Wojo

If it's not broke, don't fix it. Horner's not broke, therefore he's got nothing to fix. Besides, if every composer was like John Williams, then John Williams would cease to be as good as he is now; he would no longer be a yardstick by which other composers are measured, they would become indistinguishable from him, and that'd suck.

GRRRRRR. Just don't add CG crap to serve as filler, or take out all the guns, explosions, and swear words. Raiders of the Lost Ark is, in my opinion, the only perfect Indiana Jones film, and damned near the best action/adventure movie ever made. Period. It doesn't need any changes. It disturbs me, though, that it wasn't alter-happy George Lucas who changed and added parts of E.T., but Steven Spielberg. When you put them together, what do you get (beside a non-flowing Battle of Naboo)? The Indiana Jones Trilogy. This means, friends, look for Spielberg & Lucas to remove the sleeping Nazi at the back door to the Well of the Souls, as well as the fly that crawls into the mouth of Paul Freeman [Rene Belloq] as he's lecturing Indy on why he shouldn't blow up the Ark. A fly that crawls into his mouth but not out, and Belloq keeps on talking. That's so cool. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, Jones, at least you haven't forgotten how to show a lady a good time! Boy, you're something! Yeah? I'll tell you what. Until I get back my five thousand dollars, you're gonna get more than you bargained for. I'm your goddamn partner!

I couldn't say that any better myself, Marian. Except, of course, with more bandwith-hogging jawdroppings: eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 eek2 (it'd sure be nice to be able to put a delay in those, so their jaws drop one after another, rather than all at once.) Hehe. Man, an isolated score to a 3.5 hour film? Looks like I gotta brush up on my audio cut and paste skills to make an ultimate three disc soundtrack set. I'm as giddy as a schoolboy waiting for that DVD set; I've actually held off buying the August two-disc release until it drops in price after the four-disc comes out.

Go with the book's quote, then. I was wondering the same thing when I saw, the picture, too, but it makes a sweet wallpaper! I'm having trouble deciding which film I'm more looking forward to, The Two Towers or Nemesis. I mean, I already know what happens in the second installment of The Lord of the Rings, notwithstanding what editorial liberties Peter Jackson has taken, and I want to know if the rumours surrounding the tenth Star Trek flick are true and justified. Scorewise, though, I can't get enough of Shore's The Lord of the Rings, and am so incredibly looking forward to the soundtrack of The Two Towers, as well as the inevitable expanded soundtrack to the entire film once the king returns. I checked over at Aint-It-Cool News, and saw comments confirming that yes, music from "Requiem for a Dream" was used in the trailer, and even suggesting that Shore and Jackson may have acquired rights for that film specifically for The Two Towers. But hey, they used Braveheart music in the trailer for The Fellowship of the Ring, and Willow music in the trailer for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, so it won't mean a thing until we hear The Two Towers's score. BTW: Does anyone have or know of any The Lord of the Rings MIDI files, particularly the main brassy themes heard in Track 11 "The Ring Goes South" and Track 13 "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum"?

You've left out the Back to the Future Trilogy. But yes, I do realize it's coming out on DVD in December, so it's all good.

Seems to me all those choices but the "i know someone who does" are just varying shades of the same answer: a lot. Maybe it's just really late and my brain has turned to goo.

Potato, potato Tomato, tomato You guys would argue about the proper color of poop.

