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I remembered an argument once, and as I watched ANH again while taking shots, I noticed something.

This is a door on the Tantive IV, clearly blasted through by boarding Stormtroopers.

While this is just as clearly an explosion. It is a Death Star door.

It puts an end to the argument of why Stormtroopers doesn't ever use the grenades they supposedly carry. They do. It must have been Vader ordering them not to use any grenades in the boarding, since he was so eager to get the ship unharmed, and determine that he successfully intercepted the DS plans.

They're blasting through barriers with full-power blaster hits.

Their standard thermal detonators have a much wider blast radius.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:They're blasting through barriers with full-power blaster hits.

Their standard thermal detonators have a much wider blast radius.

While I agree that thermal detonators are much bigger weapons, the effect we see on Tantive IV doesn't really seem consistent with a blaster weapon. There's some kind of constant cutting stream first. Unless you were meaning to imply that they cut the door open and then blew it in, which is certainly conceivable.

McC wrote:

Illuminatus Primus wrote:They're blasting through barriers with full-power blaster hits.

Their standard thermal detonators have a much wider blast radius.

While I agree that thermal detonators are much bigger weapons, the effect we see on Tantive IV doesn't really seem consistent with a blaster weapon. There's some kind of constant cutting stream first. Unless you were meaning to imply that they cut the door open and then blew it in, which is certainly conceivable.

Which is what I believe. Either way you have to have the cutting. A grenade alone wouldn't do that either.

They had to cut the hatch then blow it open.

The use of blasters to do such damage is consistent with the ANH novelization, which depicts stormtroopers literally blowing through walls with their blasters in order to gain new avenues of attack.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:They had to cut the hatch then blow it open.

What do you suppose they used to cut the hatch?

I could imagine this but before the hatch explodes, while this strange effect happens, I swear I heared a sound like a circular saw.....

McC wrote:

Illuminatus Primus wrote:They had to cut the hatch then blow it open.

What do you suppose they used to cut the hatch?

Probably fusion cutters.

Tribun wrote:I could imagine this but before the hatch explodes, while this strange effect happens, I swear I heared a sound like a circular saw.....

It doesn't quite sound like a saw, more like "fzzz" while the door lights up like this. Then the door literally disappear in smoke and fire. Seconds after this, Stromtroopers come through. It's possible that they used something else than E-11s if they moved it away in a sec, but I believe there's a promotional shot somewhere where we can see the stormtroopers waiting to board, they have nothing but E-11s.

They could be using their E-11s in pulse mode to fire a continuous beam. Although if such a small arm can blast through a massive starship...

Grenades carried by stormtroopers are more likely to be anti-personnel devices than shaped demolition charges.

Master of Ossus wrote:The use of blasters to do such damage is consistent with the ANH novelization, which depicts stormtroopers literally blowing through walls with their blasters in order to gain new avenues of attack.

Quotes would be lovely.

His Divine Shadow wrote:

Master of Ossus wrote:The use of blasters to do such damage is consistent with the ANH novelization, which depicts stormtroopers literally blowing through walls with their blasters in order to gain new avenues of attack.

Quotes would be lovely.

Reading through the relevant bit in my copy of the novelization (the original 1977 one), I can find no evidence of that [E-11s solely used to cut through the doors]. The closest thing is this:

Star Wars, George Lucas, 1977 wrote: The shriek of overstressed metal filled the air before he could finish, and the far end of the passageway was lit by a blinding actinic flash. Somewhere down there the little cluister of armed crew who had passed by minutes before had encountered the ship's attackers.
Threepio turned his face and delivate photoreceptors away-just in time to aviod the farments of metal that flew down the corridor. At the far end a gaping hole appeared in the roof, and reflective forms like big metal beads began dropping to the corridor floor.

editted for clarity

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:They could be using their E-11s in pulse mode to fire a continuous beam. Although if such a small arm can blast through a massive starship...

