Due to a computer malfunction. The origional ANH board was lost. I alppolpgize for the inconvienience.
Oh my GOD!!
All our precious nits, GONE!
:C
I feel just like that stormtrooper who hit his head when he entered the control room ;)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...
Three days later...
OOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
I feel as though many nits just cried out in anguish, then suddenly ceased....
I feel as though many nits just cried out in anguish, then were suddenly silenced....
I felt a disturbance in the nits...
I find this boards lack of nits.... disturbing...
Wipe them out... all of them.
Synopsis: Princess Leia, on a diplomatic misson to Alderaan, is captured by Darth Vader. Just before she is captured, she sends the plans for the Death Star with R2D2. Along with C-3PO, R2D2 bought by Luke's uncle Owen Skywalker. R2D2 seeks out Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi. Luke returns home to find his town destroyed, and his family killed by stormtroopers. Obi-Wan and Luke buy passage on the Millenium Falcon, with the crew, Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Unfortunately, Grand Moff Tarkin destroyed the planet Alderaan before they arrive. Luke and company rescue the princess but not without the apparent sacrifice of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The remaining rebels launch a counter attack, devised using R2D2's plans. The Deathstar was destroyed with the loss of all hands, except Lord Vader.
Starring:
Mark Hamill--Luke Skywalker
Harrison Ford--Han Solo
Carrie Fisher--Princess Leia Organa
Peter Crushing--Grand Moff Tarkin
Alec Guiness--Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi
Nits:
1. Just at the end of the text, the constellation Orion is visable in the middle of the screen on the origional version.
2. Captain Antillies and Darth Vader's ship is too loud in the opening sceene. This appears in virtually every space battle.
3. A Parsec is still a unit of distance, not of time.
47 Alert--The Falcon is docked a bay 94. (47*2=94)
4. If Jabba is already mad a Han, stepping on his tail is not a good idea. Calling him "A wonderful human being" is also a bad idea.
5. Why does Han remove his helmet when he talks to the cell block leader? I obviously alters their voice.
6. What does happen to Obi-Wan at the end of the saber fight? They act like he died, but there is no body, just a robe and a light saber. (Ed. note: I watched Ep. VI Special Edition and Yoda died in the same manner.)
7. During the fight, gold wing does not report in.
8. The countdown goes as follows:
VCR-Time remaining (Time according to the timer)
1:54 30 minutes (30-28 sec?)
1:58 15 minutes
2:00 7 minutes (20-18)
2:03 5 minutes
2:04 3 minutes (16-15)
2:06 1 minutes
2:08 30 seconds
2:09 0 seconds
This is obviously wrong.
9. Why dosen't Chewbacca get a medal at the end?
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By Andrew Corcoran - he really wanted to get his favourite Star Wars nit in first. Nothing personal... honest on Wednesday, November 25, 1998 - 02:19 pm:
THE STORMTROOPER BANGS HIS HEAD ON THE DOOR FRAME NEAR THE BEGINNING!
Ha! I got there before ANY of you! ;-)
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By Maagic on Friday, November 27, 1998 - 12:08 am:
Hey did you know Luke called Leia "Carrie" at the end? :)
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Friday, November 27, 1998 - 12:49 am:
I left out a few nits so their would be something to discus. (Actually, I missed those two.)
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By Anonymous on Saturday, November 28, 1998 - 12:11 pm:
Ah, Star Wars. What a wonderfull film.
Beats working, but it ain't no passing grade.
It means no Star Trek.
For the rest of the day.
It's out plot complication free.
Sci-Fi moovieee!
.....
Sorry about that. I was on a roll.
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By Chris Thomas on Sunday, November 29, 1998 - 12:00 am:
Obviously, there is a greater Force at work when Obi-Wan dies and his life essence probably becomes pure energy.
Sound doesn't travel through a vacuum so we shouldn't hear all the laser fire in space (mind you every other sci-fi fil has got this wrong except 2001 when there is an explosion and there is no sound).
Maybe the co-pilots don't get medals - R2D2 didn't get one either.
What's the relevance of bay 94?
Han probably just wanted to rub Jabba up the wrong way - he doesn't seem to care if people are already mad at him.
And it isn't spelt Millenium Falcon?
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By Cabe on Sunday, November 29, 1998 - 12:54 am:
I mentioned bay 94 because 94/2=47. 47 is a favorite in-joke on Star Trek and apparently SW as well. I found a 47 in the other 2 movies as well. See the other boards for details.
Sorry about the typos. I'll fix them in a few minutes.
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By Scott N on Sunday, November 29, 1998 - 04:56 am:
Where was the explosion in 2001?
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By Omer on Sunday, November 29, 1998 - 11:39 am:
Well, there is a site here on the net about Evil Overkords. It's generally a manual for the bad guys to follow, and it's really funny. I 'm afraid I don't know the adress, though.
Well, If I were an evil overlord, I won't have an opening that you could bomb. If I absoloutly had too, I'd cover it, and put a big ray gun at the end so that as soon as you approach KAABOOM
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Sunday, November 29, 1998 - 12:06 pm:
the address is www.eviloverlord.com
the site is hilarious.
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By Chris Thomas on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 08:39 am:
It's not an explosion so much as when the doors get blown but the point is there is no sound, as it should be.
So 47 is an in-joke. Why? I could understand if it was 42.
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By Edward Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 01:07 pm:
47 is an old TNG in-joke. For some reason (is there one?) a TNG writer began putting the number 47 into all off his scripts. It has become a running thing for Nitpickers to spot "47's" in Trek scripts.
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By K.N.D. on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 04:34 pm:
um...I think Star Wars did it first. And yes, there is a reason...sort of. 47 was a joke at the guy's university. What the reason for the joke at the guy's university was, I have NO clue.
Maagic, you got my favorite nit, but *I* will nominate it for Most Oft Quoted Star Wars Ever. BTW, I get your handle now.
Hey, Charles, it's my understanding that the SW novels are canonical.
(That's why it takes so long for them to come out--Lucas has to read them first.) So why not set up a board for them?
Hey, Anonymous, you write any fanfic? that was pretty
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By K.N.D. on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 04:40 pm:
Sorry, I just saw your book-board.
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By Bob canada on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 05:35 pm:
When the heroes enter the cantina, there's a long panning shot, giving us a good view of the various patrons. In particular we see Walrus Man, the rude alien in the orange jacket who's about to knock Luke across the room. Note that in this long shot,
Walrus Man appears to have hooves instead of hands. When Ben cuts Walrus Man's arm off with his light saber, however, we see the arm lying on the floor, and now there's a hand with fingers.
Near the "shoulder" of R2D2's legs, there are 2 small square doodads on one edge, and a long vertical retangular doodad along the other edge. These doodads switch position all throughout the film--sometimes the squares are toward his front, and in other scenes they're toward the back. Sometimes they even change within the same scene (particularly around when R2's downloading the stolen plans).
In the cantina, there's a scene of a little bug-eyed mousy alien squeaking and reaching up for a glass. You can clearly see through one of his eyes, all the way through his head, and out the other eye, almost as if it were a little person wearing a
mask.;-)
Why is it when the Rebels are all taking off, their helmets are all spotlessly white and all have the same insignia, yet as soon as they arrive at the Death Star, they all have grungy, dirty helmets with unique markings?
Aren't there radios in the Star Wars universe? R2 was programmed to get the plans to Ben, which he did. Once Ben had the info, why not just send a coded transmission to Rebel headquarters?
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By ScottN on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 05:37 pm:
Actually, though Chris, if you were standing inside discovery's carousel (or holding on or magnetically attached in zero-g), you would have heard the explosion (via bone conduction)
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By JC on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 07:18 pm:
One of C-3PO's first lines is: "There's no escape for the princess, this time." Yet, later when Luke is looking at Leia's transmission and asks who she is he says: "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, sir."
I realize that this selective amnesia may be countered in the upcoming films, but until then it's a nit.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 08:20 pm:
Sorry about the book-board being a little out of date, I plan to update the list tommorow.
