Cat.no: VSLD 10095

Cert: E

Running time: 63 minutes

Year: 1999

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 10

Sound: Linear PCM Mono

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Fullscreen: 1.33:1

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £15.99

Extras : Scene index

The Unauthorised Star Wars Story : There's something cynical that can be said about a product when it continually states how it is "unauthorised" and has not been "prepared, approved, licenced or endorsed by any entity that created or produced the Star Wars properties or is otherwise associated with them in any way".

On the plus side, there's snippets of interviews with director of episodes 1 and 4, George Lucas, Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Samuel L Jackson (Mace Windu), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C3PO) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Kenny Baker (R2D2), gelled together with footage of people coming out of the cinema in 1977 stating that what they've just seen, ie. the first film, has changed their lives as well as shots of the endless queues this year when Americans camped outside their local cinema for over a month in the hope to be the first to see the latest Lucasfilm product, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

On the minus side, while we get to see shots of the Phantom Menace set in Tunisia, we don't get to see any clips of the four films made to date or any behind-the-scenes footage of them being filmed in the process. Also, during the interviews, some were clearly intended for the German market as any posters hung up behind the actors are mostly blurred out around the actor, so you can only make out certain words behind the actor's head, which makes it look rather unprofessional, but that's the price you pay for it being unauthorised.

The picture quality is very good, with not much in the way of artifacts and, hence, has been encoded very well, the average bitrate being a very good 7.94Mb/s, barely fluctuating from that. As it's just interviews with no film clips from the Star Wars saga, the content is presented in its original fullscreen ratio, but can comfortably be zoomed-in to 14:9 on a widescreen TV.

The sound is mono and is only used for the actors to voice their opinions and tell stories about their Star Wars lives. Most of the time they come across fine, but some footage has decidedly muffled speech. There's no Dolby Digital logo, so I presume it's uncompressed Linear PCM Mono.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages & Subtitles :

The programme is in English only, with no subtitles.

Menu :

The menu is silent and static, with options to start the programme or select a scene.

Most of what's on view will be worth a watch for anyone with a passing interest in the Star Wars saga, but how much of a fan you are will depend on whether you want to know that Kenny Baker's R2D2 costume was adorned inside by topless pin-ups for a laugh, or what George Lucas' childhood friends thought of him all those years ago.

If you're in the former category, I'd recommend you rent the DVD before you buy, whereas die-hard Star Wars fans will have snapped it up already and will probably be quite happy to find out some more information that they haven't come across before.

Whichever way you look at it, this is going to be your only chance to get anything of Star Wars on DVD for a while, since Lucas has said he won't issue any of the feature films on DVD until 2005 after the three prequels have been completed.