You know, it's interesting that not much thought has been given to the separation masters. If they were made correctly back in '77, there are three B&W fine-grain masters, one for each of the YCM color records. I know Warner Bros. has a system called Ultra-Resolution for realigning 3-strip Technicolor masters - in a restoration/reconstruction of the original version of SW, couldn't some scenes come from separation masters and be similarly realigned?

This was brought up with Robert Harris on Home Theater Forum back in '06, he said that the same techniques used to recombine 3-strip Tech can be used to recombine separation masters. Sure, they'll be one generation removed from the negative, but they'll have no fading problems because they're B&W.

Jumps in quality during effects shots would be unavoidable in a 4K of Star Wars. But Baronlando is right, Sony was able to give us the 100% original version of Close Encounters, with no digitally recomposited effects shots, and it looked great. (However, in CE3K's case, the CRI elements may have been in better condition than SW, and thus able to be salvaged. I know that the CRI was still usable in 1991, because it was one of the source elements for the Criterion LD transfer.)

Where there's a will, there's a way. Lucas just doesn't have the will.