Darth Id said:
Very interesting title for that "Splinter." What is the phrase's significance in the book?
Without spoiling any of the story for anyone who hasn't read it, it's a reference to a tiny shard of the Kaiburr Crystal that Luke comes into possession of. As small as the splinter actually is, it plays a huge part in their adventure.
zombie84 said:
What about the Imperial Walkers he stole, I think from Syd Mead? Or C3P0 being straight out of Metropolis? I'd say its well within the realm of possibility and pretty consistent with the style of Star Wars, which is entirely assembled out of borrowed pieces, which is part of what made it so clever.
True. There is no denying he's copied other people's work. The link I posted has some excellent examples. If I'm wrong about the R2 copy, not only will I have even less respect for Lucas than I do now (if that's even possible), I'll make a point of making sure the picture and story are widely distributed.
SilverWook said:
Lucas has been known to borrow from things...
He has indeed;
http://moongadget.com/origins/index.html
That said; I've never made any secret of the fact that I doubt nearly every word he speaks and generally think of him as a dishonest person - at least with regard to his Original Vision Bullshit Story. However, I don't think he would blatantly copy something that closely and then claim it as his own. Conveniently leave it out of any discussions and hope no one ever noticed? - you bet. Steal and change the paint job? - no.
My take is post-Star Wars on those pictures. The clothing is correct for my high school years. (shut up) ;-)
Funny interview from last night's Daily Show.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-december-7-2010/seth-green
TV's Frink said:
Anchorhead said:
???
Purse Manor Something Or Other, in England. Might need a little help from some of our UK brethren.
Blue Moon - The Mavericks
Werth to the Nationals for 7 Years?!! Who signs guys for that long anymore? Crazy. Not to mention, Werth has to hate going from a playoff team to a cellar-dweller, no matter what the salary is. Man, top-to-bottom with the stroke of a pen.
TV's Frink said:
Joey said:
How you doin'?
That's for sure. Haven't seen near enough to have an opinion on her acting chops, but man, she was gorgeous. She certainly has the look of a can-take-care-of-herself princess.
Maybe a little before most of you guys' time. When I was a kid, she briefly had an almost career. I remember her, but not for anything I can actually remember - other than her almost being in Star Wars.
Funny how an image can stick with you forever. I've only ever seen the same few outtakes and production stills as everyone else, but every time I listen to NPR Star Wars - when Cammie is speaking, it's Koo Stark. To me, her face fits that sultry, rich voice on the NPR version.
Interesting alright. If they had gone that route, I imagine it would seem completely normal to us all these years later. We might even be having a discussion about how someone uncovered some old pics of how they tested making the fighters white...... "Man, check out these old pics. They almost went with fighters that had no color - not nearly as menacing. That would have been really weird looking. Good thing they stuck with maroon"
;-)
Wouldn't have looked bad. It does have a sort of sinister look to it.
As some of you may know, I listen to film scores much more than any other type of music, always have. Daily, in fact, at work and while commuting. A staple for me (all day at work) is the XM Radio channel 76 - Cinemagic. I email the program director regularly with questions, comments, etc. I emailed him late yesterday and asked about any plans for scores from Kershner films. He often puts together shows, where he features a common theme - composer, director, franchise, year released, academy award winners, etc.
For any of you with XM, this is a portion of his email response from just a few minutes ago.
"I'll be featuring music from 3 films directed by Irvin Kirshner as well as 3 films that Leslie Neilsen starred in later today. You can catch those around 1:40pm ET."
I'm not even remotely interested in zombie stories and never have been. However, the thought of a non-saga-related Star Wars novel is certainly interesting. The synopsis' mention of a derelict destroyer floating unmanned and being used to scavenge parts from is a very cool idea. The zombie part wrecks it for me though.
I only have four novels I read - all of which are non-saga-related. Splinter Of The Mind's Eye gets a pass because it was written before there was a saga, so it's a much better story. It's not locked into the tiny Lucas world. I'll increase my novel selection to what is most likely its final number of seven, when I get the Lando novels by Neil Smith.
My point; While the zombie angle isn't my thing, it's nice to see a story outside of the tired Empire\Sith Lords\Dark Side\Jedi Knights\Boba Fett universe. The franchise has gone to that well far too often.
TV's Frink said:
ken, I sort of envy you and your uncomplicated, rose-colored glasses view of Star Wars.
doubleofive said:
I bet a pair of those would fix the overly blue picture on the DVDs!
