A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Have you listened to 'Star Wars: The Radio Drama'?  Does its subplot about the Death Star plans impact 'Legends'? If you’re referring to 1981’s  Star Wars: The Radio Drama,  of course I have! Brian Daley (1947-1996) Photo Credit: Beauregard Simmons, www.briandaley.com So have many other  Star Wars  fans, both at the time that Brian Daley’s 13-part adaptation aired on National Public Radio and later, when Highbridge Audio (a subsidiary of Minnesota Public Radio) released it on audiocassette and compact disc in the early 1990s. In fact, I have two box sets of the  Star Wars: The Radio Dramas.  One is the “as heard on NPR” edition that most people own on tape, CD, or MP3 audio files; the other is the pricier  Limited Collector’s Edition  set that presents the Radio Dramas as they were originally recorded, without the edits asked for by NPR stations for station identification breaks and other industry-related issues. In ca...

(C) 1979 Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  In   November of 1979, Ballantine Books (then the sole licensed publisher of Star Wars novels and most of the literary tie-ins) published two versions of Carol Titleman’s The Art of Star Wars . One was a limited-edition hardcover, which I have never seen, the other was one of those "trade paperback" editions (coffee table size but in softcover). What made The Art of Star Wars a must-get for me in those days was that it contained the entire fourth revised draft of the screenplay for A New Hope (it was the first time I had seen the Episode IV subtitle, even though I bought this after seeing The Empire Strikes Back ). The screenplay included scenes that were later edited out of the final film (mainly scenes on Tatooine focusing a bit on Luke's life there and introducing Biggs Darklighter early in the film’s first act. Another deleted scene – which was restored for the Special Edition 20 years later – intro...

"This station is now the ultimate power in the Universe..." (C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Death Star's Transit Cast Lord Darth Vader (Brock Peters) Princess Leia Organa (Ann Sachs) Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (Keene Curtis) Imperial Star Destroyer Captain Star Destroyer Navigator Imperial Commander 2nd Officer Commander Tagge Admiral Conan Antonio Motti (David Clennon) Imperial Guard Announcer: OPENING CREDITS. Music: Opening theme. Narrator: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there came a time of revolution, when Rebels united to challenge a tyrannical Empire. The Princess Leia Organa, an Imperial Senator from the planet Alderaan, is also a leader in the secret councils of the Rebel Alliance. But her most daring mission, to deliver the plans for the Empire's most awesome weapon, the Death Star, has failed. In a last desperate bid to get the information into Rebel hands before being captured, she has placed it into the ...