OK, so you're now hip to the latest announcement that the "OOT" is going to be released later this year in response to the question "w00t!?" (Where's the Original Original Trilogy?).

What you may not be aware of are the potential follow-up releases of the OT in various forms over the next few years. Let's follow the timeline:

Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983) is released in a handy theater-sized 3 pack complete with sticky flooring and sweaty fans in the dark hooting at the screen. Although it is re-released several times in the theater packaging, for some reason people keep misplacing it, and supplies run out.

Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition (1997) is released in the ultra modern "Very High Suction" format (VHS). Changes are made. Subtle changes that no one notices at all. Sneaky changes.

Star Wars Original Trilogy Special Edition (2004) is released in the ultra-ultra 5 minutes into the future Don't View Dat (DVD) format. Changes are changed back to the changes before the changes. Subtle unchanges with changes back up the other side and down the other making it look just like the changes before but not.

Star Wars Original Original Trilogy Edition, aka SWOOT (2006) is re-re-re-released in the ultra-ultra-ultra 7 minutes into the future Didn't View Dat (also DVD) format. All aforementioned changes are completely reverted back to unchanged changes untouched by change. At last...Vic-TOH-reee...

And now, I'll take you 20 minutes into the future, ala Max Headroom:

Star Wars Original Original Original Trilogy, aka SWOOOT (2006.5) will be released to give fans the very most original form of the Star Wars trilogy. Packaging will be a handy napkin hand-scrawled by George Lucas himself.

Star Wars Crispy Trilogy, aka SWCT (2015) will be released to give fans the same movies but with the actors at their current age, complete with metal bikinis. Jar-Jar binks will be inserted into the end sequence of Return of the Jedi, forever haunting Anakin and Obi-Wan. This version will be released in hyper-modern format and will be inserted directly into your brain in high definition.

Star Wars Spicy Trilogy, aka SWST (2017) to come out - little is known, however. All we know is Jabba wears the bikini and Han shoots everything first. Repeatedly.

Now...on the subject of the impending release. I gotta point this out, because it reminds me of something.

I have this friend..acquaintence, whathaveyou. He's one of those guys that if you ever apologize, it makes the argument worse. He takes it as a queue that "Hey, I was right! You're wrong! Oh, gloves are off now." Meanwhile you think you've been the bigger person and ended the squabble but neeeuuu...you've just kicked it into high gear.

Anyone know this person? Or a version thereof? I bet you do. Never loses a disagreement because there's just no pleasing him.

Ok so now we've got the new "OOT" out. Yes, sure, Lucasfilm successfully pulled off the "Coca-Cola / New Coke / Coca-Cola Classic" campaign. I applaud it. And I also don't think it was intentional. Well...not completely. I think LFL experimented with its product, and it found that there were two segments of its fanbase - one that likes change, one that can't stand it.

So you know what they did? They caved - but they caved in a most agreeable, most concilatory and accomodating fashion. They gave us all what we wanted. And now this franchise continues on its journey to provide its fans with as wide a spectrum of choice as possible, to give everyone something they'll treasure.

In a way, LFL sorta said "OK, sorry. Here you go." And I'm happy with that. The end result is I'll have every flavor of GL's vision - the ultimate, and the raw. I'll now have something that roots me to my present-day fan experience, and transports me back to my childhood vision of this amazing universe.

And what I refuse to do when LFL says "Sorry, here you go" is take that opportunity to go for the jugular. Nope. I'm going to say "Thanks LFL. Thanks for listening."

And here's my money :0) Again. Because its worth it.

DM out