D23 interview with Bruce Boxleitner

But now we know that RX’s were actually in existence prior to A New Hope, which led me to reconsider an obscure passage from L. Neil Smith’s 1983 novel Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu. And the traits of the 1986 Rex pilot dovetail pretty nicely with the descriptions from the older novel.

The book is set approximately four years prior to the Battle of Yavin, as things are reckoned in the Star Wars chronology; a young and so far clean-shaven Lando has recently won a starship called the Millennium Falcon in a game of sabacc, but he’s still an “abysmally amateurish astrogator and ship-handler”.

Within the first twenty pages, he “hastily” rents a pilot droid while making a fast getaway from an asteroid in the Oseon system. This requires both a substantial deposit at the rental agency and the removal of the right-hand copilot seat, because the droid’s base is bolted straight to the deck.

Unfortunately, the pilot-bot is glitchy, and Lando must do the flying himself, skidding onto the tarmac in the Rafa system. Clad in a mauve outfit, Lando exits the ship and spots mynocks on the thrust-intermix cowling, and rushes back to the cockpit to ask Teguta Lusat Ground Control for advice on dealing with the problem.

This wakes up the robotic pilot, which Smith describes as a ‘glittering and useless Class Five pilot droid, its monitor lights blinking idiotically’ before giving it a single, truncated line of dialogue:

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” the robot smirked, despite the daylight pouring through the vision screens from outside, “and welcome aboard the pleasure yacht Arleen, now in interstellar transit from Antipose IX to—”

Lando snarls and deactivates the “brainless rent-a-bot”. After the mynock situation is dealt with, he glibly asks Ground Control, “Would anyone care to purchase a practically new pilot droid? Over?”

Alas, it’s a sales pitch they’re all too familiar with, and they reply, “That rental outfit in the Oseon may not maintain offices here, but they’ve got treaty rights. You’ll have to send it back fast-freight. Expensive. Over and out.”

Lando craftily realizes that it’s cheaper to rent it for longer and ship it back slower, and vows to do nothing on his first night in the Rafa system but relax, feeling he’s earned it after dealing with “that confounded robot.”

***

So, to sum up, it’s a pilot droid with a non-humanoid design and a large base which precludes a regular chair. It’s notorious for breaking down, it gets shipped around as freight frequently, and it even says the words “Welcome aboard!” in its introductory speech.

If that doesn’t sound like an RX unit, I don’t know what does!

Special thanks to Roy Reeves for the photo of his fabulous scratch-built, scaled-to-the-figures Falcon cockpit!

Of course, there are also a few misspelled words. I recently downloaded an Aurebesh font for my computer, and discovered that it can be disconcerting to type in an unfamiliar alphabet, without the usual ease of telling at a glance whether you’ve mis-keyed. (I wish the Imagineers had learned my new trick… type it in English, double-check your spelling, highlight it, and THEN switch fonts!)

But late last night, while translating a new batch of pics that my buddy David Yeh sent of the screen behind C-3PO, I found a new inside joke that tops all the previous ones and makes even the worst typos forgiveable!

Among the various system readouts of the Starspeeder 1000 (deflector shields, nav comp, hyperdrive, thruster vents, countermeasures, life support, repulsors, laser cannons), seven little letters can be found which spell out FLUX CAP.

As in “flux capacitor”, the thing that makes time travel possible for Doc Brown’s Delorean time machine in Back to the Future!

So maybe that Hoth vignette isn’t out of the timeline after all… perhaps Threepio and Artoo have been taking you on a trip across time as well as space. It would certainly explain how characters from “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” seem to exist in perpetual stasis here on Earth (and every twenty years or so, they even go backwards in their timeline while we inexorably go forward in our own!)

Of course, this begs the question… did the classic Starspeeder 3000, a later model, also include a flux capacitor? Could it too travel through time? We’re not sure.

It would further complicate the timeline placement, better known as the infamous “Third Death Star” debate. Since Doc Brown’s technology meant two Marty McFlys could co-exist at the same time, maybe R2-D2 actually can be in two places at once during the Battle of Yavin or the Battle of Endor. This would certainly help explain that ‘extra’ R2-D2 seen in the Tokyo post-show.

But Doc always warned Marty about having contact with his future or past self. And perhaps the two (or more) Artoos led to a localized rip in the space-time continuum. Just the sort of thing that might lead to G2 droids repeating themselves every five minutes, or a self-proclaimed rookie pilot making more than two decades’ worth of ‘first flights’.

