Star Wars: The Dark Times

I've often thought about the gap between the 'original' Star Wars era & the revival in the 1990s which culminated in the Prequel Trilogy. For many, it must have seemed like a decade or more that Star Wars was out of the public eye & apparently hibernating, but despite an inevitable downturn in popularity after ROTJ ended the saga, it was only really 'gone' for about four years.

That's speaking objectively -I'd place the year that the Star Wars juggernaut was placed into carbon freeze as 1987, when Bantha Tracks stopped publication, & the year it woke up as 1991, when Heir To The Empire was first published.

However, for many original fans like myself, Star Wars may have ended much earlier than 1987, & the original spark may have not been rekindled until well into the mid-1990s.

What I'm interested in discussing is two things, one personal, one general:
- when were the 'Dark Times' for you? What ended your love of SW initially, & what woke it back up?
- just what was going on with the Star Wars franchise, if anything, during those barren years?

 

Well.. I remember that there was a huge gap from when i was a young kid and up until the late 90`S. Star Wars had been such a magical experience for me as a kid, but then it just died out for a time, simply forgotten.. As i was very young when Star Wars first caught my attention it remained only as a dormant orb of passion in my subconscious as the years went by.

Even when TPM first(a few years before i joined High School)arrived my Star Wars passion was still dormant, i never went to the cinemas to see it. But one day i rented it on video, and after watching TPM for the first time it all came back to me, i remembered; and i really wanted to rewatch the OT for the first time in a decade, it was a great experience! This certainly sparked Star Wars back to life, and with the upcoming two movies AOTC and ROTS it was all so exiting. From here and on my Star Wars interest grew to be stronger than ever before. I was also at the perfect age when the PT came into life, so i was really inspired by it all.

Its strange, Star Wars was completely out of my life (as far as i can remember) for eight to ten years before TPM revoke the spirit.

The second question, i dont know. But i can guess that my own lack of experience with Star Wars in my "dark times" is a reflection of the general situation of Star Wars in this time periode. People went on to other things, SW remained in memory, but only a dormant memory that needed a spark to come back into life..

 

In 1985 (i think) i watched the movies in school. I would have been 8 years old. There was one other time I saw one of them on TV, but that was it. I LOVED them, but my family never owned a video player so it wasn't like I could rent them. I never watched them again until 1992.

In 1992, my cousin bought me the comic Dark Empire #1. Since then, I was obsessed. It was hard to find Star Wars stuff at this time, but any comic, model or whatever I saw I would buy. I'm telling you it was a looong wait until 1999 to see Episode 1!

So for me the dark times were from 1985 to 1992. (7 years with no Star Wars whatsoever!)

 

I was six in 1991 so I guess I'm a post-dark-times fan. I grew up at a time (and with friends and relatives) when Star Wars was always in the cultural background. Not in a bad way, but as a sort of underlying force. I knew about the 'world' of the saga before I ever saw the films all the way through and was capable of understanding them. A friend got me a fan club subscription for a birthday sometime in the early/mid-90s, which played a part in my becoming a more active fan.

 

I didn't keep up with Bantha Tracks, so I'd say the "dark times" for me were between 1985 and 1995. The excitement of the originals lasted a couple of years, which is why I picked 1985; then I hit adolescence, and high school drama and all the overblown trivial crap that went with it, superceded SW fandom. There was a glimmer of light in the Dark Times in 1991, when the campus theater at my university ran a Star Wars marathon, showing all three films starting at 9 p.m. and ending at 3 a.m. Fandom was rekindled in 1995 when my husband brought home the OT on VHS, the ones with the George Lucas interviews at the end. Then of course the release of the SEs in 1997; I still remember the TV commercials: "For those who saw it on the big screen!" I discovered the 'Net fandom, beginning with a couple of Yahoo mailing lists, at around the release of TPM. Found TF.N that fall and lurked for about a year before joining.

I'm hoping that with a new generation of fans, including both of my sons, there will be no more "dark times."

