CLASSIC IMAGE: QUEEN OF ALDERAAN!

Here's a nice posed shot of the lovely actress Rebecca Jackson Mendoza as Breha Organa, the wife of Bail, Queen of the peaceful and important world of Alderaan, and loving, caring adopted mother to the baby Princess-to-be, Leia. Sadly, Breha Organa had very little screen-time in the finale of REVENGE OF THE SITH, but lets hope she gets a chance to one day appear in THE CLONE WARS animated series, or even, here's wishing, the eventual live-action TV series set between EPISODEs III and IV.

CLASSIC IMAGE: POWERLESS TO HELP!

Investigating the raging fires and laser volleys emanating from the chaos of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Alderaanian Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) is prevented from finding out the truth behind whats happening by a force of 501st Clone Troopers, in this dramatic scene from EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH...

CLASSIC CONCEPTION: THE BEAUTY OF ALDERAAN

Here's some great conceptual art for EPISODE III of Bail Organa's home planet of Alderaan, an iconic world with strong ideals of peace and admired by many of the peoples living within the once noble Republic. Until its destruction by the first dreaded Death Star battle station, the snow capped mountain planet had been a beacon of hope for the Rebel Alliance and its galaxy wide supporters during the fight against the tyranny of the now established First Galactic Empire.

Recently shown in THE CLONE WARS episode ASSASSIN, we hope to see more of House Organa and its civilisation in later seasons...

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS - "SUPPLY LINES"

Jedi Master Di - one of the major characters of THE CLONE WARS episode SUPPLY LINES.

SKY MOVIES have kindly sent us the latest press release for the next episode showing on SKY MOVIES PREMIERE and HD this weekend.

New Allies and Returning Heroes Provide Revelations and Insights into Key Conflicts in an All-New Episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars!

Joined by familiar faces – from the live-action Saga, previous seasons of The Clone Wars and even the expanded universe – the heroes of the Republic are leading the charge into extended storylines examining the backstory of the Star Wars galaxy. In the series’ third season, The Clone Wars expands and explores stories beyond the front lines – revealing new insights and fresh revelations about the characters, the conflict and even some of the stories we’ve seen so far. “Supply Lines” takes the narrative back before the series’ very first episode. It’s an all-new facet to a fan-favorite storyline - at 5.30pm Saturday 30th October on Sky Movies Premiere/HD.

Ryloth is under siege. Trapped on the surface, Jedi Master Di rallies the local forces with the help of rebel leader Cham Syndulla. Desperate to save them, Senator Bail Organa and Representative Jar Jar Binks are dispatched to the planet of Toydaria, where they must convince the King Katuunko to send aid to Ryloth – before it’s too late.

“This is one of the fun aspects of being this deep into the series,” says Dave Filoni, supervising director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. “Now that we have two seasons already under our belt, we can go back and look at some different aspects of key moments from the Clone Wars; we can jump around in the timeline. We can explore different aspects and different stories. We have a neat opportunity to blow out stories that we’ve seen already, and look at them from a different perspective, a different point of view – and that’s been an important aspect of Star Wars since the original trilogy.”

Taking place before Yoda’s fateful meeting with King Katuunko on the moon of Rugosa – chronicled in the series premiere episode, “Ambush” – “Supply Lines” sheds light on some of the dramatic events that forged The Clone Wars. It also explores the origins of the Ryloth occupation and the subjugation of the Twi’lek people occupation, explored in the first season’s two-part season finale.

“This conflict is vast, to say the least,” says Filoni. “It’s a big galaxy, and there’s a lot going on at all times. Even two seasons in, we’re only seeing a fraction of the war – key moments that are really focused on the primary heroes from the films. But those moments are framed by heroism and villainy, too, just as there are important events happening concurrently with the key scenes we’ve explored. We’ve got 22 minutes per episode and 22 episodes per season, and we’re still only scratching the surface of the Clone Wars.”

