Leonard Nimoy Hosted A Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi Documentary
Star Trek and Star Wars, as franchises, feel like they’ve been around forever. So when their relative paths cross, in the form of actors, it’s always cool to check in on what’s happened in the past. Such was the case with a Return of the Jedi documentary from 1983 that was hosted by none other that Leonard Nimoy.
Sci-fi fans, eat your hearts out on this one. We get to see Spock (Leonard Nimoy of course) talking about a galaxy far, far away. There’s nothing better in the whole universe.
The making-of documentary was part of Nickelodeon’s Standby: Lights! Camera! Action!, a show that gave young viewers some insight into how movies are made. It’s strange to see Leonard Nimoy jumping universes to talk about Star Wars, but I guess he needed something to do in between The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. So why not host a behind-the-scenes featurette for Return of the Jedi?
Interestingly, Leonard Nimoy tells the audience that Revenge of the Jedi was the working title and Return of the Jedi was the film’s original title. I always thought the film’s working title was Blue Harvest and its original title was Revenge of the Jedi, as George Lucas changed it just before the film was released in theaters because he felt revenge wasn’t a noble quality for the Jedi Knights. Nevertheless, the behind-the-scenes doc starts with a narrator calling the movie Revenge of the Jedi.
The Leonard Nimoy featurette then highlights the film’s production, namely the many alien species featured in the movie. Watching a making-of featurette where the film’s special effects artists aren’t hunched over keyboards and computers to bring the movie to life is refreshing.
Most of the Leonard Nimoy video’s running time revolves around Phil Tippett and his work on the Star Wars movies. Tippett is a visual effects artist who had built a career in stop-motion animation, special effects, and makeup design.
Aside from the Star Wars movies, Tippett’s work can be seen in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the original RoboCop (mainly ED-209), Jurassic Park, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and Jurassic World.
At the end of the documentary, Leonard Nimoy talks about how George Lucas envisioned three trilogies with nine movies spanning over 40 years for the film franchise. It must have been a thrilling idea for fans at the time.
