SINCE I’VE BEEN DOING A LOT OF NEW SONGS ON THE NO MAN’S LAND SOUNDTRACK, AND THERE’S MORE COMING:  The Clankers did Sing.

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.

RIP: Marcia Lucas, Oscar-Winning Star Wars Editor, Dies at 80.

Marcia served as part of a three-person crew editing both “Star Wars” and “Return of the Jedi.” On the first film, she worked alongside Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew and was personally responsible for editing the Battle of Yavin — otherwise known as the iconic “trench run” sequence near the end of the film. For “Return of the Jedi,” Marcia shared credit with Sean Barton and Duwayne Dunham, with George citing her as responsible for the “dying and crying” scenes to Time.

That “dying and crying” is pretty significant in “Return of the Jedi,” a film that hinges its third act not on a massive battle (though there’s plenty of space action, too), but on a father sacrificing himself because his son believes he’s not beyond redemption. In general, Marcia has been credited as, in some respects, the heart of the “Star Wars” franchise, working tirelessly to ensure that moments like Han Solo’s grand return to the Rebellion at the end of the original film landed with emotional impact for the audience.

Flashback: Marcia Lucas, the ‘secret weapon’ behind the original Star Wars. And Raiders of the Lost Ark: “‘[Marcia] was instrumental in changing the ending of Raiders, in which Indiana delivers the ark to Washington. Marion is nowhere to be seen, presumably stranded on an island with a submarine and a lot of melted Nazis. Marcia watched the rough cut in silence and then levelled the boom. She said there was no emotional resolution to the ending, because the girl disappears. ‘Everyone was feeling really good until she said that,’ Dunham recalls. ‘It was one of those, ‘Oh no we lost sight of that.’ ‘ Spielberg reshot the scene in downtown San Francisco, having Marion wait for Indiana on the steps on the government building. Marcia, once again, had come to the rescue.’”