This isn’t the first time a ‘flux capacitor’ reference has appeared in the Star Wars universe. As David unearthed, Tim Zahn’s short story “First Contact” from SW Adventure Journal #1 first borrowed the term, just as his other novels embraced concepts like Pink Five and Star Tours and snuck them into the rest of the canon as well.

And of course, there’s also the ‘theme park competition’ connection. I very fondly remember my trip to Orlando in 1991, riding my first-ever simulator (Star Tours) on one day, and my second-ever on the next— the 8-passenger Delorean in Universal Studios Florida’s sorely-missed Back to the Future: The Ride.

So, yeah, I love this inside joke.

Can the two franchises actually co-exist in one cohesive universe? Nah, of course not. By the single line of dialogue “I am Darth Vader, from the planet Vulcan!”, we know that Marty McFly saw the Star Wars— and Star Trek— movies as a kid in the 70′s and 80′s, just like we did, so in his reality they’re nothing more than fiction.

But to quote George Lucas’ alleged rationalization of the Hoth timeline error, “Ah, who cares?”

Having a flux capacitor on a StarSpeeder 1000 is FUN. Don’t overthink it, okay?

Shows what I know!

Around the time of the prequels, suddenly the Aurebesh was everywhere. In Phantom Menace, the filmmakers used the old RPG characters for a screen translating Artoo’s droidspeak into Basic, and this ‘official use’ lit the fan community afire. After Revenge of the Sith came out I purchased an action figure multi-pack which contained a Senate Pod, and was charmed to discover that Hasbro had hidden a message in Aurebesh on the sticker for the computer screen. I deciphered it as “SW FANS RULE”, and quickly reported this inside joke to my fellow collectors.

While looking for Aurebesh fonts online, I stumbled across an editorial by ErikStormtrooper, entitled “What does that screen say?” [ http://erikstormtrooper.com/ed_galbasic1.htm ] I found inspiration in Erik’s diligence at trying to decode a screen of text seen in Return of the Jedi, even though ultimately the screen was revealed to be nothing more than repeated blocks of ‘mood gibberish’ as Erik termed it.

Subconsciously influenced by this, in 2007, I zoomed my videocamera in on tiny stickers on the old blue-and-white Starspeeder 3000 in the queue in Orlando. It wasn’t Aurebesh, the classic ride had come too early for that development. But although the characters were our plain old alphabet, the words were tantalizingly foreign. Back home, I spent an evening freezing the tape and copying down what I saw… but all it turned out to be was backwards snippets of text from a book on printing. Like the screen in ROTJ, it had never been designed for close scrutiny.

The only Aurebesh of note in Orlando in 2007 was the sign outside Tatooine Traders, added in a post-Prequels refurb, and even that was arguably mis-translated. As I’ve discussed many times before, the Aurebesh contains a single glyph ‘orenth’ for the ‘oo’ sound, but the sign for Tatooine Traders uses the letter ‘osk’ (o) twice instead.

But now, for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the Aurebesh is everywhere! And not unlike the ‘Mara’ alphabet from Disneyland’s Indiana Jones ride, this secret code is a fun puzzle for fans to decipher while waiting in line. What will we find? Let’s take a look…

These graphics are enhancements of the papercraft model of the SS1K. I’ve actually taken the details from the perfectly-level port side graphic and flipped them around to match the slightly downhill starboard side, which is the angle we normally see the ship in the queue.

(These might make for some cool refrigerator or car-door magnets if anyone wanted to print them off on magnetic paper.)

ignoring the numbers, that’s:

R2D2
STAR TOURS
ASTROMECH DROID

-  DROID  ID

CAUTION:

AUTOMATIC DOOR* OPENS OUTWARD.
PLEASE REMAIN BACK UNTIL DOOR
COMPLETELY SWINGS OPEN.

[* Their old Tatooine Traders extra-letter typo pops up again. Rather than using the single glyph 'orenth' to denote a double O, they have used two 'osk' glyphs.]

Same text on the starboard side… but the colon is now oddly placed.

AUTOMATIC DOOR* OPENS OUTWARD.             CAUTION:
PLEASE REMAIN BACK UNTIL DOOR
COMPLETELY SWINGS OPEN.

CAUTION:

DO NOT REMOVE
THESE 2 SCREWS.
REFER TO MANUAL
FOR INSTRUCTIONS.

