May 29, 2007: A tragic day for Star Wars fans

A few days ago we had the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope, even though it was a few years later when the subtitle was added). Last night the History Channel ran Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed, which is one of the best documentaries about Star Wars that I've ever seen. There's been a lot of jubilation this past week about our favorite modern saga...

...but today is a time to mourn.

Today Sacrifice, the new Star Wars novel in the "Legacy of the Force" series, was published. As is being widely reported already, this is the book that sees the death of Mara Jade Skywalker: wife of Luke Skywalker and perhaps the most beloved Star Wars character to have never appeared in any of the movies.

Mara Jade first appeared in Heir to the Empire, the first of the modern "expanded universe" books, in May of 1991. When we first saw her she was trying to kill Luke. She ended up falling in love with him. The two had a wedding as beautiful as any to be found in a fairy tale.

Mara Jade Skywalker was many things: former Imperial, Palpatine's personal assassin, smuggler, dancer, spy, Jedi, diplomat, wife, mother to son Ben... and so very beautiful.

And now, she is dead. Murdered at the hands of nephew Jacen Solo... who is now a Sith Lord calling himself Darth Caedus.

It's the end of an era, my friends...

Mara Jade, we hardly knew ye!

By the way, I sort of have a bit of "history" with Mara Jade. Some years ago I sat next to Shannon McRandle - the actress who did Mara's "real life" portrayals - during dinner. And in 2000 I interviewed Mara Jade's creator Timothy Zahn in an interview for TheForce.net. Then I wound up making a replica Luke Skywalker lightsaber for a friend's Mara Jade costume...

And yes, I do have a "favorite" Mara Jade outfit. But I'm not going to say which one it is here. But I will say this: of all the Star Wars female characters, I always thought that she was the hottest (WAY more so than that ridiculous "slave Leia metal bikini"). And for her attitude as much as for her loveliness.

Rest in peace, Mara...

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Amnesty opponents don't know "what's right for America", Bush says

From the story...

"Those determined to find fault with this bill will always be able to look at a narrow slice of it and find something they don't like," the president said. "If you want to kill the bill, if you don't want to do what's right for America, you can pick one little aspect out of it.

"You can use it to frighten people," Bush said. "Or you can show leadership and solve this problem once and for all."

Once again, The Decider decrees that to disagree with him is unpatriotic. Hell, he practically accuses those against illegal amnesty of having the same mindset as "the terrists".

But it is George W. Bush and those like him who are destroying America. In ways that "terrorists" can only dream they could accomplish.

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Quick note on some o' my websites

kwerkyproductions.com, knightforboard.org and knightvisionmedia.com will be temporarily offline for the next week or so. We're moving them to new hosting. It'll also give me some time to "tweak" a few things behind the scenes :-)

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Rest in peace Charles Nelson Reilly

I heard this morning that Charles Nelson Reilly - Tony Award-winning performer and Match Game perpetual panelist - passed away this past Friday at the age of 76.

I didn't know him from any of that. No, like a lot of us who "came of age" during the last decade, I know Charles Nelson Reilly mostly from his role as Jose Chung in the classic The X-Files episode "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'": easily among the most unique hours of Nineties television.

A few years later Reilly returned as Chung in the Millennium episode "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense". In his honor, here is the intro to that extremely hilarious episode (which made fun of Scientology):

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Something to ponder this Memorial Day ...

I took this sign to a few places around Greensboro today...

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Government to sanction medical experiments without patient consent

Read the story at the Houston Chronicle site here.

The first things that flashed in my mind when I read this story were Nazi "doctors" like Josef Mengele, and the Tuskegee Experiment (which was conducted by the American government, by the way).

Someday "they" will go too far - if they haven't already - and the Man in Room Five is going to break free and come looking for them.

(Props to anyone who will recognize that literary reference.)

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STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS trailer soars online (and an update on TALES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC)

I must admit, when I first heard about this project I was more than a little skeptical. I mean, haven't the Clone Wars been depicted enough over the past five years? Guess I was hoping for this kind of effort to be made toward covering ground we haven't seen yet (like the interval between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hop, or the Old Republic era). That said, this looks "impressive... most impressive!"

Mash down here for the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars trailer.

Speaking of computer-animated Star Wars, a few days ago I posted a report about something called Tales of the New Republic. Ever since word about this came out last week a lot of fans have been stymied as to whether or not this is an official Lucasfilm production. Sometime in the last day or so it was posted on the project's website that this is not an officially sanctioned production. It's something being done by a group of fans. Still astounded by the amount of work that seems to be going into this though. Here's the trailer for Tales of the New Republic that they've put online...

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