Star Wars Interviews 1

Exclusive: 16 pages of Dark Empire author Tom Veitch’s new Star Wars book!

2020-07-24T05:19:00.001-07:00

It may be hard to imagine for some people, but around 1988 Star Wars was ‘dead’. There were no new movies on the horizon, the Marvel comic series had stopped in 1987 and the Kenner toys were also something from the past. This changed when Lucasfilm hired author Timothy Zahn to write a new book trilogy and comic artist Cam Kennedy and Tom Veitch (writer) for a new comic book series called Dark Empire.

These three men had a very important part in what I like to call the ‘Star Wars renaissance’ that took place in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

For Dark Empire Tom Veitch created a continuation of the Star Wars saga. We saw what happened after Return of the Jedi: Han and Leia together, Luke more powerful than ever and the return of old enemies…

In the years that followed Tom Veitch continue doing great things for the Star Wars franchise: he created the stories for Dark Empire II, Empire’s End and Tales of the Jedi. Together with his wife he would even write a short story about Greedo for the Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina anthology.

A while ago I got into contact with Tom and I was pleasantly surprised when he told me he was writing a book about his Star Wars experiences. This book (he wishes to keep the title a secret) will be released later this year, but I am very proud to say that Tom allows me to present an exclusive preview of no less than 16 pages.

In this special preview he tells how Dark Empire was created, why bringing back the Emperor was a great idea, why Timothy Zahn criticized his work…a real treat for every Star Wars fan I would say!

The following is a section from my new book about my experiences creating expanded universe Star Wars comics in the 1990s. (Dark Empire & Tales of the Jedi). The book will be released later this year. ~ Tom Veitch

A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY NOT TOO FAR AWAY…

For about five years in the early 21^st century I owned a bookstore in Bennington, Vermont. We specialized in old and rare books. But our shop also had lots of interesting books in every category, about forty thousand books altogether.

One of the highlights of those years was a series of talks I gave on the Star Wars movies and my experiences working on Star Wars comics. Guests at these talks generally numbered about ten, sitting in captain’s chairs around a big rustic mahogany table that was a replica of a table where Ernest Hemingway entertained guests at in his house in Key West.

These were free-wheeling talks, focused mainly on my ideas about the Jedi Knights and the two sides of the Force — light side and dark side. The talks also morphed into question and answer sessions in which my “students” would argue Star Wars trivia. And frankly, that was a lot of fun!

What follows is based on a transcript of a session in which we discussed Tim Zahn (author of the best-selling Star Wars novel Heir to the Empire) and the back-and-forth he and I had while we were writing our respective works.

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Q: So how did Dark Empire evolve, from your first proposals to when it was finally published by Dark Horse Comics?

TOM: As I already mentioned, I first approached Mr. Lucas in November of 1988. After a year of discussion, negotiation, and story treatments, on September 25, 1989 I submitted to Lucasfilm a 50 page synopsis for 144 pages of Star Wars comics, to be drawn and painted by Cam Kennedy and published as three 48 page books.

Q: This was before Tim Zahn proposed his novels?

TOM: Yeah. In terms of the creative timeline, the basic concepts for Dark Empire were proposed and accepted a year before Tim was hired by Bantam. And our project was fully outlined and plotted and approved by Lucas about a month before Zahn came on board.

Q: Can you give us more detail?

TOM: Sure. The way it went was like this: After our outline for three 48-page issues was approved, in October 1989, Lucasfilm told me they were going to approach Bantam about doing a new Star Wars novel, and they asked me if I would like to write a novelization of Dark Empire. I said sure, absolutely, and got very excited about the prospect.

Then, when they talked to Bantam, the editors there said they would love to do a new Star Wars book, but they would prefer to have one of their contract writers invent his own Star Wars story. In fact they had somebody in mind — Timothy Zahn, who was a rising star in the world of science fiction.

Zahn is quoted as saying, “It was just after four o’clock on November 6, 1989, and I was three days into writing my first novel for my new publisher, Bantam Books, when the phone rang. It was my agent. ‘Tim,’ he said after the usual pleasantries, ‘we have a very interesting offer here.'”

After that, Lucasfilm called me and said that Bantam had hired Zahn to do a book, also post-ROTJ, but different from Dark Empire. I was disappointed, but I offered to talk with the new writer and co-ordinate ideas and plotlines.

That didn’t happen. Instead, as I gather, somebody at Bantam suggested to Lucasfilm that they be allowed to generate their own comics and graphic novels, beginning with an adaptation of Zahn’s book! At the time it was public knowledge that graphic novels were making a lot of money — DC’s Arkham Asylum (by Grant Morrison, published October 1989) reportedly grossed $4.5 million in direct market sales.

Thankfully Lucasfilm honored our agreement. Besides, they were already in contract negotiations with Marvel at that point, so Bantam’s suggestion was a non-starter.

Q: So Dark Empire was still at Marvel at that point?

TOM: Yes it was. Archie Goodwin was our editor and we were rolling. …But then a curious chain of events began.

Bantam decided to keep Zahn in the dark about the existence of Dark Empire until he had finished plotting Heir to the Empire. My suggestion that we collaborate on the post-ROTJ timeline fell on deaf ears.

Indeed, when he turned in his own synopsis for Heir to the Empire, he was apparently unaware that the comics project even existed. Then, once his synopsis was approved, somebody got the idea of asking him to critique the story treatment I had written for Dark Empire.

Q: That sounds like one of those situations that people in the movie industry like to get into – everybody “giving notes” on projects that are already in motion. …Was that a big problem for you?

TOM: Not really. It was just a pain in the ass. And it reminded me that the “carte blanche” we had received initially had caveats – even after our outline was fully approved!

Anyway, one fine day I received a copy of Zahn’s detailed notes on Dark Empire. Along with it, I received a copy of his synopsis of Heir to the Empire. And Lucasfilm asked if I would respond to Tim’s critique and as write my own comments on his plot!

Q: Amazing.

TOM: One problem was that neither Archie Goodwin nor Cam and I liked Tim’s plot. It seemed rather pedestrian and unexciting. It wandered through a lot of scenes that were a rehash of the movies, but the pacing was non-cinematic and not much fun, visually speaking. Worse yet, the new characters were clearly knock-offs of characters from the films. For example, the character “Talon Karrde” was a Han Solo/Lando Calrissian clone. And “Admiral Thrawn” was a substitute for Darth Vader and Peter Cushing (as Grand Moff Tarkin). Another character, the dark Jedi “Jorus C’baoth” shared the qualities of both Vader and The Emperor.

Substitute villains who are similar to well-known villains can be o.k., but usually you have to spend a lot of time making people believe in them. Our idea was to build on the tremendous power that the Emperor, Jabba the Hutt, and Boba Fett already held over the viewer’s imagination. And rather than having a new character try to convert Luke to the Dark Side, we would show that the very essence of the Dark Side — the Emperor — still lives, more powerful than ever.

Q: And Luke falls under his spell. Which is cool, but as you know, some people didn’t like that you brought back the Emperor.

TOM: I sympathize…but these folks were probably unfamiliar with the history of movie serials and comics, where great villains never completely die — they always return. Star Wars, as you know, was partly based on Flash Gordon, a movie serial and comic strip in which the principal villain, the evil emperor Ming the Merciless, is never completely killed off. For instance, consider the 1980 Flash Gordon movie where Max von Sydow as Ming is impaled by his own war rocket (of which Flash had taken control). After a vain attempt to stop Flash attacking him, Ming ultimately points his ring at himself and he vanishes. Then, just before the credits begin, his ring is retrieved by an unknown individual, and the words “The End” and a question mark appear, as Ming’s evil laughter plays in the background, hinting he isn’t really dead. (from Wikipedia)

Q: Zahn said in an interview that bringing back the Emperor goes against the story of Return of the Jedi, where we see the Emperor destroyed by Darth Vader.

TOM: Zahn misses something essential about that ROTJ scene: When the Emperor dares Luke to “strike me down”, he seems utterly indifferent to his own death! He feels that whatever the outcome of this confrontation with Luke, he, Palpatine, will conquer:

EMPEROR: Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon! Strike me down with all your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete.

It was my thesis that in ROTJ the Emperor chose this moment to come out of his deep seclusion in the Imperial City, because he no longer feared for the safety of his physical body. His mastery of the Dark Side had become such that he was now ready to make a transition he had been working toward for many years — namely the replacement of his aging, diseased, and crippled body with a young clone! Tempting Luke to strike him in anger with a lightsaber could thus accomplish two things: It would bring Luke over to the dark side…and it would mark the moment when Palpatine made the transition to his clone body.

Luke, as we know, resisted the temptation to kill the Emperor. Then Vader hurled the Emperor down the deep reactor shaft, and we saw a series of blue flashes marking the Emperor’s demise. The blue flashes represented the Emperor’s living energy, his conscious dark force, leaving his body. And according to our story, his consciousness was translated across the Galaxy almost instantaneously and entered a new youthful body. Using cloned bodies Palpatine could live forever…and rule the Empire for thousands of years!

Q: It’s interesting, I think Palpatine alludes to living forever in the prequels.

TOM: That he does. Here’s a quote from Revenge of the Sith:

ANAKIN: Just help me save Padme’s life. I can’t live without her. I won’t let her die. I want the power to stop death.

PALPATINE: To cheat death is a power only one has achieved, but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret.

I believe Palpatine is referring to his own Sith master, Darth Plagueis, a canonical character who is supposed to have manipulated the midichlorians to achieve immortality and even create life.

Q: If the Emperor was going to continue to rule the Galaxy, he obviously was going to have to do something about his aging flesh.

TOM: Exactly. And if you ask me, the films nicely foreshadow Dark Empire and the Emperor’s scheme to live and rule the Galaxy … forever.

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GALAXY IN CHAOS

Q: Are you going to cover any more of Zahn’s criticisms?

TOM: Sure. He raised a few interesting points, as did some of the readers of the finished comic. I’d especially like to address the question of “Force Storms”, which appear right in the first chapter of our story.

Q: I thought the “Force Storm” worked, because it cuts to the chase regarding Luke and the Emperor confronting each other. But if the Emperor can make these energy storms, what does he need a Deathstar for? He could control the Galaxy by striking with raw Force energy!

TOM: Exactly. And that was one of the questions that Tim Zahn raised as well. But as a logical writer, he should have realized that since the Empire built two Death Stars, obviously the “Force Storm” must have limitations as an instrument of destruction!

In fact, in the Dark Empire Glossary which we provided to Lucasfilm (and to West End Games, for their Dark Empire Sourcebook), a Force Storm is defined thus:

Tornado of energy released by great disturbances in the Force. Also called Energy Storm. Unpredictable, but powerful Dark Side adepts have had limited success in purposely creating such storms.

And in my response to Zahn, I said:

“What is the mechanism of a Force Storm? I would suggest that it is a function of two powerful minds focused on each other: Luke and the Emperor. It’s as if a wormhole in the Force has opened between them, causing a massive release of energy. The Emperor, unlike Luke, has learned how to use this rare event to his advantage.”

That’s the explanation we used in the finished comic book. But in my letter to Zahn, I also mentioned there could be other explanations, equally as valid — for instance having to do with something (such as a Sith holocron) Luke found in the Imperial Palace. That’s just part of the fun, you know — dreaming up imaginative special effect sequences — and then figuring out the logic of how and why they can happen. If the logic can’t be found, then yes, the effects should be jettisoned.

Q: What if the use of the Force in this way was a recent discovery by the Emperor? He might have unearthed that bit of sorcery from ancient Sith archives, or from powers locked in Sith temples.

TOM: Sure. That works. And speaking of logic, I’ll tell you something else. In the films the Death Stars are portrayed as the ultimate technological weapon you would use to control a Galaxy of thousands (or even millions) of inhabited star systems. But did you ever consider that the logic of the Death Star is deeply flawed?

Q: You mean it was vulnerable to being destroyed by a tiny X-Wing?

TOM: No, not just that. The Death Star is an extremely impractical use of hyperspace travel. The realistic way to control a Galaxy (if I may use the word “realistic” relative to a science fiction fantasy) is by firing hyperspace missiles from stationary bases. You can build an untold number of such projectiles, each capable of destroying a planet. And when a system gets uppity or joins the Rebellion, you simply launch one of these faster-than-light missiles and they are obliterated.

Q: That sounds like your “Galaxy Gun” from Dark Empire!

TOM: Yes. My theory is that Lucas was so focused on the Death Star idea, that he missed the flawed logic and the impracticality of it.

Q: But so did everybody who saw the movie. I mean, it was so cool. And so big.

TOM: Definitely awesome. But once the Galaxy Gun concept hit the light of day in our comics, Death Stars became obsolete. In fact, in the J.J. Abrams film, The Force Awakens, they used our concept as the basis for the hyperspace superweapon mounted on Starkiller Base. This weapon is described as “capable of destroying entire star systems halfway across the galaxy.” It is also described as the result of an evolution in “hyperspace tunneling.”

Q: Then it’s really an adaptation of the Galaxy Gun?

TOM: Yes it is. But it’s not that difficult to understand that all kinds of hyperspace weapons are inevitable, once you posit hyperspace travel. Lucas overlooked that fact because he was hypnotized by the Death Star idea.

Q: You could say the same about Star Trek. I don’t think they have used lightspeed weaponry yet, but they could. If they haven’t, it might be because they are more about characters than technology.

TOM: I believe phasers and photon torpedoes can be fired while a warp speed. But as far as I know nobody has fully explored the implications of that. …The fact of the matter is that faster-than-light missiles or projectiles could truly master a galaxy. But they would also result in galaxy-wide wars between competing technological cultures. Sort of like the situation we have on earth right now, with a number of countries already armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. Extrapolate that situation to a galaxy – or THE Galaxy – and you have a truly explosive situation.

As a matter of fact, that’s another of the built-in flaws of the Star Wars saga. Thousands upon thousands of independent planetary systems would be functionally autonomous and hidden from the prying eyes of “the Empire”. It would take an unthinkably massive surveillance and control network to bring a Galaxy under a central government. You think we have trouble with Iran or North Korea developing nuclear weapons deep inside a mountain? Imagine the technologies of war being developed in secret — or even in the open — by independent civilizations on thousands, or perhaps millions, of planets!

Q: And then there is the “illegal” arms trade. Out of sight out of mind. The possibilities are mind boggling.

TOM: Yes, I can imagine that in a real Star Wars Galaxy hyperspace weapons would be developed and traded all over the place. And every peaceful planet would have to worry about planet-busting missiles popping out of hyperspace at any time…with nobody knowing who launched them!

Q: I wonder if anybody on Star Trek ever thought a beaming a bomb aboard the Enterprise or from the Enterprise to another vessel?

TOM: I believe the concept was used at least once on Star Trek Voyager. Google “Star Trek transporter bomb” for lots of discussion on this.

Q: With the proliferation of nukes here on earth, what do you think is going to happen?

TOM: Oh, I think there is going to be a nuclear war. A big one. I have no idea when, but I think it is inevitable. Probably in this century. …Did you know they are already developing autonomous submersible nuclear torpedoes that will circle the earth’s oceans undetected? Imagine a coastal city suddenly demolished, and nobody knows who did it!

Q: That’s terrible.

TOM: And we are all praying it doesn’t happen. But it will. And we need to believe that, in order to do something to prevent it. …Now, can we get back to Star Wars?

Q: Definitely. Real life is too scary! … Can you say more about Zahn’s plot for the post-ROTJ Galaxy?

TOM: Sure. What’s especially interesting, from my point-of-view, is that Zahn’s plot provides a basis for saying that without the thousands of Jedi Knights who once formed the backbone of the Old Republic, the new confederation is a precarious one and “long years of struggle ensued.”

Q: I liked that you have the Rebels using captured Star Destroyers against the remnants of the Empire.

TOM: That idea was original with us. One of these captured Star Destroyers, commanded by Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian, crashes on the Imperial planet (now named Coruscant by Tim Zahn). And as our book opens, Princess Leia and her husband Han Solo, together with the Wookiee Chewbacca and the protocol droid C-3PO, are on a mission to rescue Luke and Lando.

Q: Tim didn’t like the idea that you could crash land a Star Destroyer?

TOM: Right. In his critique of my 50-page synopsis, he took a proton torpedo to that idea:

“A Star Destroyer is a mile long. If something that size crashed into the Imperial City, the city and more of the surrounding county would be gone, devastated by a combination of the direct impact, the ground and atmospheric shock waves, and the firestorm and probably earthquake. There most certainly wouldn’t be any fighting going on around it.”

TOM: Tim’s critique was interesting, but I strongly disagreed. I explained to Tim that hugely expensive Star Destroyers would be equipped with anti-gravity devices (also called “repulsor lift”) for emergency touch-downs and surviving crash-landings. The technology is widely available, and the ship designers would use it. Deflector shields (and even tractor beams) could also be incorporated into braking devices.

Q: I guess he hadn’t seen The Force Awakens. (laughs)

TOM: Or Rogue One. My main point, however, was that the image of a Star Destroyer lying broken and helpless on the surface of a planet is just too cool not to use. All that technological power — now become so much junk. The creators of The Force Awakens clearly agreed, for the opening scenes of the 2015 movie show the heroine, Rey, scavenging parts for resale off a crashed Star Destroyer.

Q: And in Rogue One we see a Star Destroyer hovering over a city. That means they were definitely deploying anti-grav technology on those giant ships.

TOM: Tim had another argument about ships of very large size having to stay in space “well away from planet-sized bodies.” As he put it, “It takes an incredible amount of energy to move a quarter cubic mile of metal up and down a gravity well.”

Q: That sounds rational.

