Every now and again, someone over on the message boards tries to re-write the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy how THEY would have done it.

These re-writes are always the same. Invariably, they look something like this:

Episode I:
Obi-Wan Kenobi discovers an 18-year-old Anakin Skywalker on Tatooine and decides to take him on as his apprentice, against the wishes of the Jedi Council. Obi-Wan has to train Anakin in secret. The Naboo invasion represents the start of the Clone Wars, which are the basis for the whole trilogy. There is a love triangle between Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padmé. Darth Maul survives the final duel and becomes the main villain for the rest of the trilogy, until Vader kills him and takes his place later on.

Episode II:
Obi-Wan and Anakin serve under Bail Organa in the Clone Wars, which continue to rage. Padmé and Anakin fall in love. Anakin turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. The final battle is that good old lava palaver from Lucas's Episode III.

Episode III:
Palpatine declares himself Emperor as the Clone Wars end. Vader journeys throughout the galaxy hunting down Jedi Knights. The twins and Padmé go into hiding.

The urge to write our own versions of the prequels is an understandable one. A lot of us were dreaming what Episodes I, II and III would be like for twenty years, ever since we first saw a yellow "Episode IV: A New Hope" scrolling through space.

The problem with re-writes like the one above is that they don't offer anything new. We've already seen a teenaged Skywalker leave Tatooine on the promises of old Obi-Wan and be trained as a Jedi in secret. We've already seen a love triangle between the three main leads. We've already had a trilogy focussing on a single war. We've already had a recurring Sith villain toppled by his would-be successor (admittedly Lucas's Episode III did this too!). We've already seen Vader storming around the galaxy hunting down enemies who are on the run.

If you want six Episodes of this, just watch IV-VI twice in a row. It's not like there aren't enough different versions of them.

There are quite enough parallels between the two trilogies, without creating any more. If Lucas had released the prequels like this, he would have been torn to shreds by critics (both professional and amatuer) for making nothing but an uninventive rehash of his past successes.

What the fan re-writes tend to miss out on are all the new additions Lucas added to his galaxy this time around. Gone are the noble and maverick Qui-Gon Jinn, and the regal and mysterious Count Dooku - two of Lucas's greatest characters, portrayed by two of the greatest actors in the business. Also gone are the podracing, the humour of the perpetually-confused battle droids, the steady downspiralling of the Republic (with surprisingly relevant parallels to today's politics on Earth), and more.

A lot of this happens in the name of clearing up perceived continuity errors that only exist in the mind. "Obi-Wan can't possibly have had more than one teacher - He'd have told Luke so if he had!" "Why doesn't Uncle Owen recognise a walking communication tool he owned twenty years ago in a different colour?"

Most significantly of all, I've never seen a convincing fan depiction of Anakin's fall. Most versions have him go over the edge after the loss of someone close to him (usually Padmé). But people in the real world lose loved ones all the time. Very few of them decide to subjugate the galaxy and massacre all their friends as a consequence.

By losing the child Anakin from Episode I (a decision that seems to be born of either despising children in general or a complete inability to identify with them), you lose the story of him being separated from his only parent at a very young age. You lose the death of his surrogate father and his growing up in an alien world, with only the dangerous idea that he is some all-powerful "Chosen One" to cling to. You lose his long-held, naive belief that he can remake things "the way they should be" - an idea that is at the very core of his being, and makes Episode V's "I am your father" speech all the more potent.

Anakin's turn to the Dark Side and the clash with Obi-Wan is the dramatic and emotional highlight of the trilogy. That's why it happens at the end. By shunting everything forward one film and making the "Darth Vader going round killing everybody" movie (much derided by Lucas), you end up with a very anti-climactic Episode III that's all gratuitous violence and virtually no story. Where's the interest in watching Vader repeatedly skulking around slicing up non-entities, after you've seen him battle his best friend and mentor?

There are changes I'd make to the Prequel Trilogy if it were up to me. I'd spice up the rather uninspiring first five minutes of Episode I (First impressions are all-important!). I'd ditch the confusing and unnecessary Midi-Chlorians concept. Parts of Episode II's love scenes are just too excruciating. I'd like to see bigger roles for Count Dooku and Bail Organa. I might even go into these in a future blog entry some time.

But these are all minor niggles, small tweaks that stem from personal preference. My imagination isn't up to the task of recreating the prequels wholesale, with the wealth of creativity and outstanding ideas that Lucasfilm poured into it. Nor is the imagination of anyone else who I've seen have a go at it.

Thank the Force that Lucas's imagination was.