First time I saw Star Wars was back when it was just called Star Wars, on its initial release. Doubt you'd have to think very hard to guess which version I'd like to have the chance to share with my kid.
Two things I find telling from that link that is posted above by Jimbo
One: That it's not just people that post on this forum that care if the Original versions get released.
Quote
First off, we got a three-person panel consisting of Rick Dean (the THX technical director), John Lowry (the head film restoration expert), and Van Ling (the DVD producer and menu designer). Jim Ward also contributed some insights. The hottest issue of the day revolved around the ever-controversial "special edition vs. original edition" topic, as the first question to come from the audience had to do with how Lucas could justify releasing an altered version of Star Wars when he'd publicly excoriated the colorization of the original black-and-white Three Stooges films. Jim Ward took up the reply here, pointing out that Lucas felt very strongly in the artist's right to choose the presentation of his own material, and that while the Stooges weren't around to give the OK to colorization, Lucas himself, as the artist, had every right to decide which version of the Star Wars films to release. After several other pointed questions from the audience on the topic of the special editions (clearly everyone in the audience would have preferred the originals), Ward simply stressed that George Lucas had made it very clear that the special editions of the films represent most closely what he really wanted to do with the films, and wasn't able to do on the first pass due to budgetary and technical limitations.
and Two: For all the time we waited for these films to be released on dvd, George felt that one day for each 4 minutes was all it was worth for the clean up process.
Quote
It was amusingly clear that Lowry is a total perfectionist, as he mentioned that his team had only 30 days to spend on each film, and he would have wanted to spend even more time restoring them. He dryly commented that "We don't usually have to deal with a living director," and added that doing so was "a pain in the ass."
I bet when they rework these films again for the next medium, that once again they will be shocked at the condition the masters are in, and will again have to 'repair' them. I cant help but be reminded of 'restorations' in the past , particularly on paintings, buildings and ancient objects ( Eqyptian treasures for instance), and how the attempts to preserve, no matter how well meaning, sometimes caused more damage than good. With George's way of thinking that each new version is the version to be built upon the next time a format changes, it seems each time a little bit more of what I watched and enjoyed ( yep, boxes around the spaceships and all ) when it was released , will be gone.