RIP, sir and thanks for one of my favorite Star Wars scenes;
Yeah, it happens several times during the winter. Upper 20s in November seemed a little early though.
Looking out at the ice-covered rooftops and frozen birdbaths - I'm inclined to agree.
As a wise man once said - "There are alternatives to fighting". ;-)
Bobby Jay said:
An article surfaces suggesting Prowse knew about Empire's secret plot reveal, they trace the evidence back to an old fanzine who interviewed Prowse and all they have to say about it is correct the date to 1977!
They only correct the date because it's completely self-serving. Makes all the revisionist lies seem like there may be some truth to them. It's well documented that Lucas first hired Foster to write a sequel story, then Brackett not long after.
He just needs to plant some doubt in the minds of the TFNers and they'll blindly buy whatever he's selling. In this case, they want to believe he had it all planned in 1975, just as he keeps trying to assert. They aren't going to go to the trouble of researching the truth. That would be something that would contradict the lies they've chosen to believe - the lies they want to believe. The lies they need to believe.
Instead of telling the truth - there is no way Prowse knew the story - that hadn't been written yet - he turns it into "...uh...yeah...Prowse, he...uh...he found out my original story somehow".
Lucas is a lot of things, but he's first & foremost very media savvy. He's always looking for ways to push that Original Story bullshit. With this old newspaper clipping, the fan base just served him one on a silver platter. Genius on Lucas' part to play this one the way he has.
see you auntie said:
It's fairly well documented that no one knew that plot point until they were ready to shoot the scene, nearly a year after that newspaper piece. Prowse delivered a different line during filming, which was later dubbed (obviously).
I would have to say, for me, it hasn't aged well at all.
The original film was something I lived in 1977. The single most representative entity of Star Wars for me was the John Berkey poster that came inside the soundtrack;
That poster was hanging in my bedroom. It captured perfectly how I viewed the adventure when I wasn't watching the film. The soundtrack was just about all I listened to and going to the theater to see Star Wars was a weekly occurrence at least.
I was 15 when Star wars came out, so I wasn't a toy buyer or collector of anything other than printed matter. Star Wars wasn't a group\kid\toy\costume\shared-experience thing for me. It was largely a personal nerddom of just the film, the music, and my imagination.
The emotional feel for me is most clearly expressed in the original theatrical trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gvqpFbRKtQ
That distant, serious, dark tone was how I felt about the film. Empire had none of the distant, desolate, loneliness of Star Wars, so it didn't connect with me the same way because it didn't feel like it was part of the same story. I dug it alright, but I eventually drifted. Return, on the other hand, was my prequel trilogy. It was where I said goodbye.
I drifted even further from the franchise after Return and didn't really reconnect until the Faces set was released, and then it was really only a one-time watch of all three. I had Star Wars & Empire on laserdisc, but hadn't watched them since the 80s. They were eventually lost in a flood. Purchasing the 93 laserdisc set in 2002-ish was where I fully reconnected, but only with Star Wars. It's also what led me to this board.
These days - having grown tired of The Machine, the lies, the suppression, the contamination, etc - that original emotion from 1977 exists only in the NPR Star Wars, Splinter Of The Mind's Eye, & The Han Solo Adventures. They have all supplanted the original film for me, which I last watched four years ago when the 1977 theatrical version was released as a non-anamorphic bonus disc.
So, in answer to the original question; Star Wars 1977 hasn't aged well for me - but the original emotional connection to that Far Far Away universe is alive & well. It's just in a different form now. A much better form.
It reads to me as though that was his idea for Star Wars III, so that they can both still be in Star Wars IV.
Baron is correct. People were coming up with stuff regularly back then. Everyone involved had a take. It was all just guessing.
The article is a perfect example of what it was like for us before the internet. You got your nerd news in small newspaper & magazine blurbs, and you took whatever you could get your hands on. And you saved it in a drawer, to reread constantly - at least I did. Nerddom moved at a snail's pace back then.
Yes, trade paperbacks are nice. I have a few myself. They're not really any different than hard covers on the inside - nicer, thicker paper, better printing, etc. I just threw out the comparison because they can be a little cumbersome as a toss-in-your-backpack reader. Particularly the Han Solo series - three books in one binding. To me, the smaller mass market paperbacks are perfect as reading copies.
Man, those would be my saving copies for sure. I only have Splinter in hardcover.