This is one reason I hated to see a prequel at all. I would have rather seen eps 7-9. Okay, I know it is just a movie, but I still have a problem with the idea sometime over about 20 years, the population that make up the Empire, et. al., go from flashy ships, flashy clothes, flashy cities, to suddenly living in adobe huts with automatic doors. There are numerous examples, and it certainly isn't limited to SW. Obviously at some point between now and Jim Kirk's enterprise we develop a distrust of digital clocks and go back to analog scrolling wheels for our instruments.

But does this hamper your enjoyment of the movies and the mythos? It does me. It shouldn't, and if Lucas made the prequel of the same quality as the originals, it would have been laughable, so there isn't a good answer.

Anyway, hamper enjoyment or not?

It was kind of funny when they went on Bail Organa's ship, to see the 1977 set design. Real mismatch between that and everything else.

The real technical incongruity? How come the best (presumably) OB-GYN on Corsucant can't figure out that Padme is having twins, but a droid on a remote mining colony can figure it out immediately?

Doesn't really matter. After the Empire takes over it all hits the fan and there's no more flashy ships and all that shit anyway. I think it plays well all together.

BTW, if you consider the "Knights of the Old Republic" video games as canon, technology in the "Star Wars" universe hasn't changed in at least 4000 years.

The last thing she wanted to do was go to a doctor then others would find out. But you'd think they would have some home twin test or something by then.

I've considered that. Still bothers me, but obviously I let stupid stuff like this get to me. IT'S A FREAKING ADOBE HUT!!!!

It's just one of the things that are going to come up when you make movies sequentially connected 20+ years apart.

I assume you are talking about Tatooine.

IIRC Tatooine is never really a member of the Republic or the Empire, but just a planet full of poor people and outlaws. The tech there is primative for that reason and doesn't really change much in the OT.

Other than that, we only see Hoth, the moon of Endor and Cloud City. There is a noticeable difference as Groucho mentioned, but not a HUGE one when you consider most of the locations in the PT aren't shown in the OT and vice versa.

It doesn't really bother me because Coruscant is probably the flashiest, high tech planet in the prequels, but since Coruscant isn't shown in the OT it doesn't really matter. Some of the small things like the computer image of the Death Star in A New Hope bother me a little but not enough to make me like the movies any less.

i think you saw the natural progression from ep 1 to ep 3 and how much ep 3 looked like ep 4. the muted colors, the first designs of the tie fighters, x-wings, and storm troopers. it all became toned down and more dirty, more mechanical rather than fanciful- war will do that. it made things more indestructible and plain, rather than penetrable and beautiful as seen in ep 1 and 2.

I think Lucas did a great job of making sure that the tech in the PT blended into the tech of the OT. So, instead of bothering me, it actually adds to the enjoyment.

I gotta agree with this, and Groucho & Brain Stew have really good points. The only thing that really bother me were some of the dodgy matte FX in the OT, which I have to admit look better in the SE's. The SE's would be great if they had been strictly "cosmetic" changes.

Actually while things may look better due to the advances in fillmmaking, the technology is still below that of the OT.

Check out the shells! that come out of the big turrets on the captial ships. Now we don't see those in action in the OT, but I'm guessing it was meant to show some inferior technology. I thought that it was pretty cool.

Most of the OT is spent in backwater places - Tatooine, Hoth, Dagobah.
Cloud City got a nice makeover in the SE's and the DVDs to make it look like a developed part of the universe.

agreed.

the emperor is using the galaxy for his own ends. if everything was rich and flashy and comfortable under the Empire why would there be a rebellion? everything imperial is clean and tidy where as the rebellion is a rag-tag group of people and equipment, exactly like it should be.

the flashy ships and bright colors all add to the overall picture of peace and harmony that slowly errodes into the Empire which is ruled by dull color and feels gloomy. works pretty well in my mind

What's up with R2-D2 being able to fly and fart oil, yet all he can do is wobble around about 20 years later?

Oh yeah, and howcome Padmé is in so much pain giving birth... don't they have epidurals?

well... he is now a 20 year old robot. I'm pretty sure that would be like a record player trying to play a DVD.

Even better... How can a JEDI, who can sense lifeforms and know when an enemy or friend is near, not sense two lifeforms within Padme?

I forget where, but I seem to recall it being stated that Anakin equipped R2 with a lot of the optional extras. Since he became Vader (Should I have spoiler tagged that? ) he no longer had R2, and as such, couldn't fix/repair the stuff once it broke. Since Anakin was never formally trained in robot construction, I guessed R2 was a bit hodge-podge, so others may not have been able to fix the rigging that Anakin did on him.

This is going to turn into an abortion thread now.

The biggest difference in the PT and OT technology is that the droid armies were dismantled and replaced with clones. Take out the droid armies and the cities/planets we never saw in the OT and there isn't that much difference. Lars and Beru were living in adobe huts in the PT.

Stuff like the ships control panels do bug me - hope they update some of them for the next round of OT DVD's.(along with the lightsabers)

That's my pet peeve as well. Just like the analog clocks on the original Enterprise.

But a Lincoln Navigator has an analog clock in the dash ... it's a sign of luxury.

I actually liked how the ship at the end had the same look as the OT, down to the 70's tech large blinking color computer tech.

What bugs me is that the clone army go from efficient troops to useless fodder in episode IV.

That is one of my pet peeves as well, just what the hell happened to the clone troopers in 20 years , they fell so far down the ladder that savages with rocks could beat them.

As for the technology, I think it blended very well, Episode 1 was sparkling, II more of the same, III though and things were starting to look like Episode 4 stuff, I really liked the retro star destroyer designs.