In addendum, I want to add that any effort by John Williams to rescore the Classic Trilogy, in my humble and honest opinion, could not be as good as the music he wrote twenty plus years ago. His style has significantly altered since then, and his attempts to recapture that style, i.e. Episodes I and II, have been better than most of his other contemporaries, but still lacking when put next to the juggernauts of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. This isn't necessary reflective of the films themselves being any better/worse, just the fact that the Classic scores are perhaps more familiar, enjoyable, complex, and thematically interesting than these two later Star Wars. If you disagree, that's fine, but that's just the way it is. John Williams is not the same composer he was "back in the day," his writing style has changed, and that's why a Greatest Hits cd nowadays will mostly consist of older SW, Indy, Jaws, ET, CE3K, Hook, and Superman, with the occasional Schindler, Harry Potter, SPR, AI, and Prequels. Actually, I'd say that the second list of scores named here are his anomalies, his more recent diamonds in the rough. Those of you who argue that he's grown more musically mature, diverse, emotional, and reflective in recent years, I would just have to say I like the rawer, more direct Williams, who picks two notes for a shark that still looks fake. But rescoring something as well known, successful, and beloved as the Classic Star Wars trilogy, however, that may be borderline blasphemy, but I see it as a personal challenge to Williams, to not only put Anakin's Theme and Duel of the Fates and Across the Stars and the Droid March and whatever else really cool and relevant that he's written for Eps I and II back into the established films, but also to see if he can recapture the feeling of exuberance, wonder, and plain old fun that existed in IV, V, and VI. Let's face it, Lucas is going to tamper with the classic films, it is probably only fair to do so, to add some continuity and closure to what he's establishing in these recent films. Sure, he should fix up the flaws in I and II, like finish discussing midichlorians without leaving us hanging in midair, but he can do that later. Isn't it better for Williams to write new music for these scenes than just use pre-established music for them, such as recycling music for Han and Jabba in Docking Bay 93, or using "TIE Fighter Attack" and "Hyperspace" for scenes around the Death Star II? I think so. It's like this, people: If John Williams is commissioned to rescore all or at least certain parts of one or more films of the Classic Star Wars Trilogy, he will do so to the best of his ability. Any flaws will most surely not be totally his own, but those of the people who edit his music, a la Battle of Geonosis. And it's not like George Lucas is going to knock on each of your doors and demand that you turn over any copies of older Star Wars scores that you have, from 1977 LPs to 1997's Special Edition releases. Nothing will stop you from listening to those and loving them to death and being able to sing and conduct entire hours of music from Star Wars. This just gives us something else to listen to. If it's as good as what's currently there, that's fantastic; if it's not as good, well, it's still Star Wars, and who says we have to watch/listen to it? We've got the old stuff. Now I'm done, until somebody who's afraid of change decides to burn me as a heretic. --"What's the meaning of all of this?" --"It's called the future...Your father called the future "the undiscovered country." Some people think the future means the end of history. Well we haven't run out of history quite yet. People can be very frightened of change." --"You've restored my father's faith." --"And you've restored my son's."