TOM: It’s based on the physics of energized propulsion and repulsion. …Nobody knows how anti-gravity will work, once it is discovered or invented. But it is very easy to theorize that it will involve some yet to be understood law of physics that allows you to reverse an existing gravity field. So, if you are over a planet, you potentially have the planet’s entire gravity field as your “power source”.

Q: Right. It also seems like Tim was inclined to give precedence to old-fashioned Newtonian physics over imagination!

TOM: Keep in mind nobody yet knows what we will ultimately learn about gravity waves. Will they be manipulated like electromagnetic waves?

Q: Yeah, and what about all the strange possibilities of quantum physics?

TOM: To give Tim his due, not every Star Destroyer would be able to survive a crash-landing. For example, can you imagine a ship that size hitting a planet point first!

Q: Cool Star Destroyer crashes have been used all over the place, in games, animated films, comics… I think I saw one or two in your comics.

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AGING THE CHARACTERS

TOM: Since Dark Empire takes place five or six years after the end of Return of the Jedi, the characters have matured quite a bit. Luke is now a fully realized Jedi, manly and battle-hardened.

Han and Leia are married. We wanted to move beyond the kind of teenage feuding that characterized their earlier years and bring out a new theme: the never-ending war has given them little time to enjoy their relationship. Indeed, months pass where they don’t see each other at all, and the brief reunions are intense and passionate. They care about each other.

Q: That’s interesting. They kind of used that in The Force Awakens too.

TOM: To good effect, I thought. These are people who have been fighting a never-ending war. They are both battle-hardened and battle-weary.

Q: But Han and Leia were estranged in The Force Awakens. I didn’t care for that.

TOM: Me too. …In any case, in Dark Empire Leia’s Jedi powers, under the guidance of Luke, have begun to develop — although she has yet to take up the lightsaber. My plan was to give Leia more intuitive and mental or psychic powers rather than the athletic abilities that Luke demonstrated. She didn’t really take to the idea of cutting off arms and legs in battle. That said, she would come to own a lightsaber, bestowed upon her by the “fallen Jedi” Vima Da Boda.

Tim Zahn complained about this too, saying that Leia should have a lightsaber at the beginning of Dark Empire, and be fully trained in its use. He also objected to Leia using the Force “to blow up droids”. I explained to him that the Jedi don’t “blow up” things, but they do use telekenisis to move the inner components of droids and assault weapons, causing them to self-destruct.

This is the same power Yoda used to raise the X-Wing in The Empire Strikes Back. So it follows that Luke doesn’t blow up AT-ATs. He uses his lightsaber to deflect and return their fire. Then he uses telekinesis to tip them over.

Q: I wonder if using the Force to blow up stuff should be totally off limits?

TOM: The question of “blowing up” came up in meetings I held early on with a local Star Wars club — a group of enthusiastic guys and girls who were deeply into the West End Star Wars roleplaying game. As we discussed and agreed, the Light Side of the Force is not explosive — although it is likely it could initiate a powerful concussion wave.

Q: O.K., but what about the Dark Side? The Emperor’s lightning bolts ought to be able to blow up a few things.

TOM: Agreed. The electrical discharges emitted by the Emperor, which seem to be a major power of the Sith Lords, could easily ignite rocket fuel or even start a fire in garbage compactor! So let me ask everybody here today — can the Dark Side “blow things up”?

Q: Well, we know that Luke blew up the Death Star using the Force to guide a torpedo. Does that count?

Q: Concussion waves are good. A Jedi of the Light Side could hit something with one of those.

Q: Dark Jedi Exar Kun killed people with “Force blasts” in Tales of the Jedi, as I recall. I don’t know if good Jedi ever did that.

TOM: Not to my knowledge.

Q: I am thinking that the Dark Side of the Force could interfere with matter at the atomic level … maybe even cause a small nuclear explosion. Why couldn’t advanced Light Jedi do that?

TOM: Maybe a Jedi could do that in special circumstances, with highly focused meditation. Or by mastering the physics of Force Storms. This goes along with the idea that Dark Side powers are available to very advanced Jedi, if the need arises. Since the Force “surrounds and penetrates us”, terrible things may be possible to one who learns the Dark Side of the Force.

Q: There’s a rumor going around that Luke will create Force explosions in Star Wars VIII. But that is just fan speculation at this point. [Note: He didn’t.]

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CHILDREN OF THE JEDI

TOM: To continue, our plan from the get-go was that Han and Leia would have a child. The Jedi lineage will continue! As it turned out, Zahn beat us to it, giving Han and Leia two children, Jacen and Jaina. So our Solo child was the third, a son named after his grandfather Anakin.

Q: Ah, the famous Jedi Anakin Solo! …Why did you name him Anakin?

TOM: My idea was to call him “Anakin” because he would embody both the light and dark aspects of the Skywalker lineage and suffer great inner conflict in his life. As it turned out, this was how Kasdan and Abrams came to visualize Han and Leia’s son Ben aka Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. In their story, the Dark Side takes over the personality of Ben Solo.

Q: That doesn’t happen to Anakin.

TOM: My plan was that the Light Side would win out in Anakin after inner battles between the two sides of his being. As I understand it, subsequent Expanded Universe writers chose to make the Light Side consistently strong in Anakin, and that he died a hero. I have no problem with that, but a lot of stories about Anakin’s inner conflict didn’t get told!

Q: What about Chewbacca?

TOM: Our intention was that Chewie would appear essentially the same as he did in the films. So would Boba Fett for that matter! And the R2D2 and C3PO are in good shape, and fully functional, although C3P0 would complain about his “aging joints”.

Q: Did Tim Zahn have any more complaints about Dark Empire?

TOM: A few. One thing he didn’t like was my statement that “the power of all the Jedi who have gone before is focused in Luke Skywalker.” …Now, I can see how one could argue with that statement. But Tim’s critique was, I thought, curiously out of touch with the nature of both the Force and the Jedi. He said: “Knowledge of the Force is a highly individual and personal thing, coming from one’s OWN talent and efforts to develop that talent. To say that dead Jedi can pass on their power is to infinitely cheapen the concept, reducing it to little more than a spiritual bank account with transfer privileges…”

Q: And you disagreed?

TOM: I certainly did. Here’s my full response, which was passed to Tim. I’d be happy to argue it here, if you like:

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MY RESPONSE TO TIM

Now Tim doesn’t like the idea of “the power of all the Jedi who have gone before” being focused in Luke. I think it follows logically from the fact, shown in the films, that the Jedi don’t break off communication when they die. There would be a tremendous need, among the fallen Jedi, to right the great wrong done to their Company. They wouldn’t just drift off to the Elysian Fields (as Zahn shows Obi-Wan doing in his plot outline).

Thus the idea of focusing on Luke, the last of their kind — the last hope for the Jedi.

I disagree that knowledge of the Force is merely “a highly individual and personal thing”, a kind of talent that one develops. Indeed, we know the Force is “an energy field created by all living things that binds the universe together”. The Jedi Knights were trained to tap into this collective energy, and use it in combat or for other magical purposes.

Yes, that takes a certain talent and skill — and an individual relationship to this vast well of power… But the ultimate talent for using the Force comes not from the ego or “one’s own efforts”, but from “letting go” the ego’s need to control. The Force then “becomes strong in you”, suggesting a kind of mystical sharing, through feeling — a conscious relationship to this collective and all-pervasive energy.

I think it’s Tim who misses the mark when he reduces knowledge of the Force to a “highly individual and personal thing, coming from one’s OWN [his caps] talent and efforts to develop that talent.” He would (it seems) reduce what is essentially an Eastern idea to the ordinary Western struggle for heroic identity.

Needless to day, Tim’s idea contradicts the way Luke learned to let go of the need to control and to “feel the Force” in the very first Star Wars film.

Q: Hard to argue with that. Luke gives up his personal effort when he battles the remote aboard the Falcon … and when he destroys the Death Star.

Q: It sounds like Tim was on a mission to change Star Wars into an old-fashioned outer space shoot-em up.

TOM: I have no comment on that. But I would remind folks that the idea of “collective mind” goes back to the beginnings of science fiction, and was wonderfully expressed in the movie Forbidden Planet — a movie that had a big effect on George Lucas.

Q: You mean with the planetary machine that brings to life your unconscious demons?

TOM: Exactly. And who can forget all the stories of super-brained aliens whose shared consciousness is far beyond the knowledge and talent of earth’s greatest scientists. …Tim apparently wanted to reduce everything back to a safe and highly predictable level in which spiritual or transcendent forces are no longer part of the picture.

Q: Did you guys argue about any other things?

TOM: There were a few minor points, such as whether the spires on the Pinnacle Moon were geologically possible. And there was another big dispute about the Dark Side and the relationships of “dark Jedi” on planet Byss — the secret throne-world of the Emperor in the Galactic core, permeated with the Dark Side of the Force. Again, according to Zahn:

“The dark side of the force is a path of selfishness, a seeking for personal gain above all else. There cannot be, by definition, any kind of genuine friendship or cooperation between Dark Jedi; only mastery and subservience based on power. A stable society of them simply cannot exist. …An entire world of dark-side adepts would be embroiled in continual, violent war with itself as each member sought for power over all the others. There would be temporary alliances which, after achieving power, would disintegrate in internal battle and in turn be overthrown by a new temporary alliance of its enemies. Given that, there are only two ways that the Emperor could hold onto any kind of permanent power: either he is so powerful that NO combination of the others is stronger (which seems unlikely with a whole planet full of them to choose from) — or else he must be powerful enough to destroy all the others, in which case the whole concept of Byss goes out the window. …[Veitch] ignores the reality of what the dark side is. The “adepts of the dark side” would never have helped the Emperor get a new body and thus regain power over them.”

Q: I guess Tim never heard of Nazi Germany!

TOM: Yeah, in fact there are so many historical precedents of stable societies permeated by evil, what he says just seems silly.

Q: And who can forget Lord of the Rings, for godsakes! The One Ring holds a mystical dark power to bind whole populations. In a way, a Dark Lord of the Sith, such as Palpatine, is a mirror of Sauron, ruler of Mordor.

TOM: We could have a long discussion about the parallels of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars …In any case, Tim and I disagreed. And I tried to ground my answer to him in the Star Wars movies themselves, which, curiously enough, are built around the idea of a stable society ruled by the Dark Side — a society called “The Empire”!

Q: Whoops. Sorry, Tim. No Death Stars for you!

TOM: To complete the discussion here’s a portion of my long response to Tim:

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RESPONSE TO TIM ON COOPERATION OF DARK JEDI

Tim says there cannot, by definition, be any kind of cooperation between Dark Jedi, and a stable society of them cannot exist.

I disagree. The attempt to create a stable society based on the power of the Dark Side is what the Emperor — and STAR WARS — is all about.

The Emperor clearly has an ongoing relationship with Vader (”my friend” he calls him). The Emperor also confers with other strangely garbed figures in Return of the Jedi. Like all “dark side politicians”, he is a man of relationships — when he needs them.

The respect the Emperor shows for anyone who can use the Force is based on the hope that these powerful people will capitulate to his will and become useful to him.

The same principle would be behind the “society of Dark Adepts” on Byss.

Now, why would a whole group of Adepts submit to the Emperor, when they could overthrow him, etc., as Tim suggests?

Why did the Assassins Guild submit to Hassan I Sabbah? Whey do the dark angels serve Satan? Why did the Gestapo serve Hitler? Why did Caligula reign over Rome? What about Genghis Kahn, Alexander the Great, the Pharoahs, etc. etc.?

A dark magician can have trusted servants. Lesser power users will serve one who is clearly their superior. Sometimes, yes, they will scheme against him, attempt to bring him down, and so forth. But from the three existing STAR WARS films we get a distinct impression that the Emperor is secure in his inner circle. And it is this security that gives him the confidence to reach out to control a galaxy.

A strange peace reigns on Byss … the peace of satiated vampires. All rewards flow from the center — and each Adept receives exactly what he desires. If he should desire too much, then yes, then he can be eliminated.

It’s all written in human history. Byss can be nothing more than the experience of men. (And, it should be noted, not everyone on Byss uses the Force, although all (or most) are under the spell of the Dark Side. Most of the inhabitants of the Emperor’s throne world are ordinary galactic citizens who have “earned the privilege” to move to Byss … or else were lured here by the promise of an “idyllic refuge”.)

______________________

THE SECRETS OF THE FORCE

TOM: Tim had what I considered to be a conflicted understanding the hero and his quest. For him, being a Jedi came down to “individual talent and effort”. But Tim also understood that “learning dark side secrets” meant surrendering to the dark side of the Force:

“The dark side has no ‘secrets’ that Luke can learn and use, not unless he goes to the dark side himself. The dark side is about motivations and ethics, not something as simple and neutral as technique. It would be like Luke deciding to learn judo from the Emperor…”

Q: I get the feeling Tim wouldn’t approve of the blind warrior monk Chirrut Îmwe, the character in Rogue One who takes on opponents with his staff, with great skill, despite being blind.

TOM: Good point. It seems that for some writers, Eastern martial arts are “techniques” separate from a spiritual and moral core. The opposite is the case, of course. And that’s the essence of Star Wars. That connection between inner and outer worlds was what our story is about. It was always about mental and spiritual conflict — not simply learning tricks and techniques.

Q: But in your story, Luke believed he could apprentice himself to the Emperor and not “surrender to the dark side”.

TOM: Exactly. But Luke also knew that he carried the heritage of Darth Vader in his blood. From The Empire Strikes Back onward, his struggle was very much about human psychology and “the inner war with the Shadow” — the Shadow being an aspect of himself !

Q: Who can forget Luke’s confrontation with himself in the Dark Side Tree on Dagobah? He saw his own face inside Darth Vader’s helmet!

TOM: It’s all there in the films, in the relationship of Luke and his father, and the teachings of Yoda. The war of good and evil is as much inner as it is outer. If it is only outside yourself and your “techniques”, there is only endless combat and numberless deaths.

Star Wars is as much about a war in the mind and spirit as it is about ships blasting each other with death rays. That’s what makes it the films the huge success they are. Star Wars is about the use of cosmic energies — the Force — through the awakening of intuitive knowledge.

Q: One thing your exchange with Zahn proves to me — Star Wars is many things to many people. Everybody finds what he wants in it.

TOM: That’s very true. And in fact, if you read a lot of the Expanded Universe stories, you can see how most writers project their own psychology and personal narratives into the work.

_____________________

LIGHT MIND / DARK MIND

TOM: At the time I sent in my original proposal, I didn’t quite know how the story would end, except that Luke and Leia would overpower the Emperor by joining their minds in the Force. Tim had a problem with that, of course. He said my idea was “an insult to the Star Wars philosophy”. He said that the idea that Luke and Leia would use mental power to destroy the Emperor was “completely and absolutely WRONG.” [his caps]

Q: Weird.

TOM: Well, I think he might have misunderstood what I wrote in the proposal, about “whole areas of the dark mind falling to the light side of the Force…” I also said that at that moment “everything Luke has learned about the dark side is transmuted and turned against the Emperor.”

Q: He must have missed the word “transmuted”.

TOM: I don’t know. He accused me of violating the code of the Jedi by “tampering with the very soul” of the Emperor — as if Palpatine had a soul!

Q: You know, your feisty exchange with Tim Zahn makes me think of a couple of twelve-point bucks battling for dominion in the forests of Endor. (laughs)

TOM: No doubt there was some of that in it. But basically it was a clash of two different views of life … and of Star Wars. Readers will have to decide the argument for themselves.

Q: And did you write a critique of Heir to the Empire?

TOM: I wrote a short critique. I really didn’t like the idea of subjecting Tim to a long list of “notes”. Overall, I was disappointed with his book. As a story it seemed derivative and uninspired. But my main problem, which I wrote to Lucasfilm, was that I found his book curiously uncinematic. I felt (and still feel) that all Star Wars novels need to be highly visual and give you the impression you might be sitting in a theater. I told him Heir to the Empire didn’t feel at all like watching a movie. Fortunately Tim took that criticism to heart and his subsequent work was a definite improvement.

Q: You saw those books before publication?

TOM: Yes, they sent me the manuscripts, so that I’d make sure our stories were coordinated. But I wasn’t asked to give any more notes — nor was he. The one good thing from our spirited exchange in 1990 was that everybody backed off and let Cam and I finish Dark Empire. A couple years later somebody at LucasArts complimented me on my responses to Zahn’s critique. “Boy, you two guys really got into it,” she said. “It was like a lightsaber duel. He was out to destroy you, but your comebacks to Tim were spot on.”

______________________

Mark Capri | Officer M'Kae | Star Wars

2020-07-19T09:49:00.001-07:00

Mark Capri

Officer M’Kae (The Empire Strikes Back)

Interview: August 2016

How did you start your career?

I trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. I began my acting career in Britain with The Royal Shakespeare Company.

How did you get cast for The Empire Strikes Back and what did you knew about Star Wars then?

I was submitted by an agent for the role and auditioned in London. I only knew that the first episode had been filmed and people were excited about it.

Can you share some of your experiences regarding the making of the movie?

I had two different scenes and costumes. There wasn’t much “waiting around” time, as I recall, but the days were long. The sets were enormous, with bluescreens as backgrounds. I was very young and just starting out.

Back in 1980 your character, Officer M’Kae, didn’t have a name. In the late 90’s he got his name and a background story thanks to a Star Wars card game. How did you find this out and what do you think of it?

A fan sent me a playing card with “Officer M’Kae” on it. I thought it was great and made my participation in the film more meaningful.

How do you look back at your part in The Empire Strikes Back after three decades, especially since Star Wars is still so much alive these days?

