In advance of the new Star wars movie coming out this week, I've decided to post my Great Star Wars things list...the things that really leaped out at me as unique and unforgettable, oh so many years ago....

Star Wars:

1). That endless spaceship - As terrific opening scenes go, the rebel blockade runner shooting past pursued by that endless and huge Imperial Star Destroyer was unforgettable. You knew in that brief moment that you were seeing something you hadn't seen before at the cinema.

2). Darth Vader - Mechanistic, malevolent and terrific, the first sight of Darth Vader striding down the hallway and later cruelly choking the rebel to death gave you an immediate clue - bad guy extraordinaire!

3). Tantooine - After years of watching Star Trek it was nice to have a fully realized alien world - complete with jawas, sand people, twin suns, massive skeleton remains half-buried in sand...and to top it off that "wretched hive of scum and villianny", Mos Eisely Spaceport. Do you know any 10-year old kid that wouldn't have given his left...well, you know, to visit Mos Eisely?

4). The Greatest bar in space - Weird critters, ugly aliens, copious alcohol, no droids welcome, and the swingest shit hot band in five systems!

5). Character setting - All it took was a short conversation and a nasty gunfight and you knew everything you needed to know about Han Solo. When Solo left Gredo as a smoking mess slumped on the table and stalked out, you knew - you absolutely knew, just who and what he was....and then George Lucas went and completely ruined it with his revisionist version in later years.

6). The Millennium Falcon - who the hell needs the stately Enterprise when you could hotshot through the galaxy and do the Kessel Run? The Falcon was every souped-up junk-heap hot rod you ever wanted.. you could be out there jumping galaxies man!

7) The Death Star - Three words: Blow. Stuff. Up.

8). Light Sabers - A little piece of technology that puts the swashbuckling back into the movies.

9). The Falcon's Gun Turrets - This scene presaged the video game generation and was probably single-handedly responsible for at least half of the people working in the gaming industry today - all they ever wanted to do was recapture that moment and blast the living shit out of encroaching TIE fighters...

10). The final battle - you can't even describe it to people who didn't see it the first time - that unadulterated, world-weary-free feeling - of something entirely and extraordinarily new! Nothing like it had ever been seen in a sci-fi movie before this - x-wings skimming over the artificial canyons and cityscape of the Death Star, lasers blasts skipping across the surface, enemy fighters spinning wildly...the whole glorious chaotic kaleidoscope...topped off by sheer Dam-busters tension of the flight down the trench and the ominous voice ticking down the time until the Death Star could blow the rebels to hell...

Each of the subsequent Star Wars films have added to this list, but probably less each time, as time and special effects have made the subsequent visions more mundane with each passing sequel... Here's hoping the new film can live up to the original's legacy.