Why is the timeline so long?

Hey There,

Always been a fan of the films (at least the original 3) and have recently started delving into the Expanded Universe. Although I'm enjoying this additional content, I seem to have an (admittedly nitpicky) issue regarding this imagined Galactic Historical timeline. It seems to me that the the overall span of time starting with say, the formation of the Galactic Republic until the end of the current timeline seems WAY too excessive. I just find it hard to believe for example that by the time that the original films take place, humanity's been a space-faring civilization for at least 30 thousand years. Another example: Wookiees have apparently been around for 2 MILLION YEARS! It just seems to me an extremely long amount of time where things stay relatively the same, sure different governments come and fall, but essentially nothing drastic really changes. I know at least initially (pre-hyperdrive) some of this is just due to the extreme amount of time it would take to get from star to star, but otherwise it just seems like they wanted to create this "Epic" Universe and thought that making this timeline so long adds to the "Epicness" somehow.

I don't know, it's kind of a stupid objection to make of a SCI-FI universe. And it doesn't really detract from my enjoyment at all, I just find it kind of curious. Am I missing something, or has anybody else had these thoughts? If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with this rambling post.

 

Duplicate thread. For further discussion see the thread in Lit.