All right, all right, the people have spoken (well, three of you have, anyway), so here you go: more Star Wars crap!

• First up, an amazing Lego spaceport that no doubt took far more patience to build than my entire lifetime supply of that precious commodity.
• A blog entry detailing the search for “fake Wedge,” i.e., the guy who says “that’s impossible, even for a computer,” only to be verbally smacked down by some smart-ass farmboy from the Outer Rim who thinks that thermal exhaust ports are somehow similar to oversized vermin. (I’ve always liked the line that follows in the novel version, when Fake Wedge asks Luke if these “womp rats” are firing back at him with big-ass energy rifles, or something to that effect.)
  To explain, the script said the guy sitting next to Luke in the briefing room scene was Wedge Antilles, the only X-Wing pilot other than Luke who would survive the Death Star assault (and all three original movies); however, the actor who says that line to Mark Hamill obviously is not Denis Lawson, who played Wedge in all of the cockpit scenes, as well as in the subsequent movies. (Lawson also happens to be, curiously enough, Ewan “young Obi-Wan” McGregor’s uncle; small galaxy, eh?)
• From the Celebration IV con-blog, highlights of a panel discussion with the special-effects masters who made the Falcon fly… and they did it without frakkin’ computers! (Dennis Muren: “The nice thing about [making Star Wars] was that it was a very touch and feel industry at that time. You could feel the models whether we were shooting them or picking them up and mounting them – the model makers feel them and feel the weight of them and have a real connection with the objects they were working on. I think it affected the way we thought about the shots – the fact that they were more real. It’s very difficult to have that same experience in CG.”); highlights from a discussion with sound-FX maestro Ben Burtt; and Burtt explains how he came to use that infamous scream we lovingly know as “Wilhelm.”
• Just released this weekend, a preview of the new, CG-animation television series that’s been rumored for a while now, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Color me unimpressed. For one thing, I’m far less interested in the Clone Wars era than in the “Rebellion against the Empire” era (although I can see why it would be good strategy for George to keep puttering about in the CWE, given how many unanswered questions we all have about the events of the prequels). Also, the animation style doesn’t appeal much to me; I liked Genndy Tartakovsky’s hand-drawn Clone Wars series from a couple years ago, but this thing looks far too much like a video game for my tastes. I guess that’s what the kids like these days, though. Stupid little whippersnappers…
• Returning to the convention, here is a sampling of photos that caught my eye:
  1. Part of an incredible Endor diorama display, here is the Imperial landing pad, complete with a shuttle and walkers.
  2. The actual Endor power generator miniature used in filming Return of the Jedi (This is briefly glimpsed through the control-room window when Han Solo and the Rebel commandos take the Imperial bunker.) One of the things I love about good old-fashioned miniatures, as opposed to CGI, is that they were often constructed from or adorned with real-world objects. In this case, note the Dixie cups that form the pylon-looking thingies.
  3. Some celebrities in attendance: Jane Wiedlin, rhythm guitarist of 1980s all-girl band The Go-Gos; Seth Green, a.k.a. Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, a.k.a. Scott Evil from the Austin Powers movies, and co-creator of the Robot Chicken series, whose upcoming Star Wars spoof looks like a real winner); and SW alum Carrie Fisher as she is inducted into the 501st Legion, the big Star Wars costuming group.
  4. A car decked out to look like the Millenium Falcon. Well, sort of. As much as a rectangular car body can look like a saucer-shaped spaceship.
  5. Obi-Shawn’s “H-Wing” car, which I believe I’ve blogged about before but I can’t track down the entry. Here is his web site, if you want to see more shots of this amazing (if somewhat impractical) fanboy tribute. (On a related note, check out Road Squadron, a web site that catalogs similarly modified cars and trucks; this guy probably wins on size alone…)
  6. Here’s something I would’ve liked to see: Boba Fett arriving via rocket pack — for real.
  7. And a few of the notable fan costumes: chicks dig a guy in uniform (notice in the comments on this one that some geek immediately starts complaining about the costumes, rather than admiring the, um, recruit… must you reinforce the stereotype, guys?); it’s Li’l Padme!; here is Mara Jade, a fan fave from the “Expanded Universe” of the comics and tie-in novels; behold, the horrors of Man-Leia!; and, just to cleanse your poor, bleeding eye sockets after that, a veritable plethora of Slave Leias, getting cozy with their main man, er, Hutt.
• If you still haven’t had enough, Wired.com has a handy-dandy index of all its past articles relating to Uncle George, Lucasfilm, and/or the Saga.
• And finally, just to end on a contrarian note, here’s an essay that mourns the decline of so-called “serious science fiction” movies, the blame for which the author lays at the well-heeled feet of George Lucas. While his article is well-written and argued, I think the author misses the true reason why his beloved “serious science fiction” rarely succeeds with the general public: it’s depressing as hell. Consider the eight “serious sci-fi triumphs” of the last four decades named in this piece: Planet of the Apes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Soylent Green, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Brazil, Dark City, The Matrix, and Children of Men. With the exception of Close Encounters, all of these movies are stupefyingly grim. (I would also argue, myself, that The Matrix isn’t nearly as “serious” as its admirers would have us believe, but then I’ve never quite gotten the fuss over that one.) The way I see it, the trend the author decries really has little to do with special effects or Lucas’ influence and everything to do with the fact that everyone who tries to do “serious” ends up doing “depressing” instead. Is it not possible to examine serious ideas in a fun movie? (Fans of The Matrix would argue that that’s what the Wachowski Bros. did, but, as I’ve said repeatedly, I didn’t think The Matrix was all that much fun. Your mileage may vary.) I don’t know, maybe it’s not possible… or maybe the right film just hasn’t been made yet…