Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the new This Week In Star Wars. And last week in Star Wars, too. Yes, once again travel screwed me up, but the good news is that means you get another whopper of a column filled with Star Wars goodness!
I have a little bit of travel left in the coming months (that I know of), but God willing I'll get my shit back in order and get this column back to a regular weekly release.
Some real good stuff in this one, so let's get to it.
October 25th, 1942 - Gloria Katz born.
I recently highlighted the huge impact Gloria Katz and her partner in life and crime Willard Huyck had on Star Wars as we know it when Mr. Huyck's birthday came around last month. Huyck and Katz worked closely with Lucas on American Graffiti and would later write Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for Lucasfilm (and you know where I stand on that misunderstood masterpiece), but it's not as well known that they did a dialogue pass on Star Wars before it went before cameras and that pass was the crucial step that brought Lucas' grand vision into focus.
Katz and Huyck brought so much personality to the script. “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope” “Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy” and “Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?” are from their pass.
While they didn't get a credit, Katz and Huyck helped shape Star Wars at the exact perfect time to help create the iconic galaxy full of characters that still resonate today. Thank you both for your contributions and happy birthday, Gloria.
October 21st, 1956 - Carrie Frances Fisher born.
Imagining Star Wars without Carrie Fisher is damn near impossible. You can say the same for all three of the leads, actually, but there's something very specific Fisher brought to Princess Leia that stands out for me. She was ridiculously gorgeous without being the standard damsel in distress. When Han and Luke show up to rescue her she immediately takes a position of leadership, bossing Luke around and dishing out insults to the cocky reward-hungry pilot.
Throughout the entire original trilogy, Fisher's Leia proved to be quite an empowering female figure. She was a leader, but not at the expense of her femininity. The infamous gold bikini sequence in Return of the Jedi underlines this spectacularly. What could be typical sci-fi exploitation is actually played to show her power at playing the part of eye candy while all the pieces move into place for her to step up and take out the galaxy's most reviled gangster, literally using the chain of her oppressor against him.
I'm beyond excited to see where Leia is after all these years come December 18th. Happy Birthday, Ms. Fisher and thanks for all you've done for us over the years. Yes, including Under the Rainbow. Especially Under the Rainbow.
October 19th, 1969 - Vanessa Marshall born.
Ms. Marshall is the voice of Hera on Rebels, a show which I geek out on a lot in this column, so I'll spare you another one. I'll just say it's awesome and Hera's a great new addition to the Star Wars Universe, thanks in large part to Ms. Marshall's voice work. Happy Birthday!
October 25th, 1969 - Nika Futterman born.
It's a banner couple of weeks for strong women in Star Wars. It sees the birthdays of Princess Leia, Hera and Asajj Ventress, who was poised as the big new villain in The Clone Wars cartoons and grew into a fascinatingly three dimensional character as the show went on. What could have been a simple new big bad apprentice became something else completely as the series unfolded.
Nika Futterman voiced Asajj and made a hell of an impact. Great job, Ms. Futterman and happy Birthday!
October 13th, 1976 – George Lucas and Alan Dean Foster met and discussed Splinter of the Mind's Eye.
At this point George Lucas was deep into post on Star Wars and his thoughts on what was to come after were often contradictory and vague, which is one of the reasons Splinter of the Mind's Eye is such an interesting read. The adventure in the story is pretty slight and forgettable, but it's interesting to see Foster and Lucas continue the idea of Luke and Leia's potential romance.
The first draft of the book would be finished in July of 1977 and published in February of 1978.
October 12th, 1977 - Variety announces a sequel to Star Wars.
This was the first word that Star Wars fans were going to get a sequel. Remember that in this day and age that was not a guaranteed thing. Minus The Godfather Part II sequels weren't usually successful. Also remember this was long before George would rebrand Star Wars as Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope (which didn't happen until the April 1981 re-release).
October 20th, 1977 - Sam Witwer born.
Most people who are lucky enough to voice a character in the Star Wars Universe (expanded or otherwise) don't get to actually look like their character. Sam Witwer is a notable exception. His Secret Apprentice character in the very awesome video game The Force Unleashed was modeled after him. He didn't stop there, though. He's also provided many voices for Star Wars toons, most prominently doing Darth Maul for The Clone Wars.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Witwer on the set of The Mist and ever since then we've kept in touch. He's a legit geek, despite the fact that he looks like he should be Derek Zoolander's stiffest competition, and is the man most directly responsible for talking me back into Star Wars fandom after what seems like years of prodding me to give The Clone Wars a chance after hating the movie version so much. Thanks for that, Sam, and happy birthday, buddy!
October 24th, 1978 – Lawrence Kasdan finishes Draft 4 of The Empire Strikes Back.
Clocking in at 163 pages, this draft represented the best efforts of Kasdan to balance character and action, finding that sweet spot “between speed and any kind of respite.”
In this draft the snow monsters are named Wampas and Yoda reveals himself as the Jedi Master Luke is searching for by speaking with Ben Kenobi's ghostly voice.
October 12th, 1979 - (EU) Han Solo's Revenge published.
This is the second book in Brian Daley's Han Solo novel trilogy, one of the earliest EU spin-offs.
I've heard good things about this series, which I will read some day. I'm fascinated by looking back at these stories after having a more complete look at how Han Solo turned out over a 30 year period. When Daley wrote these books Solo was very much just a pirate with a conscience and that's about it.
This story concerns Han and Chewie finding out that their cargo on one of their smuggling runs are slaves, which doesn't sit well with either of them and they make sure to do something about it and get back at the fool who thought they could sneak one by the crew of the Millennium Falcon.
October 15th, 2003 - Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike released.
This video game was pretty much an early indicator of the Battlefront series. This was the first time in the Rogue Squadron series where you could leave your X-Wing and run around and shoot/lightsaber things, which became pretty much the dominating angle on Star Wars games from then on out (Battlefront, The Force Unleash, Knights of the Old Republic, etc).
I must confess I remember playing this on the Gamecube, but I remember precious little else about it. However that doesn't mean very much considering I'm an old man.
October 18th, 2005 - John Hollis died.
Lobot always fascinated me as a kid and I still love the character to this day. Silent, loyal and ambiguously android-y. I couldn't ever get a read on exactly what the hell Lobot was, but I knew he was cool as shit.
John Hollis was one of those “familiar face” actors from that era who also appeared in Superman: The Movie, For Your Eyes Only and Flash Gordon.
October 23rd, 2005 - William Hootkins died.
We talked a bit about William Hootkins when celebrating his birthday in July (and I was surprised many people pointing out that the guy who played Porkins also played the Government guy that recruits Indy to hunt down the Ark in Raiders - “Top. Men.” - and the Orson Welles/Touch of Evil-ish dirty detective Eckhardt in Tim Burton's Batman), but I couldn't let the anniversary of his passing come and go without another tip of the hat from the fat kid who now had a little bit of a hero who played a crucial role in saving the galaxy.
Thanks for your work, Mr. Hootkins.
That's it for this installment! See ya' on the next one!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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