A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The Galactic Empire's Death Star 1 battle station in its final stages of construction. © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. Why wasn’t the Death Star re-engineered after the Rebels exploited the flaw with the thermal exhaust port? Actually, the Death Star  was  modified heavily after the destruction of Grand Moff Tarkin’s DS-1 at the Battle of Yavin. Although the movies don’t address this - there’s a three-year time jump between  A New Hope  and  The Empire Strikes Back -  it’s extremely likely that the Emperor called his most senior advisors and formed an Imperial Death Star Investigative Committee to discover how a single Incom T-65 X-wing fighter was able to destroy the Empire’s ultimate weapon with two proton torpedoes. Such an investigative body would have had access to archival copies of the DS-1 plans, perhaps provided by the Emperor himself. The original plans were destroyed along with the Imperial Citadel on Scarif shortly before the Battle of Yavi...

Photo Credit: eBay. (C) 1999 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Pros:  Nice detailing on Palpatine's costume, nifty hovercam accessory Cons:  No Darth Sidious cloak? No lightsaber? Young kids will be bored by Senator Palpatine .... A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... It is a period of instability in the Galactic Republic. Although 1,000 years have passed since the Jedi Knights defeated the evil Sith order, a phantom menace lurks in the shadows of the dark side of the Force, waiting for the opportunity to make its presence known and take control of the galaxy. With the Galactic Congress steadily growing more corrupt and inefficient under the influence of bureaucrats and special interest groups such as the greedy Trade Federation, hundreds of crises are arising throughout the Republic. Star systems begin squabbling over old grievances, and rumors of a financial scandal involving Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum have further eroded public confidence i...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an evil legacy long believed dead is stirring. Now the dark side of the Force threatens to overwhelm the light, and only an ancient Jedi prophecy stands between hope and doom for the entire galaxy. On the green, unspoiled world of Naboo, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, arrive to protect the realm’s young queen as she seeks a diplomatic solution to end the siege of her planet by Trade Federation warships. At the same time, on desert-swept Tatooine, a slave boy named Anakin Skywalker, who possesses a strange ability for understanding the “rightness” of things, toils by day and dreams by night—of becoming  a Jedi Knight and finding a way to win freedom for himself and his beloved mother. It will be the unexpected meeting of Jedi, Queen, and a gifted boy that will mark the start of a drama that will become legend. - Jacket blurb, Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace For nearly 40 years, Ballantin...