SilverWook said:

Did ILM work on the film?

We all know the infamous ringed Death Star explosions in the SE's were inspired by the Praxis explosion ILM did for Star Trek 6.

Yea, the two movies are listed among their filmography, although I don't know how significant their role was, considering they're not mentioned on the main pages of the films (I'm talking about Wikipedia, so yea...).

But that'll certainly be explanation! :D

Hm, not that much of a "popcultural influence then", eh...