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By Matthew Patterson on Monday, November 30, 1998 - 11:42 pm:
According to some of the later novels, the Kessel Run is judged by not only how fast you do it but how short a distance you travel. This has something to do with the planet being next to a black hole cluster and alll the short routes being the most
dangerous.
You forgot James Earl Jones as the voice of Vader in the cast list!
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By JC on Tuesday, December 1, 1998 - 01:14 am:
Although James Earl Jones wasn't credited until ROTJ.
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By Chris Thomas on Tuesday, December 1, 1998 - 09:22 am:
I heard a rumour about some famous actor being in a Star Wars film for a split second. Apparently he is supposed to only be in one frame if you pause it and then isn't there a second later. Have no idea who it's supposed to be, anyone know if there's
any truth to it?
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By JC on Tuesday, December 1, 1998 - 11:14 am:
When Luke and Han escort Chewbacca to the detention center, Luke tells the officers that it's a prisoner transfer from Cell Block 1138, a reference to Lucas's early sci-fi film, "THX-1138."
Could this be another secret 47?
3+1=4 8-1=7 47!
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Tuesday, December 1, 1998 - 12:56 pm:
Actually, I think TPTB like including 38 in Star Wars. They also mention XP-38's in this movie and I think i heard 38 in another SW film.
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By Adam Chmelka on Tuesday, December 1, 1998 - 03:22 pm:
When R2-D2 and C-3PO's escape pod is launching, the gunners on the Star Destroyer say "There goes another one." Later on, though, an officer reports to Vader that *an* escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting.
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By Gordon Lawyer on Wednesday, December 2, 1998 - 12:56 pm:
JC, I think people don't give credit to C3PO. He's obviously just playing dumb because Luke at that point didn't really need to know who she was. His programming apparently allows him to lie.
BTW, an explanation for the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs can be found near the beginning of "Jedi Search" by Kevin Anderson, if you consider the Star Wars novels canonical.
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By JC on Wednesday, December 2, 1998 - 04:59 pm:
Gordon - But from the information we have been given, Threepio has no reason to lie. Or do droids always mislead their "masters?"
And then, if for whatever hidden agenda he has chosen to keep the princess's identity a secret, why does he urge Artoo to play the message again?
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By Chris Lang on Thursday, December 3, 1998 - 07:31 pm:
Ah, yes. First off, the reasons Obi-Wan disappeared when he died:
1. The 'Jedi funeral plan'. Since of course, 'luminous beings are we, not this crude matter', bodies are unnecessary ultimately.
The Jedi don't believe that their souls will one day be reunited with their bodies, so upon their deaths, their bodies are disposed by the Force, as long as that person wishes it. Anakin/Vader, however, did not give the Force such an order, which is why his body stays while Obi-Wan and Yoda's bodies disappear when they die. And explanation 2...
2. If Obi-Wan's body didn't vanish, we'd have been treated to the gruesome sight of Obi-Wan being cut in half by the lightsaber, and that would probably be 'too gory' for a Star Wars film. (Though not for an Indiana Jones film).
As for C-3PO, there are two explanations for his contradictory behavior involving the Princess. 1. His memory banks were addled due to all the umpleasant experiences between the escape pod and being sold to Luke. And 2. C-3PO didn't feel the need to involve Luke too much in their problems. Of course, later on, Threepio refers to the princess by name, when he tells them Princess Leia is scheduled to be terminated.
As for '47s', this is similiar to the searching for '27s' in Weird Al Yankovic's works. (Weird Al Yankovic, among other things, wrote and performed the song 'Yoda', a Knacks parody celebrating everyone's favorite 'wrinkled and green' Jedi Master).
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Thursday, December 3, 1998 - 11:23 pm:
I love Wierd Al songs. Especially "Yoda" and "Christmas at Ground Zero".
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By ScottN on Friday, December 4, 1998 - 03:35 am:
That was the Kinks, not the Knack!
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By Amos Painter on Sunday, December 6, 1998 - 10:20 pm:
A New Hope is on TBS Superstation Dec. 6 9PM. It is the "Special Edition" version. I would imagine that TBS paid a truck load for it.
ANP
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By Gordon Lawyer on Monday, December 7, 1998 - 09:43 am:
Ahoy, fellow nitpickers. If you haven't done so already, see if you can spot the only time in the whole trilogy where someone says "robot" rather than "droid".
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By ScottN on Monday, December 7, 1998 - 01:19 pm:
My sister (back in '79) wrote a term paper on the mythic archetypes in Star Wars IV (of course, back then it was merely Star Wars).
She pointed out that this movie was a retelling of the Arthurian legend (maybe this post should go into Homage Madness?).
You have a young man, ignorant of his parentage. He meets an old mystic and finds his father's sword. As he learns the way of his life, he meets his new best friend, who just happens to fall in love with the princess who he is in love with (remember,
this was before we found out she was his sister).... Anyways, you get the point.
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By Adam Chmelka on Monday, December 7, 1998 - 04:54 pm:
Re: Robots.
I believe it's Owen Lars (Uncle Owen) who refers to Artoo and Threepio as robots. I can't remember when though
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By JC on Monday, December 7, 1998 - 06:45 pm:
No, it was Luke:
"If they traced the robots here..."
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By K.N.d. on Tuesday, December 8, 1998 - 03:31 am:
Re the Arthurian legend: Good point! At least it turned out better this time! (i.e. no illegit son to crop up unexpectedly...)
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By Joe Griffin on Tuesday, December 8, 1998 - 11:59 am:
Re: Arthur. Actually, the Star Wars plot follows very closely Joseph Campbell's model of the classic Hero's Journey.
Campbell based this model on the Arthur legend, as well as Theseus, Perseus, Agamemnon, Jesus, Buddha, and other prominent figures in world mythology/religion. In his book _Hero With a Thousand Faces_ he posits that the stories of all these heroes contain the same universal elements.
George Lucas was a student and friend of Campbell's before he made Star Wars, and he deliberately constructed the films to reflect Campbell's model.
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By Merat on Wednesday, December 9, 1998 - 02:23 pm:
THX-1138 is an old Lucas film. John Ratzenburger (sp?) (Cliff Clavin from "Cheers") is in The Empire Strikes Back. He is on Hoth and talks to Leia.
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By ScottN on Wednesday, December 9, 1998 - 07:39 pm:
And she still had time to make it off the planet? I thought she'd still be there listening
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By Brian Henley on Saturday, December 12, 1998 - 03:31 am:
I'm not sure about the nit about the Gold wing not reporting in. My theory is that Gold leader worried about Gold wing and Red Leader only took "standings by" from his boys. ROTJ would seem to back this up, since when Lando calls for all wings, only Red, Green and Grey leaders "Stand by". Presumably these Leaders made a head count of all they're guys first.
But on that note, the Reds are missing a few. There's no Red 4, or Red 8. I think there should also be a Red 12, although this can't be proven, since the highest # mentioned is 11.
I'm thinking that there should be a twelve, since the dogfights in these movies are based on WWII dogfights, and thus their inspiration would be a squadron of 12 fighters divided into three 4 fighter "flights".
Now that I think on it, this is making more and more sense. During the rebel attack, the X-wings were the "fighters" while the Y-wings played the role of "bombers". The X-wings only went on bombing runs when the Y wings were wiped out.
It seems like the plan was to use the Xs as fighter cover, while the Ys could do their bombing.
I've always wondered where that Imperial commander saw those "Thirty rebel ships". We only have 9 X-wings and 3 Y-wings that we see. That's 12, not 30.
But .... If there were 12 X-wings, (maybe Reds 4,8, and 12 wereslow to take off) that would give us 15 ships. Possibly the death Star attack was made in two waves, of another 12 Xwings covering another 3 Ywings. That would give us 30 Rebel ships.
I seem to remember The Star Wars Storybook ( a childrens storybook that came out around the same time as the movie, not to be confused with the novel) mentioning a Blue Squadron, and a Green Squadron, in addition to the Reds and Golds.
Can anyone back me up on this?
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By Knd on Saturday, December 12, 1998 - 08:00 am:
I *think* so. Don't quote me. Man, we don't have any lives, do we?
