Captain's Blog: Star Wars Memories - The Phantom Menace

Wow, where did 25 years go?

In 1999, the world was a vastly different place, and I think I’ve changed a lot during that time. Whether I’ve changed for the better or for the worse is something for others to decide. Suffice it to say, I’m comfortable in my own skin.

As it’s May 3, 2024 as I begin writing this, I’ve seen a lot of chatter online not only about it being Star Wars Weekend, but also the 25th anniversary of the release of Star Wars Ep 1: The Phantom Menace, and my mind keeps going back to that time. Also, as May 4 is the 1st anniversary of the launch of this website (for further information on the how and why of that, click here) I thought it was high time I wrote another long, long overdue personal Captain’s Blog and what better subject than looking back to a quarter century ago? After all, it IS “A long time ago…”

It was 1999, the last year of the 20th century. I was 39 years old. Despite being married, with two young children, I guess it’s fair to say I was still fairly irresponsible. (Being an adult didn’t come easy to me.) I had taken what I could, I suppose call a sabbatical from my day job having fallen foul of the Human Resources dept again, so I had time on my hands. Time I spent teaching myself how to use my new computer, and explore this new thing called the World Wide Web (There’s nothing like a run-in with HR to inspire a reckless purchase like a computer, at the prices they were back then, when I couldn’t really afford it.) The operating system was Windows 98, and my connection to the web was via dial-up. Telephone charges in the UK were expensive, so my dial-up was on a budget plan, and could only be used after 6:00pm and weekends, when the cheap tariff was in effect.

Of COURSE I knew that there was a new Star Wars film incoming. I think everyone on the planet knew. Even remote tribes along the banks of the Amazon knew. Up to this point, like pretty much everyone else, I got all my film news from monthly magazines, most prominently among them, Starburst (back then actually writing for them was a distant dream that had no likelihood of becoming reality) and Starlog – both of which I devoured, cover to cover every month. These magazines had become a lifeline along with Fangoria for horror movies since the release of the first Star Wars film in late ’77 here in the UK. (And for you youngsters, that was back in the day when it was just called Star Wars.) But now, there was this fantastic, limitless resource where I could (gasp) access information with but a few taps on a keyboard, as long as I did it after six or on weekends. (I still remember waiting anxiously for dinner to be over so I could bolt into the study to see if anybody had e-mailed me.)

Something I learned very early on, was that a computer was a vital part of any film fan’s arsenal, especially with sites like Harry Knowles’ Ain’t it Cool News around, where a lot of insider information was published, along with some pre-release reviews. This was again, before the advent of social media and my beloved internet became a cesspool of hatred, bigotry, fake news and misinformation spread by, basically, stupid people. (I’ve long said that the problem with the net these days is that there are too many stupid people on it.) Anyhow, the build-up to a highly anticipated movie was now amped up on a practically daily basis, with on-set photos of props and sets being pored over and commented upon by eager fans. We couldn’t wait. We hadn’t had a new Star Wars movie since the release of Return of the Jedi in ’83.

I remember the release of the first teaser trailer. If memory serves, it was late 1998, but could be early ’99. Either way, it was long damn wait until six because future boy here could actually download the trailer and watch it here in the study at my desk. I had a program (that’s what we called apps back then, kids – and I still think it sounds more impressive) called Shockwave. And this could actually show me this teaser. I could even re-watch it if I pleased. This was even easier than using VHS (I hadn’t upgraded anything to disc yet. I was actually on the cusp of getting my first CD player.)

There was a little flaw in the plan – a minor technical thing. My dial-up was so slow, it was painful watching the content load up, with the little dial barely filling in, micro-millimetre at a time. I actually took the dog for a walk down the lane while I was waiting, it still hadn’t finished by the time I came home, so I had time to make a mug of coffee and consume most of it, before there was enough of it “in” for me to hit “play”. Even after the best part of an hour – it still kept stalling and buffering. But eventually, I sat back and I could see about a minute of footage from the first new live action Star Wars movie for fifteen years. It was worth it.

It was worth it, not only for the snippets of a sweeping John Williams score, but the reveal of a dual red bladed lightsaber against that score.

