I think we've had quite enough, thank you, and as all things in concert with the Natural Force - better out than in. The Big Screen Star Wars days are over. So be it.

I, for one, am ready for the next stage of evolution for Star Wars - the Star Wars that sprouts squatty legs from primordial ooze, grows a truncated brain stem and steps out onto Terra Commercialus - aka TV land.

Yes, I'll miss the expansive screen and THX surround sound in the theater, but lets face it - you can get that at home now. No more sticky floors and crying babies. No more dimwits on cell phones talking while Anakin is thrashing about in another dramatic moment. No more extortion at the concession counter. No more jockeying for that one seat, just yea high, just middle enough, not too low, not nosebleed, positioned just so between the theater speakers to catch all the hot nasty surround sound action.

The upcoming days will be days long remembered. They have seen the end of Star Wars in the theater, and the beginning of the small screen rebellion. Soon we'll have Episode III in our sweaty little hooves, ready to pop into our DVD players so that we can bask in the resplendant luxury that is Star Wars in our own homes.

And soon, we will have a Star Wars television show, maybe more than one, live Star Wars action that promises to be perhaps better than the last Star Wars live action experiment, the Holiday-Program-That-Won't-Be-Named.

What will this new adventure be like? Well, we alreadty know the glee of exploring new Star Wars DVD's. We've been put into Home Theater Sensory Overload over the past 18 months or so. We've got 5 glorious Star Wars episodes to transport us to digitial Xanadu, 3 of which were long awaited. With the final installment, Episode III will close off that gaping hole in our home entertainment needs, rounding out that 6th spot that so longs for its future occupant. Soon we'll have all 6, lined up in a lovely display with soft lighting trained upon it like some treasure Indiana Jones has yet to find, high atop our altar to George, set in a spot so that every passerby knows instincually that touching The Star Wars Sextology, or lending them out, would bring fear, which would lead to hatred, which could very well lead to great suffering.

But what other boons awaits us from a transition to the small screen? New characters to discuss, new plotlines, new mysteries. More importantly, perhaps some old mysteries solved? Will we learn how Anakin came by the knowledge to become one with the Force? Perhaps how the Bothan spy ring came to be? Will we see plotlines that skirt teasingly around the central characters? Will we see cameos? Ground-breaking special effects? New 'droids? Old ones? Continuity gaps filled? EU attrocities committed? A new debate about "just what is canon, gull dernit?"

Yes, fans, its a new era coming up. It's an exciting new time, and its time to realize our adventure is just getting underway. Star Wars is about to become a daily pleasure we can relive, and a weekly adventure that will carry us further to that Galaxy far far away.

And still...I already miss the sticky floors and the over-priced popcorn, and the massive gold letters receeding against the black backdrop of a starlit canvas. But the way of the Force, that is, my padawans.

And so we wait...again...

DM out