What species is Darth Maul? Is he just a human severely disfigured by the dark side? Is that just make up to make himself look scary? Or is he some strange type of being? [He is a Zabrak, a alien species. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Maul.]

Is the young green alien who is cheers Anakin on at the pod races the same one who confronts Han Solo in Episode 4? [Technically it wasn't, but during principal photography of the movie, it indeed was meant to be the same creature (Greedo). In one of the deleted scenes, the green alien picks a fight with Anakin, accusing him of cheating to win the pod race. Qui-gon warns young Greedo that he'll get into trouble if he keeps picking fights, and sure enough, he is blasted to pieces by Han Solo in Episode IV (again, that was the original plan). However, since the scene never made it into the movie, we are just left to assume it's an alien of the same race.]

After reaching Coruscant, why does Qui-Gon tell Chancellor Valorum that he needs to speak with the Jedi Council? Wouldn't Qui-Gon simply report to the Temple once he arrived? [Valorum sent Qui-Gon to Naboo as his personal ambassador, so the Chancellor would expect to discuss the situation on their return. Qui-Gon is excusing himself in order to bring the news of the Sith reappearance to the Jedi Council as soon as possible.]

The opening synopsis says that the Trade Federation blocked all shipping to Naboo. Do we know what the shipments consisted of? Was it raw materials, food, machinery, or are we not really meant to know? [Put purely and simply, we have no particular need to know for the purposes of the plot. That being said, Naboo seems to be a largely pastoral world, so is likely to be self-sufficient on the food front, but may require the import of more industrially based goods, like machinery and so forth. Books related to the series suggest that Naboo has a highly profitable plasma-fuel industry - presumably fuel shipments would also be blockaded, depriving the planet of vital income.]

Is Senator Palpatine aware of Queen Amidala's use of decoys to protect herself? [There's no indication one way or another. It's not particularly likely that he's ever been briefed on her security arrangements, but he's familiar enough with Amidala that his force abilities would be able to tell him that it wasn't her if he encountered her decoy at some point.]

Is it possible that the prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the force is talking about Luke Skywalker? They all think it is Anakin but Luke is the one to defeat the remaining Sith. I've never seen anybody make the connection and was wondering if it is true. [Anakin/Darth Vader is in fact the one who brings balance to the force and destroys the remaining sith by throwing Darth Sidious over the edge and removing his life support.]

Why does Mace Windu have a purple lightsabre when every other good guy has green or blue ones? [Samuel L Jackson wanted a distinctive lightsabre, so asked George Lucas if he could have a purple one - Lucas decided that there was no hard and fast rule that said that Jedi had to go with green or blue, so he allowed it. As for the story rationale, Windu presumably used an unusual focusing crystal for his lightsabre for some reason or other.]

Something I never quite figured out when watching the film was what the shields in the corridor were for? The shields that separate Darth Maul from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan during the fight. There are dozens of them and all they seem to do is benefit the fight in the film without having any real purpose. [According to "Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I" by Kristin Lund, they are "laser doors which lock into position in response to potentially lethal power outputs that occur intermittently during plasma activation process" (the fight takes place in a plasma energy processing plant). There are six laser doors in deference to an ancient Naboo legend in which Chaos is held back by six inpentrable gates. As you say though, they're really just a plot device to add dramatic tension to the duel!]

When we see four astrodroids fixing the ship trying to get past the blockade one of them is R2-D2, but out of curiousity, what are the names of the other three? [There was a set of astromech droids included with the Naboo Royal Starship Playset from Hasbro which named two of the others: R2-B1 and R2-R9.]

Many of the blasters in the Star Wars films are based on existing small arms, such as the iconic German Mauser for Han's pistol and the British Sterlings for stormtrooper and rebel guns. Then they just add on a bunch of attachments, which isn't all that uncommon in sci-fi in general (ex. Robocop's Auto 9 & the pulse rifles in Terminator)The Naboo security looked like they were using some kind of target pistol (identification?) and Calico submachine guns. The main one I couldn't figure out was the Battledroid blaster, which did need physical props since Panaka's squad picks some up and Padme fires one in AotC. Is this one actually based on an existing weapon? It kinda looks like a sterling, but the handle is completely different. [The Battle Droid rifle was designed by ILM hardware designer Jay Schuster to look like a precursor to the E-11 rifle used by Imperial Stormtroopers, so the Sterling resemblance is there. In fact, the handle appears to have been based on or molded from the Kenner Stormtrooper Rifle toy!]

