Thank God for the cutting room floor

But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!
-Luke Skywalker, (in arguably the worst written and worst performed line in the original franchise).

It's becoming clear to me that George Lucas was not so much a visionary as he was a stopped clock that the world kept looking towards at just the right time.

For as much as I (still) love the Star Wars saga, it seems to me that Lucas' tendency towards flat dialog and superfluous scenes existed in 1977. The difference was, back then editors were willing to stand up to him.

Look at this set of scenes and try to imagine how they would have added to the story:

Thanks to editing we were spared Tosche station, Biggs and his dumb friends, and Luke's incredibly-stupid looking hat.

Every movie has scenes that got chopped – but you can see how good editing leaves a bit of mystery to the backstory. Having Lucas parade every nuance past you (as he does in this sequence) just shows you how unwilling he is to leave anything up to his audience.

You must see it his way. In a nutshell, that's what's wrong with the new movies –

I will hit you with a hammer. See the hammer? I am now picking it up. I am moving toward towards you. My hammer is raising up now – in my hands. See how it is pointed towards your head? The hammer is moving now – downward…

Sigh.

As pathetic as it is to admit, I've written some screenplay/teleplays and while I can understand the motivation to write a scene that goes nowhere – (you typically don't realize how pointless a scene is until you finish it) you should be able to weed it out before shooting.

Thankfully, for most of the first three movies somebody was cutting the crap before they released the movie

By the time the next three movies came around – nobody could tell George anything.

Damn shame, too.

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Also, a propo of absolutely nothing:

If like me, you had vague recollections of a Star Wars TV special – it wasn't a bad hallucination – it was just an incredibly bad idea that actually happened.

Wookies in robes and Princess Leia singing like a 70's diva. Dear God – how I wish I'd forgotten completely….