Star Wars Rebels first impressions, and forecasts for Episode VII

So the pilot episode of Star Wars Rebels broke last week, and the follow-up episode is available for free on iTunes (for how long though, I cannot say).

Image source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star_Wars_Rebels_logo.png)

First impressions:

TIE FIGHTERS WITH THEIR SCREAMING ION ENGINES! STAR DESTROYERS THAT TRACTOR YOUR WHOLE SHIP INTO THEIR DOCKING BAY!

THIS is Star Wars: ragtag heroes up against an evil empire. TIE Fighters have not been seen in non-Expanded-Universe material since 1983 and they. have. been. missed. It's a little early to provide much commentary, but suffice to say I'm optimistic that this will be even better than The Clone Wars.

Now for the new worlds we're seeing.

Lothal

Image source: Star Wars Database (http://www.starwars.com/databank/lothal)

Not much to write home about. All we see is grass occasionally interrupted by boulders. I'm actually ok with that concept; it's entirely possible that habitable worlds may only have very simple ecologies, especially if they are relatively young.

Kessel

Image source: Star Wars Database (http://www.starwars.com/databank/kessel)

First mentioned in passing by both C-3PO and Han Solo in the original 1977 movie, the spice mines of Kessel are a combination Imperial penal colony and mining operation / death sentence. It bears mentioning, though, that the writers seem to be intentionally working to get under the skin of diehard Expanded Universe fans.

The original Kessel, as detailed in Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy and the formative-in-my-childhood-video-game Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, among others, was a non-spherical asteroid, with only a thin artificial atmosphere maintained by atmospheric generators, necessitating oxygen masks for anyone on the surface.

In the pilot episode, we get a split-second establishing shot of Kessel, but that's all it took for the writers to say, "It's spherical. We're in charge now." I don't exactly disagree with this decision, as the old Kessel was pretty ridiculous in hindsight, but it would've been nice to keep the oxygen masks, as it would reinforce the hostility of the planet's environment and the fact that any prisoners condemned there are essentially on their way to a death sentence. Star Wars could really use some more "hostile" planets. Even Mustafar can't be that hostile if you can walk around and breathe the air.

Now, looking a little bit forward. Fourteen months to be more precise:

Episode VII.

I've noticed that Star Wars is exhibiting a marked trend away from the generic single-environment planets I've complained about before. Recall that most of the standard environments are covered in the original trilogy: desert, jungle, ice, swamp, forest. The prequels begin to get more creative, with a termite-mound planet in Episode II, a sinkhole planet in Episode III (plus all the weird worlds in the Order 66 montage), and all the wacky worlds of The Clone Wars that I discussed at length in my earlier post.

The planets in Star Wars are getting more creative over time. Rebels may be a bit slack so far, but it still shows promise. Thus, I'm interested in what J.J. Abrams has in mind for the upcoming sequel. Recall that Abrams's previous "Star" film, Star Trek Into Darkness, opened on a planet with red trees, an ocean, and a supervolcano, all in about 5 minutes.

Image source: TrekMovie.com

I'd bet Mr. Abrams will bring similar creativity to Star Wars. And that's pretty exciting.