Fang Zei said:

All of this talk of practical vs cgi in the Episode VII thread got me thinking about a question that comes to my mind every now and then.

In an alternate universe where the SE never happened, do you think the PT could've been made in a way that synced up seamlessly with the OOT?

Also, do you think it's possible to watch the actual PT in conjunction with the OOT?

I believe that the PT could have been made to sync up with the OT, as its all a matter of perspective when it comes to CGI and what a director can do.

The big difference between the PT & OT is the locations. You have real locations in the OT (Tatooine, Hoth, Endor), and CGI locations in the PT (Geonosis, Kamino, Mustafar). The trilogies will NEVER match on this alone, because they look like 2 different movie franchises.

Lucas said in the AOTC commentary during the Kamino sequence that they could have build a huge model of places like Kamino, but it would just cost more. So he COULD do it, but by financing his own movie, he decided to do it the cheaper way.

I really wish Lucas had made the PT before 1993 (Jurassic Park was the turning point in CGI), and he would have been forced to use real locations, and it would have synced right up with the OT. Instead we have 2 trilogies that look nothing alike.