Disney should continue the Star Wars Saga in perpetuity

Thank you, Network. 1. Dr. Who and The Amazing Spider Man are relevantly different from the Star Wars franchise in two ways. 1)Their popularity centers around television series while the popularity of Star Wars centers around a film series. This is relevant because a sustainable film series is much more difficult to produce than a sustainable TV series. A TV episode need only be interesting to get the audience to tune in to the next installment. A film needs to not only be interesting, but memorable, since the time between installments is always at least a year and usually more. A single bad installment in a film series is likely to put many people off the series for good, where as a singe bad episode of a TV series is far more negligible. Consider the current marketing campaign by Disney and JJ Abrams to remind viewers at every turn that they are going back to using real film, more practical sets and creature designs, and less CGI or digital photography for Episode VII. This is clearly to lure back former fans of the series who left at the beginning of the century because of what they perceived as overuse of digital technology in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. If you get a bad episode of Dr. Who, oh well just skip it. No harm no foul. If you get a bad episode of Star Wars, you have eternal backlash and condemnation, as did the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Never underestimate the kind of damage a bad installment of a film series, especially Star Wars, can do. 2)The aforementioned series centers on characters that have caught on with audiences. The characters of Dr. Who and Spiderman are present in every episode. The Star Wars franchise, on the other hand, focuses on different characters, constantly creating new ones, and are thus more likely to end up with something unappealing to audiences. Having a character catch on with audiences is like catching lightning in a bottle. It's rare and unpredictable. If you have the same basic character(s) for the whole run, you can more or less bank on audience appeal. Star Wars spans generations and worlds. There always the need for something new, and so there is bound to be plenty of unappealing attempts at Star Wars entertainment at some point. Finally, besides the difference between Dr.Who/Amazing Spiderman and Star Wars is that fact that those sustainable long runners are more the exception than the rule. You will always have anomaly series that are able, for one reason or another, to enjoy a lengthy stay. That doesn't mean it's probable from the outset. The default assumption is that a series will be run into the ground and if it's doesn't, it's beaten the odds. 2. I'm actually in complete agreement with Pro on everything he or she said regarding the great potential of Episodes VII-IX and the opportunities for further stories set many years afterwards. The only problem is that Pro is arguing my very point, which is to say that what would be ideal is a NEW story! That is what I'm saying as well. Don't continue this same single narrative indefinitely, but begin a new story. What may not be clear to my opponent is that in Star Wars, a new story means a new saga. The current saga is ONE story. Therein lies the rub. It seems much more practical and smart to start a NEW saga with a NEW Episode I than add yet another roman numeral to this one story we have going now. 3. I also agree with my opponent that consistency can be a curse if gone on for too long. If we end the saga at IX, it needn't do that. The thing of it is, this saga has already laid out the consistencies it uses: The "long time ago" card, the Star Wars logo blasting into space with the famous opening score, the Episode numeral and title followed by the opening scroll, the iris out at the end, the same blue font against the black backdrop for end credits. Other types of consistences enhance the experience because they are variants of a single idea, thus simultaneously identifying an element as both unique and part of a larger whole. For example there a few consistencies better at doing this then the idea of the leitmotif, employed by John Williams in each film. The Imperial March identifies Darth Vader and the Empire as unique elements, but the very fact that they have such a pronounced theme also declares them part of Star Wars. Even beyond the leitmotif is the consistency of music style which is unique to John Williams. His scoring is so nuanced, that no one can really replace him. To have this run throughout the whole saga would add import to both the style and the saga. Hopefully Williams will live ably until 2018/19 when Episode IX nears completion.