I'm usually a purist when it comes to works of art and/or entertainment that I love and respect, but when it comes to re-scoring the Classic Trilogy, I have mixed feelings. As much as I love the cue "Imperial Attack" at the beginning of Episode IV, when Vader boards the Tantive IV and goes all choke crazy, we've seriously got to look at it in the context of the six films. We've already heard the Imperial March in a varied form with Anakin's introduction on Tatooine, his self-titled Theme, as well as more conventional rendtions of it when he lets the Dark Side flow cutting down Tuskens, and when we see Palpy's clone ships take off. Depending on how Lucas plans to portray the "death" of Anakin Skywalker and subsequent "rebirth" as Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, in Episode III, boarding the Tantive IV may or may not be Vader's first appearance in the suit. Rumors range from Anakin falling into the lava pit right before Ep III's credits roll, to the Emperor retrieving him there, putting him into the Vader suit, finishing his training, and letting him cut down however many Jedi are left to kill (I'm thinking Mace Windu would die here, but that's my own personal conjecture). Either way calls for massively haunting and powerful performances of the Imperial March, and to have Darth Vader's first appearance be on the Tantive IV, that debut becomes startlingly pale with only a four-note or so Imperial Motif, and not his own full-blown theme. It's stuff like this that I could see getting rescored, scenes where the emotional impact of missing themes written for later films would work better than existing music or no music at all. The entire Battle of Hoth and Endor sequences, on the other hand, are about as perfectly seamless and thematically flowing as you're gonna get them, unless you want to put a few strains of Duel of the Fates, but don't overdo it. One thing that I am really keen about is placing deleted scenes not seen since the editing room back into the film where they belong. Such scenes work very well in such recent DVD releases as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where they help make that movie a bit more enjoyable, as well as Star Trek II, fleshing out the minor but unforgettable character of Peter Preston. These two releases put the deleted scenes right back into the flow of the film, whereas the 20th Anniversary release of Jaws put the deleted scenes in an appendix form, where you can watch the lead-in scene and then see what would have been different. I'm sure if you're quite willing to take the time, you can edit yourself a definitive copy with those deleted scenes put back into the movie flow, but it's really only worth it there to see Quint buying his piano string and yelling at the clarinet player. Then there are DVD releases such as Independence Day and T2: Judgement Day that give you the choice of watching either the original theatrical version and the extended version, both included on the same disc. This is along the lines of what I feel George Lucas should do for the inevitable DVD release of his beloved franchise, if these alterations come to pass. By all means, include somewhere the deleted scenes, such as the stormtroopers running into the wampa cage on Hoth, and Luke meeting Biggs and his friends on Tatooine and seeing the Tantive IV incident from planetside. And if Lucas wants to put this new footage into the films, such as Titanic-esque flashbacks showing an older, sadder Padme raising Leia, or Jar-Jar and Bail Organa's final moments as the Death Star rolls through Alderaan, go ahead, but give us the choice of watching it. Don't force feed all this new Star Wars music and video down the throats of those who have loved Star Wars since Oola danced to the ridiculous yet nostalgic "Lapti Nek," when we had no idea what Jabba the Hutt was until 1983, and when Luke didn't scream anything on his way to certain "death" at the bottom of Bespin. Release at least three different versions of the Classic Star Wars Trilogy: the original, purest 1977, 80, and 83 films; the Special Editions; and the latest refilmed, rescored Super Duper Special Edtions, or Force-Laden Special Editions, or whatever Lucas sees fit to call them. It's fine and dandy that Lucas sees the most recent version of the films as the "real" one, the most official canon, but don't deprive the world of the chance to see them as they once were. Perhaps Lucas could market each version as a different boxed set, or include all the different versions together. I know that I would buy them all, and love them all for their individual differences. This way, he would make EVERYONE happy, both the purists who want the rough, gritty feel of the non-CGI originals; the people who love the quasi-CGI look of the Special Edition; and the people who have yet to grow up knowing only whatever incarnation will include snippets of Gungans, Mauls, clones, Padmes, and Jimmy Smitses in their Star Wars universe. Both that, and he'd stand to make even more money from people buying all the various versions. This is the same marketing scheme that the people over at New Line adopted for The Lord of the Rings: release the film as it was with some specials now, and later, to once again build hype for the continuation (technically not a Sequel, just Part II), as if any artificial hype-builder were necessary, release an expanded version with even more extras. The same worked with Pearl Harbor, but how can you compare that movie to Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings? Long live Tora, Tora, Tora!, I say. As for the music of the Classic Trilogy, if it's re-scored, release the soundtracks with the originals intact, or at least the intact versions of the individual tracks altered, since they now fall under the "alternate / unused" category. Some of the scenes demand rescoring, like Vader's debut, while others stand to benefit, such as blending Qui-Gon's and Anakin's Themes into Ben's bullshitting session to Luke on Tatooine, when he presents him with his father's saber. Cliche, yes, but if it's not broke, don't fix it. However sad it may be, in the eyes of George Lucas, we will probably never reach a time when the Star Wars franchise is not broke. I'm done, for now.

Ocelot, you da man!

No, as Lord Gibson already pointed it, the trailer says I am under the impression that Star Trek X: Nemesis will not be the final absolute film featuring the TNG cast, but possibly the beginning of a two or maybe even three part story arc in which the TNG cast will pass the torch to the next generation (no pun intended) of Star Trek film stars. Granted, from spoilers released, it seems that the crew will be split up, a major character will die, and there will even be a wedding, but events such as these occurred twenty years ago with the classic Trek films. After the financial success yet critical stalemate that was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was supposed to be the final Trek movie, but after a test screening in which the movie ended with Kirk eulogizing Spock with "of all the souls I've encountered on my travels, his was the most human," the audience left the theatre as if it was leaving a funeral. Then Leonard Nimoy and Executive Producer Harve Bennett decided that maybe killing off both Spock and the Star Trek film franchise was a very bad idea, so they refilmed the end of the movie, paving the way for Spock's return and, by having Nimoy read the "Space, the Final Frontier" prologue at the film's close, basically saying that "yes, folks, Spock is coming back." Also in that film, we saw Chekov on another ship, and in unreleased footage from Star Trek III, Sulu takes command of the Excelsior, which he never *officially* gets until between V and VI. So don't get all pouty and think that Nemesis will be the last Trek movie, because it can't be. Even the events that have been released will need closure, and maybe even a way to bring the dead character back or partially back, so logically a Star Trek XI would be the way to do it. Possibly even to pass the torch to the DS9 cast or even Voyager cast to make a movie, since the events of Nemesis will be all-Federation reaching, as those pointy eared bastards the Romulans seem to forget all about the truce signed during the Domion War. --Darth Wojo, who realizes that if Nemesis IS the last TNG movie, that we'd have to wait about six more years for a Star Trek movie, so that at the end of Enterprise, we can see the Earth-Romulan War occur and the true formal birth of the Federation, unless it happens earlier in the show. AND GET RID OF THAT GODAWFUL SINGING INTRO!!! LET GOLDSMITH OR SOMEBODY ELSE WRITE A REAL PRE-TREK INTRO WITH ALEXANDER COURAGE'S FANFARE!!!