It may sound obvious, but I am proud to be a small part of such a giant phenomenon.

You have attended conventions and met many fans. What do you regard as the funniest, strangest or weirdest thing that has ever happened to you at a convention?

I was sitting next to another actor, whose name I honestly don’t remember – not a Star Wars actor, signing autographs. He kept asking for drinks and eventually became so drunk that he had to go home. Not really funny, but definitely weird. I don’t think he was very happy.

You have done a lot of theatre work, toured the world, won a Theatre World Award and played a role in Titanic. Still, I bet that the fact you worked on a Star Wars movie is what impresses most people. Is this correct in your case and what is your opinion on this?

Actually, my Star Wars role only impresses big fans of the series, of which there are many, but I am known in the business as a classical actor and my reputation, such as it is, is for stage work. I’m proud of both but have worked much harder and longer in the theatre.

What do you regard as the highlight of your career?

One of many highlights was playing Agamemnon in Ephigenie En Tauride at The Metropolitan Opera in New York, sharing scenes with Placido Domingo and Susan Graham. I know that may sound obscure, and hard to pronounce, but it was so much fun. Generally, career highlights only occur to you as such long after they happen, so I have yet to identify many. They always include working with great talent on quality projects in either TV, film or stage. Even radio work is fun.

Can you tell something about your current or future projects?

I just finished a production of Amadeus near Los Angeles and am on my way to Atlanta, Georgia to film a TV series called Daytime Divas for VH1.

Amadeus sounds really great!

Finally: R.I.P. Kenny Baker. Always a presence at the Conventions and always generous and cheerful.

He certainly will be missed. Thank you for your time and good luck with the TV series!

Ralph Morse | Corporal Derdram | Star Wars

2020-07-19T09:48:00.001-07:00

Ralph Morse

Corporal Derdram, Stormtrooper (The Empire Strikes Back), Stormtrooper (Return of the Jedi)

Interview: July 2016

Let’s start at the very beginning: How did you get started in the movie business?

I was just over half way through my training as an actor and teacher at the prestigious Rose Bruford College when I was given the opportunity to gain some experience of the film industry by appearing in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me. At the time, it was my intention to be a classical theatre actor but I soon discovered that by alternating supporting film roles with teaching I was able to maintain a modest income that enabled me to undertake artistically rewarding theatre projects that I would not otherwise financially have been able to do.

I was therefore fortunate to have been involved in some of the most influential films of the late seventies and early eighties including two Star Wars movies, three James Bond, Flash Gordon and An American Werewolf in London.

You just mentioned you were in two Star Wars movies. How did you get cast for both The Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi?

By the time I got the audition for The Empire Strikes Back, I was on the books of a number of agencies, for theatre, commercials, radio, television and film. I received a call from one of my agents who told me he had put me up for a small speaking role in a new film, “The Empire Strikes Back.” It may seem odd now, but I had no idea what the film was about, so I asked my agent. He simply said, “Don’t worry you’ll find out soon enough when you get there.” At that time a number of television programmes and films were set in India, so I thought that was probably the Empire they were referring to. Even when I arrived at Elstree and saw the Star Wars sound stage, I still didn’t make the connection. It was only when I actually met the assistant director that it finally dawned on me. I never did find out however, exactly what the part entailed, because something strange happened. I caught a glimpse of Peter Diamond, who I knew from Dick Turpin, a series in which I had appeared as a blackguard in one episode, The pright Man. Peter Diamond had been the stunt director. We had filmed the episode at an old coach house in Hertfordshire and wandered on to the set, basically because I was fed up with waiting around. Rather arrogantly I asked the director Charles Crichton, when I was going to be needed. An assistant director looked at me, all dirtied up to look like a blackguard, and told me they needed me to fall down a staircase. I thought that it was a rather odd request, but if that was what they wanted me to do, then so be it. After a few unconvincing falls, the stuntman they had been expecting turned up. They thought I was him. To be fair, under make-up there was a passing similarity between us.

Peter Diamond arrived on set, and could have easily have been quite angry, but he was always a real gentleman, and seeing the funny side of the story, let me watch some of the stunt set-ups. I later discovered he was a RADA trained actor himself and understood my eagerness.

When Peter saw me at my Star Wars audition he recognised me and we nodded and waved to each other before he disappeared again. I didn’t give it much more thought, although the assistant left my own devices for twenty minutes or so before returning with a proposal. The part I was being considered for would take no more than two days to shoot. Alternatively, if I fancied being a Stormtrooper, I could have several months work on the film. So that was how I became a Stormtrooper. I later discovered that Peter Diamond had suggested me for the role. Having spent over four months on the film, I was then invited to reprise the Stormtrooper role in Return of the Jedi.

Can you share some remarkable things that happened during the making of the movies?

My first shot is the one that always springs to mind. I was in my Stormtrooper costume, which was quite uncomfortable and difficult to move in but it was the helmet that gave me the most problems. For my first shot, I had to run down a corridor with three other Stormtroopers. So I ran straight into a wall, fell over and knocked the other Stormtroopers over in the process. This happened because I couldn’t see anything. A member of the crew had been asked to clean the helmets and had done so with “Brasso”, a cleaning abrasive. As a result the lens material on the eye openings had become glazed over.

Fortunately, I was soon given a new helmet, and although visibility was still poor I could, at least, vaguely see where I was going. Most Stormtroopers fell over from time to time and it could be quite painful. Another example was in the evacuation of the second death star in Return of the Jedi where I was again running down a corridor. For this sequence small droids, based on radio controlled cards had been introduced to create another sense of movement to the scene. Running at speed, I managed to hit one of these machines, knock it flying and again crash into a wall and fall over. The crew rushed to the aid of the droid, while I was left to pick myself and tend to my injured pride. The weirdest experience in filming also occurred on Return of the Jedi, although this never appeared in the final movie. Darth Vader and several Stormtroopers, of which I was one, took part in very comical and rather silly sequences in which we struck comic poses, bumped into each other, fell over and generally behaved in an inappropriate fashion. What we did not know at the time was that while we were involved with these bizarre events, on another set, Mark Hamill and Sebastian Shaw were filming the death scene of Darth Vader.

You appear in several scenes and you’ve played various characters; Corporal Derdram, Stormtrooper and a rebel soldier. Which character and which scene was the most fun to do or stands out the most?

A number of scenes stand out for different reasons. Although he has relatively small time on screen, Corporal Derdram has one key shot, and that is when he ducks as the Millennium Falcon appears to charge into Darth Vader’s Executor Star Destroyer. Irvin Kershner was a little concerned that my position in shot was too high and spoiling the mise-en-scene. If you look at the still of me, as Corporal Derdram, you can see that there is an arc on the set and my head is nicely positioned with the top of my cap just touching the arc. I suggested to “Kersh” that if I bent my knees a little and lowered my centre of gravity, it would work. That was how we filmed it, and if you look at the still you can actually see that I am neither sitting nor standing. Irvin Kershner was a wonderful director to work with.

One of the Bespin scenes I shot has become known as the “get my shuttle ready sequence. The sliding doors operated manually by the crew kept sticking and as a result filming ceased until the problem was remedied.

In the break, I started playing around with my blaster, and tried holding it side-saddle as though I were carrying a shotgun in a western movie. I was still doing it for a rehearsal about ten minutes later. Turns out it was not a rehearsal as they were actually filming it and that is the one used in the final film. In 2015 I was involved in a video for CNN Digital’s Great Big Story and that was the clip they used.

Probably the longest delay occurred during the filming of the Carbon chamber sequences from The Empire Strikes Back. The set was incredibly hot and uncomfortable. I had to be helped on to the set as I was having great difficulty climbing the various ladders and ramps that accessed it. The conditions were unbearable and my lenses were steamed up and one Stormtrooper, who was not a stuntman, fell off the set. We were moved around quite a lot, interchanging with stuntman as necessary and found myself at various stages standing next to Darth Vader, Boba Fett and Han Solo. Eventually we took a break, during which “Kersh” took some pictures of us that would surface many years later. Although the hardest of all the sequences in which I was involved it is also one of the darkest and most exciting to watch.

The evacuation of the Hoth Rebel base was great fun to film. It was a huge set taking up the whole of the main sound stage, with ice corridors at the top and enormous doors at the bottom. There were fantastic three dimensional paintings on one wall of x-wing fighters in addition to the full size models on the set. Lastly the full sized Millennium Falcon took up much of the top half of the sound stage. As a rebel, I was running towards the big doors while the crew were throwing broken pieces of polystyrene at us. I resolved that if one hit me I would fall as dramatically as possible. I never got to try that move out as nothing landed on me.

Back in 1980, when The Empire Strikes Back came out your character, Corporal Derdram, didn’t have a name. Over the years he got one, thanks to a Star Wars card game. When did you find out about the name and what did you think of the fact that your character finally got a name some 17 (!) years after the movie?

When I attended Collectormania 17 at Milton Keynes MK Dons Stadium in 2011, a fan gave me a collector card and told me that my character’s name was Corporal Derdram. It was a nice surprise to find out that he had an identity.

How do you look back at your parts in two Star Wars movies after three decades, especially since Star Wars is still so much alive these days?

I have very fond memories of the making of both films and feel honoured and privileged to be part of the Star Wars family.

You perform as Johnny Cashbox. Not all of our readers know who who he is (shame on them!) So could you tell them – in your own words – what this character does and who he is?

I am a performance artist. That is to say that my concerts are tailored to my audience and involve a number of disciplines; acting, comedy and music.

When Johnny Cash died in 2003, I started getting requests to include his songs at my gigs. These proved increasingly popular and I even considered doing a tribute act but decided that a new character would probably serve me and my audience more effectively and Johnny Cashbox was born.

While Johnny Cashbox does perform Johnny Cash songs, the majority of his repertoire includes original material much of it related to the sci-fi genre.

Cashbox is in many ways as much Han Solo as he is Johnny Cash. Some song titles may give you a clue; “Starfighters Hit Zero”, “Am I All That Is Left Of An Empire” and “I Shot A Jedi”. Johnny also appears at conventions with his own comic unique take on events. Why not check out “Johnny Cashbox – Universal Superstar – Invasion Colchester” on Youtube. Johnny performs both solo and with his band TheDragonflyRising”. An eccentric and unusual character that is always changing and developing.

You have attended many conventions and met many fans. What do you regard as the funniest, strangest or weirdest thing that has ever happened to you at a convention?

At Collectormania 17 a large image of Corporal Derdram was displayed above my signing. There were a wide range of Star Wars characters walking about and there was a real carnival atmosphere. I noticed a man in an Imperial Officer uniform. Approaching the table he looked at me and said, “Do you recognise me?” It was a difficult question to answer as I did not recall ever meeting him. “Refresh, my memory” I politely said.

“I am you, of course!” he exclaimed. He then went on to explain that he played Corporal Derdram in role-plays. Having only just a few minutes before been told by a fan that my character had a name, it was a most pleasant surprise to discover that cos-players were actually portraying me in action scenarios.

Can you tell something about your current or future projects?

I am currently writing an original theatre piece that explores the nature of reality and fantasy; it is provisionally entitled, “I Shot A … Jedi”, after my song.

Without giving too much away, here is a taster. When the audience looks at the stage performance it will be for them to decide whether they are in the real world or the Star Wars universe. That decision will affect how they see the drama and the central character; is he simply someone who is deluded or is he the most dangerous monster in the universe? Johnny Cashbox and TheDragonflyRising will be providing the music.

I am hoping to premiere the show in time for the Pantomime season.

I hope it will! Many thanks for your time!

Tom Flood | Imperial Officer | Star Wars

2020-07-19T09:47:00.001-07:00

Tom Flood

Imperial Officer (The Empire Strikes Back)

Interview: August 2016

Hello Mr. Flood! Can you tell how you got cast for The Empire Strikes Back?

My first movie was The Empire Strikes Back. I was busy doing commercials and modelling work, when I was asked by an agent if I’d like to work on a new sci-fi movie. I thought that sounds exciting, so off I went to Elstree studios to be fitted as a Stormtrooper. When I arrived the first assistant director took me to one side and asked me if I’d like to play an Imperial Officer, of course I said yes.

What did you know about Star Wars before you got cast?

I knew absolutely nothing about Star Wars at this stage.

Can you share some of your experiences regarding the making of the movie?

I remember travelling on the train to Elstree every day for about three weeks. I used to share the train carriage with two other lads who were cast as Stormtroopers. One day just as lunch was called the first Assistant director asked the Imperial Officers working on the set if we would mind doing a few photo shots for publicity. We were asked to keep it casual, no posing. When we did the shot I couldn’t resist a little pose, so there I am tilting my cap, stealing the shot! Ever the professional! (Editor’s note: the photo Tom mentions is at the top of this page)

How do you look back at your part in The Empire Strikes Back after three decades, especially since Star Wars is still so much alive these days?

Looking back it was my first time on a film set, I was very excited. I never thought people would want my autograph 30 odd years later.

You have attended conventions and met many fans. What do you regard as the funniest, strangest or weirdest thing that has ever happened to you at a convention?

Actually I’ve only ever attended one convention, which was the Birmingham Comic con two years ago. So I ‘m a virgin soldier. The convention was brilliant. So many people, so many fabulous costumes. Lots of people wanted my autograph, that’s when I learned that my autograph was quite rare, and not many collectors had it.

You have appeared in the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil in which you worked closely with Robert DeNiro. I’m sure there’s a great story you can share?

Brazil was brilliant for me. I was cast as one of Robert DeNiro’s men dressed in combat gear boots and with a machine gun. I spent all my time charging around the set like a lunatic. Actually it was not so much fun as it sounds, because the set was at the top of a gas cooling tower in southeast London. We had a narrow platform with a track on it for the camera. The platform was shiny and slippery, either side of us was death. On the first day whilst waiting at the top of the platform I felt a presence behind me, I turned around and there was this very handsome man smiling at me! The man himself: Mr. Robert DeNiro.

My final question: what do you regard as the highlight of your career?

Playing at the Glastonbury festival with the musical theatre company ‘Katastrophe’.

That’s a legendary festival indeed! Thank you for your time!

Bill Slavicsek | West End Games | Star Wars

2020-07-19T09:45:00.002-07:00

Bill Slavicsek

Editor and developer of the Star Wars RPG and its expansions

Interview: May 2019

When was your first encounter with the Star Wars franchise and what did you think of it?

I know I followed the build-up to the film through Starlog Magazine, and I know I purchased the first issue of the Marvel Comic and the novelization when they were released shortly before the debut of the movie. It’s the actual day of release that remains fresh in my mind. May 25, 1977. For all that I had read, I can honestly say I wasn’t prepared for the movie I was about to see. I remember we cut school that day and traveled into Manhattan, to the Loews Astor Plaza, to get in line and wait for the first showing to go on sale. We were the first ones there, of course, and the line grew to an acceptable half-dozen or so other groups by the time the ticket booth opened. From the moment the words “A long time ago …” appeared upon the screen, to the opening scroll, to the Star Destroyer that went on forever, I was hooked. There was no going back. Star Wars (it wasn’t Episode IV or A New Hope yet) had a profound and lasting effect on me. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was going to become one of the biggest influences on my life and career moving forward—and I was still just in high school at the time! We stayed and watched the movie three times that day. When we emerged from the theater hours later, the line had grown to stretch around the block, and it never seemed to get any shorter that entire summer. I saw Star Wars on thirty-eight separate occasions that summer. What did I think? I thought it was the greatest movie ever made! Hey, I was a kid. But it remains one of my favorite films of all time, and it changed the way movies were made.

You joined West End Games in 1986, a year before the Star Wars RPG was released. How did you become the editor of so many Star Wars RPG books?

I started as an editor at West End Games, but before my first year of employment had ended, I was also writing and designing and developing products. I started on board games (such as RAF, Cosmic Encounter, and Kings & Things), then got to work on West End Games’ two roleplaying game lines, Paranoia and Ghostbusters. When Star Wars was presented to the staff, I wasn’t even scheduled to work on it. Someone had to handle the other product lines, and I was still the new kid on the block. It wasn’t long before I was able to demonstrate my love and knowledge of the property, and because I was good and fast at what I do, my first assignment was to team up with lead editor Paul Murphy to help develop and edit the roleplaying game rulebook. Initially, I was handed the introductory adventure and told to develop a format and get it ready for publication. After that, I followed behind Paul to make sure the book was as perfect as we could make it. About this time, Curtis Smith, the creative head of the studio at the time, was behind schedule on writing The Star Wars Sourcebook. He tagged me to be his co-writer to get the product finished by deadline, and I wound up writing the bulk of the book. As we finished the RPG and Sourcebook, West End Games was also in the process of moving the company to Pennsylvania. About this time, everyone above me decided, for one reason or another, to depart and seek their fortunes elsewhere. I wound up initially as the lead for Star Wars and shortly after that they promoted me to the creative lead of the company. After that, I wrote or edited much of what we were producing for Star Wars, and I developed everything before we sent it to Lucasfilm Licensing (LFL) for approval.

The Star Wars RPG came out in a time when Star Wars was more dead than alive. No new movies, no TV series, no comics and no books. Why release a game based on a franchise that wasn’t alive?

Prior to Star Wars, West End Games launched and had great success with another game based on a movie, Ghostbusters. We demonstrated that there was interest in a beloved but underutilized property if the product created to support it was good and true to the source material. We did that for Ghostbusters, and we certainly did that for Star Wars. In fact, getting to work on the Star Wars franchise at a time when we were literally the only people playing in that particular sandbox gave us a level of freedom that wouldn’t have been possible at any other time. With that freedom, we were able to lay the foundation for what would become the Expanded Universe—a foundation that’s still in place and being used in everything they’re creating today, from comics to novels, tv series to movies, even the new theme parks! Star Wars would have had a renaissance eventually, but I’m proud of the hand we had in helping it get there sooner rather than later.

