treatment by John L. Flynn
This goes back to the mid-eighties. There were so many misunderstandings about this treatment that Usenet’s Star Wars newsgroup even had a FAQ to deal with it.
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“Fall of the Republic mini-FAQ” version 1.2, March 1995.
by David Hines, dzhines@midway.uchicago.edu
Questions answered in this FAQ:
1. “Hey, everybody! I’ve got this thing called “Fall of the Republic -”
2. “Why are you guys screaming like that?”
3. “What’s a FAQ, and why does FotR need one?”
4. “Okay, so what’s the deal with FotR?”
5. “What do you mean, it’s not real?”
6. “Yeah, what’s this about the third episode? Wasn’t that Return of the Jedi?”
7. “Okay. FotR is a fake, but where did it come from?”8. “Who is this John L. Flynn guy?”9. “Where is FotR available on the Internet?”
10. “Okay, I’ve got FotR. How do I convert it into something I can read?”
11. “I don’t have ftp access. What do I do?”
1. “Hey, everybody! I’ve got this thing called “Fall of the Republic -“
AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
2. “Why are you guys screaming like that?”
Well, you see, some topics get rehashed quite a bit on thisnewsgroup. That’s understandable, since more people come on tousenet every day. Even if, as is recommended, you lurk in a newnewsgroup [lurk: read without posting] for a whole week beforeyou make your first post, you’ll miss some of the discussion that’s gone before.
Some topics get endlessly rehashed. Topics like bloopers andMark Hamill’s car accident have been brought up over and over, untilmost people are heartily sick of them.
“Fall of the Republic” [hereafter FotR] is one of those topics. People keep bringing it up when they join the newsgroup. Recently, there has been a huge surge of folks pointing out the existence of FotR. Asa result, this mini-FAQ was composed.
3. “What’s a FAQ, and why does FotR need one?”
FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. It gives thequestions and their answers.
FotR needs a FAQ because so many people have questions about it.
4. “Okay, so what’s the deal with FotR?”
It’s not real.
5. “What do you mean, it’s not real?”
Well, it is real, if by “real” you mean that it really exists,and has been written by somebody. However, FotR is not “real” in the sense that it is nota real story treatment for the third episode of the Star Wars saga.
6. “Yeah, what’s this about the third episode? Wasn’t that Return of the Jedi?”
No, that was the sixth episode. RotJ was, however, thethird film to be released. Basically, the Trilogy we know iscomposed of episodes four through six.
Lucas is now working on the scripts for episodes onethrough three. The films are due out in 1998; for more information,see the New Movies FAQ, kept by Aditya Sood.
7. “Okay. FotR is a fake, but where did it come from?”
Good question. “John L. Flynn” is listed as the author, butno one really knows who wrote it, except perhaps the author himself.(More about John L. Flynn follows in question 8.)
Before it was made available on the Internet, most peoplepicked it up at conventions. Dealers sold it at their tables; asfar as we know, the story treatment (it’s too brief to be a script)made its debut around 1983 or so. It may have been around earlier. The earliest possible date for it is 1979, which is when”Star Wars” was rereleased with the subtitle “Episode IV: A New Hope.”Before then, “Star Wars” was just “Star Wars;” no one could haveknown about Episode III being a prequel. Most reports, however (I’m using hearsay, admittedly, from reports of people on thegroup who remember FotR from *way* back) place it at about 1983. (FotR itself has a 1983 date on it, but there’s no way toknow whether or not that date is correct.)
8. “Who is this John L. Flynn guy anyway?”
Beats the heck out of me. The only thing I’ve heard from him other than FotR is a magazine article on the prequel Trilogy in March’s Cinescape. Lots of stuff in the article is drawn from FotR;perhaps Flynn really did write the article. I suppose it’s possible that someone at Cinescape used Flynn’s name as an obscure joke. However,considering the amount of confusion perpetrated in Flynn’s name overthe years, I would find the joke in exceedingly poor taste.
9. “Where is FotR available on the Internet?”
It’s at wpi.wpi.edu, in the directory starwars/stories.Log in with “anonymous” as your username and your email address as your password.
10. “Okay, I’ve got FotR. How do I convert it into something I can read?”
To quote the wpi server itself:250- All ascii text files are compressed (.Z suffix) to save on room. On250- Unix systems just type – uncompress file.Z – to uncompress it.250- MAC user can use the program maccompress-32.hqx – It can be found on250- the FTP site: sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the directory /info-mac/util/250- VMS users can use the program lzdcmp.exe to uncompress the .Z files.250- It can be found on the FTP site: wuarchive.wustl.edu in the250- directory /packages/compression/vax-vms250- PC user can use one of many porgrams on: ftp.uu.net in the 250- directory /systems/ibmpc/simtel/compress250- Remember to download ALL files with the .Z, .gif, .jpg suffix250- in BINARY mode. To do this simply type – bin – at the ftp> prompt.250- If not the files may not work after the transfer.
11. “I don’t have ftp access. What do I do?”
Trust me: if you haven’t read it, you’re not missing much.But if you *really* want to read it, email me and I’ll send you theuncompressed text file.David Hinesdzhines@midway.uchicago.edu
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