I saw the Force Awakens earlier today, and it was excellent. It also made me think of a few ways in which Oxford was actually quite similar to the Star Wars universe. So to celebrate the beginning of the new trilogy, here are a few ways Oxford is just a little bit like Star Wars…
- Ever walked down the Gladstone Link tunnel and pretended you’re Darth Vader?
No, me neither… but you have to admit, those space station-like white and grey walls make you feel like you’re in a Galaxy far far away…
- They’re big money-spinners.
Star Wars has an estimated worth of around $30 billion, while Oxford University contributes about £750 million to the local economy every year. The Dark Side is rather like the clubs in Oxford – the Sith, Empire, Emporium – they keep changing their names, but they’re still the same old enemies guaranteed to give you a headache.
- They both cause embarrassments we’d all rather forget. Like any University, Oxford has given its students memories of entzes, bops and society memberships they wish had never happened. We’re looking at you, Prime Minister. Whereas Star Wars has the infamous and hilarious disaster that was the 1978 Holiday Special, complete with a musical number featuring Dorothy from The Golden Girls. It has understandably never been released on home video and only exists today through underground bootlegged copies.
- Identikit dogsbodies that keep the populace in line.
Could refer to the stormtroopers or the Union’s staff, well known for their line-keeping and general subservience to the private members club’s cause.
- They’ve both been accused of selling out.
George Lucas offloaded his baby to corporate giants Disney in 2012, while Oxford isn’t averse to private investment. How’d you think that ugly 70s quad in your college got its name?
- They both have their own numbering system. Trying to explain why the first three films are actually the fourth, fifth and sixth can get confusing, much like trying to explain ‘0th week’ to your friends and family.
- Even the Force can’t stop fire alarms. While Oxford students are used to that one guy that sets off the alarms once a week, Star Wars fans can suffer the same fate. On Thursday, the George Street Odeon’s screening of Star Wars: the Force Awakens was cut short by a fire alarm.
- They’ve also inspired imitations with different levels of success. Star Wars has James Bond’s bizarre (but arguably brilliant) Moonraker, and practically every sci-fi film and parody since 1978. Oxford has Cambridge.
- They both have a Death Star.
Okay they don’t. But, the Blade Runner-esque St Catherine’s College holds the same utilitarian ethos of the Death Star. Its architect Arne Jacobsen designed every detail from the doors to the cutlery. We imagine Lord Vader would approve. Just imagine if it was squarer, with more concrete and less reflectiveness.
- Science and the Arts come together well.
While everyone loves a bit of rivalry over how Science students can’t write a sentence, and Arts students can’t count, we’re all friends with each other and live side by side. Star Wars combines opera, historical and classical allusions with science-fiction. In Force Awakens alone, director JJ Abrams has drawn parallels between the First Order and the Nazis who escaped to Argentina after the war. But the Nazi allusions don’t stop there, the Empire, the Jedi Purge, and more, are all interpreted as references to the Second World War.
- The merchandise. We all know you can buy a range of Star Wars merchandise from t-shirts to dead-stock figurines of Jar Jar Binks. But you can also buy a range of Oxford-branded scarves, tankards to a teddy-bear in subfusc. How long until we see Lego tutors? Too long.
Convinced?