<         DANGER   INTAKE

AISLE:   5

CARGO  BAY 01  .1401

So far, these all seem fairly straightforward. Where are the inside jokes? Well, as Kevin Yee pointed out in his review of the ride, the number of the ship is 1401, the street number of Imagineering. Here’s another such joke…

WDI [Walt Disney Imagineering]                           WED [Walter Elias Disney]

HYPER GEAR DRIVE NO. 01.045,9

Or my favorite bit of Disney referencing in the Aurebesh, these two lines on the underside of the newly painted X-Wing which has been restored to The Star Trader:

“THE CHESHIRE CAT
THE MAD HATTER”

And look at this interesting little pattern just forward of the front landing skids.

Turn it on its side, and what does that resemble?

I wonder if that’s present on the actual ship?

Now, I have to admit, I had a little problem with seeing SO MUCH Aurebesh on the ship. Sure, it’s a logical progression here in the real world, but in the backwards timeline of the entire Star Tours history, why did it all suddenly disappear one day? I think somewhere between Star Tours: The Adventures Continue and classic Star Tours, there must’ve been some lawsuits by the indigenous people of this planet against the travel agency, forcing them to streamline their vehicular signage to all native languages. Let’s face it, it doesn’t make good business sense to open a travel agency on the planet Earth and cover the ship with door instructions and danger warnings in an alien language that the Earthlings can’t read.

But elsewhere throughout the queue, the Aurebesh is presented alongside its English equivalents. Screens showing planetary destinations transition from all-Aurebesh to all-English. Directory signs have large English and small Aurebesh underneath. And good ol’ Captain REX has a cameo sporting a ‘DEFECTIVE – RETURN TO FACTORY’ sticker, with the English words appearing in nice bold letters above a smaller Aurebesh translation.

I love the attention to retro-continuity here, remember we will ‘later’ hear G2-4T say “I’m not the one who purchased all those defective RX pilots!” Apparently, after those ‘confusing signage’ lawsuits, they had to save a few bucks and snatch up all the discounted pilot droids they could find.

When you go to ride Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, you might want to carry a little Aurebesh translation card to entertain you throughout the queue. We at Endor Express hope this will give you something extra to help pass the time while you’re waiting in the queue lines!

Enjoy!

I know I speak for a LOT of Star Wars fans in the world when I say that my favorite film of the six was 1980′s Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. It was the first sequel, and it was the first one to be directed by someone other than George Lucas… I refer of course to director Irvin Kershner.

Irvin Kershner got his directorial break from producer Roger Corman in 1958, and seems to have made a career out of directing sequels to other people’s original series. According to his imdb page, he remains the only American director to helm a James Bond picture, 1983′s Never Say Never Again, the film which brought his old friend Sean Connery back to the franchise– the two had first worked together in 1966 on the film A Fine Madness. His other sequels include Return of a Man Called Horse (1976) and Robocop 2 (1990).

I recall reading one of the things that interested George when trying to find someone for Empire was the fact that Kersh’s Return of a Man Called Horse had been “a better film” than Elliot Silverstein’s 1970 film, A Man Called Horse. Indeed, critics and fans have long opined that ESB is a better film than 1977′s Episode IV: A New Hope.

Kershner was one of George Lucas’ instructors at USC, and recalls asking GL: “Of all the younger guys around, all the hot shots, why me? I remember he said, ‘Well, because you know everything a Hollywood director is supposed to know, but you’re not Hollywood.’ I liked that.”

And here’s a little gem by Kershner, which I’ve often trotted out when people point out mistakes in the film (like the mysterious appearing/disappearing ladder on the X-Wing on Dagobah): “I hate slick films, because to me slick means polished with all the bumps and seams taken out. I think Empire is not slick because it’s bumpy in places, and a little ragged, and terribly real… Those things lend a sense of something that has been handmade, not machine made. Empire is not a machine-made film. It’s a handmade film and it has all the imperfections of anything that’s handmade.” [The Empire Strikes Back Notebook, Ballantine press, p. 126.]

He expands further on this philosophy in a quote on his imdb page: “It’s a matter of pride to me to get the film done fast, to get it done well. I understand the need for compromise. There is no such thing as a perfect shot, a perfect film. The purpose of film is not to make a monument to oneself.”

And here’s perhaps my favorite quote by Irvin Kershner: “The thing that you learn in directing is that no matter how complex the shooting, you have to remain sensitive to the people around you or the machine will ultimately take over. If you don’t keep in mind the essential humanity of it all, technique will dominate.”

Irvin Kershner retired from directing in 1994.

Photo from irvinkershner.net

StarWars.com has updated with comments from George Lucas about Mr. Kershner.

http://www.endorexpress.net/special-features/cv-disney-parks-collector-panel/

Special Thanks to Matt Roseboom of Orlando Attractions Magazine for use of photos from the panel.

