It's space fantasy. The answer is space fantasy.

I love Star Wars, and I love science. But at times it's helpful to be reminded that the true beating heart of SW doesn't lie in calculating mass tonnage . At times this can be a tough pill for me to swallow -- after all, I write Essential Guides. But as someone once put it:

Q: How does a blaster work?
A: You pull the trigger and it goes ZAP.

Here's the "Lil' Library of Space Fantasy Quotes" I've assembled over the years:

Time magazine, May 30, 1977 issue:

"But as Lucas and Producer Kurtz quickly point out, Star Wars is not science fiction but space fantasy. 'Space fantasy allows you more rein to say what you want to say,' explains Kurtz. 'So that's what we call it.'"

Irvin Kershner, from The Making of the Empire Strikes Back documentary:

"Science fiction has certain qualities that you have to respect. All kinds of scientific jargon. We've eliminated all scientific jargon. There's almost none. Just a touch, like salt and pepper. It's not a science-fiction movie."

From Star Wars Insider issue #49:

"...I had seen a trailer George made that he showed at a New Year's party at Coppola's house in San Francisco. We were all baffled, to tell you the truth. We did not believe that he was going to get away with this. We all had little conversations on the side -- 'What do we say to him? It's a cartoon, not a real science-fiction picture!' We didn't realize, of course, that it wasn't supposed to be a science-fiction picture. It was supposed to be a fairy tale, with mythic qualities, using the qualities of science fiction. But scientifically, it's full of baloney! It's a joke -- which was wonderful, which is what makes it work."

George Lucas, from Behind the Magic:

"Basically I was saying, you know, 'A long time ago in a kingdom far away.' That was my way of saying this is really more like a fairy tale than it is a piece of science fiction. And I really thought you needed to do that, to say 'Don't worry about the scientific part of this, cause there isn't any.' In this world, it's a world I've made up, and in this world spaceships can have noise and you can do anything you want."

Dan
(writing projects and current releases)