Can you tell how the creative process of creating the Star Wars RPG went?

Greg Costikyan designed the RPG. For that product, I served as one of the editor/developers. All I remember about the RPG was getting involved in a ton of playtests, editing the pages as Greg handed them off, and playing the “Rebel Breakout” adventure over and over again to fine tune the flow. It wasn’t until I got pulled into The Star Wars Sourcebook that I actually saw the creative process from start to finish. Curtis Smith and I flew to Skywalker Ranch for a series of meetings with our contacts there. We presented our product plan, explained the nature of the products we wanted to create, and had to convince them to let us add details to what was in the movies and novelizations in order to develop the wealth of material needed for a roleplaying game. After that, the process was the same as it always was—create the best possible product you could for a property that you loved and respected. We had no idea at the time that what we were doing was going to have any effect at all on the greater Star Wars property. In fact, we were told repeatedly that George Lucas wasn’t beholden to anything we created. So, me and the West End Games creative staff would brainstorm product ideas, create outlines, and get them approved by LFL before assigning them to a staff designer or a freelancer. If I didn’t write a product personally, I either edited it or did a development pass to bring it up to standards before sending it to LFL for approval. That was the process, repeated over and over for the five years that I ran the line. At some point, our success had convinced LFL to expand their licensing opportunities, and a comic book and novel partner was brought onboard. That’s when LFL decided they wanted everything to match up, and our products became the reference materials for the other licensees.

In which ways was George Lucas involved?

We had very little interaction with George Lucas. We worked closely with the people in Lucasfilm Licensing, but Mr. Lucas was busy doing other things. We could occasionally ask him a question, but it had to be something he could answer with either a “Yes” or a “No,” and the question had to fit on an index card. Otherwise, our direction and guidelines came from LFL, and we were all kind of making it up as we went along. We were the first partner that was actually making new content for the Star Wars universe since the Han Solo and Lando novels and the Marvel Comics. And we were doing it in an unprecedented way by describing and expanding upon things seen in the actual movies. I know Mr. Lucas had our miniatures on his desk (we sent him a set of the metal miniatures that we had specially painted just for him), and he would purchase some of our art for display, but that’s really the extent of our interaction.

What was the hardest thing you’ve experienced while working on the Star Wars RPG and its books.

Probably the first conversations with LFL, when I had to convince them to allow us to create things beyond what we saw in the movies. I remember walking them through the aliens section of The Sourcebook. Presenting my arguments for why Hammerhead and Snaggletooth were great for helping a prop person find the right mask, but they were terrible names for intelligent species. That, and doing the research back in the days before the Internet. I had to comb through every novel (there were nine we were allowed to draw from and one we were asked to pretty much ignore), every “Art of” book and movie “Sketch Book,” the movie scripts, my collection of Starlog Magazines, the Marvel Comics (though we didn’t wind up using a lot from those), and the video tapes of the three original movies. I made reams of notes and jotted down loads of ideas as I poured through these resources over and over again.

You’re the author of the 2nd and 3rd editions of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, a book that was seen on George Lucas’ desk when he was working on the Prequel Trilogy. Are there to your knowledge things in the prequels you created?

Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve seen information that says that the name “Rodian” made it into Mr. Lucas’s handwritten scripts and production notes, but it wasn’t used in the movies. It did eventually show up in the Clone Wars and Rebels animated shows, though. It also looks like some of our Force powers served as inspiration for what we see the Jedi do in the movies, the Jedi Code, and the use of Aurebesh script (we assigned meaning to the letters in one of our products). In the end, I’m just glad that the products we made inspired Mr. Lucas, in their own small way, to finally get back to the universe he created.

Which Star Wars West End Games book are you most proud of?

I’m proud of all my products. Kind of like a parent with a lot of kids. But I always go back to the one that more or less made my name in the industry, The Star Wars Sourcebook. Even reading it today, thirty plus years later, there’s still a lot of great moments and information in that book. If that’s all I’m ever remembered for, that’s good enough for me.

30 years after the original release Fantasy Flight Games re-released the Star Wars RPG and Sourcebook. Do you know if there are plans to re-release more old Star Wars West End Games books?

I don’t have any specific insight into what FFG may or may not be planning. I know that they decided to pay homage to the original pair of books and I’m very grateful that they did. The reprints are beautiful and true to the original editions. I’m glad they’re available again for anyone who wants to see where all this started.

After three decades the West End Games books are sought after collectibles and still well loved by many fans. What do you think is the secret behind this?

All of the creators that worked with me on the original Star Wars RPG products loved Star Wars. We poured our hearts and souls into those books and tried our best to be true to the source material. And by having one vision that brought all those products together gave them all a focus and a voice that spoke to fans of the movies, whether they were gamers or not. In fact, we went out of our way to write the products as source material first and game books second. I’m just glad we were moderately successful in making the Star Wars universe come alive in those early West End Games products.

In the fall of 2018 your book Defining A Galaxy was released, a book about your time at West End Games and creating the Star Wars RPG. Why should every Star Wars fan buy it and read it?

I was feeling nostalgic as 2017 rolled around. It was not only the 40^th anniversary of the original Star Wars film, it was also the 30^th anniversary of the Star Wars RPG and Sourcebook. I attended Star Wars Celebration that year as a fan for the first time in forever, and when I got back I just felt that I had to collect my memories of how the West End Games products came together. To preserve the history, at least the way I remember it happening. Versions of what I was writing served as the basis for presentations I participated in that year at GenCon and the Lucca Comics and Game Fair. I tried to make it a fast and entertaining read while also telling the origin story, as it were, of what would become the Star Wars Expanded Universe. If you have an interest in Star Wars and where a lot of the background material comes from, or if you have an interest in the behind-the-scenes details that go into the creation of game products and worldbuilding, then I think you’ll get something out of my book. In the end, though, I wrote it so I would remember how all those products came together. It was written as much for me as for posterity. And it’s interesting to look back at a time when Star Wars wasn’t the focus of the public eye, when most of the world had decided it was no longer popular or relevant. Lucky for us, West End Games had a different idea and they let me take that idea and run with it. My book tells that story.

Defining A Galaxy is available on Amazon and DriveThruRPG.

John Mogridge | Snowspeeder pilot | Star Wars

2020-07-19T09:44:00.001-07:00

John Mogridge

Snowspeeder pilot, Stormtrooper (The Empire Strikes Back), Imperial Gunner (Return of the Jedi)

Interview: August 2019

How did you started your career in the movie business?

I joined the F.A.A. (Film Artistes Association) and the Central casting agency in November 1978. The Empire Strikes Back was my second film. You got work by phoning the agents and asking if there were any work “Calls”. They’d say Empire Strikes Back, Elstree studios, 8AM. That’s how I got my first day on The Empire Strikes Back. That was March 1979.

Can you tell how you got cast as a Snowspeeder pilot and snowtrooper for The Empire Strikes Back?

I arrived on my first day and the 2nd assistant director, Steve Lanning, gave me my daily salary voucher (we call it a Chit) with the title “Rebel” on it. I was a rebel for a while. Then they wanted snowspeeder pilots and he gave me that job. I did that until the end of May or the beginning of June. Then I was given the Snowtrooper role. That was only for a short time and finished my on and off run on The Empire Strikes Back as a stormtrooper in the carbon freezing chamber and Bespin cloud city scenes.

Three years later I got the call for Revenge of the Jedi as it was called at the time. I only played an Imperial gunner on that film in the Emperor’s arrival scene.

Did you see the first Star Wars movie before you got cast? What did you think of it?

I took my brother to see the original Star Wars film and really enjoyed it. I was lucky enough to get the autographs of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Dave Prowse for him when I worked on The Empire Strikes Back.

You’re one of the Snowspeeder pilots in the scene where Carrie Fisher gives the pilots instructions. What are the other scenes in which we can see you?

Some memorable scenes. The carbon freezing chamber seemed very high and a bit sinister compared to the bright and shiny cloud city set. I did a lot of filming with the second unit being directed by John Barry. Sadly, he was taken ill one day and died the next. A lot of people were upset by that. He was a nice man.

What do you recall of the shooting of your scenes?

A funny scene… there’s a picture on the internet where a snowtrooper is seen falling over as they enter Hoth. I was on that scene. I tripped but didn’t fall and it seems so did many others. It didn’t get in the film. Irvin Kershner took a long time to build a scene and the photo of me in the briefing scene standing around looking bored took ages to set up. He did do a great job.

Your Rebel pilot character got a name many years ago: Habeer Zignian. When and how did you find out and what was your reaction?

My character having been given a name was a complete and pleasant surprise. Although I only found out in 2018.

What is the best memory you have regarding Star Wars in general?

I am really proud to have been a very minor part in a great series of films. It changed my life. I met and I’m still in contact with so many friends like Alan Austen, Peter Ross, Chris Parsons (editor’s note: all three men played various parts in the original trilogy) and so many more who I wouldn’t have known without Facebook and the world wide family of Star Wars fans.

Richard Stride | Poggle the Lesser | Star Wars

2020-07-19T09:42:00.002-07:00

Richard Stride

Poggle the Lesser (Revenge of the Sith)

Interview: April 2020

In the Prequels we saw the actual Death Star plans for the first time. Who knew the funny tale about the fresh smell those plans had? Actor Richard Stride, who played the Geonosian Poggle who handed the plans to Dooku, has a great anecdote!

How did you get started in the movie business and how did you get the parts of Poggle and a Clone Trooper in Star Wars?

I went to drama school at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and in 1993 I graduated and went straight into a Hollywood movie called First Knight. I actually was originally cast as Obi-Wan’s double for the films Episode II and III. However, I gained many extra characters along the way.

How did you play Poggle?

I was in motion capture suit and had a great scene with the late Christopher Lee. When filming the scene with Christopher Lee, with the Death Star plans, I made a remark to the props guy that how clever even the smallest props where in design and craftsmanship in even the Death Star Plans. He started to laugh which was strange and when I asked him what was so funny he told me they had forgot to make them and he had to dash out the day before and went to Halfords and it actually was a car air freshener. So I told Christopher Lee when handing over the Death Star plans it was something to freshen the whole Galaxy with.

Can you share some of your memories regarding the time you worked on both movies?

I loved it. I spent all my time on set and didn’t really go to the green room as it was so much more interesting to watch other peoples scenes etc. It was lovely to be part of a big family on set and chat to so many interesting people.

How did George Lucas direct you?

He is a very visual director and has a very clear idea of what he is after. You have to put your trust fully in a director as they can see everything, and that’s what I did.

Did they give you any memorabilia after the movie was finished?

I was given a T-shirt and a signed call sheet on the last day of filming and a personal thankyou of George Lucas.

When was your first encounter with the Star Wars phenomena?

I saw it as a child on TV and loved it. I watch it over and over again.

What are your thoughts on the two Star Wars movies you were in?

I liked them and they are great movies to keep returning to as you learn something new each time.

What do you regard as the highlight of your career so far?

I loved doing Star Wars, but also Shakespeare in Love, and playing Hamlet for the stage.

Alan Austen | Stormtrooper | Star Wars

2020-07-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Alan Austen

Stormtrooper, Bespin guard, Han Solo double (The Empire Strikes Back)

Interview: September 2019

How did you get cast as a Stormtrooper and as the double of Harrison Ford in The Empire Strikes Back?

I joined Central Castings and The Film Artistes Association in early 1979. Being cast as a stormtrooper in The Empire Strikes Back was all down to luck for me. I was the correct height and age. I was already on set playing a Hoth rebel when I was asked to try on the stormtrooper costume. I fitted and I was able to walk around in it, so I was cast. Doubling for Harrison came about after the production team realized that they needed some filler shots of Han Solo. Harrison had already gone back to the U.S.A. so I was asked to double for Han Solo.

I read that in The Empire Strikes Back there are some close-up shots of Han Solo’s hands where they’re not Harrison Ford’s hands but yours. In which scenes can we see you as Solo?

Yes, my hands doubled for Harrison’s in several scenes. Due to the editing, it’s very difficult to tell them apart. I remember that I had to push buttons and flick switches.

Had you seen the first Star Wars movie before you got cast?

No, I had never seen the first Star Wars movie. Of course, now I have seen it several times and never tire of watching it. That goes for all of the original trilogy movies.

What do you recall of the shooting of your scenes?

So much stands out. Of course the Cloud City shoot out is vivid in my memory and also the carbon chamber scenes. The main thing was being able to run and hit marks whilst wearing a storm trooper helmet.

What would you regard as your best memory from The Empire Strikes Back?

I only did one Star Wars movie. So many cherished moments from The Empire Strikes Back. The lifelong friendships that I made, the laughs and fun that we had on and off set. A great conversation that I had with Billy Dee Williams. The fun moments with Carrie!

What did you talk about with Williams and what were those fun moments?

The conversation with Billy was him giving me advice about acting and working on movies. No personal stuff. Carrie was just constant fun always laughing and joking. No more to say other than that.

You have been in the convention circuit for some years now. What do you like the most about being a guest and what is the most remarkable or craziest thing that happened at a show?

Yes, I love doing the conventions, they are most enjoyable. A stand out moment was at a convention in The Netherlands when two stormtrooper cosplayers danced together in their costumes. This was videoed on someone’s phone and then watched by eight Star Wars actors on the flight home.

Besides Star Wars you have been in several movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Flash Gordon, James Bond: Octopussy. What do you regard as the highlight of your career?

The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark are the highlights. Later on I worked in British tv drama but nothing ever lived up to those two movies.

The Empire Strikes Back is not only considered to be the best of all the Star Wars movies by many fans. Actually, it is even considered to be one of the best movies overall. How does it feel to have been a part of this?

I am very honored to be a part of The Empire Strikes Back. However, I realize that I was and am very lucky. I am fully aware that it was a question of right place right time. I just hope that I lived up to the opportunity! I think I did.

Review: The Star Wars Historical Sourcebook

2020-07-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that the end of good original trilogy reference works was in sight. Just about everything had already been said and when something came out it was often “old wine in new bottles”.

This is different with The Star Wars Historical Sourcebook: Volume One: 1971-1976 by W.R. (Bob) Miller, a book with a chronological overview of what happened in the Star Wars area from 1971 to 1976.

I can now hear you thinking: “1971? But isn’t Star Wars from 1977? ”Yes, but in 1971 radio presenter Terry McGovern (who can be heard in A New Hope as the voice of a Stormtrooper) came up with the term“ Wooky, ”which George Lucas later transformed into Wookiee . This is just one of the many facts that the reader will discover.

The way in which Miller puts detail in this book is insane and it is immediately clear why the creation of this publication took many years. The number of sources that he consulted is huge (books, magazines, Facebook posts … and I can proudly say that he has also frequently used interviews that I conducted) and no fact is lost in this book which is the first in a series.

As said, the strenght and uniqueness of this book is the fact that it is very detailed; 396 pages about the years before the very first Star Wars movie is something that has never been done before. This has two consequences: for the real Star Wars historian it is like a big party with all these facts, while for the casual fan it will feel like a dry read since the book doesn’t even contain any photos or images (the reason is that it is was not released under the Disney license). As the examples of some pages below show, it is purely a chronological summary of facts and statements and not a fluid narrative whole.

The Star Wars Historical Sourcebook is a book that is packed with unique, never-before-published information. I would like to say: it was worth the wait.

Several acclaimed people from Star Wars such as Gary Kurtz (producer), Charles Lippincott (head of marketing), Craig Miller (editor-in-chief Bantha Tracks) and Lorne Peterson (ILM) have already praised this work. A better ‘seal of approval’ is unimaginable.

In the words of Gary Kurtz:

“This historical sourcebook is an extraordinarily complete work, annotating almost everything that has been written about the original Star Wars Trilogy (now called Episodes 4, 5, and 6). I have personally found this sourcebook very useful for my own research into questions I am asked in interviews. Bob Miller has done a monumental job on this sourcebook and any true Star Wars fan or scholar must have this work in their collection.”

The Star Wars Historical Sourcebook: Volume One: 1971-1976 is available on Amazon:

Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de

Review: Stormtroopers Beyond the Armor

2020-07-19T09:26:00.001-07:00

Do Stormtroopers / Clonetroopers / Snowtoopers / Scouttroopers or any other trooper belong to your favorites? Or are you in possession of a trooper outfit and a member of the 501^st? In all these cases there is now the ultimate book: Stormtroopers: Beyond the Armor.

This heavy reference work starts with a foreword by none other than John Boyega, who played perhaps the most famous Stormtrooper ever: “FN-2187” in The Force Awakens. After this, we go back to the very beginning (1973) when the history of the Stormtrooper began. From the creation of these (mostly white) soldiers to the merchandise, the stories of the actors who were in the suit, the role of troopers in the films / comics / games and of course also the 501^st; everything is covered. The great thing is that the stories and descriptions are also accompanied by artwork and photos, several of which have never been published before.

