Okay, I have to say this. I read through the Star Wars infographic. Then I read through the Empire one. Then I slogged through the Jedi one. Then I did some other stuff. Then I trudged through some more of the Jedi one. Then I did even more other stuff. Then I finally finished the Jedi one.
The first one works great because it stuck to the bare essentials. Empire hit even the non-essential bits, but still kept it moving pretty quickly. With Jedi, he was running lines in conversations. There are seven graphics that feature the sarlaac pit, for crying out loud! And that's not even counting the ones with the sail barge and skiffs that bookend the sarlaac. If he went back and redesigned the Star Wars infographic, not only would we be seeing Alderaan get blown up, but we'd also be seeing all the ways they tried to stop the trash compactor, Han's entire conversation with Greedo, and Luke explaining about the womprats to pre-op Wedge.
Geez, no wonder why they lost so many pilots. Who told them it was okay to play video games in the middle of attacking the Death Star?
Neither do the droids. And seriously, how much does C-3PO contribute to getting through the previous 31 steps anyways?
Okay, so with a fair amount of research, I finally found what I was looking for. There were two major factors involved, and one minor. The first major factor was the position of the moon in its orbit around Earth. Apollo 13 completed its one pass behind the moon at about 6 hours off from the moon's apogee (farthest point away from Earth in its orbit). Apollo missions 10 and 15 were the next closest to apogee at about 40 hours difference, so about a day and a half off of when Apollo 13 made its one pass. The next major factor was the free return trajectory. This is a trajectory that will cause the craft to do a single pass behind the moon and then slingshot back to Earth. All things staying precisely the same, a double free-return trajectory should pass the craft back and forth between Earth and the moon forever (this won't work in reality because the eliptical lunar orbit will mess with this trajectory and start making the passes come in too low or too high. Apollo missions 8, 10, and 11 all used FRT to arrive at the moon, and then adjusted course once they got there. Apollo 12 was the first to launch into FRT and then adjust course after systems checks had been completed, which was what all subsequent Apollo missions appear to have done as well. That way if things got borked on take-off, you didn't have to rely on fuel to get back to Earth, but you had more flexibility in selecting your landing site by changing course on the way there. 13 had adjusted out of FRT and had to use the lunar module to get back into it after the accident, and it's the only Apollo mission to actually return via FRT. This meant that it was about 60 miles farther from the lunar surface as it passed behind it, which combined with being closest to apogee gave it a double boost. Either one by itself could have resulted in a record, but together they make it very unlikely that any lunar mission will ever break the record. A Mars mission would kick it in the balls and not even stop to look back.
So the real question, then, is which of the three Apollo 13 astronauts had his back parked on the outer surface of the lunar module when they passed around the far side. My money would be on Lovell, loosely based on the scene from the movie where he lets the other two guys have the moon-side viewports, since he had already seen the far side of the moon on a previous Apollo mission, while the other two crewmembers were on their first spaceflight.
I also heard that one of the other actors thought his character was the real Keyser Soze until he saw the ending at the premiere.
Star Wars pointedly eschewed trying to look scientifically correct for the sake of cinematic appeal, and succeeds in that. Star Trek uses and inspires a metric crapton of garbage science in a weak attempt to look scientific when it really isn't. There's your justification. And I do agree with you that Star Wars wins for being more scientifically accurate as a result.
No box set. In 2007 they released three stand-alone 2-disc sets, termed Widescreen Limited Editions. The then-current Special Editions were the "main" feature, and the US laserdisc original-original cuts were the "bonus" features on the second discs. Unfortunately, since they used the US laserdisc versions instead of the Japanese ones, they're presented in basic letterbox instead of anamorphic widescreen, so they really only look good on a standard format TV. Also unfortunately for people who didn't get them when they came out, they really were limited editions, and now fetch a pretty penny on the secondary market. Last I checked, I think it'd run you between $150-200 to pick up the whole trilogy, where they originally retailed for $20 each.
I'm letting some ideas for Jagers simmer on the back burner. What I'm really hoping to come up with is a solution for Krosp's ears.
Re #7: I guess we're already forgetting the namesake of our two continents, Amerigo Vespucci? Because he set sail after Columbus, but managed to arrive at the mainland before Columbus got out of the Carribbean islands. So yeah, it's a fair bet that even if Columbus was murdered on the way to see Queen Isabella, the New World would have been discovered about the same time.
"You have to bring it up to the present day, but also make it timeless so that in 100 years it will still have the same impact...even though it will now fall well short of the then-present day."
Yup. Makes perfect sense.
Star Wars was actually their second-best-selling theme after BIONICLE about ten years ago. And the latter theme sold so well that they had to install a new production line just to keep up with the part runs without basically scuttling some of their other themes. I remember a time when BIONICLE sets that had been out for several months were still flying off the shelves the day they arrived, like they were brand-new releases.
LotR is due out this summer, while the Hobbit sets should be out closer to December when the first Hobbit movie hits theaters.
Um...you can use it to communicate with interstellar invasion fleets? Duh.
I think what he's saying is that he feels like he was symbolically cast...in a bad light.
I'm pretty sure #10 was the basis for an episode of The Drew Carrey Show. If not that, then some other don't-try-this-at-home injury of a similar nature.
It says you're probably a guy. Or at least interested in girls. Biting the lower lip like that is a time-recognized way of signaling interest, intentionally or not. Dunno where it comes from or why it works, but it does.
I don't think Marylin Monroe is the sort of actress who would do well in Klingon cinema...
My justification of those numbers is that you asked for two numbers with no expressed expectation of justification for those numbers.
There's something not quite right about the idea of putting a light-sword into a sheath. I can't quite put my finger on it. I tried, but it disappeared in a puff of smoke that had a strong scent of ozone...
The first time Darth Maul appears, his lightsaber is about as close as you're ever going to find to a light-nagamaki. Not that he uses it like one, mind you...
