Musings from the Editor by R. Lee Brown

EPISODE 8: This ship's still got few surprises left in her!

We almost didn't make it.

     Sometime last November, as Star Wars websites like the Star Wars Alliance, Red 5's Prequel News, and Old Guard SW Internet heavies like Steve Almond and Rich Handley began to disappear from the face of the web, ECHO STATION nearly joined them.  It's as if upon the passing of the Special Editions many of us online lost our fire for the time-consuming passions of our websites.   Most of the original ECHO STATION staff had begun to suffer from "Real Life-itis" - if they hadn't dropped out of sight entirely, Real World activities began to consume all of their available free time.  That left an even larger responsibility on my shoulders.

     Soon my attentions were so divided between trying to upkeep the website and produce the Emag, that, despite Han Solo's hopes to the contrary, Ye Editor had burn-out.  There was just too much to do, a seemingly all-consuming mass of projects.  I finally realized I couldn't do it all myself, and I simply didn't have the energy needed to round up new recruits.   All of the projects foundered - the website went unchanged for weeks, and issue #3, once thought due in May of 1997, languished half finished in a back corner of my hard drive.  I wasn't sure I would ever get the drive to reapproach them.

     Fortunately, new recruits had long been waiting for activation.   Many of you who had used the websites Feedback Form had indicated a willingness to come aboard - and ECHO's own Dave Phillips corralled several more people.  As a nearly last ditch effort, they were contacted about coming aboard, not only in as contributors, but as copy and HTML layout editors.  And the neat thing was: these folks all seemed to have the drive and enthusiasm I remember having when myself and a small group of four people started up this Emag 4+ years ago.  Inspired, Ye Editor switched over.. and the engines re-fired.

     With fresh faces not only to make the contributions that have kept this Emag at the top of its form all this time, but also to help with the editing and coding, I knew that ECHO STATION could successfully reboot.  We also got some talented artists to help fill the gap left when Graphics Editor Jordi Ensign had to go on... well, sabbatical from ECHO, for lack of a better term.  She still pokes her head in time and again, but she needed to devote more time to her comic book career (see paragraph 2).

     But we're back!  Not only have we upgraded the look of the Emag, we've also moved to our new home base - www.echostation.com - where we've integrated a new threaded message board into the system, with more goodies on the way, courtesy of ECHO Webmaster Dave Phillips.  He'll be in charge of the website so I can focus on cranking out these Emags more than twice a year!

     Between the New Recruits and the Old Guard, we've got a great group of contributors, and it's our plan to bring you more humor, reviews, interviews and previews of the Star Wars universe than ever before!  With this issue, we've tried to catch up with the many Star Wars items long since released after issue #2 came out last April.  And even though there's a wealth of material here, there's still much to cover in our next installment, including reviews of Mysteries of the Sith, Rebel Dawn and other material that is in release now, but deserves more attention than it would get rushing it into this issue.  Speaking of which - I'll let you get back to reading issue - I've got issue four to work on!!  Chewie, get me outta here!

(Editor R. Lee Brown has earned whatever harrassing you might send him at Editor@echostation.com)