What if Star Wars had never existed?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/18/what-if-star-wars-never-existed
Some examples of conditional forms:
What if the 1998 best picture Oscar had gone not to Shakespear in Love, but Gummo?
Where would we be now had there never been a Star Wars?
Fixed phrases:
to be on the verge of doing something
to be on the point of doing
to be about to do something
Grammatical rules:
Present perfect: past, now
Present continuous: repeated actions or if somebody is irritated
Example:
He's always buying her flowers (to criticise).