YOU don’t have to go to college to learn the deep meaning of “Star Wars.”

But you will feel like you’re attending the world’s most boring college lecture if you choose to sit through all two hours of “Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed,” a nostone-unturned dissection of George Lucas’ epic series of outer-space shoot-’em-ups.

This show, produced in part by Lucas’ production company, is coming to History Channel on Monday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first “Star Wars” movie.

You might expect such a tribute to include interviews with the original stars – Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, perhaps – or with Lucas, who could explain how he devised a movie laden with special effects that revolutionized the movie business.

But none of them participated in this ponderous examination of the relationship between the “Star Wars” movies and just about every important era of history and work of literature that you could possibly name,

with or without an advanced degree.

On hand to explain it all (or, more specifically, to hammer it into your head without mercy) are a number of professors who have apparently spent their academic lives in rigorous and intensive study of these movies.

They’ve written books such as “The Journey of Luke Skywalker” and “Star Wars: The Magic of Myth” and make statements such as “the study of ‘Star Wars’ is like an archaeological excavation” (except it’s not

nearly as dirty) and, concerning the character of Han Solo (Ford), “his hero journey path is that of the warrior and the lover.”

To them, “Star Wars” is on par with ancient classics such as “The Iliad,” one of the works without which an understanding of “Star Wars” would simply not be possible. It is also helpful to understand the role of the hero in Greek mythology, and the politics and history of ancient Rome, the Soviet Union, Hitler’s Germany

and Mussolini’s Italy, the academics insist.

This two-hour, televised treatise also features a number of movie directors such as Peter Jackson and Kevin Smith, and also includes commentary from Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, who seem out of place here.

Newt Gingrich is even on hand to ruminate on what George Washington would have thought of “Star Wars.”

Fans of the “Star Wars” movies usually lap up anything and everything about their favorite film series, but even they will be taxed to stick with this documentary all the way to 11 p.m.

“Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed”
Monday night at 9 on History Channel