The book is divided into 7 chapters, each covering an X number of years in the “Stormtrooper history”:

1973-1976: The creation of the Stormtroopers (How did they arise? The designs of Ralph McQuarrie and the sculptures of Brian Muir tell everything about the creation of the most iconic “space soldiers” ever.)
1976-1979: The introduction of the Stormtroopers (in film (and the holiday special!), Media, toy country, comics and pop culture.)
1980-1994: Specialized troopers (Royal Guards, Snowtroopers and other variants such as the white Boba Fett, but also the troopers from the Thrawn trilogy and Dark Empire)
1995-2001: Star Wars revival (which meant a renewed interest in Stormtroopers; Special Editions and the prequels but also video games (Dark Forces) and the first LEGO Stormtroopers)
2002-2014: Clones (After we were introduced to Clonetroopers in Attack of the Clones, many other variants followed. We received new information about the roots of the troopers (clones of Jango Fett) and we encountered them frequently in the Clone Wars TV series )
2014-2017: New regimes (First Order troopers, Deathtroopers and the troopers from Rebels; many new ones have been introduced in recent years)
Stormtroopers forever (the 501^st, events, conventions)

At the back of the book, the reader awaits a nice surprise: five removable goodies have been added! Reproductions of a storyboard from Return of the Jedi, a Russ Manning comic from 1979, a Stormtrooper mask on the back of a box of Kellogg’s cornflakes, a backer card from the original Stormtrooper action figure and a sketch by costume designer Glyn Dillon.

For me personally the book has a special touch: I am mentioned in the book. In January 2017, I was asked by one of the authors (Adam Bray) if he could use some of the interviews I conducted. A huge honor as my interviews with actors Jamison Jones, Mark Alec Rutter and Charlie Akin were used and I am mentioned both in the credits and in the book itself.

If you have little or nothing with Stormtroopers you will not be able to fully appreciate this book, but then again, you will not belong to the target group. For members of the 501^st and the other Stormtrooper fans, this is an absolute “must have”. You will not find a more complete work on this specific part of the Star Wars universe.

Review: The Star Wars Sourcebook

2020-07-19T09:25:00.001-07:00

The Star Wars Sourcebook (Hardcover)
Publisher: West End Games
Authors: Curtis Smith & Bill Slavicsek
Pages: 142
Release: October 1st, 1987

A long time ago … 1987 to be exact, Star Wars was entering the Dark Age. After three movies, two Ewok spin-off, two cartoon series and a Marvel comic series, the franchise seemed dead… seemed, because game manufacturer West End Games (WEG) launched the Star Wars Role playing game that year, that (as it turned out later) would play an enormously important role in the future of Star Wars …

When I discovered this game (also a long time ago) at a local game fair in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, I immediately purchased it … not so much for the game but for the many expansion books. WEG published various source books and Galaxy guides for this game. These releases contained information that was unique at the time (no internet, hardly any Star Wars books). Where the Galaxy guides contained information about the characters from one of the three films or a planet, the source books were of a somewhat broader nature: both the Rebels and the Imperials each had an edition and there was also a general one: The Star Wars Sourcebook, a true Star Wars bible in the late 80s / early 90s. This 142-page hardcover first gave the reader detailed descriptions of things like ships (how long are they? What are they?), weapons, characters, droids, aliens, bases (including floor plans) … even a specified overview of Han Solo’s debts with Jabba the Hutt. All this information is accompanied by short stories and statistics that can be used for the game. ‘Despite’ these (not abundant) statistics, the book does not feel at all as a part of a game, but more as an informative Star Wars book. In the late 80s / early 90s, this was groundbreaking and opened the doors for even more Star Wars books. It’s no coincidence that not many years after this release Timothy Zahn’s The Thrawn trilogy appeared which was the beginning of the Expanded Universe Renaissance.

I hear you think “Ok Dennis, you convinced me! But … the book is more than 30 years old so it won’t be easily available.” Good news: game manufacturer Fantasy Flight Games published special 30th anniversary reprint of the source book and the role playing game book.

For me personally this book has an enormous nostalgic value. As mentioned, I discovered it during the ‘dark years of Star Wars’ in which there was hardly anything to be found. The Special Editions and Prequels were lightyears away and this book was ‘A New Hope’. Even the paper still has that characteristic old-school smell so that I can always imagine myself walking around the game fair in Eindhoven.

Review: The Star Wars Archives

2020-07-19T09:24:00.001-07:00

When it was announced this spring that the German publishing company Taschen (known worldwide for their particularly beautiful and large books) was working on a Star Wars release, expectations were immediately high. This could be one of the most ultimate reference works.

Last week was the day: this gigantic work (weighing 7.5 kilos and 33 x 7 x 48 centimeters in size) was delivered. At the back of the credits a nice surprise (the author used two of my interviews, so I am already listed for the 5th time in a reference work) and you would say: give it a big 10 and we don’t talk about anything anymore, do we?

Before I start answering this, we start from the beginning: what is “The Star Wars Archives”?

It is a book that takes you back to the early 70s when George Lucas made American Graffiti and the first ideas for Star Wars came into being. On the basis of the most beautiful designs, drawings, stills, behind-the-scenes photos and posters, you then go through the trilogy chronologically, with special attention for The Holiday Special, the two Ewok films and the Ewok and Droids animation series (considering that all this is often ignored is a huge plus). The majority of the book is therefore visual. Due to the enormous size, the large images (often full page) look better than ever. Is there anything to read? Certainly: in addition to the foreword by George Lucas, it also contains two exclusive interviews with him, which is also one of the strongest points of this publication.

It is clear that in the trade-off between images and text, the first was given priority. As I said above, this makes sense, but in terms of information, this book will definitely not go down as “ultimate”. Over the past 20+ years many books have been published (one can speak of a supersaturation) and the three Making Of books by J.W. Rinzler are way on top.

This oversaturation can also be seen on the visual side of the book, since many photos and drawings have already been published. A good example is the designs of Ralph McQuarrie. These should of course be included, but his complete work was released two years ago. For “the collector who has everything” it will sometimes come across as old wine in a new bottle. Nevertheless, there is more than enough new stuff to be found in the photo area, so that even completists can be surprised.

Giving a rating to this book is a real brain teaser. Ultimate reference work? Yes and no. Visually it is definitely one of the 5 best but informative far from it. An eye catcher? Absolutely. Taschen has given Star Wars the “coffee table book treatment” and fans of this will enjoy it. Worth € 150 and “a big 10”? With this book, that depends more than ever on what you already have and what you are looking for. What in any case may be concluded is that after this release the “original trilogy reference book work market” is now really saturated. Time for this kind of massive works that will take a good look at the Prequels. A nice task for Taschen?

Review: The Illustrated Star Wars Universe

2020-07-19T09:23:00.001-07:00

Since its release over 24 (!) years ago, it has never disappeared from my top 10 “best Star Wars reference works”: The Illustrated Star Wars Universe.

In 1995, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was in its early years. The Star Wars franchise came from the “dark period” in which hardly anything appeared. And then this book appeared, full of new information and new artwork from an old master.

I wrote in my review of Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie that besides George Lucas himself Ralph McQuarrie may have been the most important man for the original trilogy. His drawings determined the looks of the films. McQuarrie created many new drawings for this book, while his older work was also used, just like that of Joe Johnston (then ILM, now director of Captain America) and Nilo Rodis-Jamero.

Anyway, what is the book about? The Illustrated Star Wars Universe is written as a kind of extensive travel book. A total of 8 planets are covered: Hoth, Endor, Tatooine, Coruscant, Yavin 4, Dagobah, Bespin and Alderaan. Each of these planets is described in detail by a new Star Wars character. Pollux Hax (one of the advisers to Emperor Palpatine) reports on Coruscant and Mammon Hoole (a Shi’Ido) goes to Tatooine to visit Jabba’s Palace and Mos Eisley, among others. The great thing is that the reader learns a great deal about the worlds of Star Wars in a fun, original way as it is really presented as stories instead of dry facts. In addition, things that were not in the original trilogy but that did exist were processed. In the report on Endor, for example, Terak and the marauders, Charal, Teek and the Blurggs; all characters from the two Ewok spin-offs.

As mentioned, new artwork (created by McQuarrie) can be seen, but it also contains work that was made for the original trilogy and the Ewok films. In fact, several drawings of McQuarrie specially made for this book were used two decades after the book release for Star Wars Rebels. His drawings for the planet Alderaan have been used in this series for the planet Lothal. In addition, the First Order Snowtroopers can be recognized on Hoth and we see a gate at Jabba’s Palace that we saw in The Force Awakens at Niima outpost in Jakku.

The stories are written by Kevin J. Anderson, an author who meant a lot to Star Wars in the 90’s. In addition to this book, he was also responsible for the book Darksaber, the Jedi Academy trilogy, Young Jedi Knights and he was editor of the three Tales of books. (In 2010 I had the honor to interview him; this interview can be read on this very website).

This 5-star book is an absolute gem from the Golden Age of Star Wars.

Review: Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie

2020-07-19T09:22:00.001-07:00

Besides George Lucas the person most important to the success of Star Wars is perhaps Ralph McQuarrie, whose designs were so important the visual style of the original trilogy. McQuarrie (1929-2012) was in his mid 40’s when George Lucas asked him to make designs for a space fantasy film. One of his designs (the one with the C-3PO that happens to be on the cover of this box) even helped convince Anthony Daniels to take the role of the protocol droid. Now, many years later, McQuarrie is relevant as several unused designs for the original trilogy have now been used for the Star Wars Rebels animated series and the new films.

Over the years, various books have been published covering the art of this grandmaster, but in the autumn of 2016 the ultimate McQuarrie book was published. Let’s start with the weight: when this book was delivered to me I apologized to the mailman for the almost 10 (!) kilo package. Then the execution: 2 books – responsible for 800 high-quality pages – with linen cover in a gorgeous box. It goes without saying that a suitable price tag is attached to this: the retail price is $ 250.

The content of this massive work is breathtaking; everything that McQuarrie has made for Star Wars can be found. In addition to the sketches, drawings and matte paintings made for the films, you can also admire everything he has created for the Holiday special, promotions, posters, covers and various books. For example, in the mid-90s McQuarrie provided a whole series of drawings of various Star Wars planets and locations for (the also great) The Illustrated Star Wars Universe and of Mos Eisley for The Mos Eisley Cantina Pop-Up book. In addition to the thousands of images, you can also read various anecdotes, notes and stories that give you an extremely good picture of how everything came about at the time.

For me this is without a doubt one of the best 10 Star Wars reference works ever. What McQuarrie has made is unparalleled and deserves the title Art. Every Star Wars fan must have this book.

Review: I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story

2020-07-19T09:21:00.001-07:00

I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story – DK (publisher) – November 5 2019 (release) – 272 pages

If there is one person who (in addition to George Lucas) is inextricably linked to Star Wars, then it is Anthony Daniels, the man who has since the start of Star Wars 43 years ago featured in 12 films, 4 animated series, an amusement park attraction, radio plays and a concert series. Years ago I had twice the pleasure of spending an entire weekend with him as his personal assistant at events. A more than unique experience that I cherish. When his autobiography was announced earlier this year, this was the Star Wars release I was looking forward to the most.

The fact that Daniels has writing talent has been known for a long time since he wrote the (New) Wonder Column from 1995 to 1999 in the official magazine Star Wars Insider. Now, twenty years later, he displays these skills again; in one of the first chapters he describes in a really great and humorous way how his first meetings with George Lucas went and how he got the role of C-3PO.

After a story about the realization of his suit, we are taken to Tunisia (Tatooine), the Elstree Studios (Death Star and Tantive IV scenes) and Hollywood (a conversation with George Lucas in Hamburger Hamlet where Lucas explained that you don’t eat a burger with cutlery but with your hands). Chronologically, Daniels’ entire Star Wars career is reviewed (including The Holiday Special from 1978), with The Rise of Skywalker as its terminus. Of course all this is told in the typical “Daniels” way. You “hear” his characteristic voice and humor while reading.

What is noteworthy is that Daniels is critical of things. He calls his contributions to the sequels “token appearances”. In addition, he elaborates on the fact that after the first film, Lucasfilm did everything to make C-3PO look like a real robot; nowhere was his name mentioned or said who was in the suit and this was something that really disappointed him. Of course the relationship with Kenny Baker (the two were not friends) is also discussed. All in all an improvement compared with other books in which negative issues often remain undiscussed (see Making of Solo, which was published earlier this year, in which nothing is said about the problematic production).

Without wanting to reveal more details, it is be clear that this book is a beautiful, almost indispensable addition to the library of fans who love beautiful background stories. The book feels like a farewell and if Daniels indeed goes into “Star Wars retirement” after December 16, he will be missed but leaves a great legacy.

Review: Star Wars Icons: Han Solo

2020-07-19T09:20:00.001-07:00

It is not often that a complete reference work is devoted to one Star Wars character. C-3PO (Tales of the Golden Droid, 1999) and Darth Vader (The Story of Darth Vader, 1998 and The Complete Vader, 2009) were the first many years ago and now there is Star Wars Icons: Han Solo; a book about, you guessed it: perhaps the most popular Star Wars character ever. To be honest: Harrison Ford’s Han Solo is my favorite movie character ever and Ford is even my favorite actor. Add to that the fact author Gina McIntyre has used an interview that I conducted (which means that I am listed in the credits) and it is difficult to remain objective, but I am going to try. When I opened the book, I was genuinely impressed: where I expected photos that had already appeared in countless other reference works (such as the three Making Of’s by JW Rinzler), it turned out that there is still enough in the Lucasfilm archives to surprise. The book is packed with photos, drawings and sketches of which a lot are really new.

But is the textual content of the same level? The book describes the Han Solo character. Of course it starts with how George Lucas came up with this character and how a green alien (the original idea) became the Corellian smuggler we all know. This of course also includes the entire casting process (including Walken, Russell, Katt and Nolte). Subsequently, Gina McIntyre describes the role of Solo and Ford in the original trilogy, which is done in an elaborate way, but unfortunately such things as Ford’s alleged affair with Carrie “Leia” Fisher or how Howard Kazanjian played a role in Ford’s return receive no attention for Return of the Jedi. Of the 241 pages, no less than 115 are spent on “Original Trilogy Han”. I did not expect what followed from page 116 on this scale: 26 pages dedicated to Legends / Expanded Universe Han; the Han Solo that we lost when Disney cancelled the Expanded Universe in 2014 to come up with their own stories. Things like the Solo trilogies of both Brian Daley and A.C. Crispin pass by, just like the old Marvel and Dark Horse comics. This segment is really fantastic and I almost suspect the author of being an “EU” fan herself. After this things like ‘The Han Solo effect’ (the character has influence on characters like Indiana Jones, Jack Burton, Malcolm Reynolds and Madmartigan) and ‘Where’s Han’ (in which the Special Editions, art, merchandise, the radio plays and West End Games are discussed). The final 73 pages are then for The Force Awakens and Solo: A Star Wars Story where Disney’s version of Han is highlighted as well as the new canon books and comics. I think nobody can deny that this is just an excellent book that the Ford / Solo fans will enjoy. On the other hand, it must be said that if you have no feelings for the character, you can get bored. I hereby express my hopes that this will become into a series and that more “Star Wars Icons: …” books will appear in the future. Leia, Luke, C-3PO, Obi-Wan and Yoda please?

Michael Pennington | Moff Jerjerrod | Star Wars

2020-07-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

Michael Pennington

Moff Jerjerrod (Return of the Jedi)

Interview: December 2019

In Return of the Jedi we met a new Imperial: Moff Jerjerrod, who had the difficult task of ensuring that the second Death Star was finished on time. Jerjerrod was played by the British actor Michael Pennington who already had an enormous track record when it came to theater work. Now, 37 years after that, he can call himself a true expert when it comes to Shakespeare since, in addition to acting in his plays, he is also a co-founder of the English Shakespeare Company.

How did you get cast for Return of the Jedi?

Well, it’s a sort of half funny story, which is that because most of my work up to that point and subsequently has been in the theater and I was with the Royal Shakespeare Company from the mid 1970’s to 1981 or 1982. I had just had the great good fortune playing Hamlet for them and when you play a part of that kind there are people who say to you, oh, my goodness, what are you going to do next? What’s going to be the next great mountain you’re going to climb. What’s it going to be? The first thing I was offered was three days on Star Wars. This new Star Wars movie I didn’t know anything about, Return of the Jedi. It sounded like fun and easy. I only did three days on the film. So I’m really here at this convention under false pretenses because that’s all I did. On the other hand, I enjoy this, the fact that the films have lasted so well that people still have such enthusiasm. But whether you go to Cincinnati, Utrecht, Birmingham or Minneapolis, wherever you go, there is always the same. And I love to be part of that. To be part of a convention is great. So I got to just in the normal way. My agent said they wanted me for three days and I decided to do it. I didn’t audition. I didn’t meet George Lucas till the days that I did. I didn’t meet the director. So it’s sort of funny, haphazard way in which work comes to actors.

Did you see the first two movies before you got cast?

No. By that time, I knew a little bit or I asked around. I did get them in when I knew I was going to do my first convention about 18 months ago. I thought, I’m going to sit and watch the whole thing. Unfortunately, at that time, I had a little bit trouble with my eyes, I had some infections and things like that. It was physically very difficult to watch. I did my best to look at my scene and was amazed at how short it was because they had cut a lot. So I wasn’t really prepared. But I did understand the story.

Well, my next question was going to be if you found a way to play Jerjerrod in a way that would differentiate him from the other imperial officers?

At that stage all I had was what he actually did. I mean, I saw what he was doing, what his job was. You could press, if you would think in a very naturalistic, realistic way, maybe he’s a trained engineer or maybe he’s some kind of intellectual. What is it? I mean, he’s given this is very unpalatable job of building a new Death Star, and he’s immediately bullied by Darth Vader because he’s not making enough progress. Well, like with any character, you work out what the character might be like. You don’t use everything you think of because there’s no point wondering whether Moff Jerjerrod had a family or children that I could imagine that he did or didn’t. I could see this was a man who was under pressure, was being bullied by an authority, was going to stand up for himself. He was fundamentally probably quite a decent guy compared to many of the people.

