comments

Star Wars - 1977

Star Wars was the surprise success of 1977, not least to the some of the actors in the film, who subsequently profited from its success having accepted a percentage of the gross in return for taking a smaller fee up-front. This was part of the deal struck with the actors when production began in 1975 as the studio only gave Lucas a fraction of the budget that the later films were made on. Although the opening scrolling narration identifies the film as 'Episode IV', this was a reference to the old Flash Gordon films that inspired it. Only after the film had broken box-office records did Lucas confirm further episodes were on the way. In 1978, rerelease prints were slightly re-edited to carry the subtitle 'A New Hope'. The film was eventually renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope after the release of the re-edited special edition in 1997.

There was an abomination called The Star Wars Christmas Special which, as well as boasting (chronologically) the first ever sighting of Boba Fett and his dad, also introduced the world to Chewbacca's family. It's honestly dire, and only available on bootleg videotape.

Jim Smith's book on Lucas argues that the title of Return of the Jedi works on a number of levels. Simplistically, it's about the return of the Jedi movement in the form of Luke. It's also about Luke's return to his homeworld to rescue his friend Han. But it can also be argued (especially in the light of the later prequels) that it's about the spiritual return of the Jedi Darth Vader once was, in the form of Anakin Skywalker.

Might be work mentioning after Jedi that two made-for-TV films were made (and released theatrically outside of the USA) based on the Ewoks. The Ewok Adventure (released in cinemas as Caravan of Courage</I&gt and Ewoks - Battle for Endor.

Attack of the Clones
"The Attack of the Clones wasn't really that innovative on the technological front..." I'd strongly disagree with this, especially as you contradict it in the next sentence. The more towards digital processing was a major innovation - more significant than widescreen and certainly as significant to future film production as sound and colour. Might recommend a reconsideration? I'll even throw in some additional material:

The Attack of the Clones might not seem that innovative on the technological front but it was in fact a ground-breaking production. It was the first mainstream movies to be filmedTechnically it wasn't filmed at all, it was recorded with digital cameras from Sony that don't use any celluloid film at all., edited and distributed digitally. This meant that Lucas didn't have to wait until the next day for the rushesIndustry term for rough film footage. to see if he was happy with a take, he could simply view the recordings immediately. As only a few cinemas worldwide have digital projectors, film prints were also made available. The film has subsequently been converted for IMAX cinemas.

Star Wars III by the way has another old face involved - they just announced it'll feature an appearance from Chewbacca. Yay!

General Style comments

- Always italicise film names.

- If a bullet point (or clump of bullet points) is more than a couple of words, put ... tags inside the ... ones - makes them easier to read.

- A term that some people use to distinguish between trilogies is 'Imperial' trilogy for the 1977-83 ones, and 'Republic' trilogy for the 1999-05 one.


Okay, so slightly more than a few.

Jims

Oh wow, how could anyone forget the "Star Wars Holiday Special"?

Those who haven't seen it often wish they had, those who have seen it always wish they hadn't. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but for the Star Wars fan, curiosity will kill your dreams and cherished memories.

The Holiday Special deserves an Entry on its own.

Some of the main points:

- it features Chewbacca's dad, Itchy, his wife, Malla, and his son, Lumpy. Yes, those really are their names. There are long sequences of conversation between these three, entirely in Wookiee, without subtitles. Great.

- there's an enormously overlong sequence (maybe five full minutes, PLEASE don't ask me to go back and check, it certainly seemed interminable) of Malla baking a cake. She's following along with a recipe on what amounts to a TV, with a "TV chef" character most easily described as a purple Ainsley Harriott with four arms. The four arms are used to "hilarious" effect. Not.

- there are some Imperial characters whose acting is... well, let's put it this way - you can see the grain and the knotholes.

- Boba Fett does appear (Jango doesn't - where'd you get that Jimster?) - but only as part of an animated segment of pretty poor quality, we're talking late Seventies Saturday morning cartoon type animation here. His appearance was clearly designed solely to sell toys (c.f. Simon Pegg's description of "The Phantom Menace" as an "overblown firework display of a toy advert", 'Spaced' series two episode 1.)

- Bea "Golden Girls" Arthur appears as an alien bartender and sings a song to a slowed down dirge-like version of the tune Figrin Dann and the boys play in the cantina in "A New Hope".

