Connecting the Star Wars Galaxy to our own

[O'Dib]

I haven't read much EU material, except a few comics here and there, but being an avid fan of KOTOR, and more recently the Clone Wars, I have occasionally been inspired to browse through wookiepedia, and think I have a good general understanding of the history of the sw galaxy.

So, I've been shuffling some ideas around about how we might get from humans living a "long time ago, far far away", to here and now. I know one proposed but scrapped work was time-traveling humans from our future settling there. I offer a different take.

Let's say that midichlorians were the first life form to develop in the sw galaxy. And they evolved a god-like hive mind that transcends time and space (within said galaxy) without ever moving beyond single-celled status. At this point they decided to bring about other species to interact with, simultaneously guiding the evolution of sentient life forms across the galaxy, to fit several well-tested niches such as insectoid, reptilian, aquatic, mammalian, etc. But even with their overwhelming drive towards the proliferation of life, they also subscribed to a death principle, the necessity of occasionally bringing about extinction events etc, all for the greater good and the bigger plan, whatever that is. Eventually this equilibrium would manifest itself in the jedi and the sith rule of two, phenomena people would interpret as “good and evil”.

At one point, tired of being eternally caught in the middle of the galaxy-wide conflict between good and evil wielders of the force, a group of humans would undertake something similar to the Outbound Flight, except without any jedi aboard. Generations later, somehow having reached our galaxy, they all die in an accident, nonetheless. The surviving midichlorians they carried, however, chose to honor the pioneers’ wishes, and lead the development of life on this planet towards sentient humans with, at best, low force-sensitivity.

What say ye, sounds like a plausible extension of what we've seen so far?

 

[Mr. Sin]

There have been various fanfics where the Star Wars characters meet the here and now. Or crossover with a show set on earth. There's probably some Doctor Who crossovers, seeing as the Doctor can go anywhere in time and space, including a long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away


Officially though, there is a non-canon story published in Star Wars Tales (A comic anthology series) where the Millenium Falcon crashes on Earth in the distant past. Han dies but Chewie lives on and inspires the legends of the Sasquatch/Bigfoot. Centuries later, Indiana Jones(!) discovers the Millenium Falcon and Han's remains, which he thinks are strangely familiar....

 

[LaxScrutiny]

That kind of thing doesn't work for me, and it didn't work for me when Star Trek used the idea either.

Part of it is natural human self-centredness. We want to think we are unique and special, not cheap carbon copies of some original.

But fundamentally from a reader/audience perspective, if we are the "Prime" then a story like Farscape where an alien species took some of our DNA to make human like species elsewhere works, because I can then move on to any other story, show, movie and there isn't any dissonence, each story can co-exist in my head.

But you make a story where it's us that are the copies, and that makes the other universe the "prime". It requires greater suspension of disbelief, and it makes the story we are viewing completely clash with any other story, instead of just sitting indifferently beside it.

Put another way, it is like two religions each claiming have the truth about the universe and god. They both can't be right.

It also makes the story increadibly dated if any new scientific research comes out that shows a different source for life, dna etc.

That's not even getting into the idea of midicloreans being an intelligent life force with a plan. That's a big add on, which doesn't really make Star Wars more interesting for me, it reduces even further any idea that the characters are acting out of free will.

But I will say that in the end, any story can be good if it is told well, so do a good job with it and I would end up retracting everything I just wrote.

 

[Anwar]

If Star Wars is REALLY far in the past, you can just say that something happened to wipe out all sentient life in the Wars galaxy and some escaped to Earth and started over.

 

[SeerSGB]

Lucasfilm Already tried to do it in the EU, or at least wanted to: Meet Battlestar Terminator Matrix Star Wars

The Human Exodus begins on Earth, in the 25th century. The three main characters—computer hacker Dale Hender, space pilot Antonia Corelli, and her lover Paxton Solo—are leaders of an underground movement resisting the computers who have taken control of Earth's society. Hender discovers that the computers intend to force-feed the people of Earth drugs to control their emotions. They also learn that the computers intend to strip away the identities and family ties of the Humans under their control by replacing their names with serial numbers (Hender is to become the first of the THX series, THX-0001).[1]


Powerless to stop the computers, the underground decides to secretly convert a comet-mining ship called the Oort Raider to a colony ship, carrying five thousand Humans on a multi-generational journey to Alpha Centauri. After a narrow escape from the computers' forces on Earth, the Oort Raider escapes the solar system. Their long journey is interrupted when they fall through a "cosmic whirlpool" leading to another solar system in another galaxy. To their great surprise, the wormhole is not only a bridge to another galaxy, but to another time, billions of years in the past.[1]

 

[Dac]

If Star Wars is REALLY far in the past, you can just say that something happened to wipe out all sentient life in the Wars galaxy and some escaped to Earth and started over.

Is your real name Ronald D. Moore? :P

 

[Gaith]

The surviving midichlorians they carried, however, chose to honor the pioneers’ wishes, and lead the development of life on this planet towards sentient humans with, at best, low force-sensitivity.

What're "midi-chlorians"?

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Actually, there IS a canonical connection between the SW galaxy and our own.

The race of aliens that visited Earth in ET is from the SW galaxy.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/ET

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Grebleips

 

[Trent Roman]

The Human Exodus begins on Earth, in the 25th century. The three main characters—computer hacker Dale Hender, space pilot Antonia Corelli, and her lover Paxton Solo—are leaders of an underground movement resisting the computers who have taken control of Earth's society. Hender discovers that the computers intend to force-feed the people of Earth drugs to control their emotions. They also learn that the computers intend to strip away the identities and family ties of the Humans under their control by replacing their names with serial numbers (Hender is to become the first of the THX series, THX-0001).

Odd. It was never my impression that the computers were in charge of the society seen in THX 1138. In fact, it was never my impression that anybody at all was in charge there, but rather that it had become a self-perpetuating, entirely bureaucratized (but decentralized) system without leadership.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[T'Baio]

Why?

 

[stonester1]

You lost me at midichlorians.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I always thought the opening blurb was meant as a kind of wink at a scientific connection to reality. We were supposed to be sitting in the theater watching events in "real" time, but the galaxy was so far, far away that the light of events long ago have just now reached our
planet.

Of course, that meaning would be muddied a bit by the prequels, but I'm really only talking about the original trilogy.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

150,000 years ago, Leia was midichlorian Eve.

Or is that mitochondrial?

 

[Lookingglassman]

Q transported the remnants of the SW humans to the Milky Way and took away all their knowledge on how to make cool ships and weapons and instead gave them the knowledge on how to make boring starships whose shields dont last very long.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I am the last Skywalker.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I thought the outline for Alien Exodus was really cool. It would probably require a fair amount of retooling to get it to fit with SW canon, but what wouldn't?

 

[Skywalker]

I am the last Skywalker.

That's not true! That's impossible!

 

[Nerys Myk]

If Star Wars is REALLY far in the past, you can just say that something happened to wipe out all sentient life in the Wars galaxy and some escaped to Earth and started over.

Probably the Cylons. Thats what hating Droids gets you.

 

[Nardpuncher]

A little off topic, but when they say that it's A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far,Far Away how far away and how long ago do you think it happened?
I mean when I was a kid I thought it would be happening during our middle ages, and in a galaxy that would be the farthest away that we could still see with a telescope.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

^ I always equated that line, great as it is, to basically a sci-fi version of 'Once Upon a Time...', and no more.

Cheers,
-CM-