Stop getting on Horner's case for being unoriginal; there's only so many notes, and only so many ways to arrange them. As for being unoriginal, can we also add Lucas to the list for being terribly uninspired for his plot elements and dialogue in the prequel trilogy? It plays like everything from a high school civics textbook to Nazi propaganda to WB soap opera, not to mention the way each episode has mirrored its classic counterpart very perfectly. Or perhaps all these TV show makers who time and time again make courtroom, police, and hospital dramas; sitcoms; and soaps that play like everything we've heard before. It's because, people, certain artists have styles they stick to, and if they never leave those styles it's their own choice. Horner writes music to be the emotional backdrop to the movies he's been commissioned to, and to make money, not to win breathtaking awards or sit at the right hand of God. If he wants to be uninspired and do what he's done before, that's his choice, and it's safe. Willow and Titanic and Braveheart and The Rocketteer and ST III and The Mask of Zorro may not be as original as people would hope, but they're damn good scores, they work in their respective films, they sell like crazy, and they put food on his family's table. What more could anyone ask of him? To be original like John Williams? Puh-leaze... All of John Williams action music sounds just as interchangeable as all of Horner's, and all of Goldsmith's, too. If something's not broke, you don't fix it. --Darth Wojo, who thinks that Luke has bigger cajones than his old man ever did. Luke lost his hand and defied the face of evil itself by jumping to his death; Anakin lost his hand and promptly passed out.

Well, King Mark, would you be happy if they started to show all 3+2+7+7+7+1=27 (tos, tas, tng, ds9, voy, ent) seasons of Star Trek shows in the theatre, so you could catch up on your Trek lore?? Hmm... eek2 I know I would!

Post deleted on account of gross insensitivity by user, almost six years after said user posted it.

Maybe John Williams really did write 125 minutes of music for Episode II, but Sir George the ( censored ) All-Mighty just opted to either leave certain scenes scoreless, or re-use music from Episode I, music that either made the OST and not the film, or music that was entirely scrapped from Episode I. Therefore, isn't it possible that because of this whole mess, i.e. Episode II using music from Episode I and Episode VI, that ultimately Episode III will use the *missing* music from the battle scenes, et al, from Episode II, as well as even more un-used music from Episode I? It boggles the mind... Maybe someday, when Sir George ( censored ) releases the complete sextology on DVD (hehe, Star Wars and sex in the same sentence...), he'll also show the footage to that five minute-or-so scene from Return of the Jedi that already has music, between Vader's arrival to Death Star II and the droids bickering en route to Jabba's palace.

The Klingon ship first seen in Star Trek III and renamed the "Bounty" when Kirk and company use it to voyage home in Star Trek IV is called a "Bird of Prey" because the baddies in III were originally supposed to be the Romulans. However, somebody (Nimoy, I believe) voted in favor of using the Klingons because they're generally more interesting (honorless enemies aren't), and so the ship model stayed on as a Klingon ship instead of Romulan, sign of another treacherous collaboration between the Empire and the Star Empire sometime between the Klingons obtained the cloaking device and Khitomer. This green birdlike design was not apparent in the Klingon battle cruiser seen in TOS episodes "Day of the Dove" and "The Enterprise Incident," but because of the switcheroo in Star Trek III, the look stayed and evolved into the Klingon Negh'Var, seen in DS9's various conflicts against the Cardassians and Dominion; a cross between the green BOP and the D7 & K't'inga battle cruisers, if you ask me. Also, the Romulan ship with the orange bird on its ventral hull seen in TOS "Balance of Terror" is a Romulan Bird of Prey. By the time TNG rolled around, that ship would have been over 70 years old ("The Neutral Zone"), so to stay parallel to Federation and Klingon ship advances, the old bird of prey gave way to the Romulan D'deridex class Warbird, with that dual hulled biplane look with null space inbetween, and a quantum singularity power source.

