Anchorhead wrote:

There is no denying he's copied other people's work.

From early on, Star Wars was framed as the retelling/reinterpreting of culture. Some of the Official early books each introduced how aspects were lifted from old sources for instance the cantina aliens were sprung from the movie 'Freaks', the no legged guy being a partial inspiration for R2.

What was probably an awakening for culture and society was here was someone freely opening up about their inspirations instead of keeping it hidden behind the mystical 'artist' facade. And early on they continued that spirit through the making of special effect shows.

I wonder though how much of this was this done to counter lawsuits like the above mentioned 'Silent Running'. Did they scramble to find additional references and get them into print to counter other people who drew corrolations between their work and this new movie. Probably not much, but it creeps back into mind every time there is one of those droid-motorola suits.