How the Star Wars Sequels Could Have Succeeded
Use the Force, Disney
When did Star Wars “jump the shark?” Compared to Star Trek, right out of the gate…. Star Trek was from the very beginning back in the mid-sixties a reasonable and optimistic extrapolation into the future of the historical course of American well-ordered liberty:
Star Wars, on the other hand, has always been a glitzy, gizmo/special effects ridden extrapolation of a 1940s comic book. Nothing inherently wrong with such a genre, but without the substance and gravitas of Star Trek’s premise, sequels will always be a downhill ride.
As a student of martial arts and certain eastern philosophies, though, I did enjoy the implicitly Taoist themes in Star Wars, such as dark side/light side (each owing its existence to the other) and the profound yet childlike persona of Yoda, who is obviously based upon the Zen masters of old:
If the trail of Star Wars sequels had gone more in this direction, perhaps quietly borrowing a bit from the old TV series Kung Fu, perhaps we would not be discussing “shark-jumping” in this regard.
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David Churchill Barrow is a regular Liberty Island contributor and along with his wife, MaryLu Barrow, is the author of the young adult novella Silver and Lead.
Photo by soupboy 
About the Author
David Churchill Barrow
David Churchill Barrow is a Massachusetts “Swamp Yankee” descendant of William Bradford and Myles Standish of Pilgrim fame, who grew up on a farm that has not been sold since first built in the early 1700s. In that farmhouse still hangs the commission of James Churchill as a captain in the Massachusetts militia signed by John Hancock, and the sword of Thomas Churchill, a Navy engineer who served in the Blockade of the Confederacy. David’s father, David Bradford Barrow, was a Marine gentleman farmer who commanded a flame-thrower tank in the Battle of Saipan in WW II.
David’s childhood was mostly spent in the woods and swamps of Southeast Massachusetts, building forts and pretending to be Daniel Boone, the Little Drummer Boy of Shiloh, or just an unnamed “Minuteman” making ready to “fire the shot heard round the world.” He has lived and breathed history since first opening his eyes.
He met his wife MaryLu in high school. They were married in 1979 and have three adult children. MaryLu is a former elementary school teacher working on her first children’s book. Today they live just outside Tampa, Florida, with their Berger Blanc Suisse Attila and their two cats, Minnie and Tink.
David has written non-fiction historical pieces and columns for The Tampa Tribune (now the Tampa Bay Times), The Marine Corps Gazette and the “Lore of the Corps” section of The Marine Corps Times. He has been a regular contributor of both short stories and posts to Liberty Island Magazine since its inception. He and MaryLu co-authored Silver and Lead and are working together on a YA novel centered around the so-called “Boston Massacre.”
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