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By Cableface on Saturday, December 12, 1998 - 03:07 pm:
Just a thought aboiut the design of the Falcon.The protrusion that contains the cockpit sits on the extreme right of the ship.So basically, the pilot can't see anything to the left of the ship.Not very good design.
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By Miah Campbell on Sunday, December 13, 1998 - 02:08 pm:
About nit #5: Since it's easy to tell when someone is talking through a stormtrooper mask, Han had to take the mask off because since their were no stormtroopers stationed in the detention center (only officers and commandos)the person to whom
Han was talking would have immediately realized that he was not supposed to be there.
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By J. Kevin Wells on Sunday, December 20, 1998 - 11:35 am:
A possible explanation as to why C-3P0 didn't identify Leia in the hologram - perhaps they had never met. He could have known that she was aboard the ship without ever crossing paths until he saw her recording the hologram. Of course it would be
easy for him to guess who she was, which is why he said "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, sir." Luke didn't really press him on the matter. Perhaps he was not eager to volunteer information and risk being proven wrong later. He IS a protocol droid, and would be accutely aware of the importance of speaking and translating accurately.
When C-3P0 used Princess Leia's name in the control room on the Death Star, he was probably told the name by R2-D2, as he was merely translating what R2 was saying. Luke replied, "The Princess? Here?" as though he was confirming that's who 3P0
was actually referring to. I don't think he had heard her actual name until that point.
I know all of this contradicts the radio plays, but I don't think those are concidered canonical.
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By JC on Sunday, December 20, 1998 - 08:23 pm:
But if this is the first time Luke's heard her name, or even the fact that she's a princess, shouldn't his response be more like Han's? "Princess? What's going on?"
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By Chris Thomas on Monday, December 21, 1998 - 12:43 am:
You'd think a protocol droid would have images of all important people in his databanks, especially the princess.
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By J. Kevin Wells on Monday, December 21, 1998 - 01:09 am:
Hmmm... Good point, JC. At no time do they discuss Leia by her name, or as a princess until they reach the Death Star.
After watching the hologram with Ben, Ben asks Luke to come with him to Alderaan, saying "She needs your help." The hologram merely said Kenobi should bring the droid to her father on Alderaan. Never said who her father was. You'd think Kenobi would let Luke know who she was before he asked Luke to risk his life for her.
However, Luke might have known that his father served Leia's father in the clone wars, and Leia states in the message that Kenobi did as well. It's quite possible that Luke is figuring out who her father is, and who she is after the image disappears and before Ben speaks to him (you can almost hear the gears grinding in his head). Leia and her father were well-known public figures, so he probably knew their names even if he couldn't recognize her by sight.
But you'd think that Kenobi would have the courtesy to fill Luke in. (And when he saw how taken Luke was with Leia, you'd think he'd let the poor guy know that this was his sister!) I think the main reason Kenobi didn't tell him was that WE already
knew who she was, so there was no reason to waste screen time telling Luke information WE already knew. Guess Lucas expected us to assume that the discussion happened off-screen.
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By JC on Tuesday, December 22, 1998 - 11:36 am:
But, technically, we didn't know who she was. If memory serves, she had not been named until the scene where she meets with Governor Tarkin. Previous to that, we have Threepio's early reference to "the princess" (of whom he apparently had no knowledge of her physical appearance) and we have Vader referring to her as "Your Highness" several times.
But now I'm wondering if her name was mentioned during the credit scroll at the beginning. If so, my point is moot.
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By Greg W. on Tuesday, December 22, 1998 - 06:55 pm:
Just to take this in a totally different direction...
When 3PO and R2 are getting in to the escape pod, you can see the window at the base of the pod. After the pod launches, not only does it turn around (becuase there is no planet looming in the interior view) but it is spiralling conveniently enough for us to see the Star Destroyer in its very limited field of veiw. To me, this would represent a tremendous amount of effort to orient the pod. I also think I'd like to see the planet I was about to hit, not the ship I just left, if I had the misfortune to be in one of the pods.
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By J. Kevin Wells on Tuesday, December 22, 1998 - 10:52 pm:
Yup, it was in the opening crawl. The last line was:
"Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy..."
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By J. Kevin Wells on Tuesday, December 22, 1998 - 10:57 pm:
During the scene where Kenobi is killed, there are several Stormtroopers watching the fight. When Luke yells out "NO!", the Stormtroopers turn and begin firing at our young heroes as they escape to the Millenium Falcon. The armor one of the Stormtroopers' right arm appears to be defective as is BADLY separating from his shoulder. Shouldn't Stormtroopers take better care of their armor? No wonder their aim is so bad they couldn't hit a cow with a shovel.
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By Darrin Hull on Saturday, December 26, 1998 - 09:49 pm:
Okay, going back quite a ways, but still a funny way of *correcting* a nit:
When the stormtrooper hits his head in the Deathstar, they actually refer to it in the Special Edition. The commanding trooper (who looks briefly back) says, "You take over. See to him." Referring to the extra who can't see where he's going in that
blasted suit.
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By Andrew Kibelbek on Monday, December 28, 1998 - 08:56 pm:
After the Death Star blows, we see the surviving Rebel fighters returning to Yaavin. There's Luke's X-wing, Wedge's X-wing, and a Y-wing. Wait a minute. All the Y-wings we saw during the battle got fried. Wedge was forced to pull out, and, of course, Luke's the hero. What was this Y-wing doing all this time? Taking the scenic route?
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By JC on Tuesday, December 29, 1998 - 05:21 pm:
Incidentally, synopsis is misspelled.
:)
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By Brull on Wednesday, December 30, 1998 - 03:48 pm:
Another Post on C3PO's amnesia. I read somewhere where they corrected that nit. C3PO was actually under orders not to disclose the Princess' identity by Captain Antilles. He wasn't lying or couldn't remember. He was under orders to keep her
identity secret for security reasons I suspect. Talk about an explanation after the fact tho.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned one of my favorite nits from A New Hope.
Its when the Stormtroopers are looking for Ben and Luke on Tantooine and a squad leader says upon entering a house "Load your weapons." What is there to load on a blaster anyway? An energy pack. But what's funny is they show none of the stormtroopers loading anything. Obviously they are confused by the order, too. Heh.
Another good nit deals with the Death Star getting in range of the planet Yavin. And this one does not deal with the bad time
frame they use! But I kept wondering why they had to wait to charge up there laser until they cleared the planet. They knew when they would clear it so why didn't they charge up early? Seems if they had had some forsight they could have destroyed
Yavin right away.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Wednesday, December 30, 1998 - 10:32 pm:
For that matter, couldn't they just fly around (a possibly even through) the planet to get to Yavin. It can travel through hyperspace, for crying out loud!
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By Brian Henley on Saturday, January 2, 1999 - 02:55 am:
Obviously the Death Star can fly through hyperspace, otherwise it would've taken a looooong time to get from planet A to planet B. Isn't that kinda wierd? Can you really imagine that space station hurtling through that bluish vortex? Odd mental image, huh?
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By Trillian on Saturday, January 2, 1999 - 07:46 am:
Maybe they used an interstellar bypass.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Saturday, January 2, 1999 - 01:28 pm:
Even wierder mental image: A blue police box flying through a Vortex ;)
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By ScottN on Sunday, January 24, 1999 - 11:31 pm:
Here's an nit that struck me while I was just watching... The climactic battle scene at the end has all this tension while the Death Star is clearing the planet Yavin to attack the fourth moon. Why don't they just blast the planet and then with it out of the way, blast the moon?
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By Mei on Monday, January 25, 1999 - 12:52 am:
Just finished watching for the umpteeneth time, and this struck my brother-in-law and me at the same time.
When they're flying down the trench, to blow up the Deathstar, what exactly are the two X-wings in back doing? (Besides dying, that is.) They're not firing backwards. They don't really seem to be doing anything, except maybe serving as cannon fodder. At one point, the pilot says, I can't hold it. Hold what? He hasn't been shot yet. He is, basically, just getting in the way. I mean, I understand about covering for the front man, but this seems a little excessive.