And then, of course, we shot an alternative ending to his story by suggesting that he might have been strangled by Vader and only came across that years and years later as everybody else did. Well, it’s a pity that wasn’t it? In a way. But you get used to these things and you just go do the job and leave. The great Star Wars family is something I’ve never really been part of. I dipped in and out of it so quickly, I couldn’t really say anything authoritative about the entire sequence.

Although it was just three days, can you remember any remarkable, unique, funny things that happened on the set?

I had the privilege of working with Dave Prowse, Darth Vader. It was a curious job for Dave who because after all, not an inch of his body was visible. He was locked away by Darth Vader’s shellac suit and in the end, his voice was going to be redoubled by the American actor James Earl Jones who had a particularly good timbre, voice for the part. I’ve often thought that was a bit tough for Dave, but I think he’d accumulated so much popularity is that because he has been in each and every film. He was quite self-confident. Our biggest difficulty was executing a shot, which is pretty typical. A tricky thing to do cinematically, though not impossible at all, is to walk together, maintain the same speed, the same speed of speech, the same stride so the camera could remain on the same angle tracking with you. That’s not so easy to do. We managed that. Unfortunately, at the end of the first take, well indeed in each of them, we were supposed to swing out of the camera’s view. We approached the camera and just as we were going off vision, it seems that I trod on Darth Vader’s cloak which was rather long and stretched behind him on the ground. And he froze because that’s you do when your cloak is stepped on and he himself said “cut, he mustn’t stand on my cloak”. We became quite good friends, in fact, and I’m glad of it. But it was it was all so brief, there’s no other anecdotes.

What’s the biggest difference between acting in Star Wars and a Shakespeare play?

One’s a bit louder than the other normally. And that’s the Shakespeare play. It’s the same process. It’s exactly the same process. But of course, this is affected by the fact that usually in the theater you’re working and you’ve got to be audible and visible to somebody who’s hundred meters away. In the cinema the camera comes and looks at you. I’ve always loved movies; I’ve not done as many as I would wish to have done. But I have become quite experienced in terms of playing big theaters physically, which is quite a thing. But basically it is the same activity. After all, you could probably do a thesis about why Star Wars is Shakespearean. Somebody has probably written an academic paper about it. The camera will find you whatever you do, all you’ve got to do is think the right thoughts. Screen acting is no different technically from stage acting.

You have an amazing resume when it comes to theater work. Yet most people will always remember you for your role in Star Wars. How do you feel about this?

It makes me laugh. It’s completely fine. I am doing an interesting thing. Beginning next year, which in a way answers your previous question because I’m doing a production of The Tempest. I’m going to do it in a particularly small theater in London in which nobody is going to be more than about 20 meters away from the stage. It’s more a room than a theatre which has a capacity of about 80 people. I’m really looking forward to that, because as you kind of say, I’ve done an awful lot of these big things with big parts. I’m now going to do something in a room that’s no bigger than the one we’re sitting in now. I’d love to see if I can combine my fifty-five years of experience with what I know to be necessary to be truthful in acting.

Of all the parts you have played, what is your personal favorite?

I feel it does go back to Shakespeare. Hamlet, of course. But then I was the right age to play, which I wouldn’t be now. I did that when I was in my mid-thirties in Stratford. I did it for two years. Not every night because you play in repertoire, but they’re like an opera season. You do maybe two or three performances a week and then you have two weeks off. So it was not as exhausting as it might been. I’ve recently, by which I mean in the last five or six years, done King Lear twice. Once in New York with an American company in 2014 and then in 2016 I did a big tour in the U.K. in a new play, a different production of King Lear. I’ve played that twice, which is very unusual. You normally only get one chance at those parts because there’s so many other people waiting to play them, but I got lucky with that. I was able to improve the performance the second time and I’m very happy with that.

Back to Star Wars, a franchise that is still relevant. Did you expect this back in 1983?

No, I’m not sure that many people do. I think George Lucas and I guess others did. But I thought nothing of it. I knew it vaguely as I said. It didn’t strike me as something that would necessarily last for a lifetime. For a lot of people, of course, it has. Look around at the convention today, several people who were not born when it came out. But it’s been brilliantly handled as a phenomenon in terms of the days of releases of all the films, the conventions, the whole. As a phenomenon it is extraordinary. It should get Oscars not only for the films, but for the production, the technique. How to handle an audience of a long period time so they don’t go away from you.

Have you kept up with the recent releases?

Truthfully, for a long time, I thought the focus had probably shifted away. Of course, there’s a difference between those first half dozen and the later ones. I sort of lost interest and that’s no reflection on them but probably reflection on me. But I will go and see the new one now, because since the last one came out, I’ve done six or eight of these conventions and I’ve enjoyed them all, fantastic to meet the fans. So to return a compliment I will go and look at the new film. So the next time I’m asked the question by someone like yourself, I’ll have a proper answer for you.

If you have to describe your Star Wars experience in one word or one sentence, what would it be?

At the time it was ordinary. I couldn’t say more than that. My experience in retrospect now is actually quite intense pride because I see that without knowing I’ve entered an enormous extended family. I meet old colleagues who I haven’t seen since that time. I’m very pleased to be part of it and to know that those three days seem to have borne fruit so widely, so universally, I suppose I can say that.

Paul Brooke | Rancor Keeper | Star Wars

2020-07-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

Paul Brooke

Rancor Keeper (Return of the Jedi)

Interview: December 2019

One of the most heartbreaking scenes in the Star Wars saga is in Return of the Jedi. Early in the movie we see a tearful Rancor keeper, mourning the death of his huge friend the Rancor. The man who played the part of Malakili the Rancor keeper is British actor Paul Brooke, who I met and interviewed at the EchoBase convention in December 2019.

How did you get cast for Return of the Jedi?

I was touring India with a play for the British Council and my manager had trouble getting in touch with me because we were moving around from city to city. When we got to Calcutta, there was a message in the hotel waiting which said, “I’ve accepted two days filming for you the week you get home”. You have nothing to do. But we both made the money. Which made me laugh at the time and hadn’t really made me laugh ever since because I feel like I’m privileged to be even in a small role, the smallest role I ever played in front of a camera in a lucky career where I’ve rarely stopped working. But how lucky I was to be part of this extraordinary franchise.

What was your initial feeling when you got the part? Star Wars was very popular and this much anticipated movie promised to be big; it had the biggest budget of all three.

I wouldn’t have known that from my two mornings. But having said that, I’ve appreciated it, to be honest, more over time than I did at the time. For the reason that I’ve given you. Because I was nice and busy, I was lucky with work, and I was normally playing much better parts. But then the fact that people remember after all these years and that I get mail every week shows that even if it’s a small part, if it works, which is not just tied to the actor, of course it’s down to the script and everything. But if it works, it can make an impact that people will stick with. I’ve had the most extraordinary stories from people over the years of not only of their enjoyment, but of the passing on their enjoyment to their children and even grandchildren, which is rather touching. Probably if I’ve been offered the part and I was at home because I had loads of work where I had more to do, I would probably have turned it down and I would have regretted it like mad with hindsight.

Did you see the other two movies?

I think I’ve seen them both. I’ve certainly seen Star Wars. I was amazed and surprised that a very intellectual British theatre director, a famous guy at the time called William Gaskell, who I worked with at Royal Court Theatre, a pioneering theatre in London and who was rather up-market in all sorts of respect. I was doing a play with him before I got offered Return of the Jedi and he came out with the fact that he was a huge Star Wars fan. At the time I hadn’t seen the film and I didn’t think I thought, well Sci-Fi not particularly my scene. But then when Gaskell said, but it’s wonderful, it’s absolutely wonderful. You have to see it. So, I did and I was hooked like all the millions of others over the years.

What do you remember about the filming of your scenes?

The main thing I remember is how short it was. I did the little bit with Mark Hamill and then the following morning it was just me on a rostrum in front of a blue screen. No Rancor and nobody except for me being given directions by Richard Marquand, the director. Raising my head a little, turning the right a little up a little more. Now you’re looking at the Rancor, which of course I wasn’t, because the Rancor wasn’t there. And then on the cue having to burst into tears. That was my experience from the acting point of view. I mean, that in itself is not easy because normally you have other actors or even if the Rancor had been there in some shape or form you can respond to that. Responding to thin air is not always easy.

Did you know then what the Rancor looked like?

No, not at all.

The first time was when I saw the film and the first time I was actually WITH the Rancor was two years ago in Kentucky when this guy who built a huge Rancor for thousands of dollars and who takes it round the conventions, making money from people to be photographed with the Rancor. He said my model is up, would you pop up when you have a break, have some photos taken? I said “of course!”, and it was stunning.

Can you share any remarkable, unique, strange or funny things that happened?

I think the strangest is what I’ve already told you because it was so brief. I didn’t get to know any of the other actors. So, I said hello and shook hands with Mark Hamill. There were no personal stories. The strangest thing I think was the only time at that that I had to do something which was apparently responding to a creature that wasn’t there. But I’ve had other strange experiences in films and television. Maybe the strangest acting during a scene with Marlon Brando in an anti-apartheid film called Dry White Season, where although he was there and huge at the time. He was one of the only actors who made me feel small. It was really delightful, but he didn’t learn his lines. So, after you’d said you’re lying to him, you waited for ages while the woman upstairs told him through an earpiece what to do next, so there was a silence. You heard this in the background and then he’d come at you one hundred miles an hour force of his personality. You’d come in on cue. Then another long gap while upstairs the line was going into his ear. That’s difficult because you can’t suspend disbelief. It becomes a like an acting exercise because normally the response of the of the people helps you to act well, and if you’re not getting it straight back, there’s nothing to believe. So, when he speaks, you can respond to that but by then you’re out of the action for a period while the woman is telling him what to do. But I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. I mean, heavens, having acted with Marlon Brando, hero of my youth.

In fact, it was filmed in Zimbabwe because they wouldn’t allow at the time an anti-apartheid film to be filmed in South Africa. And I had two scenes there, one with Donald Sutherland and one with Brando. After I had done the scene with Sutherland they said, you can’t go home yet because we don’t know if Marlon Brando is coming or not. They said you don’t have to stay in the capital. You can go sightseeing, you can go to Victoria Falls, Lake Kariba and all these fabulous places but phone in every evening and we’ll let you know. So after about 10 days or something, I phoned in and they said, he’s not coming so you’re on the next plane back to London. I came back alone and they mounted his scenes, I think, at Pinewood, if I remember right. He was just in court scenes, so as isolated section of the film, he played an attorney. Then we filmed those couple of months later or something like that just outside London. When I first met him and introduced him, I said, I’m so grateful to you for not coming to Zimbabwe because I had this fabulous holiday at the film company’s expense. Now here I am at Pinewood being paid all over again for the same job. The great Marlon said to me “Glad to be of service”.

You have done a lot in your career but most people will always remember you for your role in Star Wars. How do you feel about this?

That’s part of the course with the acting game. The greatest thing for the actors of my level, basically a supporting actor, occasionally played leading part but mainly a supporting actor. The main thing is to keep working and you balance a part of which you have a lot to do a film or TV series with something where you don’t, or occasionally you do it just because it pays the bills.

I feel no negativity whatsoever about playing a tiny part and the fact that it has been clearly so focal for so many people is a bonus. You know it’s funny and genuinely touching when people get in touch with me and say “I saw this when I was six and I’ve been a fan ever since”. But I had so little to do. You know if you went to make a cup of tea you’d miss me and they say it doesn’t matter and they’ll always remember that moment. That is quite heartwarming. It’s great to hear.

Earlier this year a Star Wars fan film was released which features your character as a kid. It’s a prequel, an origin story where we see how he meets the Rancor. Have you seen it?

I haven’t seen it. I didn’t know is existed.

I was asked at some point, but after I retired, if I would be up in one of these later films for doing another scene. But I’d retired by then and I thought it was pushing it One of the things you have to remember as an actor is to remain reasonably match fit. You know you have to be up for it. The element of tension in front of a camera or on stage that you can still do your best. I felt having already given it up for a few years. Going back to it would probably not be a good idea.

For which movie was that?

I don’t remember. I’m afraid because I wiped it immediately. All I know is I’ve been retired for 10 years and it was during that 10 years. It was just an inquiry it might not even have come up with a job but I think it might have done because they were moving into this other area and they were I think they wanted to have a bit of a prequel for the Rancor keeper. Maybe they did it with somebody else and I haven’t seen that film that’s possible but I didn’t think that they did it.

The short film I was referring to isn’t official. It’s a fan film. Do you keep up with Star Wars? The new movies, TV series?

I haven’t seen anything of the stuff on television but I think I’ve seen all the films at least once but not the newest one. But I will do because my son will make sure that I do.

You have attended conventions, signing photos and other memorabilia. What is your general feeling to signing things and meeting fans?

Well I haven’t done a lot. I did one, for a different organization. I did one years ago maybe twenty years ago or more which had a bit to do with Star Wars, a bit with James Bond and other productions that I’ve been in. I was offered to attend conventions occasionally but I was always working so I never felt I needed to do it. I thought whatever my current project was I was lucky enough to be doing that. That was what I should be concentrating on. Now being quite a long time retired Zack got in touch with me nearly two years ago and suggested doing one in Kentucky. I thought what the hell. I went and did it and it was thoroughly enjoyable and the three days were packed with people. Then I did one for him ten days ago in Telford. So this is really only my third.

Looking back at Return of the Jedi, what are your feelings towards it?

What can I say. From an acting point of view it wasn’t hugely stretching. But, when I look back I think I’m really lucky to have been part of this legend. I feel that particularly because of the reaction of people and the fact that this very tiny bit of the film is remembered by so many people and think of it fondly. I really like that and probably they think about that much more about that than they do about television or films where I’ve had a lot to do.

I saw the movie in 1983, I was seven at the time, and I still remember you!

(Laughs) Extraordinary. Thank you!

Chris Parsons | 4-LOM | Star Wars

2020-07-19T07:17:00.002-07:00

Chris Parsons

4-LOM, E-3PO, R-3PO, K-3PO Stormtrooper, Snowtrooper, Death Star Droid, Rebel soldier, Snowspeeder pilot (The Empire Strikes Back), C-3PO stand-in (Return of the Jedi)

Interview: August 2016

Your Star Wars adventure started when you were just 18. Can you tell how you got cast?

Yes, I was only about 18 when this magical film was made. I was asked to attend an audition at Elstree studios and was shown into a dressing room where the gold C-3PO suit was laid out, I was informed if I was offered the job it would be as a double for the main actor. Other actors had tried the suit but either it would not fit or they didn’t like the head being screwed into place. This role led to all the other characters that I portrayed.

Which other characters did you play?

I was fortunate enough to be asked to portray E-3PO, R-3PO, a Stormtrooper, a Snowtrooper, Death Star Droid, a Rebel soldier and a Snowspeeder pilot as well as K-3PO and 4-LOM, not forgetting C-3PO. I got the other parts I guess because people thought I was reliable and professional and that is what they look for.

Which of all your Star Wars characters is your favorite?

It has to be 4-LOM because although this character was only in the movie briefly, he seems to have captured the imagination of fans and that has been good for me.

4-LOM has become a cult figure over the years. Have you kept up with his background stories?

It’s amazing that 4-LOM has become so popular and I am very proud to be associated with this character. I have from time to time read the odd story concerning past exploits.

What can you tell about your time on the set?

My time on the set was a different experience every day, you never knew whether you would play one character or four in any given day. They were long hours but none of us seemed to mind as the whole environment was like a family. There were many funny incidents during filming and the stories would take a long time to tell but briefly but one that springs to mind is, while in the Hoth Ice Caves, Darth Vader and Snowtroopers are ready to pounce, the director issues “action”, there is smoke in the caves and when it clears, Darth Vader has lost his cloak due to a Snowtrooper treading on it as he began to move, this generated a lot of laughs among the crew as you can imagine.

In Return of the Jedi you worked as C-3PO’s/Anthony Daniels’ stand-in. Was there any specific reason you didn’t play another character in this movie?

I acted in some capacity as Anthony Daniel’s stand-in when the main stand-in wasn’t available. I was also C-3PO’s double which is not to be confused with a stand-in. I also played a Stormtrooper in this movie.

You played the part of C-3PO on various occasions beside the movie: the children’s program Blue Peter and in the short movie Return of the Ewok. Did Anthony Daniels teach you in any way how to act as C-3PO?

Apart from the above, I was privileged to be asked to attend the World Premiere of The Empire Strikes Back in London as C-3PO and other charity events. Anthony Daniels gave me no input as to C-3PO, I learnt through watching C-3PO at work and practiced the voice. The way C-3PO walks is not exclusive to that character, the suit makes you walk in a certain style. I already had plenty of practice of movement through being in K-3PO and E-3PO so that put me in a good position.

Besides The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi you were in big productions like Raiders of the Lost Ark, For Your Eyes Only and The Shining, but if I’m correct you haven’t worked on a movie since the mid-80’s. What is the reason for this?

Most actors spend a lot of time without work and that means no money, so as I realised unless I hit the big time, I would need to find something beneficial for my future well being. I therefore went into business outside of the film industry with the intention of returning in the future. I am in the position now of being able to look for acting roles without the pressure of financial burdens.

You have been in the convention circuit for some years now. What do you like the most about being a (signing)guest and what is the most remarkable or crazy thing that happened at a show?

At conventions I have been given the insight as to how fans really feel towards certain films, it is a great honour for me to meet these fans because they love the characters I was involved with. There are many different facts I can recount but recently I have been given the honour of being presented at a show, a Stormtrooper costume which is made to the exact specifications of those used of The Empire Strikes Back, this I can use hopefully to benefit charities that I am involved with.

