A Star Wars Holiday

December 21, 2012

George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, usually loves every Star Wars product in existence, except one. Lucas loves churning out as many movies, books, and toys as he can regardless of quality. Despite this, Lucas finds this one Star Wars TV special so bad that he has refused its release...ever. It was called The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Long ago, the cast and crew of the original Star Wars signed a very strange contract. No one thought the movie would be successful . Part of the contract stated that if the studio asked, the cast would return for a Christmas special. This was a normal practice in the 70s and usually such specials were never made, especially for sci-fi movies. When Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon, the special was made to cash in, though no one involved in the movie wanted to do it.

The plot of the special involves Han Solo and Chewbacca flying to Chewie’s home world to celebrate Wookie life day. Most of it shows Chewie’s family, who only speak in growls and grunts, waiting for him. In order to have parts human could understand, the family would have video phone calls where they would talk to main characters from the movie. The only really notable part of the special is that it was the first appearance of Boba Fett, a villain that most people would not see until Empire Strikes Back.

There are many Star Wars fans that consider it a rite of passage to suffer through the holiday special. Having seen it myself, I would recommend instead reading either Shadows of the Empire or Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, both of which you can get at MCPL.

James M.
Edgerton Branch