Star Wars Holiday Special

So today is Star Wars Day for no good reason (May the Fourth be with you, groan) but happily I'm reminded of the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, truly one of the most embarrassing moments in SW history. Lucasfilm has effectively banished this to a galaxy far far away but youtube as ever comes to the rescue. A word of caution - if you're allergic to Wookies, the Holiday Special might send you into anaphylactic shock. Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been The Star Wars Halloween Special what with the grotesque looking grandfather Wookie, and the scene where an Imperial troopers smashes up Chewbaca's kids' toys which might disturb sensitive younger viewers. And the constant braying from Chewbaca's family is genuinely distressing. Still it's not all bad - look out for a nice bit of intergalactic sleaze when the grandfather Wookie enjoys some virtual reality R&R - the intergalactic babe in the program offers: "I am your fantasy, your experience, so experience me". Fans of Star Trek: The Animated Series will enjoy a very 70's animated segment starring Boba Fett, there's a song from a fully stocked creature-factory Cantina, and a bizarre instructional video with lots of Max Headroom style video ef-ef-ef-effects. Odd. This is the sharp edge of exploitation and CBS who probably couldn't see past the advertisers lining up for airtime like audiences lined up around the block for the film, got what they deserved. I'd like to think that Lucas learned something valuable after whoring out his creative vision to people who didn't care or understand, but I remember being deeply disappointed when I saw The Ewok Adventure in the mid-80's, something I would consider another Star Wars mishap. And now that the Holiday Special is back in unofficial circulation, I must assume it is persona non grata among staff at Lucasfilm. Someday we will see the return of the original versions of Star Wars I've no doubt, but I'm positive this one will forever languish at the bottom of the Death Star's trash compactor.

The Inevitable Force Awakens post

Should the long-suffering people of North Korea ever have to hear proclamations from their supreme leader in the guise of a 50ft hologram, we can all blame J.J Abrams for putting the thought in Kim Jong-un's mind.... I got my draft card for the Star Wars film this afternoon and stepped up to fulfill my patriotic duty - but more about that in a moment. As the first act of The Force Awakens unfolded I wondered if Abrams and his team were being unduly reverential with the Star Wars legacy, such were the nods, winks and asides to the Original Trilogy, but as the film hit its stride, my suspicions eased when it became apparent that Abrams had pulled off the all but impossible task of making a Star Wars sequel entirely harmonious with the films that, sequentially speaking, preceded it. The Force Awakens answers all the questions asked of it - the screenplay is lucid, intelligent, and creative (the light saber duel in a snowy, twilit forest is truly spectacular), the cast incredibly able, especially the two very likeable young leads, and the magnificent futurist designs are complimented by some extraordinary and judiciously used CGI. I hasten to add that this is not a case of the seduction of the gullible - at least one CG-character I thought was ill-advised and I felt the otherwise reliable Domhnall Gleeson was guilty of scenery chewing, but these are minor complaints. As for that bit of patriotic business I mentioned earlier, it was a great thrill to see Ireland's own wild Atlantic island Skellig Michael in a pivotal scene late in the film. I was privileged to trod those same ancient, precarious steps as one character does some years ago...