Marian had the right idea by pointing out that someone has to read TLOTR trilogy to understand Tolkien's underlying themes. It is sad that nearly all of Tolkien's original elvish poems and stories were cut from the film and the music, but the lyrics that were written used Tolkien's languages, so it's all good. Williams, however, would probably have used Latin or Sanskrit, like for Duel of the Fates, and that would be totally un-Tolkien like. Shore's score was much better than anything Williams could've written, and besides, it wasn't at all like what Horner would've written. He'd have done a cut and paste score from the last two decades, using the same chords from the sinking of Titanic every time the Ring was on screen. I'm of the opinion that Williams would not have created a good score at all for Lord of the Rings, that kind of score is not in his vein. It's one thing to make a happy-joy-joy-like score for Harry Potter or Hook, but TLOTR is in a different category of fantasy altogether, a very dark and allegorical story that takes itself very seriously, not the tired and cliched wizards witches with broomsticks and magic wands. Give Williams small, minor movies from now on, let him finish Star Wars and Indy and however many more overrated Potters we have to muddle through, but give brand new epics to the up and coming composers.

I'm not gonna disagree with you, Figo, but lemme ask you this: Who's more greedy, George Lucas or Bill Gates? :?:

Yes, I heard that loud and clear in the one time that I saw the film, but I almost missed it because in my head I was listening for the line that I read in that gray, $35 Star Wars book of concept art for Episode II that had the annotated screenplay in the back. The line read: "Guiding Light to Old Folks Home." It could've been "Guiding Light calling Old Folks Home," too, but the point remains the same. So I'm guessing that those are the Star Wars equivalent of code names, like in Top Gun or something. Just thought ya might want to know.

I agree with Neil that The Last Crusade ended perfectly, a la Zorro riding off into the sunset. "The Indiana Jones Trilogy" has a nice ring to it, and "the Indiana Jones Quadrilogy" or whatever you'd call it is just hard to say. Sure, I'd go see a fourth Indy film, if only for the score and the classic humor and action of an Indy film. My fear is that Lucas might try to "Episode I"-ize Indy, but I'm hoping that Spielberg wouldn't let that happen. But my question is, what the hell is he going to be looking for this time that he hasn't already found in a previous film or video game? Darth Wojo - Who would like to see Indy take the Ark of the Covenant out of that government box and do something with it, like radio God or something.

That's one of the silliest things I've ever read posted here in the month that I've been visiting here. No offense, dude. If Mon Mothma were really the mother of Luke and Leia, don't you think she'd at least say hi from time to time? At least Anakin/Vader had the honesty and decency to reveal himself to his long-estranged son, and then tell him to pass it on to his sister (yea, he appeared in a dream to Leia, but we know how we feel about the books). Besides, if they redo Mon Mothma to be Padme-ish, they'd have to change all the Dark Forces and other games to make their Mon Mothmas look and talk like Padme instead of the real mccoy, Mon Mothma. Additionally, isn't Mon Mothma from Chandrilla? You're expecting Goerge Lucas to write Padme as a pathetic Hilary Rodham Clinton-esque Senator and move to another planet, and then lead the Rebellion? I don't think so! I'd wager that Mon Mothma was in the Senate even as Padme was married. The more incestuous these people try to make Star Wars, the less I like it. Darth Wojo - Who wants a time machine to jump ahead three years so all these "what if" posts can stop.

Thank you to all those posters who saw the same thing that I did, a whole bunch of kiddie Bobas at the learning consoles with weird things on their heads, and adult Typhos in red jumpsuits eating the finest cuisine that Kamino has to offer. I realize that it's not likely that Naboo has ever been involved with cloning, hence my Title Subject was just to grab your attention and draw you in, not to suggest that Typho actually was a clone. I'm just interested to know why the actor was that of Typho and not Jango; anyone who argues otherwise is blind. And Naboo, even though they're pacifist, has an army to defend against the Gungans, the other military power on the planet. At least, that's the reason the Trade Federation gives in the game Galactic Battleground. To think, if I posted here as much as I played computer games.... Darth Wojo - Who sometimes wishes he could jump into stasis until May 2005, so all the anxiety and hype wouldn't be there. Maybe all I have to do is get my car up to 88 m.p.h.. ....