My last question: Star Wars is bigger than ever these days. How do you feel about having been a part of the most popular franchise ever?

To find myself popular with fans after so many years, makes me lost for words. All those years ago we were all working on an interesting project which was at the time just another form of employment. I think all my fellow actors would agree with me that none of us could imagine how immense the Trilogy and the whole saga would become. Very grateful to be a part of it and I hope Disney give me the opportunity of playing a small part in future episodes as that interests me greatly.

I’d love to see you return as 4-LOM and I’m sure many fans will agree! Thank you!

Katie Purvis | Ewok | Star Wars

2020-07-19T07:16:00.001-07:00

Katie Purvis

Ewok (Return of the Jedi)

Interview: July 2019

How did you get started in the movie business?

My dad Jack Purvis was working on Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits movie where he played Wally, one of the six Bandits. One summer’s day he took me with him to the film set when they were filming the iconic Titanic scene. The story goes one of the little guys, Tiny Ross, had broken his arm when he fell whilst on horseback in a previously filmed scene, so Terry asked my dad if I would suit up and be Tinys stand-in for the shoot. So I was taken to costume and make up and transformed from a 14-year-old schoolgirl into Vermin the Time Bandit. That was how I got started in the film business!

And how did you get cast for Return of the Jedi?

Again, I consider myself very privileged in how I got cast in Return of the Jedi. This was due to my dad already having been in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. My dad’s agent asked me if I would be interested in being on the movie to play a teddy bear character a few months before. They were looking for around 50 short people to play Ewoks! As I was only 15 years old, I had to speak to my school to ask permission. At the time, I was taking my Mock O Levels exams, so I did have a bit of study leave during the filming days. So the production gave me a schedule and together with my head teacher we worked my exams around that. This meant I would be filming for two days and then sitting in an exam hall the next! Needless to say this made it very hard to excel at academics, when all I could think about was what was going on in the Ewok Village!

What do you recall of the filming of your scenes for the Return of the Jedi?

The whole 2-week experience was so exciting for me a teenager. I had already met Mark Hamill back in 1976 whilst my dad was working on A New Hope, as he had been to our house for tea, when my dad Jack and his partner Kenny Baker had been working in Cabaret in the evening after a day’s shooting. Dad brought Mark home before taking him out with them to watch their show. Mark was really kind to my brothers and I.
So when I met him again on Return of the Jedi it was just like meeting one of my dad’s friends. I didn’t really get introduced to the other cast members, as it can be really busy on set and my dad being so humble didn’t want to disturb them as he said they would be preparing for their scenes. This was a little disappointing as I had had a schoolgirl crush on Mr. Ford. First day on set my dad and I were standing in our Ewok costumes feeling all fat and furry when Harrison came past and greeted my dad! I was so nervous as I thought finally I am going to get the chance to meet my hero! Unfortunately not to be. Dad and Harrison had a chat and to my dismay my dad didn’t even introduce me and Harrison walked off into his position to begin the day’s scene! I won’t tell you how I expressed my disappointment to my dad about him being responsible for me not meeting my schoolgirl crush!

Did any strange, remarkable or funny things happen on the set?

I’m sure it’s well documented that the Ewok costumes were very uncomfortable and made you very hot and the eyes kept misting up. Kenny Bakers wife, Eileen, when I informed her that I was feeling unwell one afternoon, assisted by lifting her arm up and shouting ‘CUT’ when I told her “I think I’m going to be sick!”
At once the makeup lady rushed onto set and ripped my Ewok head off allowing me to upchuck my lunch! All I remember hearing was the guy from the Electric department shouting “Don’t be sick in my electric box!”

Return of the Jedi was directed by Richard Marquand, while George Lucas produced it. How were both men to work with?

Being young I didn’t really appreciate the fact that I was working alongside such greats as Richard Marquand and George Lucas, again because my dad been there from the start in 1976 so there was a great camaraderie amongst them all. To be honest I was so nervous I just did as I was asked. I think I speak for most of us who played Ewoks, it was the first time we’d met so many other Little People and all been together, so that was more exciting than working with these iconic film directors! It’s only now that I realize how blessed I was to have been part of those movies! And so wish I had taken photos and got autographs.

After Star Wars you starred in some of my favorite 80’s movies: Labyrinth, Willow and Legend. What fond memories do you have of those productions?

I loved working on the films that followed, Legend, Labyrinth and Willow, although Labyrinth was my favorite. Again for me it was about coming of age, I was now 18 and had past my driving test, although I didn’t have my own car My mum let me borrow hers. It was a red mini, which I felt so cool driving! This meant no longer did I have to drive to the studios with my dad, after all how uncool was that! We filmed Labyrinth in the summer months so we had a holding area just outside the Stage where the set had been built. There everyone would hang out, make up people, props and costume, actors and puppeteers! It was great time to be 18 and driving your mums Red Mini! I felt so grown up having just left school!

Your father Jack Purvis has played a lot of parts in the original trilogy, including popular characters like Teebo, the lead Jawa and an Ugnaught. How do look back at his Star Wars legacy?

Star Wars has been part of my family’s life since I was 10 years old. Even now I only have to hear the Star Wars music and I not only get goose bumps but I immediately am taken back in time to so many parts of my life growing up. From school summer fetes that my dad and Kenny Baker opened as guest celebrities The Minitones in the late 70’s to summer shows in Torquay where Jack and Kenny were appearing and where the showgirls would perform a show stopping number with lightsabers to the Star Wars theme tune whilst a prop R2 would spin around. My brothers and I would be watching from the wings most nights. Inevitably one of the showgirls’ lightsabers would break in two as she thrust it too hard and ended up missing someone in the audience. The crowd used love this part of the show, I suppose because Star Wars meant so much to everyone. I know it changed Kenny and Jacks lives, and ours too as our families were able to move to bigger houses in nicer areas. They became well respected as not just musical cabaret act but actors from a successful movie. The movie opened up other opportunities for them that they may never have had had it not been for their small roles in that low budget movie.

What would you regard as your best memory of all the movies you were in. Is there a special moment you’ll cherish forever?

I have been to places I never would have got to go to, had it not been for Star Wars and the love of the Star Wars community.

What are you doing these days? Are you still in the acting business?

Nowadays I no longer act as unfortunately as a result of back surgery I can no longer walk unaided. However, I have three children who would love to appear in any future Star Wars movies, so if there is any casting agents out there reading this were waiting to hear! That would make them the third generation of Purvis family to appear in the franchise. They have already been told by Mr. Mark Hamill himself, to call him Grampa!
So nowadays I am honored to be asked to appear at conventions and related Sci-Fi events.
The Star Wars community, along with some awesome people and actors have helped raise money for many charity events, which I am humbled to say has changed people’s lives. I can truly say I have met some very kind and warm-hearted people, whom I never would have met had it not been for Star Wars and its legacy.
And this is what is so incredible about the Star Wars Story!

Andrea Wickman-Miller | Jawa | Star Wars

2020-07-19T06:59:00.001-07:00

Andrea Wickman-Miller

Jawa (A New Hope)

Interview: December 2019

How did you get cast for Star Wars?

When I was 7 years old my family lived in Death Valley, California. I attended a small school called Death Valley Elementary School. There were only about 60 students K-6 grade. In 1977, a film crew came to our school and asked if they could get 8 kids for the film. They measured the students and choose the 8 that were the height they needed. I happen to be one of the lucky ones chosen!

In which scenes can we see you?

My specific scene is carrying R2-D2, after he had been zapped, to the sandcrawler.

What do you remember about the filming of your scenes?

We had one day of getting fitted in our Jawa outfits and the second day was the actual filming. It was really hard to walk in the Jawa outfits, they were big, heavy and awkward. R2-D2 was really hard to carry. They had to take him apart to lighten him up.

Can you tell any remarkable, unique, strange or funny things that happened?

At one point, during filming, R2-D2’s head falls off!

Mardji the elephant was brought in from San Francisco. She was one of the banthas. It was pretty amazing watching her walk through the town of Furnace Creek. The film crew was there for 2 weeks doing several different types of scenes, CP30 was also there. We were paid a whopping $25 for 2 days work.

What was your reaction when you saw the finished movie for the first time?

During filming, all the adults thought, this looks like a ridiculous and cheesy movie. Our teacher actually said “I know how excited everyone is about the movie, but please remember not all movies make it to the theater.”

My whole family couldn’t believe how amazing it was! We were all just blown away!

Do you keep up with Star Wars? The new movies, TV series?

I do keep up with all things Star Wars. My husband and 3 kids are huge Star Wars fans too, so we have all been enjoying The Mandalorian. We’re also heading to the theater on the first of January 2020 for our second time to watch The Rise of Skywalker.

I bet you have a Jawa merchandise/memorabilia collection in your house?

I know it’s hard to believe, I actually don’t have a lot of Jawa merchandise. Since I’ve started going to convention in the last couple of years my collection is starting to grow more because people have generously gifting me with Jawa items, and I love it!

You have attended conventions, signing photos and other memorabilia. What is your general feeling to signing things and meeting fans?

I have done a few private signing, one convention in Birmingham UK and one in Los Angeles, California.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from my first con, and I absolutely loved it!! They are so much fun and I really enjoy getting to share this common love of Star Wars with fans of all ages! I just love chatting with everyone and hearing their stories of what Star Wars means to them.

What are you currently up to?

I live in San Francisco, California and my husband and I own and operate a gym called The Firm SF. Fitness has always been my true passion. I’ll continue to do a few conventions here and there when I can make it work with my schedule.

Alan Fernandes | Tusken Raider | Star Wars

2020-07-19T06:58:00.001-07:00

Alan Fernandes

Tusken Raider (A New Hope)

Interview: December 2019

How did you get cast as a Tusken Raider in Star Wars?

In the early 1970’s, I worked at Marine World Africa/USA. Peter Gros hired me as a night keeper for his department: land animals. I sometimes worked both swing and graveyard shifts. I checked on the animals hourly, hence they were very familiar with me. I moved on to becoming a handler and trainer. My duties included being a Grand Marshall when the park opened in the morning and wrestling tigers on Tiger Island. I did special events with tigers, elephants, camels and a number of other animals. My job was head of the rides department. Rides included elephants and camels. Mr. Lucas wanted an elephant to play a Bantha and two trainers to play the part of Sandmen. Off I went to Death Valley, along with Mardji, Bob (Spiker, the other trainer/Tusken Raider) and Mac, the tractor trailer driver.

There are several Tusken Raiders in A New Hope. If I’m correct you’re the one pointing the gun at the landspeeder and the second one to ride the Bantha. Is this correct and are there other scenes in which we can see you?

Yes there were several Tusken Raiders in A New Hope. Mardji was the only Bantha and three Tusken Raiders that went down to Death Valley. Thanks to the Magic of Lucasfilm, the film editors were able to duplicate the Bantha and the Tusken Raiders. It was just Star Wars and filmed in 1976, the Premiere was in 1977, today it is called A New Hope. There were just two riders, or trainers, on the Bantha. There were several shots of a solo rider, either Bob or me. Toward the end of filming, you will see two riders, I was the TR riding up front on the Bantha because, Mr. Lucas asked me to stay seated on Mardji as he did not want me running any more, due to the blood from the bridge of my nose caused by the helmet bouncing on my nose. Behind the scenes you can spot me in Bell Bottom blue jeans, a green shirt and jeans vest and another with Mardji and I, looking eye to eye, assuring her that all was ok.

What do you recall of the shooting of your scenes?

I had to look at the terrain through telescope eye tubes, memorize the placement of rocks, look straight ahead and run! In a scene you will see me holding my mask as I ran for a jump onto Mardji. I fell a few times and in another scene you will see me looking down as I walk!

How did working with Mardji go?

Mardji was a Matriarch Elephant, from the time I was a night keeper, she and I worked well together. At feeding time, I would bring into the barn a bale of hay, place it in front of Mardji, she would then put her front feet on the bale to snap the wires. While I pulled the wires free, she would pass the hay to the other Elephants. If there a calf in her charge, she would feed the little one first. If I stood between her and the calf, Mardji would wrap her trunk around me to assure the calf I was no threat. She would scoop up the fallen oats as a treat for a job well done. Mardji was a very patient, peaceful, kind and loving Pachyderm. Is it any wonder with simple eye contact with me, she would remain calm while being fitted as a Bantha and having guys walk on her back?

What would you regard as your best memory from Star Wars: A New Hope?

Everytime I think of this, it brings a smile to my face. When Mardji was finally out of costume, for the last time, she was soaked in sweat. We let her run up to a ridge where a light breeze cooled her. On the ridge, she kept an eye on the Semi, as that was her current home. The Semi below the ridge, out of sight of the highway, 190, I think. People driving on the highway could see Mardji on the ridge, not one car slowed down! I imagine this “Honey did you see that Elephant?” “How much did you drink at the last cantina?” Another memory, as I mentioned in the YouTube “Interview with a Tusken Raider”. was the Semi going downhill into the Valley. The brakes would not hold. We threw rocks under the rear wheels to slow the Semi.

What were your expectations at the time your scenes were filmed? And how did you react when Star Wars was the biggest success of all time. I can imagine you telling everyone you were in it.

I had done two movies already, one was Arabian Nights, I escorted Iris, a camel to the private filming. The second was Pool Party, this time Peter Gros and I took Naji, a Bengal tiger to another filming. Both were one evening trips. But because of the time in the preparation Mardji costume took about eight months, and the trip back and forth was eight days, I realized this was no private film! Star Wars opened in just 32 theaters on May 25, 1977. With 70mm print capability and six track stereo Dolby sound, the Coronet was arguably the best theater in San Francisco. I had my then girlfriend drive my ‘74 Gold Cadillac Sedan Deville by the Coronet. I sat in the back seat, mirror sunglasses, waving at the moviegoers. The line was around the block! People heard that I was in the original Star Wars by word of mouth. It was only in 2017 when Steve DeMaderios ‘discovered’ a Tusken Raider recovering at a Post-Acute in Santa Rosa. Then the fun began! Steve grew up with Casey Langfelder, a sound editor with Skywalker Sound. In early September, Casey took Steve and me to Skywalker Ranch where I met Randy Thom, director of sound design. I also ran into Ron Howard while he was putting finishing touches on Solo: a Star Wars Story.

You have been in the convention circuit. What do you like the most about being a guest and what is the most remarkable or craziest thing that happened at a show?

The first two conventions I was accompanied by C. Andrew Nelson, who plays Darth Vader. Andrew showed me the workings of an event, he would direct fans over to me. There was one time in Modesto, hometown of Mr. Lucas a young fan was walking by, spotted a life size cut-out of Darth Vader. Andrew asked “Want to come over to the Dark Side?” She was jumping and screaming before she finally got his signature! In the London Film Con, we were treated like royalty. Everywhere I went, I was accompanied by a Handler. On the day that was the busiest. I had two handlers. A few of the fans that brought items to sign really impressed me. Posters were rolled into carrying tubes with shoulder straps. Posters that had to be flat were in wood cases on wheels! On the three days I was in attendance, I signed close to a thousand items.

A New Hope is your only Star Wars film. Why didn’t you return for the sequels?

For the longest time, word went around that I was dead, well that is true. In 2010 I had an accident and I was dead for two or three minutes. I was put in a Medically Induced Coma for nine days. Steve said to me “Do you know that you are a Celebrity?” I answered “like hell.” It was only after he took me to the Ranch and I asked him “Why is everybody looking at me?” His answer: “Now do you believe me?”

What are you doing these days? Are you still in the movie business?

I am enjoying the Convention Circuit, cities that I have visited on business in a past career, but now, I always meet new people who turned out to become new friends! In my visit to San Antonio, Jessie saw that I was wearing a Texas belt buckle, the next day he gave me a Silver buckle he had won Wild Hog Catching – World Champion. A few nights ago I made contact with Peter Gros. Peter is an award winning Wildlife Expert. On behalf of Mutual of Omaha he is involved in a nationwide program on captive wildlife. I am thinking, Peter and I should as a team once again! Meanwhile, I will continue writing my book.

What kind of book is that?

I am working with Andrew at Dorrance Publishing. It is a three part book. First part is about growing up in East Africa, second part growing up in London and France and Spain. Part three is my life in the USA. My lady is on me to finish writing! Talk about Fifty shades of Grey!

Rusty Goffe | Kabe | Star Wars

2020-07-19T06:57:00.001-07:00

Rusty Goffe

Kabe, Jawa, GONK (A New Hope)

Interview: August 2018

How did you get cast for the first Star Wars movie?

Way back in the 70’s there weren’t many dwarf actors. You had Kenny Baker who played R2-D2 and his partner Jack Purvis who was the chief Jawa and there was me! They tried me out for R2-D2 in case Kenny couldn’t cope inside the droid. Luckily he was alright so they cast me as a Jawa and it followed on from there.

One day I went into the studio and the special effects guy said “bend over and touch your toes”, which I did and they put some suit over me. They called George Lucas and said “George, how is this for a character?” George said “I love it, and we will call that a GONK”. So, that’s how the GONK droid happened.

The third character I played was Kabe in the Mos Eisley cantina. She was originally played by an elderly lady called Gilda. The costume was absolutely horrendous like every other costume was and she collapsed and fainted. She couldn’t continue so George Lucas said “Rusty, get in the dress”. That was it! I played three characters!

You mentioned the GONK. The most famous scene of him is in the sandcrawler making the legendary GONK noise. That’s you!

Yeah, that’s me! And then you’ll see a Jawa, that’s Jack Purvis. Right after that you see the GONK again with a Jawa, but this time Jack is the GONK and I am the Jawa, we switched roles and it was hysterical.

Were you in Tunisia to film Jawa scenes?

