Star Wars Minute 112: Wormie Wins Big

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I'm sure if Beru were still alive she would have stuck a clipping of this to her space fridge.

Date

November 5th, 2013

Summary

Luke’s X-wing speeds down the trench; the three TIE fighters, still in perfect unbroken formation, tail close behind.

Guests

Tim Kreider

Notes

Film

• Starts with Biggs being scared and telling Luke that he'll hang back and not get too engaged with the battle; ends with Biggs still being scared and saying that the TIE fighters are coming in faster this time and he can't hold them and still being scared!
• Great music in this minute / scene.

Podcast

• Biggs is quite the disappointment in this minute. Not such a hero after all. Everyone is going to pieces except for Luke, or Wormie. Basically, Wormie wins big in this movie! 'Wormie wins big' was a) the original title of the movie and b) the newspaper headline on Tatooine after the battle, complete with a High School photo of Luke.
• Are Darth Vader's wing men the elite guys or just the 'first off the rack'? This is not clear from the corridor scene and they certainly don't fly like elite pilots. In the Tag and Bink comic mini-series by Kevin Rubio, Tag and Bink are the TIE fighter pilots - they were trying to escape the Death Star but ran into Darth Vader in the hall.
• Referenced: "Troops", Forrest Gump.
• In regards to the towers (which Luke has to tell Biggs to be quiet about), there are two next to each other in this minute. How does this work and they're not well designed for shooting down into the trench. Perhaps this is all because the Death Star's defenses are designed for a large scale attack, not X-wings. Pete and Tim say that it would be like a battleship trying to shoot a canoe or a guy in a 'frogsuit'.
• The towers being illuminated green by their own lasers is a great shot.

ExpandTim says:

  That in 1977 the only way to see Star Wars was to go and see it in the theater.
  The towers being illuminated green by their own lasers was one of those scenes that always reminds Tim that "he's seeing Star Wars".
  There's something about that scene / part.
 Alex says:
  Someone seeing this movie for the first time in 1977 would definitely have gone ga-ga for it.
  The trench run alone is awesome, never mind Banthas,  cantina monsters, people being force-choked,
  Darth Vader, planets blowing up, Jawas etc. (Note - what a great list of things!)
 Tim says:
  Also, compared to other children's entertainment at the time, it was fantastic.
  For a kid in the early-70s the choices were H.R. Pufnstuf ("media created by drug addicts"), Benji movies, terrible live action movies - and that's it.
  Star Wars was fun and cartoonish, but done really seriously.
  It looked like a million bucks - and had aliens, bigfoot, an evil samurai warrior in space that all looked real.
  There was also unbelievable special effects and an orchestral soundtrack and it just blew kid's minds and they couldn't get enough of it.
 Pete says:
  There were clearly no cigar chomping executives in the room saying that it's good enough for kids at any point.
 Tim says:
  He was watching something like 'Sigmund and The Sea Monsters' with a cartoonist and they could the feel the contempt for children behind it.

 Tim shares his Star Wars memories at this point:
  His mum had a co-worker that was pestering her to take her kids to see the movie every day.
  They went the whole summer without seeing it.
  Tim didn't know much about the movie or what was in it, although he knew bits and pieces (e.g. light swords).
  He was 'playing Star Wars' before he saw the movie.
  He ended up seeing it on a stop in New York during a road trip to Canada.
  He was 10 years old, so was at the optimal Star Wars viewing age (like being 20 years old at Woodstock).
  Basically, it was the one thing in the world the he was the right age for.
  Star Wars boggled his mind. He lost track of the plot about half way through and just focused on them getting out of the Death Star.
  At the end his mind was blown and it was the greatest thing he had ever seen.
  On the way to the car he asked his parents what they thought of it.
  Tim's mum laughed and said it was the dumbest film she had ever seen.
  In Tim's mind this lead to a serious falling out with his mum.
  They managed to patch it up over the years but he was very disappointed with his mum and even a bit hurt.
  Years later he took his mum to see The Phantom Menace and, ironically, his mum liked it but Tim didn't.
  His mum liked Jar Jar and thought he was funny (Pete and Alex suggest that perhaps Tim's mum can do TPM Minute for them).
  Quick discussion about grown-ups seeing the movie in 1977.
  Alex's Dad loved it (he was already a 'sci-fi nerd') so after he saw it he had to take the kids to see it asap.
  He was probably like Tim's mum's co-worker.

• Luke shouldn't have to tell R2-D2 to lock down the stabilizer. It would be like telling your computer to do computer stuff.
• Wedge says that the enemy fighters are coming in at 'point 3' which seems to be a direction that is directly behind them. What scale are they using given this? Luke, and everyone, seem to play fast and loose with units of measure throughout the movie.
• Wedge gets hit, apologizes and just flies away. He should have done more to help - perhaps a 180-degree skid to shoot at the TIE fighters. Also, Tim says that the damage doesn't look at that bad; maybe it's just a confidence issue for Wedge. Luke dismisses him as another incompetent trained pilot.
• Wedge's R2 pilot should have been able to fix the damage - but perhaps Wedge told him to shut-up so that he could fly away and join Brown Squadron.
• Luke has a freakishly close relationship to his R2 unit.
• Droids in the Star Wars universe have an interesting relationship with humans. The good-guy humans are friendly to the droids whereas the bad-guy humans are mean to them. On the other hand, Luke may be the only one that treats them with any kind of respect - although he does have his moments.
• Alex imagines a scene in which Wedge is talking to the Brown Squadron pilot, and they are both explaining / justifying why they aren't in the battle. Wedge probably looked at himself in the mirror after this incident and decided to not run away next time.

Meta Minute

• 17:34 podcast episode length.
• Reminder of the Star Wars Minute live event about The Holiday Special.

Quotes

• Pete: We are so close to the end; I can't even believe it.
• Pete: We are up to minute 112; that's 1... 1... 2.
• Alex: Like a big-shot... like a Biggs-shot guy!
• Alex: I understand it's quite a thing to see.

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2013/11/05/minute-112-wormie-wins-big/

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