Star Wars Minute 72: This...Thing

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Date

September 10th, 2013.

Summary

The giant Wookiee and his two guards enter the old grey security station.

Guests

Jackie Kashian

Notes

Film

• Starts with the elevator doors closing as Han, Luke and Chewie travel up to the detention area, and ends with the prison officer clearing the transfer with his boss.
• The number 1138 is spoken / referenced for the first time in this minute.
• Referenced: THX 1138 (George Lucas' student film that was turned into a feature).

Podcast

• Humorous moment when Han, Luke and Chewie are facing the wrong way when the elevator doors open. This is the first sign that they may not belong there. And Luke's helmet still doesn't fit.
• The prison officers and Stormtroopers in the detention area are not very alert and give our heroes plenty of time and lee-way. Although they do have a lot of guns for an area basically in the middle of The Death Star.
• Referenced: Scotty from Star Trek, and then Star Trek again later on.
• Jackie raises the excellent point that shooting guns on a space station, thereby running the risk of puncturing it and getting sucked out into space, may not be the smartest idea. This raises the question of how far a laser bolt from a blaster can travel and how many levels it can penetrate before it stops. Same question for lightsabers if they are dropped.
• Obi-Wan plays hide-and-seek with no-one.
• Are Obi-Wan and Darth Vader constantly thinking about each other? They sense each other in this sequence.
• The blinking lights on the doors behind Vader do not seem to be in sync. (Pete is easily distracted.) All of the lights on The Death Star seem to be a bit random.
• Why are there so many computer control panels in a cell block area?
• There is a fire extinguisher behind Darth Vader in one scene. Alex makes the point that Darth Vader / Anakin is very concerned about fire. Maybe Darth Vader is actually doing a safety inspection in this sequence.
• Darth Vader's chest panel are controls to his life support systems - which seems a dangerous place to put them as anyone can reach them. However Jackie makes the point that they would have to know his PIN number <sic> first. Maybe Darth Vader could be a walking ATM. Or is the control panel like an old 70s tape deck or eight-track device?
• The corridor seems to be lit by natural light. There may also be a hydroponics station / room on The Death Star somewhere (The Empire has to eat).
• The guy in the detention area calls Chewbacca "this thing". Other racist remarks are made about Chewbacca elsewhere in the movie.
• This Empire characters in this sequence do not have helmets or masks on so seeing them get shot later is quite a shock. Alex points out that this was probably done to draw a distinction between Han and Luke (who are dressed as Stormtroopers at this point) and the Imperial Officers. If everyone was dressed as Stormtroopers then the gun fight would be very confusing.
• What are the plaques on the wall in the detention area? Whatever they are, they get a shot a lot in the next minute.
• Pete says that the name of the prison warden is Shann Childsen.

Meta Minute

• 14:39 podcast episode length.
• Pete talks about his old Betamax system.
• Jackie remembers her Mum really liking Star Wars the first time she saw it. Alex's Dad also really liked the movie. This was quite unusual for adults at the time - before they were allowed to be quite as dorky as they are now.
• Alex mentions that he likes to put cross-references into his cartoons for future audiences (similar to what George Lucas does).
• The sign-off in this podcast episode includes a reminder to check out SWM on the various social networks. This still isn't a regular feature of the sign-offs at this stage of the podcast.

Quotes

• Pete: As Obi-Wan "No way, Darth Vader!"
• Alex: As Obi-Wan to Darth Vader "Last time I saw you you were a smoldering piece of garbage by the side of a lava lake."
• Alex: You're doing Star Wars second now; that's a totally different podcast. Pete: We'll have to hook you up with those guys; they're crazy. Alex: Way too much time on their hands.
• Jackie: I liked REM before they were cool. (Referenced: REM.)
• Alex: You can edit those all together, right Pete? Pete: Oh, we'll see.

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2013/09/10/minute-72-this-thing/

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