A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....03/05/02

What a week! Episode II's really beginning to gather the attention that it needs to make a major impact come May 16th!

Starting on Sunday with the Mail on Sunday which contained a Special Collector's Edition of it's Night and Day magazine and Mini CD ROM. The magazine was great with a nice cover and some impressive photos, while the CD ROM contained a Making of videos, music from the soundtrack, photos screensavers and wallpaper.

A great start to the week only got better with the release of John Williams Episode II soundtrack, which is a real throwback to the original trilogy.

I love this soundtrack. Without a doubt the best track on the CD is Confrontation with Count Dooku. When the orchestra suddenly breaks into the Imperial March from the classic trilogy you know that this is the Star Wars of old.

Even after twenty-five years the main theme to Star Wars still sounds as fresh today as it did when it was first released.

A great score from the master John Williams and worthy of an Oscar next year.

My buy of the week has to be the Deluxe 3" Mace Windu with Battle Droid. The figure looks great in battle pose, a far cry from the mellow looking Episode I Mace Windu Preview figure!

Next week can only get busier as we head into the home stretch!

Memory of the week: Elstree '93

1993 was the tenth anniversary of Return of the Jedi (a film that at the time, you would get laughed at if you said that you liked) and the 100th Anniversary of Elstree Studios, or what was/is left of it.

So to Celebrate 100 years of the Studio, at a small theater called the Venue they were showing some of the classic movies that were filmed at Elstree, and three of those movies happened to be the Classic Star Wars Trilogy.

The Venue could only hold around 500 people which in 1993 was about the amount of fans that Star Wars had left. So on a hot summers day the remainder of a once big community gathered at Elstree to watch these great movies.

Now both my friend Peter and myself are lifelong Star Wars fans so the chance of seeing Star Wars on a big screen in Elstree was not to be missed!

When we arrived at Elstree it was like we were visiting a Holy temple as this was where they filmed the movies that we have both loved all our lives.

On the way to the Venue we passed the main entrance to what is left of the studio and stopped for a look. I got such a buzz knowing that George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher actually passed through those gates to make the movies that I love so much, but at the same time I felt sad knowing that most of this once great studio had been transformed into offices and a Tescos superstore.

When we arrived we discovered that David Prowse (Darth Vader) was there which was a real bonus. He signed autographs before we headed into the theater for the first of the three movie.

Before Star Wars (Episode IV)) began there was a presentation from the Elstreee Historical Society and a message from George Lucas was read being that this was the last time that the saga would be seen anywhere in the world due to a Special Edition that was being worked on for '97.

David Prowse introduced the movies and encouraged the audience to participate by booing the Imperials and cheering the Rebels !

Now this was one of the best audiences that I have been privileged to have been in and we all let ourselves go.

We were all fans who were there for the experience and we sure had one. We booed Vader cheered the Rebels, laughed at all of the more subtler jokes and at the end of the movies the applause was deafening.

Between movies we headed for the Studio to look around the outside and peer over the fences surrounding it.

On the way back for Return of the Jedi we noticed that a crowd had gathered outside the Venue and went to see what was up. When we arrived back we saw none other than Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok) who had made a surprise appearance.

Truly a nice guy, he signed a comic book (the only thing I had on me as I never expected anyone to be there).

Before ....Jedi Warwick gave a speech and pointed out that the soundstage which is now Tescos was where The Ewok Village set was located.

As ....Jedi finished we headed back to the train station via Tescos so that we could walk on the ground where they had filmed the movies.

It was an emotional experience knowing that the car inhabits the spot where our childhood dreams were created.

May the force be with you.