Blue Milk Special

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I just realized that newcomers are probably arriving at BlueMilkSpecial.com for the first time and wondering what the hell we’re doing. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye? What is that? Well, in a nutshell, it’s a book that was written right after the original film was released in 1977.

The book, published in 1978 does not include Han Solo. Add to this imposed omission a less epic scope for the adventure. These limitations were made for practical reasons as the idea for SOTME was for it to serve as the script for a sequel to the original film IF it had not performed well at the box office. As a lower budget adventure, it might be more feasible to produce and continue the story of Luke’s journey towards becoming a Jedi like his father. This also meant that, at the time of its writing, many things that we take for granted today, such as Vader being Luke’s dad, Leia being his sister, and so on, were not yet set in stone. This alone makes SOTME an interesting diversion from the regular Star Wars mythos because it’s a what-could-have-been.

We are “taking the mickey” out of it (for you Americans, that means “poking fun at”) because, to be perfectly honest, it’s a less than stellar story with some moments of bizarre characterization and dialogue that we simply could not leave untouched. Now, my apologies to our regular readers for this little disclaimer of sorts, but I don’t want our hordes of new readers to be put off by this temporary diversion from our impending parody of The Empire Strikes Back.

I should add, that while we’re not exactly fans of the work, we do love the general concept of Luke and Leia crash landing on a swampy jungle world, wandering through the mists, meeting another Force mentor (sort of), being lost in a cave and eventually fighting Vader. Those elements, when interpreted in the cover by Ralph MacQuarrie are haunting and poignant. Oh wait! We kind of got that in Empire Strikes Back, didn’t we? Sans Leia, of course. Which is part of what makes SOTME kind of cool.

I say kind of. Note my careful choice of words. Leia is part of what makes the idea of this story a bit more interesting, although the whole Princess and servant boy thing is a little overwrought. The atmosphere of this alien world is great, but beyond that nothing really leaps out with much spirit, passion, or eloquence. The pacing is punctuated by only a few moments of action and suspense. Very little really seems to happen… until the end… ;=

We have closed voting for your favorite Original Trilogy film. The result was anticipated. The Empire Strikes Back bitch slaps all in its path like an AT-AT in jackboots. Really what is more interested is the duel for second and third place. For a long time Star Wars (1977) was winning by a hair, with Return of the Jedi pulling ahead on a couple of occasions. With only two votes ultimately separating them, Return of the Jedi happens to have been marginally in the lead at the time of closing this poll. Effectively however, I would say that there two were tied… but ironically they couldn’t place second as the vote for all three movies pipped them significantly in the end. I am a little surprised that Return of the Jedi gave Star Wars such tough competition. My personal vote actually went to Star Wars. Yes, Empire has the drama, but Star Wars has the vision and the magic.

There is a new poll which I expect will be a tougher question for many of our more mainstream readers unfamiliar with pseudo-canon. Thanks to BMSer Michael D. for the suggestion! In response to Michael’s other suggestion, no, I can tell you right now, BMS will not show hooters.

We are looking for good poll questions, so be sure to suggest anything you have in mind. We need to have a finite number of possible answers. Aim for no more than 10 (although I think we can add a couple more if necessary).