DD-13 medical assistant droid

"Ubrikkian needs to re-design the DD-13 immediately! Lord Vader detests our droids, and as of today, we're at serious risk of losing the entire Imperial contract."

―From Ubrikkian Steamworks internal documents^[1]

The DD-13 medical assistant droid, also known as the DD-13 cybernetic surgical droid, was a medical droid, designed by Ubrikkian Steamworks. Its primary purpose was the installation of cybernetic implants.^[1]

The DD-13 stood on a tripod and was equipped with modular arms, allowing it to be customized with whatever tools were needed for the operation. Its sensors were located in its cylindrical head.^[1]

DD-13s were originally intended to be used on the Ubrikkian Transports Model 300 medlifter troop transport. When the plans for them fell through, they were then shipped to battlefield medical units on the front lines of the Clone Wars. It was there, due to its purpose of installing implants and organ transplants, where soldiers gave it its nickname of "Galactic Chopper droid".^[1] Soldiers also drew black humor from the fact that Ubrikkian was known for producing heavy machinery as opposed to delicate medical tools.

After early Ubrikkian medical units were used to create the cyborg Grievous, at least one DD-13 was used in the Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center. Darth Vader hated the DD-13s that attended him, and personally blocked the renewal of Ubrikkian's Imperial medical droid contract. Ubrikkian Steamworks retired the line shortly thereafter, to fully focus their attention to the more profitable DD-19 "Overseer" labor pool droid.^[1]

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Behind the scenes[]

"The Polis Massans were designed as very benign. Since we'd be cross-cutting, I wanted these to look like a kid's worst nightmare."

―Ryan Church^[2]

Originally created for the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith,^[2] the DD-13 cybernetic surgery droid first appeared in MedStar II: Jedi Healer, a 2004 novel written by Steve Perry and Michael Reaves as part of the Clone Wars multimedia project, where it was identified simply as a "tripedal medical droid,"^[3] an alternative spelling of the model's production name, "tri-pedal medical droid."^[2] It was first identified as the DD-13 cybernetic surgery droid in The New Essential Guide to Droids, a 2006 reference book written by Daniel Wallace and illustrated by Ian Fullwood.^[1]

The script for "Blue Shadow Virus," the seventeenth episode in the first season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated television series, which first aired on February 13, 2009, originally called for the tactical droid featured in the episode to have instead been a tripedal medical droid. This is why C-3PO told the droid "We all want to hear your tale of medical heroics." in the final episode.^[4] The DD-13 eventually made its series debut in "Orders,"^[5] the fourth episode of The Clone Wars' sixth season,^[6] which originally aired in Germany on February 15, 2014.^[7]^[8]