A matter of priorities

This is going to be an off-the-cuff post, prompted by my disgust at a recent bit of Spam I just received from Lucas and company.

I've been subscribing to "The Homing Beacon," the official Star Wars e-mail newsletter, since — no lie — issue one. Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there used to be actual news content in the Beacon; especially when George was making the prequel trilogy.

Sadly, those days died long ago. For the better part of a couple years, THB has been nothing more than a place for George & Co. to shill new Star Wars-themed Beanie Babies, or whatever the latest bit of Saga-related merchandising is.

This week, THB hit a new low — at least for this reporter.

In news, we designate the most important item in a news story, or laid out on the page, as the "lead." In a story, the lead is the most important bit of information that appears in the story, or the item that will impact the most number of people. We use a similar ethic ethos when choosing the lead story to go at the top of the page; what is going to affect the most readers. The question "what's the lead going to be?" is a question that I wrestle with every single time that write the most trivial of stories up to those times when I've acted as news editor for that day.

I don't own this, or much of anything else,
so don't bother sueing me, George.

So it was a great offense to me when THB's lead story in the wake of Celebration V was "Celebration V Merch Now At StarWarsShop!" I'm long since used to this sort of behavior from Lucas Inc., but what set me off the way the "real" news of George announcing that the Saga would be coming to BluRay next fall was buried "below the fold," as we say — you had to scroll down past the hawking of Yoda hats and similar dreck to find it. In news terms, this is worse than burying the lead. It is putting a car advertisement in place of an interview with the mayor on what his administration plans to accomplish this year.

Now, from an advertising standpoint, I understand this; the merch is here now, rotting in the warehouse. Likely, George's minions have just begun the work of compiling the material that will appear on the BluRay versions. So from a strictly business standpoint, the Celebration V chotskies are "now," with the BluRay announcement a distant "then."

But from a "news" standpoint, this is laughable and offensive at the same time. People have been clambering for the movies to be released on high-def DVDs since the HD-DVD/BluRay format wars of a few years ago. The movies are the single most important facet of Lucas' Empire — in my mind, they are Star Wars. That the long-awaited BluRay box is on the way was the single most important piece of real information to emerge from Celebration V.

I long for the days when we used to be able to get stuff like this from starwars.com. I loved getting new bits about making the new trilogies, or the frequent behind-the-scenes stuff about making the original trilogies. Not just archival photos; real articles and web documentaries.

Sadly, those days seem to be past. These days, starwars.com and the Beacon are all about product releases, and interviews with 'celebrity' fans. Don't getta me wronga — I'm glad that x bass player from y up-and-coming band grooved on Return of the Jedi when it came out. But I can only read so many such articles before acute boredom starts to set in.

I know. So they missed the lead? Big deal. And you'd be right. I guess what bothered me the most was that they had a bit of news that actually excited me, that woke up the slumbering Star Wars fan in me for just a moment. I haven't been interested in Star Wars for a while now; I've been busy with The Beatles and Apple Inc. of late, and haven't had much of a reason to find the goings-on in the Star Wars mythos remotely interesting — until now.

The BluRay release poses interesting questions; what archival stuff are they going to put on it? Are they going to include the "THX" versions as well? Is George going to go back and tinker with the films yet again? And is this just going to be "quickie" release, the first of a series of "new" BluRay editions, each just different enough from the last to justify a buying these films yet again for the upteenth time?

The first part of this question is genuinely interesting. You can cram a lot of stuff on a BluRay disc, and George has got a lot of stuff to use. As a teaser, he showed a long-documented scene from Return of the Jedi of Luke assembling his lightsaber at Ben's house (That little tidbit didn't make it onto THB either, BTW, although it is at least mentioned in this news item on starwars.com).

I liked Empire of Dreams, but it doesn't get a lot of repeated viewings — unlike the bonus material in the Extended Lord of the Rings DVDs, which I practically have memorized (can anyone say "bring the partridge?"). Heck, the stuff on The Phantom Menace DVD would be a step in the right direction. Say what you will about Episode I, it was the single best DVD release today as far as being a total package. The other two prequels were sadly lacking in extra features (none more so that Attack of the Clones), and to have a single disc of extra features for the entire Original Trilogy was kind of insulting.

Personally, I'd love to see the inclusion of From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga, or something similar. George has got to have miles of behind-the-scenes footage and unreleased scenes that he's been sitting on for just such an occasion. Surely, this is that occasion.

The cynic in me is ready for George to use this release as a way to hype something new; say the live-action TV series we haven't been hearing much about lately. He's done that before, with several past releases: the plugs for video games on Episodes I and III, for example. And it would be very in keeping with Lucasfilm Inc. to use the weight of the Saga to drive interest in a new game for the PS3, or something similar.

But the optimist in me is trying to stay, well, optimistic. George has talked in the past about doing a "pulling out all the stops" box set of the Star Wars movies. A 10- or 12-disc set with lots of new goodies would go a long way toward regaining the confidence and, dare I say it, interest of fans like me. Like as not, we'll get six movie and a max of two discs of mediocre special features, with the promise of the better set yet to come "when he has time."

George has come through in the past — Revenge of the Sith may not have been what fans had envisioned in the early 80s when we first learned of the falling out of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. But I think you have be pretty picky indeed to have walked away from that movie thinking that he didn't deliver on everything that was expected of him.

So, in the end, it's going to be up to George; is he going to try to keep milking us for another twenty years, stringing us along with weak reissue after weak reissue? Maybe. But he might also come through in the end, and give every fan — not just the hardcore collectors — something they genuinely want.

Time will tell. But in the mean time, I have greata faith in the boy. We shall see.