Empire Strikes Back

In the belly of the space worm

In 2004 I was living in a gregarious and ecclectic household called Meade Cottage. During that year I expanded on the Paradigm enormously by watching and discussing the original trilogy with my housemates. Andy Bergstrom perticularly got a kick out of this and so we would often watch Empire because that was both our favorites. I got such a kick out of doing the Empire lecture that I thought public lectures for it would be fun and revelatory. Not so as it turns out - I can get easily side-tracked if I think the audience isn't up to speed on the first movie, so I spend a lot of time back-tracking.

There are literally dozens of little details in Empire that I usually use as 'proofs' that what we're watching are actually documentaries. These are fun little details but they usually have nothing to do with the actual Paradigm, except to lend credibility to the basic idea that there is a lot in the movies that you are not noticing - even after dozens of viewings.

The space worm doesn't even fall into that peripheral catagory. It's just fun :) And it gives us another chance to see the amazing captain Solo escaping by the skin of his... well not HIS teeth, but teeth are definitely involved. Big teeth.

Considering that none of these people ever again mention the giant space slug that almost ATE them, it's worth pondering just what it would take to crack their calm, cool, and collected reserve. They don't try to sell photos of the beast to tabloids, they don't call the Galactic Zoological Institute (yes, the GZI, you've heard of it?) with an annonamous tip. Nothing. Apparently it's just not worth mentioning. Yow...

Aside from the sheer stunning beauty of this interlude, we have two distinct puzzles: the apparent 'gravity' on this small asteroid, and the lack of hard vacuum when outside the Falcon. Well it ain't magick and no one seems to be suggesting that the Force is responsible. So we look at the tech - not just to figure out what we're seeing here, but to give us a deeper understanding of just how technologically advanced the 'Star Wars' culture is. The technology utilized by these people can indeed seem quite 'magickal', and if no obvious piece of hardware is around it can be very tempting to think that something supernatural is occurring. That's how cargo cults get started

No one seems surpised that outside the Falcon they can get by with NO PROTECTIVE CLOTHING (to say nothing of no SPACESUITS). Phil Rose points out that this is no asteroid field - at least not the kind us lowly Earthers are familiar with. He suggests that this is actually a planetary ring like Saturn's, and like Saturn's probably has an associated gas torus. This should make it easier to support an ecology (hence, skyscraper-sized worms). Phil first suggested these ideas right after 'Empire' came out in a letter to David Gerrold.

I agree that this is no ordinary asteroid field. If it's a planetary ring I would expect to see the associated planet in at least some of the exterior shots. If it's not a ring, then what the hell is it? Massive damage by the Rebels? Imperial mining operation residue? If this is a shattered moon, is the poor space slug a terrestrial beastie dying in space?!

Back to the tech, it's the Falcon that has to be providing the gravity and the quasi-atmosphere. If there was that much ambient oxygen or other gases, I would expect coloration or noticable cloud-like effects. Though Phil also notes that may account for the 'sounds' in space. Still doesn't explain the apparent Earth-normal gravity, so I'm stickin' with the Falcon. These folks and their field generators... what strange and awesome lives...