Not the hull though, a door. On a diplomatic corvette. The CR90 is an atmospheric vessel, so perhaps they can land and let people in that way. Otherwise its for docking against space stations, possibly both.

His Divine Shadow wrote:

Master of Ossus wrote:The use of blasters to do such damage is consistent with the ANH novelization, which depicts stormtroopers literally blowing through walls with their blasters in order to gain new avenues of attack.

Quotes would be lovely.

A New Hope Novelization wrote:Several troopers had tried coming through the elevator, only to be crisped one after another by Chewbacca. Disdaining the elevators, they had blasted a gaping hole through a wall.

Master of Ossus wrote:

His Divine Shadow wrote:

Master of Ossus wrote:The use of blasters to do such damage is consistent with the ANH novelization, which depicts stormtroopers literally blowing through walls with their blasters in order to gain new avenues of attack.

Quotes would be lovely.

A New Hope Novelization wrote:Several troopers had tried coming through the elevator, only to be crisped one after another by Chewbacca. Disdaining the elevators, they had blasted a gaping hole through a wall.

...Which says nothing about *Blasters*, just that they blasted a hole through the wall.

Its bloody unlikly they used Blaster rifles to get through the door. The effects on the T4 were just too inconsistent with it. A door shapped cutting effect which steadily increased, then several explosions and some door fragments blasting in. I think its far more likely to have been a hull cutting ring, described in the Black Fleet book Tyrents Test. Chewie mounted one on the Falcon which they used to cut through Intimidators hull.

And I'm preaty sure the original ICS had a picture of an ISD's hanger bay with the T4 inside it. In it, it showed the Tie Boarding craft which was used to board the ship, which was said to have the same technology for breaching enemy hulls.

And regarding the elevator shaft, in the movie, it happened differently to the book. The Stormies didn't blast another hole, they just kept comming out of the one they had made, forcing Han and Chewie back with heavy fire. And again you could hear something sounding exactly like a circular saw, Han hears it and tells Chewie to get behind him, then the door blows like a charge detonated into the middle of it.


And I think it was The LAst Command, when Lando and Chewie were trapped inside THrawns cloning center and had sealed off all the Blast Doors into it. They could hear Stormies trying to shoot their way in, without success, Lando comments that there was no dobut a bag of shapped charges on the way, which were used to blast through one of the doors. Which is a good indicator that blast doors (though these doors were said to be a step or two down from warship grade blast doors) can't be penetrated by blaster rifles. I'd say the same go's for a warships hull.

Chris OFarrell wrote:And again you could hear something sounding exactly like a circular saw, Han hears it and tells Chewie to get behind him, then the door blows like a charge detonated into the middle of it.

BS. That sound is a "whoosh-whine" sound of the elevator rising to the floor. IIRC, it wasn't anything more like a circular saw.

And I think it was The LAst Command, when Lando and Chewie were trapped inside THrawns cloning center and had sealed off all the Blast Doors into it. They could hear Stormies trying to shoot their way in, without success, Lando comments that there was no dobut a bag of shapped charges on the way, which were used to blast through one of the doors. Which is a good indicator that blast doors (though these doors were said to be a step or two down from warship grade blast doors) can't be penetrated by blaster rifles. I'd say the same go's for a warships hull.

What does this have to do with the quote from the novel, or the shots from the movie of the boarding of Tantive IV or the assault on the DS corridor? Neither door involved was a starship grade blast-door, like the ones employed in TPM by the Nemoidians.

The Tantive IV door was some sort of cutting device- no blaster could do that. The detention block door was a blaster however.

McC wrote:

Illuminatus Primus wrote:They had to cut the hatch then blow it open.

What do you suppose they used to cut the hatch?

According to the Original Trilogy ICS, the Stormtroopers and Vader were in a TIE Boarding Craft, which docked and used its hullcutter to open the door.

Vympel wrote:The detention block door was a blaster however.

It doesn't look like any blaster explosion I've seen. Except, maybe, from the one when Leia blasts open the waste. But this door is a lot more massive. If that was a blaster, it's an impressive one, moreso than Han's - and the Stormtroopers coming through are carrying E-11s.

This is from the script over this event:

"INTERIOR: DEATH STAR -- DETENTION AREA -- HALLWAY.

An ominous buzzing sound is heard on the other side of the
elevator door.

HAN: Chewie!

Chewbacca responds with a growling noise.

HAN: Get behind me! Get behind me!

A series of explosions knock a hole in the elevator door
through which several Imperial troops begin to emerge.
Han and Chewie fire laser pistols at them through the smoke
and flame. They turn and run down the cell hallway, meeting up
with Luke and Leia rushing toward them."

The movie differs from this since there's only one explosion. The buzzing noise is more like sizzling.

The Tantive IV door is described to be in the main hallway according to the script. Most likely not an outer hull blast door.

Additional observations - when Luke together with Leia closes the shaft door behind them, the Stormtroopers don't blow it open, but they manage to partly open the door after a while. We don't see anything happen to the door as per the script:

"LUKE: That oughta hold it for a while.

LEIA: Quick, we've got to get across. Find the control that extends
the bridge.

LUKE: Oh, I think I just blasted it.

Luke looks at the blasted bridge control while the
stormtroopers on the opposite side of the door begin making
ominous drilling and pounding sounds.

LEIA: They're coming through!"

Also, when the whole party is together again, getting jumped by Stromtroopers, the troopers call for the blast doors to close. Unfortunately for them, the doors close on the wrong side and they have to order it open again. We don't see anything more on what happens to the blast door, but presumably it couldn't be forced, only opened by the control crew.

Chris O'Farrell wrote: And I think it was The LAst Command, when Lando and Chewie were trapped inside THrawns cloning center and had sealed off all the Blast Doors into it. They could hear Stormies trying to shoot their way in, without success, Lando comments that there was no dobut a bag of shapped charges on the way, which were used to blast through one of the doors. Which is a good indicator that blast doors (though these doors were said to be a step or two down from warship grade blast doors) can't be penetrated by blaster rifles. I'd say the same go's for a warships hull.

Except that the elevators didn't use blast doors now, did they? We know they didn't try shooting through the blast door that closed on the trtoopers chasing Han on the Death STar.

Anyhow, if it were quite true that blasters were ineffective against doorways, why would the stormtroopers even bother trying? You think they were just pissed and decided to shoot up something?

The ANH novel had Luke blasting through the detention door with his blaster. While we didn't see this in the movie, its still indicative that blaster weapons should be and probably are capable of doing so.

Given that lightsabers apparently are able to melt doorways like in TPM, it should be reasonable to assume multiple blasters (if not a single one) could do so as well - lightsabers are not goign to be *substantially* more powerful than a blaster is (in fact, if I remember WEG/WOTC, there's not all that great a difference. IIRC a couple fo blaster power packs can recharge a lightsaber, like in Shatterpoint.)

Regarding the Detention block scene - its quite possible the stormtroopers brought some sort of breaching charge with them for the door (They had reason to suspect something was wrong after all - Han shot out the comlink right?), but I do see some problems with that: 1.) the delay in blowing the door as well 2.) as the noise. What I understand about breaching charges is that they're more or less designed to blast the door in suddenly.. it shouldn't be a "delayed" effect. Moreover, it shouldn't make noise (since that sortt of gives away your intentions, doesn't it?) I also believe that breaching charges can be or are remotely detonated, so that also tends to bring the whole "noise" bit into question.

Connor MacLeod wrote:We know they didn't try shooting through the blast door that closed on the trtoopers chasing Han on the Death Star

Well, a few last stray shots hit it with negligible result. But its true that they didn't even try to blast through it. Obviously the blast door wasn't remotely similar to the elevator door in terms of resilience.

Incidentally, Han seemed to think that blasters would be effective against doors. The droids were instructed to lock the door, and hope the Imperials didn't have blasters. This evidently indicates that a blaster could blow through a door even without a shaped charge or some other breaching device.