I haven’t seen the Holiday Special for at least 30 years, and may not remember parts of it.
But I did go see Caravan of Courage at the movies, I may have been 9.
My vote is clearly the Holiday Special – I’ve crumpled and throw away better stories than Rian’s disaster. I’ll say the look, the music, the effects all show the quality of the people at ILM, Lucasfilm and the budget they were working with.
But the actual story choices he made, were shameful. If I was chosen to direct the next Marvel/Red Dwarf/whatever movie, it’s rather clear that respect to the previous works and staying within the framework of the Lore of a multi billion dollar, and 40 odd years of stories is not just implied, it’s compulsory.
He could have put his subversive tale into the well established Star Wars universe, but that, unfortunately, was simply beyond him.