Star Wars 30th Anniversary Special - part 12

Todd Franklin of Neato Coolville, says it was through the "Star Wars" trading cards produced by Topps that first keyed him into the deleted scenes from the movie. For me it was "The Star Wars Storybook" -- the children's book adaptation of the movie. I was too old for this book when it came out, but picked it up anyway for the pictures, particularly pictures of some scenes that weren't in the "Star Wars" movie I saw.

The pictures, shown here, include one of Luke, and what I would later learn was a treadwell droid standing by a moisture vaporator, with many more vaporators in the distance behind them; Luke, wearing a hat, looking skyward through a pair of macrobinoculars; and two images of Luke with his best friend, Biggs Darklighter.






The deleted scenes with Biggs would end up being iconic in their own right, perhaps because the scenes were included in the novelization, the comic book adaptation, and the radio play, but most likely because of the photos above. It was as if the fans were given a glimpse into some magical extension of the movie that was being denied them.

My feeling about the scenes between Luke and Biggs is that it adds a lot more depth to the included scenes at the end of the movie when Luke and Biggs are reunited as X-Wing pilots, and Biggs is killed by Darth Vader, compltely cutting Luke loose from his past.

Here are some further images from the cut Biggs Darklighter scenes.




The first depicts the town of Anchorhead as seen from the distance as Luke approaches in his landspeeder. This vantage point would later be recycled as the first shot of Mos Eisley, as Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO and R2-D2 enter aboard the same landspeeder.



The second image shows the inside of Tosche station, the place Luke whines about wanting to visit in order to pick up some power converters. In the foreground is Koo Stark as Camie. Luke (Mark Hamill) and Biggs (Garrick Hagon) reunite in the right middleground. Luke's friends Deak and Windie can be seen playing a high-tech air hockey like game in the middle background.



Luke shows Biggs the space battle he witnessed above Tatooine through his macrobinoculars. The battle is dismissed as wishful thinking on Luke's part.



In image #4, Fixer (Tony Forrest) has a look for himself, and berates "Wormie" as Luke's friends have nicknamed him, as Camie and Biggs look on.



Biggs and Luke, drinks in hand, wander the streets of Anchorhead, catching up with each other. Biggs will soon tell Luke he's joining the Rebel Alliance.

The full scenes can be found on YouTube by typing in "Biggs Darklighter."


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The final images show Biggs as he appeared during the final assault on the Death Star and how he will appear in 3 3/4 inches of plastic wearing his Academy uniform due to hit stores any time now.