In the history of the Star Wars, the Second Trilogy was filmed first. This means Episode IV, “Star Wars – A New Hope,” was released first on May 25, 1977, followed three years later on May 21, 1980, by Episode V, “The Empire Strikes Back,” and three years after that on May 25, 1983 by Episode VI, “Return of the Jedi.”

At this point, we, the viewing audience, thought, “It’s over.”

I remember the first “Star Wars.” That was how we all heard and thought of “Episode IV.” I don’t think we even noticed the “Episode” number or the “New Hope” title. The movie was “Star Wars.” That was it, and it was slow to receive attention.

Some weeks after the film’s release, a friend stopped me and said, “You should see this movie.”

I did. I went with a young, blond-haired boy who was our first son. It was our first Star Wars. After that, things were not the same for us and for many others. They never would be. There is still an army of Star Wars figures and Lego spacecraft from those first three shows hidden in ambush in our storage units. The movie and the two sequels were a game changer, a life changer, a generation mover and a family of new friends flung to the far-away stars. To this day, I can transport myself back to the theatre for that first opening scroll, hear the music of a space opera, and anticipate the mystery and excitement of a new adventure.

It is fortunate and unfortunate that real people are behind those scenes. I would like to think it all occurred in a galaxy far, far away, but I know in my mind, if not my heart, it occurred not so far away in and around a star system called “Hollywood.” Admittedly, that is a place in space perhaps as surreal as the show itself, but it is nonetheless a real, if unreal, place. The characters we watched with wonder were actors, the words were written and the action scripted – all by characters of and on our planet. With that, I have burst the bubble, and, for that, I apologize. All good things must come to their end and be revealed.

Only, they didn’t and they weren’t, and it wasn’t over.

Those guys in the back rooms under the palm trees with the pens and special effects wouldn’t give up when they were ahead – one trilogy and three episodes ahead of their time. They had to go back, and we couldn’t wait. It was a new and old generation, the children of the first three shows now parents of the children of the next three shows, all waiting in line for the fourth show which should have been the first show. It was all wonderfully confusing. Our universe was turned upside down, and we couldn’t wait.

On May 19, 1999, twenty-two years after the first Star Wars and sixteen years after the last episode, the next “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” was released to jumping, howling, waiting, screaming fans around the world. The first of the First Trilogy had landed and was among us. As our tiny planet in a backwater of the cosmos bridged forward from its Second to its Third Millennium, Star Wars imploded backward from its Second to its First Trilogy. The skies above and the ground below were new and unknown, and, at times and in parts, they were old and familiar. That dry, odd fringe planet of Tatooine emerged again from obscurity. On this visit back in time, we met a young, blond-haired boy with a well-remembered last name, Skywalker, and a new first name, Anakin. Different and the same, we waited for the screen to explode.

In a next post (linearity may bow to patience here but persevere), we will begin to explore the First Trilogy of the now older story.

The wait was long.

Worth the wait?

Time it will tell.

Will it in time?

Find the Third.

The Third to find?

Mystery enshrouded.

Unshrouded mystery find?

Grandpa Jim