Serving to support existing stories and to build on the overall mythology of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, “Supply Lines” nonetheless promises its own action and surprises. Featuring the return of some fan-favorite characters from the live-action films, the episode also introduces some brand new characters – such as Jedi Master Di.

“We’re going to meet Jedi Master Di,” says Filoni. “I like him a lot; he’s cool and I’d like to be able to do more with him. But you should remember that this is a prequel, and that it takes place before the episodes we’ve seen already. There may be a reason we haven’t seen him after the events of this episode. Here’s a hint: Star Wars characters have a history of suggestive names. Greedo was a greedy bounty hunter. Lobot’s a guy with a computer implanted in his brain, like a lobotomy. General Grievous and Darth Maul are both intent on causing pain and suffering. Han Solo’s a loner. So I’m just saying that maybe Jedi Master Di should watch his back.”

JAR JAR BINKS: HESA BACK!!

Love him or hate him, that gangly Gungan is back for more comedy shenanigans in tonight's US episode of THE CLONE WARS, showing on CARTOON NETWORK, working with Bail Organa in an adventure titled SUPPLY LINES. I'm personally rather fond of Jar Jar- he reminds me of my late dog, with his big ears and eyes- and I'm intrigued to see what Filoni and co. will do next with the character. I thought in the Prequel films that Lucas bottled out from using Jar Jar more actively in EPISODEs II and III, after such a large involvement for the creature in EPISODE I, presumably due to his first appearance having caused great dismay and controversy from older fans who hated the Buster Keaton always getting into trouble inspired visual comedy character. In EPISODE II, Lucas did, to his credit, cleverly use Jar Jar to help instigate Palpatine's lifetime Supreme Chancellor-ship, which was very nicely done, and I was hoping he'd have a similarly and equally important sequence like that for EPISODE III-perhaps one act of supreme bravery on his part to help Padme and Obi-Wan, perhaps even sacrificing himself to save his friends, a move that might have been very interesting and added to the darkness of the final film of the Prequel Trilogy. Alas, it was not to be-and we still don't know what happened to him in that twenty year gap between sagas (despite the celebration visit to Naboo showing Gungans en masse in the revised version of RETURN OF THE JEDI on DVD in 2004).

Still, despite his on screen movie controversy, Jar Jar works very well in the animated series-BOMBAD JEDI in THE CLONE WARS first season (one of the earliest to be made in the run) was a fine example of slapstick comedy, and its nice to have Ahmed Best back behind the microphone to provide the characters unique voice. Somebody get Ahmed to be a convention guest at a future Celebration. The Jar Jar furore must have eased down by now, and I'm sure he has lots of great behind the scenes stories on the Prequels to tell that will delight fans of all ages!

BEHIND THE SCENES - NO DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!

When Jimmy Smits was announced as being cast as Bail Organa-adopted father to be in the STAR WARS Prequels with EPISODE II and III, I was very happy with the news. In my eyes and mind I saw him perfectly inhabiting the part-I imagined someone dark haired with a beard, slightly Mediterranean in appearance-suave but someone who looked like he was very intelligent and could be of strong social standing, tough but with nobility-and Smits certainly fit the bill in pretty much all those qualifications. In my opinion, Smits has become a very good actor in the last ten years-especially as hes gotten older, and more experienced. Bar his great performances in the Prequels (if still too underused for my liking), his acting is also worth checking out in Season Three of the TV series DEXTER, and in the final two seasons of the superb political drama, THE WEST WING.

Here's a great pic- a deleted scene which was cut for time reasons-from EPISODE III- showing Organa and his Alderaanian Royal/political attendants returned back to Coruscant where, accompanied by ORDER 66 Jedi Survivors Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yoda, they are stopped by security guards at the Senate landing bay-you'll have to imagine the background because it was only filmed against green screen, and, as of yet, has not been restored as a deleted scene to any DVD or Blu-ray releases.