Also, you know Einstein ... if you want it faster, you build yourself a hefty spaceship with enormous power output gravity manipulators ... but dont say he didnt warn you when you feel like :
... but is true, that making things slower is more easy, you just put them on optic, with the source on the other side of galaxy and use the gravity's light bending power on a lots of them stars on the way to you ... in addition to that several 100 000 light years of travel distance.
Or just enjoy the show a piece at a time ... (dont worry, they handle it in the end)
... Animals will be a great addition to the OT world. Just hope, adding mod-beasts will be well done, so broadening it with some community help will be an option in both, model/animations and AI behavior/interactions.