No, I was only filming at the Elstree Studios.

So, all your Jawa scenes are the interior shots.

Yes, and also in the cantina when Luke comes down the stairs with Obi-Wan you see a Jawa rushing around them that is me as well!

What was the funniest thing that happened on the set?

That was when Sir Alec Guinness was coming with Luke in the cantina. George Lucas instructed me to rush towards them and just pass them quickly on their left. Before it was ‘action’ the first assistant director said “pass Sir Alec on the right”. That was the last direction I got, but no one told Sir Alec that, so I nearly knocked him over. He thought I was going left but I went right. I said “sorry” and then George Lucas said “what the hell are you doing, you should have gone left” but luckily the assistant director said he told me to. So, I was exonerated. So in short: the funniest thing was I nearly killed the star of the show. (laughs)

(Laughs)

Without a lightsaber.

What do you regard as the best memory you have of your time working on Star Wars?

No one knew what we were doing. It was fantastic to film everything and I would do it all over again if I could go back. George Lucas and Gary Kurtz were like two young college guys making a movie with all these lovely actors. We didn’t know how big it was going to be. It went from a cheap budget film to 48 billion dollars later!

When did you see Star Wars for the first time?

That was two months after it opened. I sat in the cinema and loved it when those spaceships came from behind us. I was “wow, this is it”. The clever bit was, which I didn’t realize then, the way John Williams wrote the Star Wars theme. The first note of the Star Wars theme is the same as the last note of the 20th Century Fox theme. (Starts humming the Fox theme) So, the brain didn’t have to think. It flows if you know what I mean.

Now that’s some cool trivia.

Everyone at the cinema was happy. It had spaceships, swashbuckling pirates, swordfights. It’s what the world needed. Well done George Lucas.

You didn’t return in The Empire Strikes Back. How come?

Because I was doing other movies at the time like History of the World Part I with Mel Brooks, a movie I wanted to do. It was fantastic with those guys. I can proudly say I was in the first Star Wars, the baby of the franchise.

One of your characters, Kabe, got her name and backstory in the late 80’s and mid 90’s. Have you ever read her short story in the anthology book Tales of the Mos Eisley cantina?

No, I haven’t. I wasn’t aware of that.

Well, I can absolutely recommend it as it’s a great story.

I will definitely look for that! As I said that costume was so hot. You couldn’t breathe in it and it was so claustrophobic. It wasn’t something for every person. Still, it was an unbelievable time.

You were in your twenties back then right?

I was very young, yes. I’m still young now. (laughs)

(Laughs). That’s a great way to end this interview. Thanks!

Nick Laws | Production Assistant | Star Wars

2020-07-19T06:37:00.001-07:00

Nick Laws

Production assistant (The Empire Strikes Back)

Interview: December 2019

You were in your early twenties when you worked as a production runner for The Empire Strikes Back. How did you get this job?

I failed my exams to go to University so I thought I should try a ‘different’ career to what was normally considered when leaving school. A career that did not ask for exam qualifications! I became the ‘Post boy’ at 20th Century Fox in London…and worked in the mail room. During my time there, the Production Office for The Empire Strikes Back started their pre-production before moving to Elstree Studios. I delivered the mail to them! A few months later when they were at Elstree Studios, the General manager at 20th Century Fox received a call saying that the Production had ‘fired’ their runner and could I join them at Elstree Studios? I was allowed to leave and join the Empire Production Office.

Did you see A New Hope before you got the Empire job? If you did I bet it was a fantastic job for someone your age at that time?

I had seen A New Hope before joining 20th Century Fox but I had no idea how the film industry worked or what was involved to make the Production. It was an exciting prospect but I don’t think I fully realized how amazing an opportunity it really was! The prospect of working on it was a little frightening at first and I had to rent a small room to be near the studio.

What were your exact tasks as a production runner?

To go round to all the departments in the studio and deliver memos or information from the Production Office. I also made the tea and coffee and got the sandwiches for lunch!

I would then have to help with any photocopying of documents and call sheets. I would then take the call sheet to the Set for distribution. I would also help to get supplies for the actors dressing rooms when required.

Do you have any favorite anecdotes?

I remember the actors were always very friendly and joking, particularly Carrie. I was always in awe of them and most of the crew! I had my 21st birthday during filming and was given a huge birthday card signed by all the actors, crew (including George Lucas on a rare vist?!), Gary Kurtz, Irvin Kershner… I still have it! I was also given a set of Star Wars prints signed by Ralph McQuarrie. I always remember him being a very quiet and good man. The cast and crew also had a collection of money (£500) to enable me to buy a car (a Mini!) so that I could travel back home each day and move out of the local rented room! Amazing generosity!

Did you get to meet any of the principal actors or even George Lucas or Lawrence Kasdan?

I met all the actors as I sometimes had to pass on messages, but I never met George Lucas during The Empire Strikes Back. I met him briefly later when working on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. I was not aware of Lawrence Kasdan coming to the Production Office.

I bet almost no one knows that Luke’s bionic hand we see at the end of The Empire Strikes Back is actually your hand. I am sure there’s a good story attached to this.

I was working in the Production office, when one of the Assistant Directors came in to say that they were looking for a ‘young, virginal hand’! I was recruited! I went to the 2nd Unit Stage for the rest of the morning and the false forearm was attached and a number of takes were filmed. It was fun being out of the office. Strangely, the ‘fame’ of Luke’s hand has grown more in recent years than at the time!

After Star Wars you worked on some real classic movies like The Dark Crystal and Superman III as an assistant director. You were still in your twenties back then. What were your experiences on these movies?

The Dark Crystal was not a great experience for me. I was still very inexperienced as an Assistant Director and lacked confidence in what I was doing. I was looking after the actors and performers as they developed movements for the various creatures. I would have preferred to be on the set… but I did not have enough experience at the time.

Later, I worked on the Flying Unit of Superman II at Pinewood Studios. It was not a job I was particularly looking forward to, but it turned out to be really enjoyable with a good crew! The flying ‘technology’ was very secret at the time!

In the mid 90’s you worked on the Lucasfilm TV series Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, again as an assistant director for several episodes. Did they remember you from Empire? How do you look back at this groundbreaking TV series?

No… there was no connection to The Empire Strikes Back. I think `I got the job more on the basis of having worked in various foreign countries and I had just finished working on a film in war torn Mozambique called A child from the South. The Young Indy series was groundbreaking in so many ways. Even now, I am amazed how much we achieved with a very small crew, often filming in remote locations, without the use of mobile phones or email! The producer Rick McCallum took so many bold, innovative decisions and it’s amazing what was achieved. He and George Lucas wanted to get away from the Feature film ‘circus’ of a big crew and wanted to do it with a small ‘guerrilla’ team going in to each country using local crew and resources. I worked on episodes in Spain, Italy, Kenya, Turkey and what was then Czechoslovakia.

Even now on productions, I try to think of how a production can work more simply and efficiently?! That is the legacy of Young Indy. In the beginning it was fun, and we worked really hard in amazing locations and situations.

Your career spans over four decades. What are you most proud of, and what was your favorite project?

So many memories and experiences to consider!

I am proud of having worked on The Empire Strikes Back as a piece of cinema History! I am also proud of having worked with one of the greatest directors, David Lean on A Passage to India. I have been lucky to work with some great assistant directors like Gary White, Guy Travers, Patrick Cadell, who helped me in my career, and showed by their example how to treat everyone with respect and courtesy. I had an amazing experience working on a film in the Himalayas, Ladakh, called Samsara. The film was in Tibetan and it also gave me the brief opportunity to direct Tibetan monks in the opening scene! I have enjoyed working in harsh environments; The Claim and Touching the void, but some of my best experiences have been in rural areas of Africa dealing with local villagers in Nigeria and Kenya!

Working with Sally Potter on a film called Yes was a great experience in so many ways. We filmed in London, Belfast, Beirut, Dominican Republic and Cuba on a really low budget and wages!

The Constant Gardener in Kenya was a life changing film for me and my Family. My two young sons and my wife travelled with me, and as the boys were in a local school in Nairobi, my wife had the opportunity to learn to fly. After getting her pilot’s license we decided to travel onwards to South Africa for her to take a commercial pilot’s course. We went for a one year family adventure…but have remained in South Africa for the past 15 years! My wife is now working as a police helicopter pilot!

I am currently working on the Netflix series Narcos – Mexico which is an enjoyable challenge!

From a career point of view, I am proud of having been a producer on the British feature film Fish Tank which was directed by Andrea Arnold.

Lorne Peterson | Visual Effects | Star Wars

2020-07-19T06:36:00.001-07:00

Lorne Peterson

Visual Effects (original trilogy & prequel trilogy)

Interview: December 2019

Lorne Peterson worked on the first six Star Wars films, was one of the original members when Industrial Light & Magic was founded in the mid 70’s and won an Oscar for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In December 2019 I had the following interview with him at the EchoBaseCon.

You’re one of the first crewmembers of ILM in the 70’s. What was it like working there back then in Van Nuys?

I was only hired for two months and I knew a lot from industrial design. It was it was a wonderful experience; we all became friends. I was only twenty-nine years old the day I started, and a lot of us had gone to the same colleges. Some of us knew each other from one college or another and friends were brought together. So, it was it was very much like to be almost in college art department but with more money. Way more money.

You are also featured as Rebel in the Yavin 4 scene. What are your memories from the filming of these scenes?

Well, you know, that it wasn’t supposed to be me originally. There were just natives in Guatemala and one of them was going to be the tower. But he was too stiff. You know, he wasn’t a good actor. Not that I’m a great actor. I was of the three of us who went down to Guatemala the only one that didn’t have children. I wasn’t married, no children. So, I volunteered to work on the tower. You know, we only had three wires down now, and you have to stay really still for a while. Let it go so it wouldn’t go like this. (makes a back and forth gesture) I’d spend for hours and hours up there waiting for the sun to be just right, in the costume and with the helmet. It was a fun adventure. It was a little bit like Indiana Jones. We flew into Guatemala and then they put us on a military airplane, the DC-3. No pain at all. It had the seats and instead of sitting like this you sat against the side of the window. The seats were just made out of scraps of fabric, so there were bags of stuff on the inside. They were transported into the jungle. It was not a commercial flight, but it was a fun.

George Lucas had spent a lot of his budget on effects, but it took quite some time before ILM had produced an effect that was usable. I read that at one moment the pressure became really high. How did you experience this?

Yeah, it was very high. You know, when he came back from England, we’d hope that there were more of those special effects done than there were. The reason that a lot of it wasn’t done yet was we were still building the equipment, the cameras and the rudimentary computers that were used at the time. So they were actually built on the premises and so there were two shots that we did right at the beginning to show George that they were possible to do without going through a lot of optical processes and that was the detail of the gun firings, the large gun like this firing on the Death Star. And then the other one was the drop of the escape pod with R2-D2 and C-3PO. They showed me a sketch of it and they said, I needed to make the model quick so I made it in a week.

After the huge success of Star Wars, the expectations for the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, must have been big. Was this the case and can you tell something about your experiences when ILM was suddenly becoming THE effects company?

Well, it was pretty unusual because we didn’t expect it to happen. There was no expectation that it would become a blockbuster. My partner and I and the people at ILM, we rented the equipment back from George Lucas and did Battlestar Galactica. George wasn’t really happy about that, doing a film that was a little bit similar to Star Wars. But we had to make money, but then Star Wars did make a lot of money. So then George Lucas asked six of us to move up north to start over again in an empty warehouse and so that’s what we did. We went up, there weren’t even walls inside the building. We laid out two by fours like where we wanted the rooms instead of doing a drawing. We just basically took a bunch of two by fours and made different rooms in the hallway and then had the carpenter start to build after that.

Ok, what is your favorite moment or memory regarding working on the Star Wars movies?

Yeah, well, that’s a little bit hard. There are so many memories over 40 some years. Like I said, I was only hired for two months and the reason I was stayed on longer was that because I work in industrial design, I knew of a material called Superglue. Now everybody can buy superglue but you could only get it industrially at the time. When I arrived, the first few days they were using a five-minute epoxy, which you had to keep mixing over and over again. So I took a pencil and I cantilevered it over the edge of the table, then put a little drop of superglue and then I moved my hand and it stayed there.

Everyone asked how do you do that? I said, we have to get this stuff. It makes it much faster and stronger and better. So that’s the reason that they never said “well we only hired you for two months and you have to go”.

From the beginning you’ve worked closely with George Lucas. How would you describe him?

He’s maybe the contrast of Steven Spielberg. George is a really quiet, relatively quiet person and he certainly knows what he wants. But usually the set is set up that there isn’t as much activity. He’s concentrating on what exactly he wants. Spielberg is somebody who… activity can happen all around him and people with clipboards, telephones, telling you’re your mother or wife is calling. Do this, do that. And then he’s happy to do that. George Lucas is different. He would like more contemplating to himself what it should be.

How was it to work with Lucas?

Well, I use an example that when we were doing Empire, I had saved a bunch of questions for him about the models and he was coming to the model shop that day, so I wanted to ask him what he wanted on this model, what he wanted with that. I started asking the first question, and he stopped me. He said, well, that sounds like your job to me. It was like, that isn’t what he wants. You didn’t think of that as his job. He already hired me because he liked what I did and you do whatever you want. “I like whatever you want to show” is a real joy to work with. You didn’t feel he was micromanaging anything.

You have created a lot of models for the Star Wars movies. Which one stands out for you personally?

The Millennium Falcon was a real favorite because that was one of the first models I worked on. But then also Slave I because what had happened at that time, the model shop was getting bigger and bigger and I was having less time than I could actually put my hands on a model. When Slave I came along, I really liked the design of it. So I said, well, I’m going to split off and devote more of my personal time to working on it with two other people; Ease Owyoung and Samuel Zolltheis to do that particular model. I was really satisfied with the look of it.

Is there any model that when you look back, you’re thinking, well, I should have made different.

I never quite thought of it that way. Granted there are some ships that were in the distance, the fleet ships that were less important. It’s just like if it was going to be close to camera, I would have done more work on them. But they were far away from camera and it wasn’t as important.

You have been in the effects business for more than three decades. You have witnessed the evolution of effects, from models and stop-motion to CGI. What is your own opinion regarding this evolution and where will it go the next 10, 20 years?

I was very worried right at first and other people were worried that everybody kept hanging around and there were books like What color is your parachute or How to change your career? when CG first came along. But it didn’t work out that way. I mean, Dennis Muren said one time “I think the model shop has maybe two or three years left and that’s it”. That was 25 years ago so it actually worked really well. There was a real hand-in-glove relationship because they did opticals a lot better. They could combine images here and there seamlessly. Whereas in optical, it took a lot of work to get an almost perfect shot and the many times that bluescreen would show up around the edge and the mattes would show up, that kind of thing. So that worked really well. But it is true that CGI kept getting better and better. But it did kind of push the envelope even for the model shop, because the model shop, if you’re in the presentation they started doing bigger environmental models and with a lot of action involved in it. We were still doing really satisfying things. I’d say right now some films like Transformers are almost more just a cartoon. They don’t rely much on reality. But there are other films where they tried to be seamless, that it just doesn’t show at all. It’s pretty good. I still like the look of a model and a model shot, the atmosphere, the feeling that it’s actually there. Sometimes CG seems like a different world, that it just isn’t the same world that we live in. But it depends on how much time and money they spend on a shot.

What do you think of the effects of the new modern Star Wars movies?

I still would have preferred real shots with the Millennium Falcon. The one thing that stands out in my mind as the biggest problem for me was the red sand. Was that in The Last Jedi? Yeah. I just thought how could how could sand be white on the top and then red below? Normally things oxidize with air on the top. So it’s more likely that something underground when exposed to air would be rust red, but not red red. It looks like a cake. When the ships would fly over, I didn’t like that at all.

I think it was done for the dramatic effect.

Yeah, and also, I think it was a pity that they darkened the X-Wing because the way that we had made the X-Wings, we’d made them light so the oil drips, the aging and everything showed up on the light grey. When you make the model darker grey, it disappears. You don’t get to see all that kind of thing.

They look brand new.

Yes, they don’t need to look that way.

I prefer the old ones as well. So, there’s an incredible list of movies you have worked on. Star Wars, Indiana Jones. Which one is your favorite?

Oh, my God, I don’t know if I could pick one. One of the last ones I did was the series of Pirates of the Caribbean films and that was really satisfying to work on those ships were a lot of fun. But not every project was a lot of fun. Some of them had to be faster, late nights and all the tough and hard work to do, like the Executor. We did the Executor it had to be done in seven weeks and we just worked around the clock. We slept for five hours and then got back to work.

That was one of the biggest models.

I think, of that kind of models. Yeah, it was about three and a half meters long. Something like this. It had a lot of technical problems to solve like how do you cantilever something so narrow and thin out long and not have a droop and that kind of thing. It was made out of a honeycomb aluminum that they use in airplanes to the bulkheads and things like that. They’re very, very light, but strong and that’s how we made it.

It looks like a masterpiece.

I think we calculated that it had something like tens of thousands little lights that were etched into brows. We didn’t we didn’t have to make each hole. It was like a miniature neon behind these brass panels that have all these little holes etched through the brass.

Well, 200.000 might be too many, but I know it was like tens of thousands.

Regarding your work on Star Wars: how do you back at the movies and your time at ILM?

I sometimes describe to somebody it’s as if you walk around in the world and it’s a bubble that you walk with. I think I’ll probably be rotting in my grave and the people are still watching Star Wars, that kind of thing. Very few human beings ever get to experience something like that. It’s a body of work, of accomplishment that like travels with me all the time. So, it’s really an unusual experience.