A long time ago in a home theater far, far away — well, outside of Seattle anyway — began one of the greatest “Star Wars” spectacles to ever exist outside the doors of Comic-Con.

Super-fans Vic Wertz and Lisa Stevens used to run the Official Star Wars Fan Club and even the “Star Wars Insider” magazine. But even though they’re both out of that business now, they still pay homage to their dark lord and master each and every day — thanks to their incredibly impressive and geeky home theater.

Darth Vader wouldn’t call in an Ewok to do his dirty work, and neither did this couple. Instead they recruited Doug Chiang, the lead designer on “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” and “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.” Stevens met him during her days at another game company, Wizards of the Coast. “When we decided to do this project, I wanted to make sure I had the right designer, and he was at the top of the list,” says Wertz. Sure, but was he gettable? “He was pretty busy at the time, so it almost didn’t happen, but at the last minute, he was able to schedule a block of time for the designs.”

Three designs later, the couple brought in Mike Dillon and his custom design and fabrication company, Dillon Works, to do the icing on the cake. “We can design and fabricate just about anything,” he says. And he wasn’t kidding.

“It ended up being the control deck of the Death Star,” says Eric Ward, custom sales manager at Definitive Audio. The Bellevue, Wash.-based installation company was responsible for all of the audio and video for this 36-month project.

For one of its owners, however, it isn’t the Death Star theater that turns up all over the Internet. “I think it actually draws more inspiration from Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’,” Wertz says. “Either way, though, that Grand Imperial concept lends itself more to a theatrical feel.  The Millennium Falcon, after all, was, as Luke said, ‘a hunk of junk’. Cramped, run-down, and held together with baling wire and duct tape — not really characteristics I wanted for my space.”

Wertz doesn’t have to worry about that. This space could fit Jabba the Hutt, and then some. Walk into the room and follow the backlit floor to either the left or the right. Both paths take you through automated sliding doors. On the left, there’s a secret door located — where else? — behind the carbonite Han Solo (which you might recall from the cliffhanger in “The Empire Strikes Back”). This is the media room for the couple’s extensive audio/video collection.

“If you can keep the equipment out of the theater so you don’t see it, it’s always great,” Ward says. Not a problem, considering this equipment has it’s own room, which is located across from the media room.

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Rachel Cericola
Contributing Writer, ElectronicHouse.com

Over the past 15 years, Rachel Cericola has covered entertainment, web and technology trends. Check her out at www.rachelcericola.com.

Rachel Cericola can be reached at write2rachel@gmail.com