Be sure to check out  www.attractionsmagazine.com

The photo shows a Multi-Pin Set labelled “Disney Robots”, and right there next to our beloved RX-24 is a robot named “Aly San San” who is identified as being from Star Tours in 2011!

(Photo credit: http://www.wdwnewstoday.com )

From left to right, the photo shows:
B.E.N. from 2002′s Treasure Planet
Carl [misspelled Karl] from 2007′s Meet the Robinsons
R2-MK from Star Wars Weekends
Rex from the original Star Tours
Aly San San from Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
EVE and WALL-E from 2008′s WALL-E
Maximilian [misspelled Maximillion] and V.I.N.CENT from 1979′s The Black Hole

Original photo credit to:  http://www.wdwnewstoday.com

“Aly San San” sounds like the Terran name Alison, but it doesn’t sound much like a droid name. (Ah well, neither did the numerical designation ‘Vuffi Raa’ the first time Lando Calrissian heard it.) And since two of the other names on the slide were misspelled, there is still a possibility that the name will be revised later on, so we at EndorExpress.net are using it as a placeholder until we get official confirmation down the line.

[Editor's note: I would just abbreviate the initials to give the character a more robotic nickname, but... well, you can probably see the problem inherent with that plan! Oh well, it didn't stop Revenge of the Sith from becoming ROTS, or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from becoming... er... whatever it became. Heh. - Alex]

Design-wise, Aly San San looks identical to the waitress droid WA-7 from Dexter’s Diner in ‘Attack of the Clones’, aside from her paint scheme, so I think it’s safe to assume from the skirted design and the name, the character is probably a female droid.

And since we just heard a new ‘spokesdroid’ soundbyte in the CV-exclusive Sneak Preview Starspeeder 1000 toy, speaking in a female voice, could the faceless voice and the voiceless face possibly go together? Is Aly San San in actuality the new Star Tours Spokesdroid?

Let’s consider… WA-7 was never physically built for AOTC, she only existed digitally. (In fact, if I recall correctly, a human waitress was filmed on set, and the CGI droid replaced her.)

So it’s likely that a CGI droid might only appear in the new attraction on screen. While we don’t know just what sort of screens the new ride will have, the original Star Tours had screens everywhere: the queue’s video-wall, the pre-flight video’s overhead monitor, and of course the front viewport and onboard monitors of the StarSpeeder itself.

And on a screen is certainly where we’d be most likely to encounter a Spokesdroid, especially if it takes the place of the human seen in the safety spiel.

But couldn’t Aly San San be an actual robotic creation for the ride, like Artoo and Threepio or the other characters seen in Sector 2 Droidnostics? Sure, it’s feasible, but it just doesn’t seem as probable.

While it is possible to build an Audio-Animatronic character which balances on one wheel like WA-7 (I saw a nifty unicyclist AA on a pitch reel recently, and there’s also the awesome Muppet Mobile Labs from the Living Character Initiative), I just don’t see a digital creation becoming a physical reality with ZERO changes to the design.

Recycling the digital information of the AOTC design for a monitor-only droid is shrewd and cost-effective, just as the Imagineers were back in 1986 when they stripped the feathers from two Animatronic geese from America Sings to create G2-9T and G2-4T.

It’s also a very merchandising-canny maneuver, since Hasbro already has tooling for a WA-7 action figure, lying fallow somewhere in their factories. Here’s a quick digital mockup of what a possible Aly San San action figure using those 2002 molds might look like:

Let’s hope Hasbro hasn’t lost or destroyed those molds!

Speaking of figures, I think the pin set looks awesome, because I already have action figures of every robot in that pin set except for Carl (and him I’ve got as a PEZ dispenser, somewhere…).

Well, I think technically my EVE was a cake topper and my B.E.N. was a fast-food premium instead of an actual retail figure. But, funnily enough, B.E.N. has resided for years among my collection of Star Tours droid action figures, and in the first Star Tours diorama that I made, I threw V.I.N.CENT and a custom Old B.O.B in the background as broken droids.

And of course, Andrew Stanton, the director of WALL-E is on record as saying how the binocular-faced design of his star creation was inspired by the Goose-droids of Star Tours at Disneyland. So they’re all a perfect little family.

You can almost hear RX-24 greeting the newest addition to the group: “Welcome aboard!”

• Alex’s productive first two hours at CV on Friday the 13th
• CV Exclusive Starspeeder 1000 Toy Review