That's a very good question, Wickenstein. I'm not sure, considering his original blue sabre got damaged (irreparably?) when his arm was being toyed with on the conveyor belt, and then someone, who I swear was the bearded one of N'Sync (not proud that I thought of that), tossed him a green one, then he got Obi-Wan's blue one, then lost one of them, and his arm in the process. I would say that he must build another one between Episode II and III. Besides, if Lucas is going to follow the close parallels between the respective episodes of each trilogy (I and IV end with processional celebrations/awards, II and V have arm-cuttings and emphasize love stories), then I'd say that another parallel would be that both Anakin and Luke build their replacement sabres between the second and third episodes of both trilogies. I was pondering it myself about a month ago in Kaybee Toys, when I saw that the toys for Anakin and Obi-Wan were both blue. We know Obi-Wan's is blue in Episodes I and IV, so he's probably responsible and hasn't lost it, unless he just likes blue replacements, but the scenes in the trailer showed Anakin with a blue one, or with a green one, or with both colors. Having a blue toy represent him seemed inconsistent with these trailers, before seeing the film, even though we know that the sabre that Obi-Wan gives to Luke is blue, therefore Anakin's final "Light Side" lightsabre of Episode III. In any case, Luke's blue sabre is not the last sabre that Anakin constructs; his Sith red one is, as Vader. Darth Wojo - Who hates when he has an important post in mind, and then forgets it while writing another. Podoo!

Sorry, CCC, but I think you misunderstood my question. I know that Typho and Jango don't look anything alike. Jango's white, and Typho looked more Polynesian than black to me. What I'm saying is that the adult clones of Jango Fett eating dinner in the red suits don't look anything like Jango Fett. They look like Captain Typho. I didn't watch a bad print, and I don't have the money to go see the second worst Star Wars film umpteen times in a row.

I don't know if this has already been asked before, but is anyone here knowledgeable about the Death Star creators/inventors in the Expanded Universe? I know that Expanded Universe literature is not canon and that anything in the movies (i.e. Special Edition) is the highest canon, but I seem to remember the Death Star being Tarkin's brainchild out in the Maw research facility, his pride and joy. Also, the documentation for 1998's LucasArts game "Star Wars: Rebellion," which I personally love, says this of the Imperial character Bevel Lemelisk: "Chief Engineer Bevel Lemelisk is the chief Imperial space station designer and was the creator of the Death Star." I know, I know, all this EU stuff means bull next to the movies, but now I'm interested to know the significance of the Geonosian connection to the Death Star. Did they invent the whole station, or just the superlaser technology? Dooku tells them he'll take it to his Master for safekeeping, so it's possible that Palpy just keeps this in his desk drawer until the Republic becomes the Empire, then gives it to his top scientists for further analysis/implementation/construction. It's certainly possible that because of the Empire's strong anti-alien, pro-human discrimination (hence only humans serving in the military*, and alien worlds like Kashyyk and Mon Cal being slave worlds), Imperial history forgot Geonosis' importance and gave credit to human engineers. *I know, I know, Thrawn is an alien, but he's a gifted exception, and he's EU anyways. I also feel that it may be a good thing that this "Ultimate Weapon," the Death Star, is seen early, because it could serve to indicate to us how long it takes to build. It is not inconceivable that we see the Death Star's early construction as a sign of the Republic's evolution (or rather, de-evolution) into the Empire, because I would argue that the Death Star takes a long time to build. Sure, we see the second Death Star appear unfinished in Episode VI, which is what, three or four years after the first Death Star went kabloeey over Yavin? That doesn't mean it was begun right after the first one; they could've been started together. I mean, a Death Star is absolutely huge! True, true, I'm thinking in terms of 20th century Earth human engineering standards, not "galaxy long time ago, far, far away" engineering standards, so maybe the Death Star only takes like two or three years to build, not decades like a pyramid. Heck, the Death Star itself could have been built as the Republic's final hurrah, perhaps as a way to finally defeat the Separatists, or the Empire's first action, and that Ultimate Power (next to the Force, of course) in the hands of one individual all that was needed to spark Rebellion. Not likely, but I'm brainstorming here. Darth Wojo - Who thinks that now we've unmistakenably seen the Death Star in Episode II, it just won't go away again until Episode IV.