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By ScottN on Monday, January 25, 1999 - 02:14 pm:
How about Gold 5(?)... He sounds like a robot...
Stay on target. Stay on target.
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By G. Hans on Monday, January 25, 1999 - 03:06 pm:
When Luke, Han and Chewie are going to Detention Block AA-23, there is an overhead shot. First off, there's this big pit in the way, and no railing! Second, there is an officer in a white uniform. In the following closeup, the officer is in a gray
uniform.
After Luke, Han and Chewie rescue Leia, they're trapped in the corridor. Han blows off a plate, and there's a chute to a garbage pit. Why would there be a chute to a garbage pit in the middle of the corridor. Second, why do you need to BLOW UP THE
DOOR to open it?
Is Captain Antilles any relation to Wedge?
Why is Leia's hologram so small and Luke's life size in RotJ.
Why don't the Jawas steal R2-D2 when he's wandering in the desert?
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Monday, January 25, 1999 - 04:11 pm:
Answers:
1.Good Question!
2.Possibly, I've always assumed so.
3.R2D2's hologram projector was upgraded.
4.They do.
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By Gordon Lawyer on Tuesday, January 26, 1999 - 09:12 am:
Scott, the planet Yavin is a gas giant. The Death Star would probably have a different (and probably nasty) effect that would backfire onto them.
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By Jedi-In-Training on Tuesday, January 26, 1999 - 04:40 pm:
Changing the subject breifly, I'm brining up an issue that's so obvious in this movie - no, in this trilogy, that I'm surprised no one else has brought it up yet in this bulletin.
Ben says while surveying the Sandcrawler wreckage something along the lines of Stormtroopers having the best aim in the galaxy, but in almost all of the laser fights in all the SW films to date, these space grunts can't seem to hit the broad side of a
barn! Were these just different troops on the crawler, or really bad writing?
Back to the Death Star shooting the planet Yavin, I think I know why it wasn't done. In the tech manual "The Guide To Ships and Vehicles" (or something like that), it's mentioned that every time the Death Star fires its superlaser at full blast, it needs several hours to recharge, thus making it impossible to wipe out the moon and everyone on it - at least before some transports and fighters evacuated.
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By Anonymous on Sunday, January 31, 1999 - 07:42 pm:
In the scene with Tarkin and Vader after Alderaan gets "totally blown away", before Tarkin says "Terminate her!" you can see Vader gesturing with his hand like he is talking, but there is nothing that we can hear.
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By Brian Henley on Friday, February 5, 1999 - 12:36 am:
Jedi-In-Training,
There are a few Stormtroopers in the Empire who can shoot straight. We see this elite batallion at the very beginning of ST:IV, and they do a god job of wiping out the Tantave IV crew. These must be the same troops who they send after the Jawas.
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By Jedi-In-Training on Friday, February 5, 1999 - 02:53 pm:
Oh yeah. Legions upon legions of stormtroopers, and only about twelve that can actually hit something!
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By Nyla on Friday, February 5, 1999 - 03:43 pm:
Anon, the reason for this is probably that the man standing around looking tall, dark, and menacing was not James Earl Jones.
They had to lipsync, although it was easier since there weren't any 'lips' to syn
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By Nyla on Friday, February 5, 1999 - 03:45 pm:
Hey, another 47! Look at the bottom of the browser as this page loads.
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By Johnny Veitch on Saturday, February 6, 1999 - 04:16 pm:
The Antilles story:
The original Star Wars script contained elements from all three films, for instance, the Jawas and the Ewoks were the Wookiees, Yavin and Endor were the Wookiee homeworld. "Bail Antilles" was originally Leia`s father, and Chewie was the
equivalent of Wedge. However, when Wedge Antilles became one of the pilots in the big battle, the "captain Antilles" line was never fixed. So it`s a nit!
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By Rick B. on Monday, February 8, 1999 - 01:06 pm:
This is in reference to the nit at the top of the page about Chewbacca not getting a medal. Apparently you weren't the only one to notice this because when the MTV Movie Awards gave Chewie a Lifetime Achievement Award a couple years back, instead of the usual astronaut trophy, they awarded him with an exact duplicate of the medal Luke and Han got. Carrie Fisher was the presenter and he made a 30-second acceptance speech in his native language.
BTW, I only skimmed the messages above to see if someone else had already mentioned this, so I apologize if I'm telling you all something that's already been posted.
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By Gordon Lawyer on Thursday, February 11, 1999 - 02:21 pm:
Jedi-in-training:
It's a well-established law of science fiction universes (actually, it can apply to just about any action fiction with gunplay of some sort) that no matter how good a shot a bad guy might normally be, s/he's absolutely pathetic when fighting against The Heros. The best to be hoped for is a grazing shot. This is seen often in Star Trek as well. Keep in mind that this doesn't apply to the extras. They get shot all the time.
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By Jedi-In-Training on Friday, February 12, 1999 - 02:57 pm:
Funny, aside from when around Vader, the troopers seem perfectly calm, regardless of who they're taking potshots at.
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By Cableface on Saturday, February 13, 1999 - 04:57 pm:
The engines on the rebel fighters usually give off a pink glow, but several times during the death star sequence, they aren't tinted properly.
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By Brian on Tuesday, February 16, 1999 - 06:07 pm:
It should be added that Gordon Lawyer's law on marksmanship also applies to TIE fighter pilots, and most especially to any turbo laser gunner of any kind. Them guys have enough trouble hitting even an extra. Let alone a hero.
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By Gordon Lawyer on Friday, February 19, 1999 - 09:23 am:
Brian, a note on the turbolasers. Turbolasers lose overall accuracy in favor of a high powered blast. They're meant for the most part to be used against capital ships, not tiny and fast fighters.
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By Anonymous on Monday, March 8, 1999 - 01:32 pm:
I'd like to add a few observations about Star Wars. These are from some notes I scribbled last year so may appear a little vague.
- C3P0 appears characteristically confused in the Jawa transport. "Do you think they'll melt us down?" Surely he can understand their language, one of his six million different forms of communication?
- Luke and his family live in the desert. Yet they wear no head gear, no sunglasses and no protective clothing
- In one landspeeder scene, Luke clearly says "Hit the accelerator". Is C3PO driving??
- How does Ben know Luke's name? There's no mention that they've met before.
- When the Stormtroopers are searching the bays at Mos Isley they come across a locked door and simply go to the next.
Hardly an exhaustive search.
- On the Death Star, why don't the Stormtroopers follow the gang into the garbage desposal? Surely it's obvious where they've gone (there's a huge hole in the wall) or just throw a few thermal detonators in there?
- Towards the end, why doesn't the Deathstar simply blow up the planet to get to the moon? Instead of waiting, interminably, for the moon to clear the planet? A planet exploding nearby would surely devastate the moon, anyway.
- Where are all the women? The Deathstar is crewed with men. Mos Isley is full of men. The rebel attack force is all men. I know this was the seventies but hadn't they heard of tokenism?
Hope you can help,
Davros
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By Anonymous on Monday, March 8, 1999 - 01:38 pm:
I'd just like to add one more:
- Princess Leia has been submitted to the tortures of the mind probe. Seen her home planet eradicated and billions of her race killed. Been stunned, abducted, and probably hasn't had a square meal in days, yet still is relaxed enough to be reclining in her cell like a still life model and to quip about Skywalker's height.
Fin.
By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Monday, March 8, 1999 - 03:38 pm:
Anon- Apparently 3-CPO is driving. That one confused me for a while.
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By Mike Deeds on Wednesday, March 10, 1999 - 10:29 am:
I don't know if this is the best place to put this. However, check out this news story from www.cinescape.com:
Lucas Sues Publisher
George Lucas apparently didn't much like the The Unauthorized Star Wars Compendium published recently by Little Brown & Co, because he has filed a trademark infringement suit against the company.
