yes absolutely, I felt the characters in the OT were people... real people... nothing really dramatic about them until later but when it all started I felt they were just like you or me but dealing with really wacky situations. And maybe that enhanced the 'it' factor because we were feeling the amazment that they felt also. When they saw the big killing ball for the first time in close-up, we saw it too. When wedge saw the big death ball and said "look at the size of that thing", we could empathize. When the deathticle blew up a planet, leia's face told us how horrified she was that something like that could ever be done even in her fantasy world, so it really connected with how we'd react to something like that Im sure. There's a real human element to the story that I think clicks with us. When it doesn't it might as well be a fun cartoon and nothing more since nothing is real about it so no connection like that could be made. The sense of realism (down to earth) in a fantasy world as outrageous as star wars is what makes it great to me. On star trek, it's very military oriented and people really act like robots all the time like spock. In star wars, even the robots are very human being.