- Leia sings! It's near the end, and numbed from the dire quality of the hour and a half that's gone before you really do sit there thinking "Have I taken something that's making me see these things?" when Han and Chewie arrive for Wookiee "Life Day" celebrations, and the music starts and Princess Leia sings some terrible dirge about life and love and all that. Much later Carrie Fisher admitted that she was drunk as a skunk and didn't care any more...

The Holiday Special is noteworthy because it seems to have been made in an ENORMOUS hurry to cash in on the unexpected success of "A New Hope". A particularly obvious example of this is the fact that the space sequences (mostly of Han and Chewie in the Falcon) are clearly reuses of footage from "A New Hope". Apparently the FX directors figured they could cobble together some stuff the audience hadn't seen before from discarded takes. They contacted ILM, who said "what discarded takes? Everything we shot is in the film. We didn't shoot anything we didn't use...". Which gives some idea of the now-hard-to-imagine hardup desperate nature of the shoot of the original film.

Of course, the MAIN reason the Holiday Special is notorious is the George Lucas has disowned it, doesn't like to talk about it, and would really prefer it if every extant copy could be hunted down and destroyed. It was shown once in the US, and never repeated, and likely never will be. In the age of the internet, though, you don't need to buy a dodgy video off some beardy weirdy at a convention to cast your eyes over the horror - the Holiday Special can be downloaded in RealPlayer format, if you know where to look. Since it is still copyright Lucasfilm (even if they don't want you to see it), I could not possibly supply any links to places where you could find it. But use your imagination. But before you do, a word of warning:

The Holiday Special was NOT directed by Ed Wood. It is NOT "so bad it's great". It really is just bad. It manages what no other Star Wars film (Ewok abominations included) manages, and makes the Star Wars universe look cheap, tacky and stupid. It makes "Space 1999" look like "The Matrix". If you love "Star Wars" with the love and wonder of the a child, watching the "Holiday Special" will taint that love forever, and you can't go back. This is NOT hyperbole, it really is that bad. I've seen it, and I truly wish I hadn't, because the experience cheapens the whole of the first trilogy. You can't watch it again without picturing Han looking nervously around, obviously thinking "what the f**k am I doing in this c**p?", or Luke doing his level best to smile indulgently, or Leia belting out a Life Day hymn through the haze of alcohol.

Phew.

Got that off my chest.

I'm going for a lie down.

H.

I actually got the bit about Bobba's dad third-hand (I was told it had his dad in it, though that might have just been me getting the wookie bits confused). It's the only part of my comments that I have no intention of ever researching, and I'm immensely grateful that Hoovooloo has already seen it so that no-one else has to.

I mean, Bea Arthur as a character in the Star Wars universe. No, not the *name* of a character, the actual Golden Girl. All it needed was a surprise appearance by Wayne Newton or Liberace to really top it off

Hoo, you even got the name of the special right - you sick, sick man...

Pity me.

H.

OK... some links to some reviews.

Note I have not checked out the link from the last one. I STRONGLY suggest that nobody else does, either. You WILL regret it, I promise.

http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special/

http://www.teleport-city.com/movies/reviews/bizarro/starwars.html

http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/ star-wars-holiday-special.html

http://www.ohthehumanity.com/review.php3?ID=411

http://www.x-entertainment.com/stuff/featureholiday.html

H.

So, Hoovooloo, can I take it you didn't enjoy the Christmas special?
both of you for all the info, I've added two more sections, one on the Holiday special and one on the Ewoks. Jimster, I've added your suggestions for re-formatting and the Chewbacca return is in a footnote already. I've also tried my best to pick out all the film names and them.
I've now credited hoovooloo as a researcher (aren't I nice?)
Oberon2001

I thought Chewie was supposed to be female?

Three quick comments:

1. There are numerous typos - it's "Sidious", for instance, which is spelled correctly sometimes, and "Sidius" elsewhere.

2. "Attack of the Clones" lists "Yoda - Frank Oz, voice and puppet master.", when one of the defining characteristics of AotC was the fact that there is not a single shot of a puppet Yoda in it - he was computer generated throughout, after an initial trial in "Phantom Menace" of a single long shot of him walking with a stick. In AotC, Frank Oz was voice of Yoda ONLY.

3. This coming Sunday is of course International Annual Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you.

H.

Typos, typos, always with the typos!
AotC credits amended, and I'm gonna have another trawl through the entry for typos (something I must've done about 10 billion times!)
Oberon2001

oh, don't mention chewbacca... i'm still broken-hearted over his death

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