Variety reports that the legal suit is the beginning of a "massive campaign" to crack down before the May 21st opening of The Phantom Menace on what Lucas sees as infringements on his rights to the Star Wars characters. Both sides are apparently confindent that they'll win the case. The Unauthorized Star Wars Compendium has accumulated about $1 million in sales, according to Lucasfilm's estimate -- pretty impressive for a book that the Insider thought was lame.
It looks like Phil's publisher was right to cancell his Star Wars Nitpicker's Guide.
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By Gordon Lawyer on Wednesday, March 10, 1999 - 10:38 am:
Davros,
How Ben knew Luke's name? Simple, The reason he's been hanging about on Tatooine was to keep an eye on Luke.
The stormtroopers searhing in Mos Eisley, my guess is that these are the members of the local garrison and quite corrupt and want this search to be over as soon as possible. Therefore, they're not trying too hard.
As for blowing up the planet Yavin, in case you hadn't noticed, it's a gas giant. While blowing up a gas giant would probably get the moon, it would probably also get the Death Star as well.
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By Gordon Lawyer on Friday, March 12, 1999 - 10:54 am:
There is a rationale (or excuse, if you prefer) to the lousy shooting of the stormtroopers on the Death Star in this movie at least. The first shootout with stormtroopers was just after Leia was freed. Here they have fairly decent cover. During this shootout, Vader and Tarkin are informed about the break-in and decide to intentionally let them go so they can trace them to Yavin. Therefore, the stormtroopers are ordered to hassle them, but don't actually shoot them.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Sunday, March 14, 1999 - 10:26 pm:
There is no real place for this, so I'm putting this here. In tonight's This 70's Show, Forman and company go to see Star Wars. One of them, (Kelso?) mentions Luke kissing Leia on the bridge about 1:30 into the movie. Luke and Leia do not kiss in Star Wars: ANH. They kiss in Luke's quarters in The Empire Strikes Back.
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By G. Hans on Monday, March 15, 1999 - 01:19 pm:
Leia kisses Luke on the bridge, not the other way around(just before they leap the chasm)
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By Todd Pence on Sunday, March 21, 1999 - 01:26 am:
Re: Lea's line "Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?" How can she tell how short Luke is if he's inside the uniform?
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Sunday, March 21, 1999 - 02:19 pm:
I think is was just a joke, and Leia might have said it to Michael Jordan, if he had have been a stormtrooper.
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By Jessica on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 03:19 pm:
About Leia's rescue. A while back, it struck me that, even odder than her ability to twit a "storm trooper: on his height was her reaction to rescue. Luke enters the room, takes off his helmet and identifies himself, "I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you" and she, instead of jumping up greatfully & running out the door, takes the time to check his credentials, not leaving until he mentions that he's with Ben Kenobi. That, I think, is odd!
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Thursday, March 25, 1999 - 04:58 pm:
Mabye the stormtroopers routinely sneak into prioners quarters and claim to rescue them. Then lock them up in a diffrent quarters. So, if someone really tries to rescue her, she will delay her rescuer.
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By sitroom2 on Sunday, May 16, 1999 - 05:15 pm:
I was just watching Star Wars today and the saw the scene where the Stormtroopers were looking R2D2 and C3po outside of the bar. They come to a door the storm trooper in charge says "This one is locked search over there." What happened to kicking the door in to see if the people you are looking for are hiding inside.
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By Adam Howarter on Monday, May 17, 1999 - 12:27 am:
Sure they're evil, but you got to give the Empire one thing. They work their arses off. Think about it. The Empire took hold about the time Luke and Leia were born right? That was about 20 years ago. That means it took them ONLY 20 years (at most) to build the DeathStar...which is the size of a planet.(!) In only 20 short years they built a planet.(!!) Obviously they weren't using union labor. Then when it meets with..errr..."major machanical problems" they build a second, bigger, one in a mere 6(?) years. Burning the midnight oil guys?
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By Neil on Monday, May 17, 1999 - 07:06 am:
As for throwing thermal detonators into the garbage chute, I bet there's a load of methane in the chute that if lit would not only kill Luke and co but might also mess up the surrounding rooms.
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By Murray Leeder on Friday, May 28, 1999 - 06:52 pm:
In the "did you know?" category... Obi-Wan originally wasn't supposed to die. He was supposed to make it to the loading bay, then hit a button to close a door and run away from Vader onto the Falcon and to survive the rest of the movie. It was changed midway through shooting, and there was a lot of resistence to the idea. Lucas says so himself in a 1977 Rolling Stone interview.
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By TWS Garrison on Saturday, May 29, 1999 - 07:41 pm:
Back to the Death Star shooting the planet Yavin, I think I know why it wasn't done. In the tech manual "The Guide To Ships and Vehicles" (or something like that), it's mentioned that every time the Death Star fires its superlaser at full blast, it needs several hours to recharge, thus making it impossible to wipe out the moon and everyone on it - at least before some transports and fighters evacuated.
This brings up a problem with the Death Star in general and the battle of Yavin in particular. Why is the Empire bothering with this thing? It would be pointless as a weapon of offensive war--you fight wars to win territory (i.e., planets), not a pile of rubble. It would only be used if the Empire were losing a war and just needed to hurt the enemy to survive. The Death Star would be equally useless as a means of suppression. For an analogy, think back to 1955. Checkoslovakia was feeling independent, and the USSR sent in tanks to reassert its authority. Apparently, Moff Tarkin would have just dropped an A-bomb on Prague. Destroying a planet is just too much--too expensive, too bloody.
This is especially a problem with Yavin. Keep in mind that the Rebels have just won their first major victory against the Empire. Also, we didn't see any capital ships in the Battle of Yavin. Even on the terms of just this movie, we know the
Empire has Star Destroyers (and Han was surprised to see two at Tattooine, but didn't act as if that was the whole Imperial Fleet). Therefore, the Rebellion has its real power--capital ships capable of taking on Star Destroyers--elsewhere, probably
scattered across hyperspace, minor bases, and friendly ports. So now the Empire sends the Death Star to take out the Rebels' secret base. That will kill some of the leaders of the Rebellion, take out a lot of their supplies, and remove their base, but what about their ships (which will still have captains, after all)? The Empire should be landing, storming the base, and wringing all the information they can about who's been helping the Rebellion and where their ships are from the computers and the people there. Then Tarkin can execute the leaders of the Rebellion, if it will make him feel better. Simply destroying the base is silly.
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By D. VADER on Sunday, May 30, 1999 - 01:46 am:
TWS, I find your lack of faith............disturbing............
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By JC on Sunday, May 30, 1999 - 06:02 pm:
The Death Star was more a psychological tool. Remember that in the discussion between Tarkin and the Imperial Commanders, he remarks that fear will be the method with which the Empire maintains control. The Empire was probably hoping that the destruction of the Rebel Base at Yavin will make others reconsider their decision to go up against the them.
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By Adam Howarter on Monday, May 31, 1999 - 12:42 am:
That was my impression as well. It was the sword of Damacles. Hanging over the head of any world that would contemplate resistance.
Of course one has to wonder why our heroes, who knew they were being followed, headed straight for their secret base. Hello, guys, what where you thinking?
We also got to wounder why the rebel leaders didn't evacuate Yavin just incase the attack failed.
Finally Ben could have broken Vadar's reputation if he had just told the stormtroopers that were watching they used to call him "Annie." From then on everywhere he went Vadar would be subject to the silent puns and stares of his subordinates. things
like.
"They must have gone to hyperspace. They'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now. Don't worry sir, we'll get them tommorrow, its only a day away." :P
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Monday, May 31, 1999 - 12:28 pm:
The suns will come out, tommorrow./Bet you bottom credit that/ The suns will come out, tommorrow....
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By MikeC on Saturday, June 5, 1999 - 05:05 pm:
Note: Regarding the Stormtrooper hitting his head on the door, the line "See to him!" does not refer to the trooper. It is in the original script, and it refers to the dead deck officer.
Also, in the film, Gold 5 (the "Stay on target" guy) seems way more capable than Gold Leader. Is this odd to anyone?
The prison officer on the Death Star ("Where are you taking this...creature?") seems somewhat familiar. Is he someone we should know?
