Star Wars, Episode I - Incredible Cross Sections (1999)
The vehicles of Star Wars: Episode I reveal a time very different from the later day when spacecraft of Empire and Rebels alike will bear the harsh lines and mechanical looks of factory-produced constructions. In this era, the Old Republic still rules the galaxy and craftsmen still rule the world of design - although in both cases that rule is beginning to unravel. Market forces have only begun to undermine the ancient traditions of craftsmanship, and as a result we see individuality, elegant curves, and true art in many of Episode I's vehicles. Looming over these creations if the specter of the Trade Federation, with its utilitarian cargo vessels converted into armed war freighters, its greedy practices ready to wipe out the mark of the individual craftsman in the heartless pursuit of profit. For now, however, the galaxy remains filled with extraordinary vessels, testaments - like all things a culture builds - to the unique identity of their age.
Once again, I genuinely love how much worldbuilding is done in these manuals.
One of the nicest parts of the prequel trilogy is the story told by the evolution of the starships portrayed. At the beginning, the galaxy is coming out of a long era of peace, and over the course of the trilogy it turns into war, so you go from the pretty and artsy-looking Naboo and Gungan vehicles to the more and more utilitarian ones that, by the end, look a lot like the ones in the original trilogy.
Incredible Cross-Sections takes that one further, though, and builds a picture of the galaxy that's practically Tolkienesque. The Republic, in this story, was a world dominated by craftsmen living in an artisanal economy; it's only relatively recently that capitalist forces have started displacing them, which is very much not portrayed as a good thing. (The Empire, of course, won't do anything to stop this).
And it fits what we've seen elsewhere. People complain a lot that the Star Wars level of technology doesn't seem to change much over thousands of years; well, if the preferred economic model is artisanal rather than capitalist, that stands to reason. When we've seen planets culturally divided along Clone Wars lines, the more pastoral, traditional, and spiritual communities have tended to be closer to the Jedi and the Republic, while the more urban, commercial, and cosmopolitan ones are closer to the commerce guilds (and therefore the Separatists); again, makes sense.
Star Wars replicates a common, if idealized and mythical, view of modern times: in the beginning was a slower, quieter, and happier economy, where production was a craft and more of an art than a science. Then capitalism and industry disrupted that world and traded it for a soulless economy run by huge corporations with no human tie to their customers (or their workers). Then big government got involved but it didn't defeat that new model, it simply nationalized and securitized it. And now people are struggling against the system for a world where they feel control over their own lives again.
