Harmy, I am honored that you decided to contribute to this discussion.

Are you serious? If this is true, then the story behind this movie continues to hold surprises and the fates did create a special and memorable version for me. Absolutely amazing!

Living in the uncharted backwaters of the galaxy (a small town in Nebraska, USA), I am sure that we weren’t the first to see this film and thus explaining the state of the film as I saw it.

I just have to add in a little embellishment from my memory for this to be explained entirely. The memory of the shot fired from the Death Star corresponds with that at Alderon and the beginning of the shot at Alderon with the beam forming in the tube, would fit there also (although my memory has it from the perspective of looking at the source not the emission of the beam).

The story makes for a nice Christmas gift! Christmas being my Mid-Winter Festival of choice - I hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday Season no matter which you choose to celebrate.