When someone becomes a Sith, they take a different name, i.e. Palpatine becomes Darth Sidious, Count Dooku becomes Darth Tyranus, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. Does anyone know Darth Maul's non-Sith name? [No. According to the official sources, Maul was trained in the Sith ways from a very early age - it's quite likely that he himself doesn't remember his original name. Even if he does remember it, it would mean nothing to him any more - the Sith and their ways are his life - and he certainly wouldn't answer to it.]

Is there any explanation as to why Obi-Wan doesn't use force speed to get through the hallway while Qui-Gon and Darth Maul are fighting? [It's never really stated that he doesn't. It is a very long corridor, and he was quite far behind. He may have been "saving" his force powers to use in the fight, or Maul may have been exerting his own influence to either stop or dull Obi wan's own force powers. It may have even been the force's own will. Maul was quite easily holding his own against the two, and technically defeated them both. Without the anger/rage that Obi Wan felt after seeing Qui Gon get cut down, he probably wouldn't have fought half as well, and Maul would have emerged victorious.]

Does 1138 appear at all in this movie? I don't remember seeing it. [At the end of the film, after Anakin destroys the control ship and all the wardroids shut down, it can be seen written on the back of one of the droids that were guarding Jar-Jar and Captain Tarpals.]

It's common knowledge that Darth Maul blinks only once in the whole film. How was Ray Park able to keep his eyes open, without blinking, for such an extended period of time? [Easy, they filmed him in short intervals. How long is the camera on him at any given time, without the camera cutting to someone else? 30 seconds at the most. Pretty much anyone can keep their eyes open for 30 seconds if they try.]

What was the original plan of the Trade Federation and Darth Sidious? I saw TPM six times in the theaters and a few times at home and I still don't know why they were blockading Naboo. What was with the treaty that they wanted Amidala to sign? If their plan had worked and she signed this treaty that gave them control over the planet what good would that do? [You have to bear in mind that the Trade Federation and Darth Sidious probably have very different views of what the plan actually is. From the point of view of the Trade Federation, they're probably under the impression that the aim is to get the treaty signed, with the likely effect of bringing Naboo into the Trade Federation. This would allow them to exploit the natural resources of the place, and benefit from any trade carried out from that planet. Sidious, on the other hand, doesn't care in the slightest about the Trade Federation - he has carefully manipulated the situation to get Amidala to call for the vote that will remove Chancellor Valorum from office and force the election of a new chancellor, allowing Palpatine (who either is Sidious or is some sort of clone under his control) to advance to the leadership of the Senate. That's pretty much the sum total of his plan, which, as we see, is a complete success.]

When asked if she would allow a group from the senate to go to Naboo and investigate her claims, Amidala says "no" and asks for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum. Why? Unless I interpreted this incorrectly they were offering to go and look into the situation. Why not say, "great, let's go" and they would have seen what was happening? Also, what would have been an acceptable course of action for her? This didn't make any sense to me. [She was sick and tired of no action being taken. She wanted them to do something about it now, not send people out there to investigate, that would take too much time. This is coupled with the notion that Palpatine was somewhat brainwashing her into believing that Valorum was a poor/incompetent leader, and that following Palpatine's cause/actions was the best way for help.]

Why would the impostor queen still be pretending while everyone was on the royal ship? Who is the queen hiding from when the only people around are her security force and two Jedi? What is gained by keeping the Jedi in the dark? [Nothing. But nothing was lost, either. Captain Panaka was probably in charge of the deception, and he makes it clear that he is not the most trusting of people, even of Jedi. They probably just thought, if no one knew, then no one could accidentally tell anyone else (it's harder to act that you don't know something than it is to actually not know something).]

I heard Keira Knightly was in this film, does anybody know who she played? [She played Sabe, the queen's handmaiden and double.]

Why do Anakin and Qui-gon have to cover up the fact that it's Anakin's pod they want him to race? Anakin says, "You could make them think it's yours" (or something like that), and Qui-gon later says that he acquired the pod in a game of chance. Why the deception? What does Watto care, who built the pod? [As a slave, Anakin is not allowed any possessions of his own. Anything the Skywalkers have, ultimately belongs to Watto, so if Watto discovered Anakin had a pod, he would claim it for himself and maybe have someone else race it. The Jedi, of course, needed Anakin to race, since he was the best pod pilot around (and to test his Jedi capablities).]

Obi-wan ordered the people on the ship to "send no reply" when the cries for help were being received from Naboo ("It sounds like bait, to establish a connection trace," he explained). That being the case, how did Darth Maul know they were on Tattoine? Darth Sidious even asked him, "Are you sure your trace is correct?" or something like that. [As a Sith, Maul has methods of tracking that would not be available to non-Force users. When Obi-wan ordered them not to reply, they're not aware of any possible Sith involvement - his precautions would be secure against technological means of determining location, but not against a Sith Lord.]