 

I don't really think I had any Dark Times, actually. I was three when ANH came out, and pretty much from then on I've been a fan. I may have not always thought about SW on a daily basis, but it never went away and I never ceased to be a fan.

SW was not as much in front of the general population's attention for a while, but all of the content and merchandise that had come out before that point didn't cease to exist (and merchandise was still available, just not as much and not as visibly). So plenty of us still had the toys, t-shirts, etc. we already had... and of course, the VHS tapes and annual USA Network airings to watch, haha. The novels and EU have never meant much to me, so the films (content-wise) "carried" the story for me. So the PT starting in '99 kicked that back into high gear, but the established appreciation before that point was there all along for me.

Regarding the point about having kids interested in SW: my four year old son loves it all, so I hope to see that appreciation continue for a long time; it shows no signs of going away any time soon.

 

Much the same for me since 1983. I was 6 when ANH hit the screens in 1977, and somehow, I'd say that the "Dim Times" for me (I wouldn't call it Dark Times) were more between 1977 and 1982. I saw ANH and ESB when they came out, was hooked and had my share of toys, but it didn't mean something special back then, other than the pure fun and excitement of space opera for kids. I really became a fan just before ROTJ, actually when the story began to shift from Luke and his friends against the Empire to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker tragic arc of fall and redemption. It sort of remained in limbo for that period.

Since then, my interest and fascination never waivered, and I never felt any Dark Times. I was frequently drawned back to it, really excited about and anxious to see the prequel trilogy about the backstory that someday would be made. Of course the Special Edition release and the PT production by 1997 boosted this even more.

Regarding the franchise between 1987 and 1991, I really don't know much I'm afraid, as I never really cared a lot about the EU. But I do remember that even during those years, they were still promoting toys and video games in TV commercials on French TV, so it wasn't completely dead.

 

Saw the trilogy on USA in 1994. I was eight. It started with the repeated viewings. Then I became a Star Wars junkie. I cared enough to read EU. My dark times started when TPM came out in 1999. I was fine with the movie, but I was a little too lazy to care about new aliens, Jedi without dialogue, and strange planets. "Naboo? What kind of planet is THAT supposed to be?" I was also becoming a teenager, and lets just say I'm still recovering.
I only watched AOTC a handful of times, and only once in the theater. Revenge of the Sith just pushed all my Star Wars buttons. I didn't even KNOW ANYTHING about the Jedi, and I cried for them during Order 66. The Palpatine and Anakin becoming the Emperor and Vader. Luke and Leia. The fall of the Republic. It's one of my fondest memories of filmgoing.
My return was gradual. First I got into the prequel EU during the year ROTS wasn't on DVD. Finally the DVD came out its been getting worse every year. I'm a Star Wars junkie all over again.

 

Having been born in '82, I'm a post-Dark Times fan.

My disappointment with AOTC diminished my affection for the franchise, but fortunately ROTS went a long way in ameliorating this. Loved it as much as TESB, and consider it Lucas's best film since THX-1138.

As my exposure is limited to the film cycle, I can't say what went on in EU/video games/animation. (I heard Chewbacca was killed by a moon. Sounds rather painful.)

 

Star Wars from 84 to 99 was an interesting ...

I would like to think it was like GI Joe or Transformers - something where we had the toys, the great story, and so on and so forth.

Folks never thought there would be more, so we just loved these guys and thought we had a good run.

The few video games were always good - it kept the Sci-Fi classic alive for 15 years.

Like DRG, I never read EU = and I was happy/content that everything was solved at Endor.
I remember always being fascinated that Mark Hammil and Carrie Fisher could/would not get roles in other stuff - and it really made Star Wars this weird kind of phenomenon.

The Trekkies had to see Captain Kirk (in a cop outfit) jump on Lincoln's and Chrysler's while chasing hoodlums in TJ Hooker ...
We had Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, - stitched in time ,,, and never seen again ... it was special to me.

 

Born in 82, but I still recall the Dark Times being from around 85-91 or so. Some of my earliest memories involve Star Wars, yet when I was old enough to really appreciate the films and accompanying merchandise the figures were no longer readily available in stores. Needless to say, I didn't mind my parents dragging me to flea markets and such, as it was pretty much the only way to track down the figures I didn't have.

Zahn's Heir to the Empire marked the return of Star Wars, of course. Funny how when that book came out I had no idea of "canon", and certainly didn't think of a future where the name George Lucas could trigger such extreme opinions, both positive and negative. Through my nine or ten year old eyes reading about Luke and Mara on that forest planet was just as definitive as any scene from my VHS copies of the films.

Despite that I enjoy the prequels and certain current EU writers, a part of me thinks Star Wars might have been just as interesting/iconic if Zahn's trilogy marked the ending of the franchise, rather than the rebirth.

 

This, I think, is what really killed the franchise off for a while, at least for me anyway. My love of Star Wars was fading from about 1984 onwards, but in the back of my mind I was still waiting for the Prequel Trilogy I'd first heard about in 1980, & had been looking forward to even more than ROTJ. When 1986 rolled around & it didn't happen, I knew it was all over. That's what made the several years following so dark for Star Wars fans - we all thought it was gone for good.

Although I probably still considered myself something of a Star Wars fan as late as 1986, forcing myself to watch the Ewok cartoons (Droids, for some reason, wasn't shown until later in Australia), & even picking up a couple of discounted POTF figures (which I still have in good condition!), by 1987 I was done. This coincided with the onset of adolescence & the mandatory obnoxious cynicism that accompanies it, so Star Wars never really stood a chance.
It's good to see from the replies that some did keep the faith - I certainly didn't.

About the only Star Wars experience I enjoyed during the following few years was the Star Tours ride at Disneyland during a family holiday in 1989. Best ride there by far, not because it was Star Wars, but because it was simply the best ride. 45 minutes in the queue, & well worth it.

And that was it for a while. Star Wars was just a childish obsession I was embarrassed to recall for a long time, although a later interest in cinema & more serious sci-fi made me realise that they were, at least, three very important films.

While at university, I heard rumblings that GL was going to finally make those three prequels he'd promised, which piqued my curiosity somewhat, but it wasn't until my birthday in 1995 that the Force returned for me. As a joke, my brother bought me a Bartman comic - with a $100 note inside. He couldn't have known that this comic book contained something that would turn out to be far, far more valuable. It was a very simple, text only advertisement for this:

[image=http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/star-wars-sith-war/1-1.jpg]

The Sith? Sounds familiar - oh yeah... why did they call Darth Vader the 'Dark Lord Of The Sith' anyway...?

And the rest is history. My own personal Return of the Jedi.

 

Had the same experience 2 years before at Disneyworld Fla during Summer holiday....The only thing worth it with the video game and flipper arena.

I stumbled upon a brief piece of news in late 1986, when reading a movie magazine I had subscribed to (STARFIX), where they announced that Episode III of Star Wars titled "The Clone Wars" was about to be shot in UK ! I couldn't believe it !
Unfortunately, It didn't take long to realise it was only a bad rumor.

But somehow, I always kept faith, and thought Lucas would someday come back to it.

 

Regarding the second issue I brought up, here's why I consider that 1987 really was the final year of the classic era:

- Bantha Tracks finished up, & although a couple of issues prior to the end it was being described as a break until more Star Wars projects emerged, there was absolutely nothing to indicate that they would ever happen. The newsletter had been running articles on Howard the Duck, not Star Wars, towards the end;
- the second & final series of the Ewoks cartoon ended in January;
- the Marvel comic series had finished the previous year;
- Kenner had never picked up the proposed expanded toy line that was put forward for 1985-86.

The last big Star Wars event was the opening of Star Tours in January 1987. With the end of Bantha Tracks, the Star Wars fan club became the Lucasfilm Fan Club, & the name of the magazine would not be changed from 'The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine' to 'The Star Wars Insider' until 1994.

However, 1987 did bring with it the beginning of the West End roleplaying game, which would continue through the dark years & well beyond, eventually providing a great deal of backstory for the EU. Other than generic merchandise, like T-shirts, keyrings & so on, the RPG was about all that was going on.

I did, however, find a very obscure release from 1988:

[image=http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1245760657-00.jpg] [image=http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1245760658-00.jpg] [image=http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1245760657-01.jpg]

Hands up who remembers the Amstrad computer system.

Anyone know of anything else?

 

Stupid websites not allowing hotlinking! It was working earlier:

[image=http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080330044238/starwars/images/a/a8/Escape_from_Aaron.png]
[image=http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090603164431/starwars/images/f/f8/Escape_from_Aaron_level.png]

 

I was strictly a movie guy so my dark times began around 84/85 when the reality of "no more movies" sunk in. And at some point the notion that GL would NEVER do the prequels entered the discussion, and that really put it to bed for me for a while.

Didn't end till the special editions in 97, so we're talking roughly 10 years.

 

I pretty much remember the Dark Times well. The only glimmers of light were renting the SW movies or seeing them on TV.

I remember my brother, with his birthday money in 1988, wanted to buy some Darth Vader carrying cases and ROTJ pegwarmer figs a local Ben Franklin dime store still had on their shelves. My mother was weirded out by this, but I pretty much supported him in his decision .

I remember SW not being mentioned much, if at all. It was like it was a forbidden topic. Say it, and you'd disappear.

One other Dark Times memory: During seventh grade, my homeroom teacher showed movies during homeroom time and being 1989, he brought in Batman. We were only able to watch it for a day after the principal (or parents) threw a fuss over a teacher showing a PG-13 movie, so he brought in Return of the Jedi instead. Thinking back, that was awesome.

 

Interestingly, it turns out that one of the initial releases that helped re-launch the franchise was underway somewhat earlier, in 1989:

More than a few people remember that, in an old issue of Marvel Age, there was an advertisement for a new Marvel Star Wars series - Star Wars: Dark Empire! I thought it was an annual, but Andy Mangels was so kind as to help me out by both pointing out that it was in Marvel Age Special Preview #1 (1990), and to give me the following scan!

[image=http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/MarvelAge_Preview_01_232_edited_001.jpg]

Thanks, Andy!

This was in the late 80s, but no such series existed until 1991, when Star Wars: Dark Empire showed up over at Dark Horse, and was a massive success, leading to Dark Horse holding the Star Wars license ever since (one of the most successful licenses in comics history, I might add).

In any event, a reader, Josh, wrote in to ask about the ad, as he remembered seeing it as well, and was curious as to what the deal was. So was I, so I went straight to the horse's mouth, Tom Veitch, writer of Star Wars: Dark Empire, and Tom went way above and beyond the call of duty and told me an epic story of a long time ago, in a comic company far, far away...

"After Cam Kennedy and I did The Light and Darkness War for Archie Goodwin, at Epic Comics (Marvel), we got the bright idea to send copies to George Lucas and ask him if we could do Star Wars. (Star Wars, at the time, was pretty much moribund. There was no plan for further films, and the license was really up for grabs.)
I got a phone call within a week from Lucy Wilson, who, as you may know, is reputed to have been the very first person Lucas hired when he started Lucasfilm. She told us GL liked our work and we could have the Star Wars license if we wanted it. At that point I made what may have been a fateful error and told her I wasn't that much into the business side of things and would prefer to talk to Archie about having Epic Comics do it. She was a bit taken aback -- Marvel had dropped the license a few years earlier. But she got back to me and said ok, and so I talked to Archie. I remember he was immediately excited at the prospect of bringing SW back to Marvel...but he also said he would probably have a tough time getting Marvel to pick up the license again. And indeed, there was some resistance. But Archie being "Mr. Star Wars" at the company, of course they ultimately agreed. And thus Dark Empire was born. The whole six issue first series were planned and ok'd by Lucas while we were working with Archie.

Now, the next thing that happened was that Archie left Marvel and went to DC. I don't remember the exact circumstances, but they weren't pleasant. So our Dark Empire project was given to (name withheld) and everything sort of changed right away. The project got kicked to secondary status, and both Cam and I began feeling quite unhappy. Cam actually stopped drawing the book for awhile.

OK, talking to Lucy Wilson about the unfortunate situation, I suggested she check out Dark Horse and the movie-related projects they had done (such as Aliens). I introduced her to Mike Richardson, and she was quite impressed with him (as everybody is who meets him...he's a well-spoken giant of a man).

Next thing I know I am in London at a convention and Richardson takes me aside and says DH is deeply interested in getting the Star Wars license away from Marvel, and would Cam and I finish Dark Empire for DH if they can bring that off. I said sure, of course. Cam also agreed. And the whole thing went forward. Marvel unceremoniously dropped the license a second time, Dark Horse rolled out the red carpet for us, and we completed the first six books, exactly as planned, with Barbara Kesel (who could make the Kessel run in under ten parsecs) as our editor."

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/11/29/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-131/

Further details, including just who the villain was going to be:
http://www.jazmaonline.com/interviews/interviews20

 

My mistake. It was Space Mountain for me, not Star Tours....

 

Loved Star Tours. Last time I visited was in 2001. I had a bumper sticker from there that read "My other vehicle is an X-wing."

 

The Dark Times for me is right now!

I wasn't quite old enough to be able to see EP. IV-VI in the theaters, ROTJ being the only SW film I would have been ABLE to see...(but I was 2 years old at that point.) I always thought the SW films were "cool movies," but it wasn't until the release of TPM that I REALLY started getting into SW. So 1999 thru 2005 were VERY exciting years for me!!

So, having not really experienced the "dark times" of the late '80s, I'd definately say they're right now. Waiting on the supposed Live Action Series to come about, waiting for a Saga release on Blu-Ray, but no chance of another film...The only thing keeping me going right now is reading the books!

 

My "Dark Times" began in 1999 and have only recently abated.

Born in in 1985, I grew up with the trilogy as fun movies from before I was born. Then I learned to read just in time for the EU pick up and suddenly SW was going wild, building and expanding this wonderful universe of adventure from 1991-1998 - the vast bulk of it from '93 onward. It's really amazing how MUCH great stuff happened in such a relatively short amount of time, and that ALL of the Bantam era happened in less time than it's been since TPM hit screens.

And in 1999, my Dark Times began. TPM was a disappointment, and the NJO books seemed dead-set on destroying everything that had been great about the EU Bantam had created.

2002 brought AotC, and my hopes for TPM's redemption were shattered. On the other hand, 2002-2003 was a great period for the EU: Some stellar video games (Rebel Strike, Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy) came out, and the last third or so of NJO pulled itself towards an intriguing and compelling resolution. Whatever mess Lucas was making with the films, the EU at least seemed in good hands.

2004-2008 were the REAL Dark Times. KotOR II was fun, but glitchy and incomplete. There was a real dry spell for single-player gaming (LEGOs don't count) outside the PT era. Lucas found a way to make a "Special Edition" change even dumber than Greedo shooting first by lazily photoshopping Hayden into RotJ. RotS outdid the other two prequels, but it was still nothing to write home about, and then came the worst of all: Legacy of the Force. If NJO had begun by destroying the worlds created by Bantam, LotF set out to destroy every hint of worth NJO had built in its last batch of books. For the first time since Heir to the Empire, I simply just STOPPED reading Star Wars (THANKS, Karen Traviss!). By the time I dragged myself to the Clone Wars movie in a theater, I figured I was just about done with SW.

But I have to admit, things do seem to be picking up lately. I got myself caught up with the wonderful KotOR comics in time for their finale, and the second season of The Clone Wars has had some decent (and even a couple quite good) episodes. Fate of the Jedi is a mess, but at least it's more upbeat and adventurous, so it's a step in the right direction. Dark Times is an amazing comic book series, and the closest a SW title has felt to the real deal in quite a long time. Now if LucasArts could just get to work on some fun new titles set in the OT era or later (TFU was fun, but I think they can do better), I think the franchise would be all set.

 

My dark times are happening right now. The prequels have soiled everything.