As the May release date approached, I remember the devastating disappointment of discovering that we in the UK were missing out on the early May release and had to wait until the end of the month. This is the first movie that I was personally aware of that would suffer the curse of internet spoilers, something I now avoid like a vampire avoids sunlight. But here’s the thing. After my three-month hiatus from the then day job, an American friend gifted me the soundtrack CD of John Williams’ magnificent score which he generously sent over from California. The CD carried the worst spoiler of them all on its track listings; track 15 is called Qui-Gon’s Noble End, while track 17 is titled Qui-Gon’s Funeral.

Then, the reviews started appearing – and man, they were BAD. One of the silliest comments I can remember from that time was someone proclaiming “Lucas raped my childhood”. This, by word of mouth was a bad film. But I had already reasoned that it couldn’t be in the same tone as the original trilogy. Those films had an undercurrent of triumph, the victory of a weapon of mass destruction destroyed, and the end of a very long war. Evil had been vanquished. There’s not much to celebrate at the beginning of a galactic war, and the rise of encroaching evil.

Besides, I was reading, as was my custom the novelisation of the screenplay and I was already aware that the whole saga began with a trade dispute. Not even that phased me, because I had in previous years enjoyed the vintage Flash Gordon serials on TV, and the first episode was always a setting up of what was to come. Even the film’s advertising showed a young Anakin Skywalker with the phrase The Saga Begins… (Maybe they should’ve used “We gotta start SOMEWHERE”)

I took a day off on release day, and I got to the cinema early to queue. I, responsible parent that I am, gave Steve who was seven years old at the time the day off school. There wasn’t a queue. Damn it – people had queued overnight in America, I just wanted to be a part of the experience. But we were stood in line at eight in the morning for a the first showing at ten, joined by some close friends and fellow Star Wars nuts. I remember the showing had a pretty decent audience for that time on a work/school day and we cheered as the 20th Century Fox long came on screen, we cheered again at the Lucasfilm logo, we went a bit louder for “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” and we went absolutely batshit crazy for the Star Wars logo and John Williams’ triumphant fanfare. This is a patten that would be followed for all three of the prequels no matter how bad the reviews would be. We were at fan attended opening screenings.

For all its bad press, I have never thought The Phantom Menace was a bad film. I’ve even defended it in a Starburst magazine article called Star Wars: The Fandom Menace which was published a few years ago. Yes, there IS a flaw, and the flaw is pretty much Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. From his first scene, his performance is agonisingly problematic. I know that children can be hard to coax performances from, and I know that Lucas is famous for his hands off style of direction, and these elements combine here to the detriment of the overall movie. But the film has several awesome “Star Wars” moments that make up for Lloyd’s lack of acting ability. (His delivery of the “are you an angel?” line still makes me physically wince.) My opinion – maybe Lucas should’ve handed the directorial reins to someone who never fails to get perfect performances from kids – Steven Spielberg.

Now on to the good – how can anybody dismiss a film that has the Duel of the Fates three-way battle, or let’s face it, Darth Maul? Ep 1 has the coolest use of a lightsaber ever when one is used to melt a way through a blast door by being plunged straight into the steel. How about the Pod Race? Or the final space battle? Whenever Lloyd is being annoying on screen, there’s the comfort of knowing you’re never far away from something cool happening, like Maul’s sinister Sith ship flying low at twilight over the Tattooine terrain. These things even make up for the bullcrap that is the midichlorians. (Hey, I never said the movie was perfect, now did I?) I was thrilled to hear the lightsaber hum in a cinema again.

I remember walking out of the cinema, (this was in the dark days before Cineworld became my base of operations I was at the long-gone Plaza in Bangor, North Wales, now a Domino’s Pizza) feeling kind of satisfied. After all, Lucas had committed to completing another trilogy that would chart Darth Vader’s descent into evil and Palpatine’s rise to power. By the time the next film would be due, they’d need another actor for Anakin because Lloyd wouldn’t be old enough and he still wouldn’t have learned how to act. As it happened, he retired from acting after this. A good career move for him.

But the important thing was, we had another two films to look forward to, which would lead us up to Star Wars, where it all began in 1977. The adventure was just beginning.

May the Force be with you.