While the original novel has many differences (most of which are mentioned), here are some subtle stuff I would like to point out:
The guy who says "There goes another one," on the Star Destroyer is named Lieutenant Hija.
The guy who delivers the Dantooine news to Tarkin is named Cass.
In the Death Star meeting room sequence, the man who is blithering about that the Rebels are still dangerous is named Tagge (in the film). Tagge is in the book, but he's the one that says that the Death Star is invincible. A man named Romodi has the
Rebels line.
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By Johnny Veitch on Monday, June 21, 1999 - 03:56 pm:
When Luke and Threepio are using the binoculars to search for Artoo, the head positioning changes between wide and tight angles. Also, one semi-wide angle shows the garage in the background, instead of the house.
Tarkin seems to stumble over his first line.
The scene in the conference room was originally going to be near the beginning, but it was wisely moved to AFTER we learn about The Force with Luke. Also, When Vader interrogates the captain of the Tantive IV at the beginning, he does it manually
instead of with The Force, for similar reasons.
NANJAS: "Fry" in Huttese is "crispa"!
I have more but I lost the notepad I was writing them in!
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By Nathan K. on Friday, June 25, 1999 - 08:41 pm:
Just after Darth Vader's final battle with Obi-Wan, the doors in front of Vader start to close as he walks away. Watch Vader closely during this scene. He's holding a white stick about the length of an extended light saber! (Now, where did that come
from?)
I never saw it until my brother pointed it out, but it's easy to see once you notice it. What makes it more amazing is that this mistake appears in the Special Edition as well!
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By Chris Thomas on Saturday, June 26, 1999 - 03:06 am:
At the top here it says: "THE STORMTROOPER BANGS HIS HEAD ON THE DOOR FRAME NEAR THE BEGINNING!" and the someone else says "the stormtrooper hits his head in the Deathstar," - I have looked and looked and can't find it - can someone please be more specific and point me in the right direction, perhaps the scene just before?
And as for Chewbacca not getting a medal - how come Wedge didn't get one either?
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By cableface on Saturday, June 26, 1999 - 07:32 am:
It's when the stormtroopers come into the control room where the droids are hiding.Four come in , and if you watch the one in the background, you'll see it.
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By Johnny Veitch on Saturday, June 26, 1999 - 03:40 pm:
I still can`t find the notebook, but this is one I can remember because it`s so good. The Special Edition added in a scene for the Special Edition, of Luke talking to Biggs and another Rebel pilot (Red Leader). All except one line was restored. To cover up the transition, a Rebel pilot walks in front. Notice that the Rebel pilot wears green, which no-one wears until ROTJ. Now this is the good bit. Artoo is being lifted up in the background by some sort of magnetic pipeline. While the Rebel pilot walks by, Artoo suddenly leaps up much quicker than his rate in the rest of the scene!
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By Chris Thomas on Sunday, June 27, 1999 - 01:59 am:
In the Special Edition, when C-3PO is explaining about the tractor beam and how to disable a couple more explanatory lines have been added. If you listen to the scene a couple of times you will notice a change in pitch in 3PO's voice, obviously
Anthony Daniels older voice used to record new dialogue 20 years later.
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By Rick B. on Tuesday, June 29, 1999 - 01:10 pm:
The stormtrooper bumping his head is a lot easier to see in the widescreen (black bars on top and bottom of screen) version.
You can still see the collision fairly well in the pan-and-scan full screen version, but you miss seeing him grabbing his head after bumping it because the focus of the action (and therefore the restricted view) is on the other stormtroopers.
You also miss the stormtrooper making a point to duck on his way back out.
Just one of many reasons why widescreen is the only way to really see the Star Wars movies.
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By JC on Tuesday, June 29, 1999 - 11:16 pm:
Chris-
The change in pitch in Threepio's voice is not necessarily because it's Daniel's voice twenty years later, it could also be a very bad dub. The version I have on VHS tape (not the Special Edition) has a similarly-dubbed in voice.
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By P.I.T.A. on Tuesday, June 29, 1999 - 11:25 pm:
OK. I feel like being a pain. But a couple of nits in the film synopsis at the top of the page:
Firstly, it's mentioned that Leia gives the plans to R2D2. Then the droids are bought by Luke's uncle. What droids? There's only one droid mentioned in the synopsis. Who is the other droid? ;)
Secondly, Owen's last name is Lars, not Skywalker.
Thirdly, Vader didn't destroy Alderaan, Tarkin did.
Fourthly, "apparent" is misspelled.
Fifthly, so is "sacrifice."
Live long and nitpick!
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By Jedi-In-Training on Wednesday, June 30, 1999 - 11:14 am:
That last post just reminded me:
Owen and Ben are supposed to be brothers, but they have different accents and different last names.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Wednesday, June 30, 1999 - 05:54 pm:
I've made the corrections suggested by P.I.T.A. I do stand by refering to Uncle Owen as Owen Skywalker. Luke's name is Skywalker. Vader's name was Anakin Skywalker, and Luke's grandmother's last name is Skywalker. If Owen is Vader's/Anakin's brother he should be Owen Skywalker. (Note: Aunt Beru describes Vader as Luke's father in ANH, not as her brother.) However, I did remove Owen's last name from my synopisis.
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By Adam on Wednesday, June 30, 1999 - 11:51 pm:
I think they just told Luke Anakin was his "Aunt's" brother. Or maybe they told him they had to change their family name.
Could it be one of the things that makes Anakin turn to the dark side is he catches, or is told, Ben and Amidala are covorting with each other behind his back (like Arthur caught Lancelot and Gwen?) Did they? Is this why Anakin didn't try to find her or Ben? Is the shame of their actions why Ben and Amidala went into self impossed exile (much like Lancelot and the queen did?)
Anakin was the choosen one, as was Arthur. Ben was a knight, Lancelot was a knight. Amidala was a queen, Gwen was a queen. Something to ponder.
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By P.I.T.A. on Thursday, July 1, 1999 - 01:01 am:
Hey, Charles-
What are stormtropers?
;)
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Thursday, July 1, 1999 - 05:45 pm:
They are an eilte band of stormtroopers, who can knot spell correctly. BTW, what does PITA stand for?
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By ScottN on Thursday, July 1, 1999 - 07:53 pm:
I assume it stands for Pain In the A**. Incidentally, what is an eilte band?
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By ScottN on Thursday, July 1, 1999 - 07:54 pm:
Oops... meant to add this to the previous post...
What's an eilte band? Is it related to a rubber band or a marching band?
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By HarleQuiN on Tuesday, August 17, 1999 - 04:52 pm:
Anyone notice that when three Y-Wings swoop down into view to attack the Death Star, one of them disappears instantly before leaving the frame?
The shot shows three or so Y-Wings from the side. Look closely, the Y-Wing on the leftmost part of the screen just pops out of existence.
A personal nit I've never read about before. :)
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Friday, August 20, 1999 - 11:26 am:
How does R2D2 take a hologram of Princess Leia? Doesn't a hologram require at least 3 cameras around the person being filmed? I don't remember three camera lenses projecting out of R2 when we see Leia with him. (her? it?)
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By Jason Krietsch on Monday, September 6, 1999 - 08:30 am:
Maybe this was already brought up, but their's a thousand posts.
Why does the Death Star wait to destroy the rebel base? They could just blow up the Planet that the base is a moon of. and let the debris from the explosion destroy the base. Even if it didn't work, the base would plumet into the void of space without a planet.
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By Meg on Monday, September 6, 1999 - 01:12 pm:
Yavin was a gas giant and It probably would have deatoyed the Death Star too.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Tuesday, September 7, 1999 - 01:45 am:
Jason: Even if the moon survived the destruction of Yavin, it would not plumet into the void of space. (Technically, it's already in the void of space anyway.) The gravity of the star would keep the moon from leaving the solar system. The moon
would become a planet.
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By ERIC KATZ on Tuesday, September 7, 1999 - 11:45 pm:
On the Death Star either Han or Luke asked Leia, "What kept you?" According to the novel/comic, she was supposed to say, "We met some old friends." However, Carrie Fisher said, "We are as old friends."
