- "Star Tours! What are you doing here? This is a combat zone. It's restricted... ease off on your main thruster."
- ―Red Leader
A male Human using the call sign Red Leader[4] was an X-wing starfighter pilot who commanded the Alliance of Free Planets Red Squadron during a battle with forces of the Galactic Empire over what appeared to be a third Death Star battlestation.[3]
When the Star Tours Flight 45, piloted by pilot droid RX-24, arrived in the midst of the battle in a StarSpeeder 3000, the New Republic pilot identified the shuttle as belonging to the Star Tours travel agency and chastised the droid for straying into a restricted area. Eventually, Red Squadron reached the battlestation's thermal exhaust port and fired a salvo of proton torpedos into it, thus destroying the planetoid.[1]
Unbeknownst to Red Leader and the rest of the Alliance, the purported "Death Star III" was a worldcraft that had been modified by the self-proclaimed Imperial Supreme Commander Ennix Devian to resemble one of the Death Stars. The battle's aim was keeping the Alliance occupied while Devian's Kaarenth Dissension forces stole warships from the Alliance's shipyards in neighboring star systems.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
Steve Gawley behind the scenes as Red Leader
Red Leader was played by Steve Gawley (ILM's model shop supervisor for the attraction) on the onboard video screen inside the Star Tours simulator.[4] The helmet he wears appears to be the same as Jek Porkins' from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, matching the photo of the worn helmet prop in the Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy book.[5] Kasan Moor, pilot from the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron video game, also wears the same helmet.[6]
Appearances[]
- George Lucas' Star Tours (First appearance) (Non-canonical appearance)
- Star Tours (First canonical appearance)
Sources[]
Gawley behind the scenes
"Lucasfilm Lifers" — Star Wars Insider 43- Convenient Daily Departures: The History of Star Tours on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Star Tours
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire, Part 2 on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Convenient Daily Departures: The History of Star Tours on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Vaz, Mark Cotta. Industrial Light & Magic : into the digital realm. Del Rey, 1996. (web archive)
- ↑ Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy
- ↑ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron