The Spaceship Graveyard
If you’ve ever seen any Star Trek, then you know how true this strip is. So don’t be surprised if the planet Jakku has more than one Enterprise strewn across its desert.
One of the reasons we chose to do a parody of the Force Awakens was to be a part of contemporary Star Wars for the first time in our 7 year history as a webcomic. All this time we have been parodying the Original Trilogy, the early spin off novels, the Holiday Special and Shadows of the Empire. All these things happened a long time ago…
For the first time a new Star Wars movie is happening in the age of webcomics. Although some early webcomics existed during Revenge of the Sith, it really was just early days for the medium. For once, we have the opportunity to experience our subject at the same time it is making its debut. The material is just as new to everyone else as it is to us. That makes this interesting, different, and fun.
This is not a long term commitment. If anything, we are parodying material alluded to in the trailers and will revert back to our Return of the Jedi storyarc at the end of December. So, if you hate what we’re doing right now, I hope we won’t lose all our readers forever! Please come back! For the love of the Force!
By the way, you guys might be my only hope! It is a time of year where many people tend to be looking for gifts for their friends and family. I am desperately trying to sell some treasured pieces of my own collection to raise money and would love it if readers who are interested, or know someone who might be, would help me spread the word about what I have for sale over on eBay. Here are some of the items, but you can see a full list here.
8x Custom SCF Transformers PVC lot HOUND MIRAGE PROWL BLASTER action figures
7x SCF Transformers PVC lot Autobots action figures
Custom Transformers PVC SCF lot incl SHOCKWAVE RAMJET THRUST action figures
STARSCREAM LOT + hard hero bust Transformers Hasbro Takara action figures
Second Doctor Who Cyberman Ice Warrior LOT Character Options action figures
1987 Hasbro GI JOE Operation Shutdown ACTION FORCE FAN CLUB MINT UK Exclusive
Funny! and definitely NOT a spoiler… Now if you said Darh vader was Luke’s father, that would be a spoiler… oh… dang
STOP!
You are going to make me actually want to see these new movies! :p
😉
I went to see Terminator: Genisys. One of the worst films I’ve seen in a long time. The good news is, it didn’t kill me. I also highly doubt The Force Awakens is going to be in the worst films category. Take your kids. Have a good time.
My plan exactly, and there will be Buttered Popcorn and Junior Mints… 🙂
I am curious as to why they are introducing an entirely new desert world in the ‘Force Awakens’. I mean from an expanded universe perspective it makes perfect sense, because it is a big galaxy after all.
From a cinematic perspective it just seems to complicate things, since along with Artoo and Threepio, Tatooine was a consistent thread woven throughout the series.
I always figured the reason for the Single Biome Planets in Star Wars was so that the casual viewer could tell at a glance where the action was taking place. Now I can just see a conversation about Jakku…
“Which one is Jakku?”
“The desert planet.”
“Ah the one with the big ganster and the big creature.”
“No that’s Tatooine.”
“So the one with the midget junk dealers and sand people.”
“Still Tatooine.”
“The one with Pod-racing?”
“…”
I can already see a ton of problems with the script. Unnecessary additions such as another desert world, which, like you say, will complicate things in conversations with the casual viewer, is just one of the concerns I have. The major one is repeated plot devices. Yes, it is sci-fi, but not every sci-fi involves the same major plot device, including what looks like the same basic structure to get you there… Close your eyes if you don’t want spoilers…
FINAL SPOILER WARNING…
It looks like BB-8 is Poe Dameron’s X-Wing droid. We can already surmise from the trailers that Poe is captured early on by the Empire. Finn quits his Stormtrooper gig early on and lands on the new desert planet. Rey is in possession of BB-8. It feels to me like BB-8 escaped Poe’s capture by the Empire and ended up on a desert planet to be discovered by a young human with a less than satisfying life. Stop me if you’ve seen this before! So the only real curve ball to A New Hope is the addition of an Ex-Stormtrooper to the story. They still end up meeting up with a smuggler and his Wookiee on the desert planet and escaping to greater adventures. Again, A New Hope. They go looking for some Mandalorian advice or artifact. Kylo Ren, the Sith dude, confronts Finn. The Rebel / New Republic launch an attack on a snow planet that turns out to be the Death Star. I’m not even joking. The Force Awakens Death Star is already available for sale in Toys R Us. So most likely, at the beginning of the story, Poe is stealing information on the location of the THIRD Death Star, and BB-8 escapes to a desert planet with that info.
My problem is that, although there is nothing wrong with such a plot, it’s facepalmingly close to A New Hope, and massively disappointing from the point of view that Star Wars can and should be capable of making an effort. We got the Death Star twice in the OT. That was lame. But it still managed to be a great thrill ride of a film. All the changes to Force Awakens from the previous films feel superficial only. I’m just really stunned that they are retreading the old plot without calling this a remake. It’s weird and weak and it prevents this film from being a true classic from the get go.
I agree with your concerns and this is the issue I see a lot of these returns to classic story films having. I have not seen Jurassic World yet, but I fear that it will be very similar to JP and rely on the nostalgia viewers have for the original.
I was also fearing this for Terminator Genisys, which I did see, and it surprised me. While the elements are there, they decided to use that as a scene setter and branch off from there with a (slightly) different story. It does suffer from other issues such as Jai Courtney’s lack of chemistry with Emilia Clarke, yet another more advanced model of terminator, and then the spoiled twist in the trailer. At least it wasn’t wholly reliant on nostalgia and a retreaded plot.
I have been trying to avoid any big spoilers, but I have seen enough similarities to have my concerns about Star Wars VII, but i’m trying to keep an open mind until I watch it. I really do hope that we do not have a bunch of new characters who fall into exact archtypes of previous characters and recycled plots
Trust me, John, JW and JP are different. I’ve seen both and while the premise is broadly the same (It’s Jurassic Park, whatcha gonna do?) the rest of the movie is quite different. And Rod, when you think about it, Episode I was basically A New Hope, too, but it was very different. In both movies, there is a gifted pilot destined to become a Jedi, who leaves with a newfound Jedi mentor to become one, and ends up fighting a battle where he shows his true piloting skills and destroys a massive battleship, winning the entire battle singlehandedly. And then there’s a celebration at the end that looks quite similar to the one in the original. I think that the difference between Episodes 4 and 7 will be, optimistically speaking, roughly the same difference between episodes 1 and 4.
SPOILER WARNING….
LAST CHANCE…
Phantom Menace didn’t have the Death Star. And the battle station in Phantom Menace was not a major part of the plot in the way the Death Star was. In Force Awakens, it appears we have a droid called BB-8 that escapes to a desert planet with the plans concerning the new Death Star. Super similar. I’m not bashing it, I’m just saying there is something seriously wrong with the imagination. Regardless, I think the ingredients will make an exciting film. I’m just not convinced yet that it will be an awesome, classic film.
Not saying that the ship was completely like the Death Star. It’s just Episode 1 was a watered-down version of A New Hope and I think that’s why people hated it because they watered the recycled elements from Episode 4 so much that they had to add in other elements to thicken it and so it comes across as a bad movie with references to the original material– like, 90% politics and other Episode 1 stuff and 10% ripping off the original, watering it down so the similarities aren’t as prominent. For the record, I don’t think it will be a classic, either. The prequels weren’t. The only way you can call the prequels classics is by calling the whole saga a classic story arc. As standalones, they definitely don’t deserve the title and I think that while The Force Awakens will be much better than the prequels, it won’t be a classic either. Heck, we might have to wait a few more years until we can include Episodes 7-9 as part of the “classic” saga. Um, is this confusing?
I know the reason why I hated Episode 1 was nothing to do with feeling it was similar to A New Hope. I don’t really see that at all other than Anakin’s beginnings. What I hated was nonsensical politcal intrigue, the overabundance of Jedi and no strong central character to focus on, Jar Jar Binks being like Elmo, poop humor, the cartoony droid soldiers, the puppet and later CGI versions of Yoda, particularly uncharismatic acting from everyone, a waste of a good villain, the underuse of Obi-Wan, Young Anakin being obnoxious and hard to take seriously, Threepio being created by Anakin, actually, this list could go on all night. Just watch Red Letter Media’s review of the film. Most of my qualms are the same with theirs. I’m not sure where you get the idea people hate it because of a perceived similarity to ANH. I’ve never heard that comparison before. I don’t think its more than superficially similar.
When you have the centerpiece of the new Episode 7’s plot being yet another Death Star, that begs the question how many iterations can you do with the same basic plot. The bad guys have a planet destroying space station, let’s destroy it. That was not the plot of Phantom Menace… although the actual plot was pretty messy, again another complaint from me. It’s a whole can of worms that is probably thrown away before we open it any further.
I always thought they only crashed landed the “D” while the original blew up because in Search For Spock, Captain. J. T. Kirk. Hit. The. Self. Destruct. Button.
Just treat that Enterprise in the background as a generic image representing all Enterprise classes. I’m not perfect! :-/
Just to nitpick a little further, the background ship is a Constellation class. (Well, according to the dedication plaque seen in TOS. According to most later sources, the no-letter NCC-1701 was a Constitution class.) The Enterprise-A was an updated Constitution class, the -B was an Excelsior, the -C was an Ambassador, the -D was a Galaxy, and the -E was a Sovereign. There’s never actually been an Enterprise class, as best I can recall.
Sorry, but since I used to be a big Trek geek (mostly lost interest in recent years), I just had to.
And as long as I’m commenting, I just wanted to say that I’ve enjoyed BMS, but more because of your entertainingly offbeat approach to the characters and story than because it was specifically about Star Wars. So, I’ll definitely be checking out any post-BMS project you come up with.
It’s not stated in the strip so not a problem. But I appreciate your information! And thanks for reading!
There is one in every crowd.
🙂
Roger that!
But still a great strip!
I’ve watched most of Star Trek from the TOS movies to the end of VOY… The only ship that I really recall crashing in all that time is the Enterprise-D.
Were constellation class ships just falling out of the sky during the original series run or something?
It’s a f#$%ing cartoon strip. Get over it. 😛
did we just skip over the death star 2 explosion? and the whole part where Luke and Leia are twins meaning that Vader/dark Ani and thier dad?
Whoa! WHOA WHOA! Spoilers! Some people have not had a chance to see ROTJ yet. It only came out like 32 years ago! 😉
If you go back just four strips, you will see I explained what we were doing in the blog below “The Latte Legacy Awakens”. This is just a temporary aside so that we can be a part of contemporary Star Wars for a first time. Also see the current blog for additional motivations. We will return to ROTJ at the end of December.
Discovered the website a few weeks ago, just caught up. How am I going to cope with the normal release schedule?!
Also, being in the UK, we get to see the force awakens on the 17th!! I’ll try not to spoil it for a day for everyone else