Later, an imperial guard told Vader that the X-Wing Fighters were so small that they were evading their "terrible" lasers.
Instead, he should have said "turbolasers."
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By Mike Beasly on Wednesday, September 8, 1999 - 12:08 am:
I believe in the movie, Leia said, "We ran into some old friends."
And with the "terrible lasers", he really did say "turbolasers", just with a British accent. The exact sound was like "Tehh-bo Lasers"
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By ScottN on Wednesday, September 8, 1999 - 02:48 pm:
When R2 is hit, we shouldn't be able to hear him scream. He's in vacuum.
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By Jedi Apprentice on Wednesday, September 8, 1999 - 02:56 pm:
We shouldn't be able to hear the lasers or ships, either. That's sci-fi for you. However, in the first couple of shots after R2 blows up, he goes from fried to normal, to fritzed again.
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By Adam on Thursday, September 9, 1999 - 12:02 am:
And whats up with the tower lasers that shoot at them? They recoil. Why would a laser recoil?
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By Jack Morgan on Thursday, September 9, 1999 - 12:06 am:
Because it looks really cool.
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By ScottN on Thursday, September 9, 1999 - 01:25 am:
Conservation of momentum. Remember, light has a momentum, p = h/l. I'm not saying this is the reason, but light does cause a recoil (this is the theory behind the solar sail, remember).
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By Chris Marks on Thursday, September 9, 1999 - 07:40 am:
Here's a thought. Why did they wait for Yavin 4 to come around the planet anyway? Why not load up a load of shuttles with stormtroopers, fly over to the Yavin base, storm it, capture everyone and interrogate them? Then we could have seen a battle
between the tie fighters escorting the shuttles and the rebel fighters trying to stop the shuttles and force a way through to start the main attack on the Death Star.
And here's a strange nit that I'm not too sure of. During the battle of Yavin, it looks like one of the X-Wing pilots takes a drink of something. I think its about the point where somebody (Red Leader ?) says something like '...lost Tyree, lost Hutch', and the shot cuts back to the pilot with what looks like a white, fairly shallow cup in his hand, which he lowers from his mouth. Can anyone else confirm this?
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By Jedi Apprentice on Thursday, September 9, 1999 - 03:17 pm:
Why did they wait for Yavin 4 to come around the planet anyway? Why not load up a load of shuttles with stormtroopers, fly over to the Yavin base, storm it, capture everyone and interrogate them?
Because that wouldn't be as morale-sapping as the whole planet being blasted. Besides, if the Empire wanted the place intact, they wouldn't hav even sent the Death Star, as it was designed mainly to destroy planets sympathetic to or controlled by the
Alliance!
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By Richard Davies on Friday, October 1, 1999 - 06:24 pm:
Luke's binoculars have a very primative number display which I was suprised wasn't updated in the special edition. I was also suprised that this was given a U rating in the UK when you get to see Owen & Beru reduced to what looks like 2 piles of spare
ribs, arn't they supposed to be Luke adopted parents, & the terms Aunt & Uncle were used in the UK until 30 or so years ago by someone refering step parents. See if you can spot Jeff from Eastenders as one of Tarkin's lackys.
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By Adam on Friday, October 1, 1999 - 11:34 pm:
Where is Chewbacca when Greedo is holding a gun to his bestfriend and captain?
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By KAM on Saturday, October 2, 1999 - 01:32 am:
The little Wookie's room?
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By Chris Thomas on Saturday, October 2, 1999 - 07:17 am:
I thought he was repairing the Millennium Falcon.
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By TWS Garrison on Saturday, October 9, 1999 - 05:55 pm:
Going back to the post on 20 August about holograms. . .no, holograms don't require three cameras. You make a hologram by illuminating an object with laser light (that's been spread out by a lens to it isn't just one tight beam). One piece of film records an interference pattern from the reflected light, and you reconstruct the hologram by illuminating the film with laser light. That's it, in theory. In practice, it's somewhat more difficult. . .
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By Richard Davies on Saturday, October 16, 1999 - 06:54 pm:
Why doesn't Darth Vader close the Star Destroyer's docking bay doors after capturing the rebel cruiser? (If he had the rebels would have been crushed very easily!)
One of the Jawas sounds just like Morph, who if you didn't know, is a character made from modeling clay & has appeared on Children's BBC Art programmes such as Take Hart, Hart Beat & Smart since the mid 1970s.
Whe exactly runs Tatooine? Stormtroopers can do house to house searches (& even kill in cold blood...), but the planet is a hideaway for various fugitives, smugglers, gangsters.
Luke's Light Saber seems to change colour a few times, in Ben's house it's light green, while practasing with the seeker it's white, but in ESB it's turned light blue. (It musr be getting erratic with old age!)
One way to find work out how to find when an item Science Fiction is made is to see if you can spot anything that was in fashion when the item was made. One late 1970s item that sticks out (literally!) is Aunt Bereu's Travoltaisque collar.
A few times through the trilogy Chewbacca seems to say "I Want My Mum".
As someoneelse has pointed out, a stick is used to simulate a Light Saber are visable in Darth Vader's hand. Just before this I spotted Obi-Wan Kanobi using one as well.
Star Wars / Red Dwarf, A few connections:
The Locker room seen in Red Dwarf VII is very simiar to the walls of the captured Rebel ship.
The Jawas were an influcence on the design of Rimmer's negative emotions in Terraform.
The Doorway from the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon is almost identical to the ones used on the Red Dawrf interior sets from series 3 to 5. The doorways on starbug are almost the same as well.
Jack Klaff & Don Henderson have appeared in both ST4: ANH & RD, not forgetting TPM star Hugh Quarshie's RD appearence. (Anyone know of any more performers who've appeared in both?)
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By Craig Livingston on Sunday, October 17, 1999 - 12:07 pm:
>Why doesn't Darth Vader close the Star Destroyer's docking bay doors >after capturing the rebel cruiser?
I don't think they have doors, every shot of a Star Destroyer in the movies shows the hanger open (a Star Destroyer toy I used to have had a door, but toys are often inacurate).
>Who exactly runs Tatooine?
I'm sure the Empire controls Tatooine, but the local Governer gets regular bribes not to mess with the gangster's interests.
Also note that Vader ordered a detachment of stormtroopers sent to the surface, which may be all the stormtroopers we see. The regular Imperial authorities might not have stormtroopers to enforce laws, just a non-military, lightly armed and easily
bribable police force.
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By Richard Davies on Sunday, October 17, 1999 - 05:17 pm:
If the Star Distroyers don't have docking bay doors then how do you get out without the use of spacesuits or is there an airtight forcefield that keeps the atmosphere in but lets escape capsules out?
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By Craig Livingston on Sunday, October 17, 1999 - 08:39 pm:
My guess would be that there are docking ports inside the bay because there is no 'bright white border forcefield thingie' to show us there is a force-field. My old TIE Fighter video game showed TIEs attached to some kind of rack on the ceiling of the bay and I always assumed that the pilots climbed down connecting tubes to get in to thier ships. I figure there are probably lots of multi-purpose movable adjustable conecting ports in the top of the bay (kind of like the ramp thingies they have at airports that they move against the jets, only airtight). But you did just make me think of a new nit, which I will put on the Empire Strikes Back.
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By Richard Davies on Wednesday, November 3, 1999 - 06:01 pm:
I'm suprised that Jabba seems in a good mood despite Han creaming one of his henchmen, or did he not like Greedo, or his heavy-handed methods.
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By JC on Tuesday, November 9, 1999 - 11:18 am:
There are a number of possibilities:
1. Greedo was a bounty hunter, not one of Jabba's henchmen. He wasn't on Jabba's regular payroll, and thus wouldn't get paid unless he brought Solo in.
2. Jabba found out that Greedo was willing to sell out to Solo (Remember, he suggested Solo give him the money and in return he might forget he ever saw him).
3. Jabba is first and foremost a business man... er... slug. Anyone in his employ (however useful) is a drain on his resources.
