As far as George Lucas saying that Empire is his least favorite. Since when does any one believe what Lucas says anymore? People are always complaining about Lucas contradicting himself. You cant have it both ways. either what he says is admissable or its not.

Interesting point, but

1) You can't just say "people" are saying this about Lucas in attempt to rebut a specific poster, unless that poster has made the same argument that "people" have, and

2) I've never seen another quote by Lucas saying he loved Empire, therefore, in this instance, it seems Lucas has been consistent on that issue.

AxiaEuxine said:

I just want to share my joy of Star Wars with people that enjoy it and there doesnt seem to be anyone that actually does anymore. It makes me sad.

I enjoy Star Wars very much ... I enjoy Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and, to a lesser extent, Return of the Jedi.  I also enjoy the Thrawn trilogy of novels.  That's it.  To me, that's canon.  Nothing else.

And just because the original creator made it doesn't make it "canon" - canon is different for everyone.  It's entirely personal opinion.  For example, my Star Trek canon is The Original Series, The Animated Series, the first six movies, and the new one.  I don't give two shits about Next Generation even if Roddenberry created it to begin with - I don't like it.  So, to me, it's not canon.

TheBoost said:

But it seems to me if it's kosher to change the entire appearance and culture of the main antagonists, why is it sacriligious to redesign the spaceship (which looks pretty darn identical to me)? Uhurua is serious, beutiful, and brilliant. Spock is half-human... why wouldn't they dig eachother? Is flipping out and denying what I thought was a couple nice character moments based on the nebulous concept of 'canon' really worth it?  

I really am not interested in a canon debate, the recent one I had in an SW thread was more than enough for me. I really don't care about canon, I really don't care if they redesign the Enterprise or if Uhura and Spock like to get a little bit of cross species funk on with each other. I have never flipped out about these things. I didn't particularly like the new movie, it has a very different feel to it than the Trek I grew up with (and I am not suggesting that original Trek was always perfect, some of it down right sucked, but as a whole I really have enjoyed it through the years). The bottom line is that to me, this new film just doesn't fit with the others. Not saying this in canonical terms, but more in the terms of tone, style, feel, everything about it really. And in reality, it really isn't suppose to.

This new film is a reboot without balls. It just wasn't quite bold enough to come out and say, "Hey old Trek, I am starting over." but instead decides to become an alternate time that exists along side the original. I think the film would have been better without that, the reality is that this is a reboot. That is just fine with me, it was about time they rebooted the franchise. I don't think there is anything wrong with the fact that I am not all that interested in this new rebooted series.

In the text you quoted from me, I was simply saying that technological evolution in story telling can hardly be considered cananical issues. All the aliens all look extremely different in the latest ST TV series (Enterprise) than they did in their original incarnations. This isn't altering canon, this is the evolution of story telling. These species become more indepth and fleshed out, and more time effort, and technological innovations are put into their costumes. Canon has nothing to do with any of it.