From: umwieb69@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Brent Michael J. Wiebe)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars
Subject: The Star Wars That May Have Been (1/3)
Summary: The first of three postings taken from "Skywalking"
Date: 13 Sep 92 01:37:22 GMT
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

OK, finally I will post the first story treatment of Star Wars as taken from
"Skywalking-The Life And Films Of George Lucas" by Dale Pollock copyright 1983
published by Harmony Books, ISBN #0-517-54677-9.  OK, here goes:  If all 
goes well, in a few days, I will post the next story treatment as given in
the same book.  But I really believe that you all should get this book, and
find out for yourselves about certain things.  It has great insights into the
movies, all in all, very interesting.

From pages 134-135

"The first treatment resembles the early draft of a novel-it's fascinating to
see how some elements were kept intact and others radically transformed or 
abandoned.  Lucas sets his story in the twenty-third century, a time when the
Jedi-Templar warriors, like their medieval counterparts, swore fealty to the
Alliance of Independent Systems.  Three locales were described: jungle and 
desert planets and a gaseous world with a city suspended in the clouds. 
Every person, beast, and structure was exotically named and described in 
detail."

"The story was complicated:  Leia Aguilae, a rebel princess accompanied by her
family and retainers, flees from an evil sovereign who has taken control of the
Alliance and declared himself emperor.  General Luke Skywalker, one of two
surviving Jedi Knights (along with his friend Annikin Starkiller), leads Leia
on a dangerous escape route.  Along the way, they take two Imperial bureaucrats
hostage, who add comic relief to the film.  A rebel band of ten boys, aged
fifteen to eighteen, also join the group.  Pursued by Imperial troops, the
rebels are chased across space and hide in an asteroid belt.  They eventually
escape in a stolen space freighter to a jungle planet where they are attacked
and the princess is captured.  The boys, trained by General Skywalker to fly
one-man 'devil fighter' planes, free the princess, engage in a laser-blasting
dogfight in space with the Imperial fleet, and escape again into deep space.  
In the final scene, the general and his small band are rewarded by the 
princess on her home planet, where she reveals her true 'goddesslike' self.
The two bureaucrats get drunk and stumble off into the darkness, 'realizing
that they have been adventuring with demigods.'"

"The characters in Star Wars remain surprisingly faithful to their inception,
although Skywalker became a teenager, as did Leia.  Two 'workmen' named
SeeThreepio and Artwo Detow are finally combined with the bumbling bureau-
crats to become Lucas's favorite robots.  Also present in the story treatment
are Han Solo, friend to the Jedi Knights;  Chewbacca, a Wookiee prince on the
jungle planet pictured as 'a giant furry alien'; and two villains, General
Darth Vader and Valarium, the Black Knight.  Lucas also described sleek
white vehicles called land speeders."

This is the end of the first story treatment as described in "Skywalking."
Any comments?  Questions?  Flames?  Do you want to see the next treatment
as it appears in this book?  Please respond!

Regards,
Brent Wiebe
umwieb69@ccu.umanitoba.ca


-- 
"Infinite:  Bigger than the biggest thing ever and then some.  Much bigger than
that in fact, really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size, real 'wow,
that's big' time.  Infinity is just so big that, by comparison, bigness itself
looks really titchy.  ... huge is the sort of concept we're trying to get across here."
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars