BTS The SW Saga of 1975: ATM's Take

Epilogue… and Prologue

In the end, the Republic was restored. Not entirely as it had been, but, its people hoped, rather better.

Mina Whitsun became the new Chancelloress. She wore a mantle of white silk embroidered with gold, and red shoes, and a diadem of true-silver and gold interwoven. She was not ashamed of her scars, and did not fear to reveal the burned side of her face, with its blind eye, and the area over her ear where her red hair did not grow.

Following the fashion of the ancient Republic in the days of its founding, which she admired, Mina chose to wear asymmetrical dresses, usually in purple, which exposed her one breast. (This detail borrows from Catholic iconography of the Virgin Mary. But it also suggests a Roman toga, and perhaps anticipates the dresses worn by the women of Qarth in the book version of A Song of Ice and Fire.)

Han Solo, Mina’s husband, became the new President of the Transport Guild—which turned a blind eye to smuggling in a way it had not under the Empire. Han now habitually dressed in the elegant black furred robes of Guild traders. Together he and Mina raised Mace Windom as an adopted son.

But Han still occasionally glanced at Leia. And Leia glanced back. And Mina, who was no longer as sheltered as she had once been on Acquis, exchanged glances with her as well.

--

Marcus Whitsun became Lord of Acquis, ruling in his underwater city—which now could float freely on the surface, without fear of discovery by the Imperial fleet.

He married Mara Lamiya, now Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Second Galaxy, who was quite impressed by his abilities as a pilot.

Mara, in her new office as ambassador, took to wearing elaborate Dwarf-forged wigs, in alternate colors of gold and black, to match her outfits. (She had not minded her original brown hair, but she was ready to try something new. Perhaps one day, she mused, she would wear a brown wig.)

Her lost eyes she replaced with new droid facsimiles, which were distinguished by their purple irises. But Mara’s teeth were still natural, though a few were missing.

Heda Horus dwelt with them, as the captain and chief pilot of Mara’s personal flagship.

As a wedding present, Chancelloress Mina bestowed on Marcus and Mara a legal dispensation, granting the rights of inheritance and succession to any children of the Whitsun bloodline born out of wedlock.

--

Lord Pestage was stripped of his imperial title, and he and Alana were exiled to Alderaan, where he might have a kingdom of his own—the one he had always possessed.

Alana felt guilt in her heart for having abandoned her husband to die on Organa Major. And so for several years she refused all attempts at ameliorating her condition, instead going about in a silver wheelchair like Carl Organa’s. Eventually, however, she yielded to Leia’s entreaties, and received silver prosthetic legs which restored her power of walking.

--

Leia Organa became Queen of Utapau, which began to blossom, gradually, under her rule. The surviving expatriates of Organa Major were invited to settle there, and to recreate something of their former happiness.

She took the regnal name of Nellith.

The Order of the Jedi-Templers was re-founded, with two bases. One was on Utapau and one on Ton-Muund—now a beautiful planet with palaces rising from a world-spanning ocean, Venice writ large. (This of course comes from the two Foundations, on Terminus and Trantor, in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation book series.)

The Templers had two mottos. The first, emblazoned over the doors of the Temple itself, described the ethos of the Jedi Order: Servants of the Servants of the Republic. But the second, kept within the private lore books of the Jedi and recorded in Old High Galactic, was this: Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis, et ergo nihil interit. Quia quod mortuum est, hoc non morietur numquam, nisi sola per se mors.

The Jedi Council had three co-leaders: Luke Starkiller, Leia Organa, and Lando Kadar. Lando usually remained on Ton-Muund, whereas Luke and Leia preferred to remain on Utapau.

But they visited often, and Leia’s droids, C-4PO and R2-D3, invariably went with her. However, the droids liked it best when Leia visited Acquis, though that happened less frequently.

Lando had a small life-support device implanted in his chest, so that he no longer needed to be encased in armor. (Think of a combination of Marvel’s Tony Stark and Isaac Asimov’s portable nuclear reactors from Foundation.)

He took off his mask, and revealed his face openly. After all, he wished to show that even a Sith Lord could be redeemed.

There was now no shame in the Mark of the Sith; the bad Lords had been dealt with, and the repentant ones were welcomed into the folds of the Jedi.

And he shaved his mustache, which he had always hated. But Luke, who himself disliked his beard, kept his own mustache.

Lando replaced his missing right hand with a golden prosthesis—for he now realized that even his revered father, Annikin Starkiller, could make mistakes of judgment. Luke, for his part, replaced his missing hand with a robotic one covered with synth-flesh, to honor the independent mind of old Ben Kenobi.

Leia took to wearing elaborate hairdresses of woven metal discs, alternating from gold to red to jet in color, according to her daily whims. She even had a wig made of stones of lapis lazuli, for special occasions (rather like Vivien Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra).



Her eyes were gone, but Leia had no wish to replace them. After all, thanks to the Force, she had all the vision she would ever need—although she still tripped sometimes on the steps before her throne.

Nonetheless, she found that the sight of her empty eye sockets disturbed visitors to her court. So she filled them with two dazzling jewels—star sapphires, her favorite gemstone—which, under the supervision of Fourpio and Artoo, were grown in the span of a week.

Her silver hands, and silver teeth, had been burned black by the fires of Condawn. She kept them, however, because they still worked. And her other false teeth, of gold and crystal, remained in perfect condition.

Her queenly attire consisted of a blue silken cloak, a filmy white loincloth, a beautiful royal necklace, and little else. She sometimes wore the silver shoes traditional for queens of Organa Major; but she usually went barefoot, for she limped, and she could no longer see as ordinary men did. And she disdained too much clothing, for the heat of the fires of Condawn never entirely left her.

--

As the ruler of Utapau, and the popular face of the victorious Rebellion, the newly crowned Queen Nellith set fashion trends across the wider Galaxy.

On the watery world of Clementias, red seas reflected the purple-red of the skies, and strange lichens clung to rocky spires protruding from the world-spanning ocean.

Here the new Prince and veteran intelligence officer—brown-haired, gray-eyed Simon Ritter—felt best comfortable in his old Rebel Navy uniform of tan and blue. But Princess Rosanna habitually wore a skirt of silver fringe, ornamental silver vambraces and greaves, and a thin cape of pale blue silk.

In the silver towers of Raghusa’s royal palace, King Kim and Queen Winter, and Viceroy Fredericks, looked out upon a vast sea of red dunes, beneath an emerald sky in which two large moons were invariable sights.

Kim, the tall, short-haired blond, and Lloyd, dark and mustachioed with curling hair, both wore the white tunics and black trousers of Devil Squadron. Queen Winter, though, wore a loincloth of woven gold-metal discs, and a brassiere of sable mesh.

Meanwhile beneath the blue skies of Acquis, Mara Lamiya and Heda Horus wore elaborate robes of state which covered them almost from head to toe.

Leia did not mind not being the cynosure of every eye; variety was the spice of life, after all. Rather, she admired Mara and Heda for setting their own course.

But, as the old saying goes: “When on Byssia, do as the Byssians do.”

So, when she visited Acquis, Leia wore full-body gowns, though hers were made of the lightest possible fabrics. Conversely, on trips to the First Galaxy, Mara and Heda reciprocated—though they made sure to maintain a modicum of decency in their attire.

--

Luke Skywalker, the Grand Master of the New Jedi Temple, wore the purple cloak and white robes of a triumphant Jedi general, as did Lando. All three Starkillers now had destroyed their Kiber Crystals. And all three wielded a lightsaber (or two) with skill and grace.

Luke and Lando each gave their magic Rings to Leia, as a sign of their devotion to her, and their confidence in their own skill as warriors. However, having lost her hands, Leia had to wear her three Rings in a different fashion from ordinary people.

--

One day, a merchant from a far-away land arrived at the court of Queen Leia on Utapau, carrying a nondescript box of plain dark wood. The man was wizened and shriveled with years, and shabbily dressed, and in spite of his kindly face and keen eyes, few of the courtiers (a species closely related to lawyers) would have paid him the slightest attention.

But Lando Kadar happened to be visiting Utapau at that time, and it was he who asked the traveler what he bore.

“Fruits from exotic lands,” was the fellow’s reply.

Lando paid the man for a sample of his wares.

The merchant reached into his box, and produced a yellowish fruit, covered in a hard rind. It was like nothing anyone in the court had ever beheld.

“This is only a small sample of the many delights I can procure for you.”

The strange food mesmerized Lando—for he now recalled having seen its like, years ago, on a tree in the white-haired sorcerer’s garden.

At the merchant’s instruction, Lando peeled the rind from the fruit, and ate of the flesh inside.

It tasted good, in a way Lando had never experienced before… yet its savor was also somehow strangely familiar.

Lando asked the man what he called this new and exotic fruit.

“An orange, Sire.”

At her father’s advice, Queen Nellith bestowed upon the merchant a royal commission in the new orange trade. She asked only that he sell his wares at a fair price, to which he agreed, because he was a reasonable man.

And soon, exotic fruits of all kinds—principally oranges, but by no means solely—began to grace the dinner tables of the Galaxy, and were enjoyed by lowly and highborn alike.

--

With Lando’s permission, Leia had the ancient bronze gong moved from its old home on Condawn to the throne room of her new palace on Utapau.

In the gong’s dull reflection, others saw Leia as she normally looked. Usually.

But what Queen Leia saw reflected on the face of the gong, she revealed to few—and it is not said in the surviving manuscripts.

And, across the galaxy, people shared and shared alike.

And peace and love reigned in the Republic.

And, on a remote, swampy planet on the uncharted edge of the galaxy, the Jedi Master Bunden Debannen, living under the assumed name of Minch Yoda, laid down his burdens, and breathed a sigh of relief… for the time being.

 

Episode VII: A Republic Divided

Episode VIII: Twelve Star-Crossed Lovers

Episode IX: The Garden of Utapau

As I have said before, so I shall say again:

I think that I can guess some of what was originally intended here.

The children of Leia Organa, and of Han and Mina, would be the principal protagonists, along with the fully-grown Mace Windom.

Oeeta Kadar would at last come into the tale in her own right, and would find a suitable husband.

The continued existence in exile of the Pestage dynasty on Alderaan, and its connections with the Republic’s conservative nobility, would bear bitter fruit.

Space Oddities would be important.

Dagobah would be seen on screen at last.

The chronology of the three films, taken together, would be extremely unusual, and rather un-filmic.

Annikin Starkiller’s cursed Lone Ring would at last be destroyed—in an unexpected fashion.

And, perhaps, one might also expect to see early versions of Jacen and Jaina Solo… and of Anakin Solo, or perhaps Ben Skywalker… and even, just maybe, a Darth Caedus under another name.

For, in truth, if Chaos be benevolent, one should not seek to destroy her…… rather, to befriend him.

Right, Cygna?

“Dat’s right, boss!”

And that, I think, is a truth well worth digging deep to uncover.

PS:

Episodes x-xii: Three Days in the Lives

Not much to see here.

The remaining three episodes of the “12-film plan” (if ever there was such a coherent plan) were likely going to be three “day in the life” stories, about ordinary folk in the SW galaxy. Most probably, the films in question would respectively have concerned Wookiees, droids, and bounty hunters.

Really, there's not much more to say.

You can go about your business. Move along.

("But what about Boba Fett?!?")

 

Hey ATMachine this is a very fascinating undertaking you have worked on, I wish I wasn't on hiatus from the boards when you started so I could read as you went along, because that's a LOT of text to think about reading all at once now!! I read through it here and there and I have to say one of your ideas I am a big fan of is that of a Clone King. I think you did a good job explaining the planet names and back-story with the great influence from Dune GL was using at the time, and having a Clone King puts that Flash Gordon-esque more simple action-adventure vibe back into it. I will be back to read more, but who knows how long it could take to read all this hahaha. Also, now that I'm back, I may be looking for your help in my 1974 - 1979 Star Wars influence on Rebels thread over in the television forum again!

 

Monkey Island 3a: The Secret Revealed or Your Money Back!

Then Morpheus spoke, unlocked his word-hoard:

"Give Lucien the book."

> give book

You give The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Darth Vader to Lucien.

To your great surprise, he gives you another book in exchange. It feels quite real to the touch.

The title on the spine, in faded gold letters worn by age and sunlight, is The Merrie Comedie of the Redemption of Darth Vader.

Prelude to the First Day of the Trilogy

On the evening before the final battle, the small band of rebel heroes gathered at Caer Cadarn. Here, in their secret hidden base, they prepared for their last stand against Arawn Death-Lord, whose power was absolute and unchallengeable.

The longtime Assistant Shepherd, Matt Fitzdrake, and his friend, Elenia the Blacksmith's daughter, were sewing the final patches on their tattered and frayed battle standard, which would be unveiled with the coming of the dawn.

They knew, or thought they knew, that their cause was hopeless. Yet they were glad to fight for it anyway, because it was worth fighting for.

Suddenly, the hair on the backs of their necks stood on edge.

A great crackle of electricity filled the room. Brilliant orange Meteors streaked through the musty castle air. For a brief moment, an entire galaxy seemed to fill the space before their eyes... then, the space around them returned to normal.

Except, where there had been seemingly empty air, there was now a sword embedded in an anvil.

Together, the two heroes did their best to make out the inscriptions.

They had more difficulty with this than might be imagined, because the writing sometimes seemed to change even as they looked at it.

But they managed to make out something of the underlying meaning, nonetheless.

This is what it said:

EGA

"Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of all England."

VGA

"Draw Dyrnwyn, only thou of noble worth, to rule with justice, to strike down evil. Who wields it in good cause shall slay even the Lord of Death."

CD Talkie

"My name is Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal."

StoryDroid

"Nur wer das Fürchten
nie erfuhr,
schmiedet Notung neu."

SCUMM

"Yea, I will drink thy blood gladly, that so I may forget the blood of Beleg my master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly."

SCI

‘Come not between the dragon and his wealth! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.’

Perlenspiel

"You must unlearn what you have learned."

--

Overture

"They're my movies."
--George Lucas

"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design."
--Darth Sidious/Emperor Sheev Palpatine/Darth Plagueis/Emperor Sate Pestage

"Your pious meddling has foiled my dream of an eternal empire, bound together under One Rule... MINE!”
--The King of the Dead Ones, LOOM

"Originally, the story was about an older brother coming to find his younger brother, who's living on a farm, so that together they can rescue their father, an old Jedi. The older brother is a battle-hardened warrior. This character evolved into Han, the other side of Luke and an older brother figure. Ben Kenobi developed from the father figure into a friend of the father."
--George Lucas to Alan Arnold in 1979, Once Upon a Galaxy by Alan Arnold (p. 223), 1980; quoted in The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski, Appendix B (p. 465), 2008

George Lucas, speaking at the Library of Congress, 1988

--Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008); directed by Steven Spielberg; cinematography by Janusz Kaminski

‘I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.
‘ “I liked white better,” I said.

‘ “White!” he sneered. “It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.”
--JRR Tolkien, "The Council of Elrond," The Fellowship of the Ring.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:1, King James Bible

"Rule One: The Doctor lies."
--Doctor Who

Epigram: THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN THE HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART!
--Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou, Metropolis

"Physician, heal thyself."
--Star Trek II: The Undiscovered Country (dir. Nicholas Meyer)

The Adventures of Luke Starkiller​

as taken from the​

"Journal of the Whills"​

by ​

George Lucas​

​

(Saga I)​

​

​

STAR WARS​

(revised fourth draft/shooting script, March 15, 1976)​

​

But wait... if Star Wars is Saga I, what is Saga II?​

​

--​

​

"... and in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, ​

and he shall be known as The Son of The Suns." ​

​

-- Journal of the Whills, 3:127 (as excerpted in The Star Wars, 1975)​

​

--​

​

And now for something rather different.​

​

It's...​

​

--



Welcome to the Age of the Great Guilds.

WILLOW
A Fantasy Adventure by George Lucas and Brian Moriarty
(with a little help from Andrew McCarthy)

Caer Cadarn

Dungeon

There is a sword and anvil here.

There are no obvious exits.

What wouldst thou deau?

> get sword

GREAT SCYTHE: TAKEN.

A gentle voice whispers in your ear, not altogether reassuringly:

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

Then another voice speaks, echoing and deep, yet somehow less scary than the other:

THE BASIC POWER OF THE UNIVERSE HAS BEEN UNLEASHED.

You've learned at least 19 new notes!

> drafts learn

We have top men working on it right now.

> who

Top. Men.

> cast TEMBLOR
(using whatever comes to mind)

S-H-S-R

In Space Quest II, Sludge Vohaul dies... for at least one game.

In two different places, a volcano erupts.





In an emerald city, a diamond chalice begins to shatter under the weight of the impending future.



In the newly created Realm of Undead, meanwhile, a powerful earthquake rocks a long-neglected Museum. A forgotten stone tablet, not touched by living hands in uncounted years, falls from its resting place on a wall to the ground and shatters.



Beneath a sky of perpetual twilight, a crystalline starship lands, and promptly disintegrates itself.

Four astronauts in variously colored spacesuits stand where, moments before, had been a wondrously strange enigma.

One of the astronauts, the man in green, removes his helmet, revealing a perfectly chiseled Teutonic face with a shock of blond hair.

He promptly begins flailing about wildly, as if the atmosphere of the planet is deadly poison. Finally, he collapses on the ground.

A moment later, he gets up again, perfectly healthy.

What a wise-guy that Ludger Brink is!

--

A wild exit appears!

It leads: WEST

What wouldst thou deau?

> w

Suddenly, the Goodsoup family diamond materializes in your right coat pocket, courtesy of the 1-800-STAR-WARS shopping channel.

Meanwhile...

In a high-security chamber deep within the dark heart of the Imperial prison planet Alderaan, Ben Kenobi levitates the Kiber Crystal into his hand. His eyes light up, and it appears he is renewed with a new inner strength.

"Always did like Horace Greeley."
--Jo "Captain Tripps" Ashburn, THE DIG

"And so Kyle Katarn, clad all in black, armed only with his trusty golden lightsaber, set out once more into the desert of Utapau, in search of his former master, Mara Jade, who had now fallen to the Dark Side."
--Andrew McCarthy, THE DIG

"Tools can be the subtlest of traps. One day, I know, I must smash the emerald."
"My Lord?"
"But that day can wait."

> wait
Time passes...

"This is your life, Dream-Sneak. And I'm crushing it out with my hands."
...
"Thank you, John Dee."
--Neil Gaiman, THE DIG

"Now let's see... is it the big green triangle or the little red circle?"
"Shut up and push, Ken. My baby's getting impatient."
/Ken and Cora push BOTH OF THEM
--THE DIG

The second voice speaks once again.





Applause breaks out for a considerable span of time.



"Really?"

"Well... yes and no. Sorry about the deception. It was all a big joke, you see? I had the treasures right here all along. You just had to know how to ask."

To your great confusion, the voice now divides itself in two. One side is male, the other female. But they speak in unison nonetheless.

EROS:





ERIS:





PUCK:



"It was freely given and well earned."

"Rise, my friend."












"You did it, Boston."
"Thank you, Boston."
"We all thank you, Boston Low."

"Attention, all hands.

This is your commander speaking ...

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your fine performance during our recent episode, "A Stitch In Time Saves Gamma Nine."

So, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you..."

/camera cuts away before this risks turning into a Monty Python sketch

...



1ST SITH
Darth, did you feel that?

Darth stands and stares at the crystal.

2ND SITH
Was it an omen? What is it?

VADER
Something old has been awakened. The Force has suddenly grown stronger.
--The True History of The Star Wars, 2015

--

A wild treasure chest appears.

> get chest

You take the chest and stuff it in your pants. Ouch.

> open chest
(using the Distaff)

E-C-E-D

I'm assuming you meant the one in your pants. OK, then. How fortunate we don't have the graphics budget to depict this indignity.

The chest is open! How surprising.

> look in chest

What do we have here?

It's the Original Theatrical Star Wars Trilogy on Blu-Ray!!!!!!

And all of the other Special Edition releases, alongside it!

And--

USE FORCE SIGHT SPARINGLY OR YOU'LL SPOIL THE SURPRISE!

OK, George.

By the way... thanks!

"I'm Batman!"

Sure, and I'm Frank Herbert.

You might want to take that silly helmet off, by the way. It makes you sound like you're wearing a scuba mask or something.

"Friends applaud, the Tragedy is over."
--Ludwig van Beethoven, probably

The Divine Comedy is just beginning anew.
--George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Brian Moriarty, Noah Falstein, Dave Grossman, Hal Barwood, and Sean Clark (and the other ghosts, now recalled to life)

Meanwhile...

..."as the knights of old quested for this treasure, so shall you!"
Would that I prove worthy!

 

"Somebody has to save our skins!"
--Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan
----
"The universe is not only stranger than we suppose, it is stranger than we can suppose."
Common mis-remembering of a quote by biologist J.B.S. Haldane

~

"Thus, I give up the spear!"
--Moby Dick
...
Wer meines Speeres
Spitze fürchtet,
durchschreite das Feuer nie!
--Richard Wagner, Die Walküre
...
Notung! Notung!
Neidliches Schwert!
Zum Leben weckt' ich dich wieder,
tot lagst du
in Trümmern dort,
jetzt leuchtest du trotzig und hehr.
--Richard Wagner, Die Walkuere
___
"The opera might have been Siegfried."
--Dr. John Hamish Watson (with Nicholas Meyer acting as his executor and literary agent), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
...
"I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality."
I Timothy 5:21, King James Bible
"I discharge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality."
I Timothy 5:21, King James Bible (erratum version)
---
"Very well discharged."
--A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare (probably)
Zeroth: You must play the game.
First: You can't win.
Second: You can't break even.
Third: You can't quit the game.
--Common variant of the Three Laws of Thermodynamics (as formulated with a little help from Isaac Asimov)
----
The Doctor: I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old and I'm the man who is gonna save your lives and all 6 billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?
Rickston Slade: No.
The Doctor: In that case, allons-y.
--Doctor Who, Starship Titanic
....
THE DIG: Shared!
"It is accomplished!"
God (sometimes played by Max von Sydow)
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (probably)
"Another galaxy, another time."
--Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, by Alan Dean Foster and George Lucas (1976)
"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes."
--Princess Leia Aquilae of Organa Major
"So You Want To Be A Hero"
--subtitle of Hero's Quest (as published by Sierra On-Line, 1989)

 

By the way, this thread on a different forum might shed some further light on the matter at hand.

 

"I am ready for the trials."
--Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, by George Lucas

"I am ready, Mother. Let's go."
--Bobbin Threadbare, LOOM, by Orson Scott Card and Brian Moriarty

"I am ready."
--Ben Kenobi, The Star Wars: Episode I: The Golden City, by George Lucas

Vorspiel

"History is bunk. More or less."
--Henry Ford

"History repeats itself:" ... "das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce."
--Karl Marx







"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
--Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)









"It's like poetry; they rhyme."
--George Lucas

 

Meanwhile, back in Space Quest IV...







"She was very beautiful, wasn't she?"
--Roger Wilco, Jr.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
--The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in The Wizard of Oz (one of the original inspirations for the Doctor on Doctor Who)





Wait a minute... are those hair buns?

BEHOLD!





"I have a very bad feeling about this."
--Bobbin Threadbare, LOOM

(Bobbin, the Red Bear?)

"Exit, pursued by a bear."
--William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale



Screenshot from an early version of Space Quest III, with "the Empire sucks!" graffiti on the side of a TIE fighter...

...and a green bear following Roger Wilco around.



Screenshot from an early version of Brian Moriarty's The DIG, showing two different types of crystals: green and red. (Source: Joystick magazine #40, July 1993)



Screenshot from the same magazine, representing Noah Falstein's version of The DIG, with two astronauts.





Chaos out of Order. Order out of Chaos.



Opening Lucasfilm Games logo, The Secret of Monkey Island (EGA version)



Opening Lucasfilm Games logo, The Secret of Monkey Island (VGA version)



Screenshot, Monkey Island II: LeChuck's Revenge



Bronze version of the Lucasfilm Games logo, used only in the Amiga port of The Secret of Monkey Island



Title screen, EGA version of The Secret of Monkey Island



Starting screen of the EGA version of Monkey Island 1, showing a sunset which was removed in the VGA version, to match the title screen.



Original title screen, The Secret of Monkey Island

 

"I open at the close."
--Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows



Lucasfilm Games logo from the January 1990 Winter CES demo of LOOM (not used in the actual game)



Unused LucasArts logo, found in the resource files of the talkie CD version of LOOM



Blank space left for a logo in room 001 of the resource files of Sean Clark's The DIG.



"An early version of the museum in Sean Clark's Dig, with six alcoves containing visual records of events instead of four."
--quoted from ATMachine's House of LucasArts and Sierra Oddities



Final version of the museum background in Sean Clark's The DIG, showing only four TV-style alcoves.



Background for the first museum room--or, perhaps, the library--in Brian Moriarty's The DIG.



The same museum background, with the crystal pyramid (probably a recording device of some sort) inserted into the computer.











Screenshot representing the five different gameplay paths (and six different choosable characters, including Ken Borden and Cora Miles) in Brian Moriarty's The DIG

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."
--Quint (Robert Shaw), JAWS, 1975 (directed by Steven Spielberg)



Chaos: Obtained!
Continuity: Preserved!

Time Rip: Opened!
Recalled to Life: The DIG!

...

"Take me home to."
--The talking Dangling Participle (incorrectly named), King's Quest VI

"Go back now, human. Take me home."
--The DIG

"Thanks for playing Space Quest IV."
--Ending of Space Quest IV (CD version)

"Thanks for playing Space Quest IV. We hope it's been as entertaining as you have."
--Ending of Space Quest IV (disk version with better graphics and the missing-points bug fixed)

"You're just in time to witness the dawn of a new era."
--PenUltimate Apostle of the Antisecular Conclave of Clerics, LOOM

 

"On the other side, Chaos followed my example."

--Memoirs of Bobbin Threadbare: Loom-Child (AKA the walkthrough in the LOOM hint book)

"Things fall apart, the center cannot hold,
Mere anarchy is loose upon the world."
--"The Second Coming," poem by William Butler Yeats



"Speak."
--The Creator, The DIG



















"I don't need any more green."
--Ludger Brink, The DIG novelization, by Alan Dean Foster

How about some red crystals then?

(See above screenshot.)











Nothing up my sleeve...

Here goes!











"Long after the passing of the Second Shadow, when dragons ruled the twilight sky and the stars were bright and numerous, came the age of the Great Guilds."
--marketing copy on the back of the box, LOOM (by Brian Moriarty)

"A great shadow has departed."
--Gandalf the White, The Lord of the Rings, Book VI, chapter four: "The Field of Cormallen"

All prams lead to the Kensington Gardens.
--finale of TRINITY, by Brian Moriarty

"What rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"
--Gabriel Knight 1 demo, quotation opening for Day 1

"I don't know. We'll find out!"
--Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (directed by Steven Spielberg)

 

"The last leaf of th' fall."

--Bobbin Threadbare, LOOM (written by Brian Moriarty and Orson Scott Card; reforged by Andrew McCarthy)



"The first leaf of spring."

--Bobbin Threadbare, The FOLD (written by Orson Scott Card and Brian Moriarty)
COMING SOON to a monitor screen near you.

 

Space. An Earthlike planet dominates the field of view. Earthlike--but not Earth. The clouds have a violet tint from the reflected sunlight, deepening to a dusky purple at the planet's terminator. Suddenly, from behind the P.O.V., a spaceship zips by with a "swoosh," scaling down towards the planet.

Cut to planetscape. A few plants are in the foreground, giving way to a vast desert plain, with mountains in the distance. The sky is an odd shade of violet. In the foreground, a six-limbed alien is eating--leaves?--from a--bush? A rumbly "whoosh" sounds overhead, distracting the creature. It turns its head, tracking the spaceship as it comes in over the plain. The screen scrolls with the ship, which is obviously slowing (and not just because of the scrolling!). The animal in the foreground scrolls off, and the ruins of a long-abandoned city scroll on. The ship settles down to land nearby, in a cloud of dust.

Roll opening credits:



Our story starts in the control room of a battered passenger and cargo-hauling starship. She's a small ship, only 20 standard cargo tons capacity, and she's seen better days. You were recruited for this mysterious mission by a tall, handsome man who looked like he came straight off of a recruiting poster for the Interstellar Corps. But given your own background, his promise of high pay--in cash--and his reluctance to answer any questions, it seems rather likely he comes from a rather less reputable organization. "Call me Major Tom," he says, with a wry smile. And so you do.

The time is the future, nearly eighty years since the McKillip Drive made faster-than-light travel a possibility, and only 50 years since the first star colonies were founded. Following the information sent by an unmanned probe, "Major Tom" and a team (to use the term loosely) of two has arrived on the planet Ozymandias. [See The Dig Characters document for descriptions.]

Major Tom fills you in on the mission. An automated probe found the planet, went into orbit, and sent down several rover vehicles to explore. Like quite a few of the hundreds of planets that have been discovered, there was native life. But one thing was strikingly new. The first rover came down in a desert area, and promptly found artifacts, apparently constructed by alien intelligences. Among the first things found were the remains of an immense statue, prompting the naming of the planet.

The other rovers also found artifacts and ruins. But no intact cities. And no obvious signs of intelligent life that were less than centuries old. The planet is also seething with life in a variety of shapes and sizes. Many of the larger creatures are six-limbed, but a diversity of other forms adds to the mystery of the planet. Finally, after only a short survey, all three of the autonomous rover vehicles ceased transmitting. The orbital probe returned with the results.

------

"This team," says Major Tom, "is tasked with investigating this planet by... my superiors. I don't need to explain to either of you the potential importance of this discovery."

"Or the potential profit." The speaker was a tall, good-looking man who, defiant of considerable odds to the contrary, had no scar on his chin.

"That's right, Terasov," said Major Tom. "You'll all be well paid."

"Major?" The beautiful redheaded woman spoke up in an oddly accented musical tone. "Why are we here? Terasov and me, I mean. For such an important mission, why not use a government or corporate team?"

Major Tom smiled, but a twitch of his right eyebrow revealed tension under control. "Fox, let's not waste time with too many unnecessary questions. That will all be made clear presently."

He turned and opened a locker. "Both of you get into your environment suits. Let's take a look around. Remember the safety drill."

They donned their suits and followed the Major into the airlock. "All right," said Major Tom. "We don't know what's waiting for us on the other side of this hatch. We've got to be prepared for anything, and I want proper military organization so as to avoid any screw-ups. Consequently, I'm going to appoint a second-in-command."

At this point, the player is given the opportunity to finish Major Tom's speech, choosing one of two dialogue lines which give a bit of information about each character, something like this:

"Fredericks, you have a little leadership potential in addition to engineering knowledge and language skills..."

"Fox, you have a little leadership potential in addition to biological knowledge and hunting skills..."

It will be clear that whichever character the player chooses to be second-in-command will be the one he/she plays during the course of the game.

--from the fake The DIG design document by Noah Falstein (written 11/12/2005, backdated to 01/30/1991; copyright 2015, LucasArts Entertainment)

"We stick our graphics where the sun don't shine."
--Infocom, defining itself in relation to Sierra

"This isn't a text adventure!"
--Sierra, defining itself in relation to Infocom

"We're not Sierra."
--LucasArts' overall design philosophy

"In a graphic adventure, the maddening thing is: you can't do anything you can't show, and you can't afford to show very much!"
--Brian Moriarty

"Oh, you're quite wrong about that. Come. Let me show you why."
--George Lucas (quoting Bishop Mandible in LOOM)

 

This is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen on a SW forum!

 

Come the morrow, you may see something even more bizarre... a Sternhart who transforms into an Engelhart.