Star Wars » Treknicalities

Star Wars Mistakes

Oct 302011

In Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back, Jabba has Han solo encased in carbonite for not sending Jabba an ach check for the money Han owes. In Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi, Han is rescued from the carbonite near the beginning of the film.

An observant viewer might notice a few strange things that happen when someone is encased in carbonite:

Han’s hair is shorter when he is released from the carbonite than when he was frozen.
In Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Han’s shirt as he’s being frozen is single-breasted, but when he’s unfrozen, it’s now double-breasted.
In Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, just before Han Solo is encased in carbonite, the metal shackles on his wrists are removed, but the strap binding his upper arms is not removed. When released from the carbonite, his upper arms are no longer bound.

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William Shatner Weighs In On The Star Trek vs Star Wars Debate

Star Trek Movies, Star Wars, Video No Responses »

Sep 172011

People have argued for literally decades about which was better: Star Trek or Star Wars. Here is an interview in which William Shatner gives his opinion on this widely debated topic:

Personally, I feel the debate is like comparing apples and oranges. One takes place in our future and one tells a story that happened “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

It goes without saying that Star Wars had better special effects than the original Star Trek series, but that’s the difference made by 10 or 12 years worth of technological advances in movie making. If Star Trek had been made in the late 1970s instead of 1966 then the special effects would have been very different. To see this, all you have to do is watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture and pay a little less attention to how slowly the story seems to move along and a little more attention to the special effects.

Technorati Tags: science+fiction, star+trek, star+wars, debate, opinion, william+shatner, interview, video

Some Things Should Never Be Remade

Sci-Fi Movies, Star Wars No Responses »

Aug 052011

With Hollywood’s recent habit of coming out with re-makes of classic movies instead of new ideas, I find myself wondering how long it will be before someone decides it is time to re-make theoriginal three Star Wars movies (episodes IV, V,and VI). Whenever I start thinking about stuff like that I picture what today’s film makers would do with something like R2D2. Instead of a “little person” inside a motorized trash can-looking thing, I can see them building an actual robot and programming it with the movements it needs to make. I can also see them either replacing R2′s holographic display with an Epson TM-T88V, or at the least, adding one to his existing list of gadgets so that instead of the whistles and beeps that made him famous, he could just spit out a slip of paper with his dialog printed on it.

Some things should never get remade.

Darth Vader is NOT Luke Skywalker’s father

Star Wars No Responses »

May 312011

One thing about Star Wars that I’ve always found a little strange is all the times when two creatures of different races are having a conversation while each is speaking a different language: Han Solo and Jabba The Hutt, Han Solo and Chewbacca, C3PO and R2D2, for example.

If Chewy understands English, why doesn’t he talk to Han in English? Maybe his mouth and throat design make it impossible for him. In that case, why doesn’t Han talk to Chewy in Wookeese, or whatever the language of the Wookies is called? If C3PO understands the beeps and whistles that R2D2 talks in, then why doesn’t he make those same sounds when talking to R2D2? If I were fluent in, say, English and Chinese and someone spoke to me in Chinese, I would just naturally answer in Chinese.

There is one thing about Star Wars that never occurred to me until I read Stephen Romano’s article explaining why Darth Vader can’t be Luke Skywalker’s father. He brings up several very interesting points to prove his theory, makes it obvious that this was a plot twist that Lucas came up with to keep viewers interested enough to come back and see Return Of The Jedi and that episodes I, II, and III were simply a way to milk his favorite cash cow a little more.

Technorati Tags: science+fiction, star+wars, darth+vader, luke+skywalker, han+solo, chewbacca, jabba+the+hutt, c3po, r2d2

Star Wars Continuity, or lack thereof

Star Wars No Responses »

May 112011

We recently watched the original three Star Wars movies and there are one or two things that they either changed for the remastered version or just forgot about when they went back and made episodes I, II, and III.

At the end of Return of the Jedi, Luke turns and sees Anikan Skywalker, Obi Wan, and Yoda watching the celebration. When this movie was first shown in the seventies, Anikan, in that scene, was an old man. In the remastered version, Anikan has been replaced with a much younger actor, roughly the same age a Luke.

In Episodes I – III, it’s clear that Obi Wan was trained by Qui Gon, but in the original movies, Obi Wan says that Yoda trained him. I guess that in that reality, Qui Gon was actually designing web pages for laces like http://www.wholesaleinsurance.net and not training Jedi at all.