Especially one who can't hit his target from across a table with the weapon not even concealed.
Which brings to mind the question why Greedo tried to shoot Han. I know the Lucas excuse (to make Han less of a cutthroat by killing Greedo in cold blood). But what is the character's motivation? I get the impression from Boba Fett that Jabba wanted
Solo alive (he kept complaining that Solo would be no good to him dead). He probably wouldn't even pay for a dead Solo.
Unless, of course, he just changed his mind.
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By Jedi Apprentice on Tuesday, November 9, 1999 - 05:04 pm:
What I'd actually like to know is why was Greedo's shot even added? I don't by this provocation bull for a second, because Han already had a good reason to shoot Greedo. The smegger was pointing a gun at his head! Why else would Han shoot him?
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By JC on Wednesday, November 10, 1999 - 01:41 am:
Well, the provocation isn't bologna, it's Lucas's reason for adding it. The fact is fatherhood changed Mister Lucas, and he feels that his heroes shouldn't be marred by savage ruthlessness.
Same goes for Spielberg. I've heard Spielberg remark that if ever he re-releases E.T, he will remove all references to guns in the movie. I guess at the end, that sheriff will be holding a dangerous-looking whiffle bat.
Whether or not you agree with that decision is something else altogether. I preferred it the original way. Han was supposed to be a cutthroat. That's part of what makes his turnaround at the end so cool.
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By Richard Davies on Wednesday, November 10, 1999 - 06:22 pm:
Greedo could had his gun set on a stun mode, just like light sabers seem to have a "no carve up marauding henchmen" setting.
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By JC on Thursday, November 11, 1999 - 03:02 pm:
Except, we've seen the Star Wars stun setting, and it looks like a bunch of blue circles that hit the target. Greedo's looked like a blaster bolt.
Granted, the only stun setting I think we've seen is the Stormtroopers'. It's possbile Greedo's gun works differently. Except when the bolt hits the wall, it smokes and sparks, certainly unlike any stun setting I'd like to face.
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By Adam on Monday, November 15, 1999 - 11:36 am:
Tarkin must be having an off day. When he hears she lied about Dantooine (more on that scene later) he orders her executed.
Hello? She lied, what did you expect? Didn't you lie to her? Aren't you pointing a superweapon at her home planet?
He shouldn't be ordering her execution, he should be putting her on suicide watch. Yes she resisted the mind control drugs and
lied this time... but eventually she WILL crack. All Tarkin has to do is keep her alive and the pressure on till that happens.
Now if he kills her, she without question, will never crack. How is it he forgot they need her alive?
Now back to the scene when he orders her killed. The guy walks in and reports the base is empty. Tarkin acts surprised that she lied. Vader basically then says "I told you so." The problem is while he's talking he has his hands at his side, but after he stops he raises his fist and shacks it. Me thinks he was suppose to raise his hand while talking but they messed up the timing in
post production.
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By Adam on Saturday, February 5, 2000 - 10:07 pm:
As Luke prepares to toss the rope over the pipe so they can swing Leia provides covering fire for him. Everytime she shoots you can hear the 'crack' of a gun shot and SEE the blank shell casing ejected out of the right mid section of the gun.
During the final battle Luke has picked up a Tie fighter that Wedge will quickly destroy. While he's being chased someone asks 'Red 6' if he can see 'Red 5' from where he is. Not to surprisingly 'Red 6' doesn't answer. Why surpring you ask? The answer is because 'Red 6' was Porkins and he didn't take Bigg's advice to eject when he had a problem and got vaporized. While I'm at it how does one eject in space?
Darth Vader says "Several fighters have broken off from the main group..." but they haven't yet.
Also as he waits for Obi-Wan if you look you can see Vader's chest plate is backward.
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By Richard Davies on Sunday, February 6, 2000 - 05:41 pm:
Maybe the cockpit seperates as an escape capsule?
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Monday, February 7, 2000 - 12:11 am:
Possibly, but then what? Wait for another X-Wing to pick you up? Hope the people who blew up your ship don't decide to do some target practice with your capsule?
Of course, the Death Star is the size of a moon, so it must be a source of gravity, which would probably attract any life pod floating to near it.
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By Richard Davies on Sunday, February 13, 2000 - 05:32 pm:
The escape capsule could home in on the Rebel base.
oh my! Thats a long post!
1. Did the Resurrected nits person print all that out before?
2. Is that person KAM by any chance?
He probably saved it to his hard drive. I've got the entire adventures of the LICC on my PC.
Ooh, good idea! I`ll do that myself.
I've done it myself.
First, of course they didn't give Chewie a medal. He's a sidekick. Since when do sidekicks get medals? And he's a Wookie, for crying out loud. These guys make a big show of equality, but in one of the Han Solo books, the one with the treasure that isn't, really, and the Ruurian, he's asked by the current ABOTW (Alien Babe of the Week, though she's human) "Where are the people in you life? Oh, sure, there's Chewie, but he's a Wookie!!" etc., or something like that.
Second, in the transport, C3PO asks if they'll be melted down because the Jawa's hadn't said that they were going to! He tells everybody around that he's a protocol 'droid, and so of course he'd understand them!
And C3PO isn't driving the speeder, later, he's just taken over a few things for Luke, who has to watch for R2D2.
Ben knows Luke's name because he's a Jedi, and so therefore can know whatever he wants. That and there's a decent probability that he's Luke's godfather, or equivilent, given that Ani was his padawan.
And they had to blow the door to the garbage chute. Luke's showing off for the pretty princess.
And why not blow up the moon. One word: Propoganda!!! The Empire is apparently good with that word.
The General threatens to kill Leia to scare her. She would probably have been ransomed off, and was not expecting that.
Yeah, these are all out of order, but I was randomly flipping up through the posts.
First of all, it`s Wookiee, with two Es, not Wookie. It`s a common mistake, even by authorities, and isn`t as frowned upon as much as spelling "Hutt" as "Hut". Second, it could be the "ABOTW" was racist. The Rebels don`t seem like they would be, given that one of their leaders is Admiral Ackbar, a Mon Calamarian. The sidekick idea is more likely, since after all, I think he just tagged along with Han in the Falcon (although he did as much as Han to warrant a medal, IMO).
someone asked where the female pilots were. Well, perhaps Red 8, Red 12, Gold 3, Gold 4, and all those higher than Gold 6 were female? All the ones we don`t see? One wonders about non-human pilots, though (see above), in ANH the only intelligent non-humans we see are Chewie and Mos Eisley types. Of course, by ROTJ we have the Mon Calamarians and Lando`s navigator.
OK, it`s time for a really strange 47. It`s obviously not deliberate, but it is sorta interesting. It`s that popular set of letters and numbers from ANH:
TK-421.
4+2+1=7, that`s clear. T is the 20th letter, K the 11th, put togetehr they make 31 (interesting in itself, given Section 31, BTASI) 3+1=4, so TK-421 contracts into 4-7! A little bitty bitty bit over the top, I hear you say?)
Whew!! Yay!! I've had this nit for a long while, but I haven't had a chance to post it. No one else said it first!!
Okay, this is Episode I dependent, but that's ok, I can put it on this board cuz really it's a Changed Premise.
Apparently the Sand People do not practice nearly long enough at the shooting gallery.
Let me recount a peice of dialogue from the movie Star Wars:
"And these blast points, too accurate for Sand People. Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise." -- Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke in the discussion of the destruction of the Jawas' Sand Crawler.
If that is so, Jedi Master Obi Wan, why is it that the Sand People can hit (or come very close to hitting) a Pod going 200+ mph from 3000 feet up in Episode I, and the Stormtroopers (as we see many times) cannot hit the broad side of a barn?!?!?
I think either some Sand People tribes are MUCH better shots than others, or they have COMPLETELY lost their marksmanship because they are so scared of the Empire, or the Stormtroopers are not Imperials at all and actually want Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie to SURVIVE, or Obi Wan is EXTREMELY confused.
Of course he's confused. He also thinks Darth Vader killed Luke's father. ;-)
203k? I think this board could use a 'sequel'.