2001 – A LIGHTSABRE REVIEW

By Jonathan Hicks

The year 2001 was an iconic year to most people, thanks to Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s efforts on the film of the same name, and the excitement of last year seems to have seeped into the Star Wars – Lightsabre website.

The year began with the usual fair of Lightsabre content, stories and such, with interviews from top Star Wars authors heading the bill. January passed in much the same vein, with new ideas appearing within the many electronic pages of the site. The site also received an overhaul – a new border and layout increased the impact of the visuals.

February saw the introduction of Mark Newbold's Setnin Selects, the Lightsabre version of the ‘George Lucas Selects’ from the official Star Wars website. With the addition of stunning CGI graphics from the computer of Louis Turfrey, they became an instant success and helped promote the site’s sense of individuality. Although Lightsabre is a Star Wars site, 99% of the stuff we create shies away from the official Star Wars material. The Setnin Selects enhanced this.

March saw the full introduction of a new Jonathan Hicks story arc for the Lightsabre stories – the previous three months had seen the seeds of a possible invasion of the Setnin Sector, Lightsabre’s own part of the galaxy, by the neighbouring Ki-Ki Sector. After half a dozen build-up stories and a short novel, the arc began with a bang.

April and May saw the introduction of new graphic software for Louis Turfrey, who increased his visuals immensely for the gallery section, and the beginning of work to streamline the Lightsabre content. Mark Newbold worked on the guides. Cutting them into sections and making them easier to navigate, as were the timeline and fiction lists. Now the viewing public could read the Lightsabre fiction in chronological order, with all the stories and the timeline entries acting as one long story.

June through to August saw more of the same. New stories, increasing the drama of the Setnin/Ki-Ki War, appeared on the site. New graphics for the Setnin Select and the final introduction of scanned hand-drawn artwork helped improve the variety of work. Plans were to hit a story high in September with a huge story, co-written by the Lightsabre staff, about the continuing Ki-Ki/Setnin War.

September was a month of tragedy, with the terrorist actions on the 11^th shocking and grieving the world. War became a reality, and the Lightsabre staff discovered that their own stories, especially that of their huge planned story, mirrored the events of the real world far too closely to be tasteful. An overhaul was needed and additions to the site were put on hold.

October through to December was a time of reflection and change. The Lightsabre staff took a step back and reviewed their creations to make sure that everything hung together well. It was noticed that there were too many plotlines and too many characters involved with the Ki-Ki/Setnin War. After discussion in November, work began on simplifying things to make the story more accessible. With changes to both the story arc and the content of the site itself, things were ready to go again by December.

Then disaster struck. The main plot ideas and story drafts on Jonathan Hicks computer were lost – the computer had broken down and the data was inaccessible. The planned end of year/beginning of year story explosion was, once again, placed on hold as the problem was addressed.

Now, with the data recovered and the story once again taking form, the new year of Lightsabre will continue in the way we’ve always wanted – original stories and artwork to entertain and occupy the minds of those that enjoy our work.

Here’s to 2002