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Seldom noticed yet uniquely Star Wars words or phrases

Posted: 2004-07-21 06:59am
by Galvatron
Scopes

"Scopes" are to Star Wars what "sensors" are to Star Trek. IIRC, Tim Zahn is the only EU writer who ever got this right. The rest all seem to prefer Star Trek terminology...

Examples:

"All my scopes are dead, I can't see a thing."

"...and that, Lord Vader, was the last time they appeared on any of our scopes."

"Captain Needa, the ship no longer appears on our scopes."


Star Systems

Star systems are colloquially referred to as if they have solid surfaces...

Examples:

"We're wanted men. I have the death sentence on twelve systems."

"Make ready to land our troops beyond their energy shield and deploy the fleet so that nothing gets off the system."


Commanders

Apparently, the term "commander" doubles as both an official rank and as an informal form of addressing any Imperial officer...

Examples:

"Dangerous to your starfleet, Commander, not to this battlestation." -Admiral Motti to General Tagge

"You may dispense with the pleasantries, Commander, I'm here to put you back on schedule." -Darth Vader to Moff Jerjerrod


Yeah, it's minutiae, but sometimes little things like that can add an extra bit of authentic Star Wars "flava" to set it apart from generic pulp sci-fi. Anyone know of any others?

Posted: 2004-07-21 07:06am
by Robert Treder
Good catches. I'll see if I can think of any additions.

Posted: 2004-07-21 07:12am
by Chris OFarrell
"You have failed me for the last time *insert rank* "

:D

Posted: 2004-07-21 07:26am
by Galvatron
Chris OFarrell wrote:"You have failed me for the last time *insert rank* "
Did Vader say that more than the one time when he killed Admiral Ozzel?

Posted: 2004-07-21 08:09am
by Vympel
No. Only with Ozzel.

Re: Seldom noticed yet uniquely Star Wars words or phrases

Posted: 2004-07-21 01:21pm
by Isolder74
Galvatron wrote:Scopes

Commanders

Apparently, the term "commander" doubles as both an official rank and as an informal form of addressing any Imperial officer...

Examples:

"Dangerous to your starfleet, Commander, not to this battlestation." -Admiral Motti to General Tagge

"You may dispense with the pleasantries, Commander, I'm here to put you back on schedule." -Darth Vader to Moff Jerjerrod


Yeah, it's minutiae, but sometimes little things like that can add an extra bit of authentic Star Wars "flava" to set it apart from generic pulp sci-fi. Anyone know of any others?
Commander may be being used that same was as Comodante was in tyhe Nazi miliary. No matter what his rank the man in charge of the garrison was called the Comodante.

Posted: 2004-07-21 01:43pm
by Darth Raptor
I've never noticed the thing about star systems. That's bizarre.

This one's pretty obvious, but "speeder" can refer to almost any kind of repulsorlift vehicle, so long as it's fast. Aircraft analogues, and motor vehicle analogues are all speeders. True to term, they're all repulsorcraft and they all go fast. It's just interesting to me that they don't make a wider distinction between fighter aircraft, military scout bikes and private transport vehicles.

Posted: 2004-07-21 03:21pm
by CaptainChewbacca
Using parsecs to measure time....


*runs and hides*

Posted: 2004-07-21 03:27pm
by DPDarkPrimus
CaptainChewbacca wrote:Using parsecs to measure time....


*runs and hides*
If you read the Han Solo Trilogy, it's stated that he did some fancy maneuvering near a cluster of a black hole, so that he actually cut down on the total distance traveled.

Posted: 2004-07-21 03:51pm
by Super-Gagme
DPDarkPrimus wrote:
CaptainChewbacca wrote:Using parsecs to measure time....


*runs and hides*
If you read the Han Solo Trilogy, it's stated that he did some fancy maneuvering near a cluster of a black hole, so that he actually cut down on the total distance traveled.
And if you notice him doing "runs and hides" you'll see it's in jest. :roll:

Posted: 2004-07-21 04:54pm
by CaptainChewbacca
DPDarkPrimus wrote:
CaptainChewbacca wrote:Using parsecs to measure time....


*runs and hides*
If you read the Han Solo Trilogy, it's stated that he did some fancy maneuvering near a cluster of a black hole, so that he actually cut down on the total distance traveled.
I read the Han Solo trilogy when you were a twinkle in your father's eye... ;)

Posted: 2004-07-21 04:56pm
by Galvatron
CaptainChewbacca wrote:I read the Han Solo trilogy when you were a twinkle in your father's eye... ;)
I thought it was KJA who explained it in the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

Posted: 2004-07-21 05:01pm
by DPDarkPrimus
CaptainChewbacca wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote: If you read the Han Solo Trilogy, it's stated that he did some fancy maneuvering near a cluster of a black hole, so that he actually cut down on the total distance traveled.
I read the Han Solo trilogy when you were a twinkle in your father's eye... ;)
That must be why you forgot that nugget of information.

Also, it's a pretty mean feat, how you got the Trilogy before it was written.

Posted: 2004-07-21 05:06pm
by Galvatron
DPDarkPrimus wrote:Also, it's a pretty mean feat, how you got the Trilogy before it was written.
I think you need to specify which Han Solo trilogy you're talking about. Brian Daley's or A.C. Crispin's?

Posted: 2004-07-21 05:06pm
by DPDarkPrimus
The prequel ones.

Re: Seldom noticed yet uniquely Star Wars words or phrases

Posted: 2004-07-21 05:11pm
by Patrick Ogaard
Isolder74 wrote: Commander may be being used that same was as Comodante was in tyhe Nazi miliary. No matter what his rank the man in charge of the garrison was called the Comodante.
That would be Kommandant (or the synonym Kommandeur), which means commander in the generic military sense, since there is no "commander" rank in German naval tradition, the direct German equivalent being Fregattenkapitän (literally: frigate captain).

The literal English equivalent of Kommandant is commandant. Interestingly enough, though it's the wrong forum for the observation, Captain Picard was offered the position of Commandant of Starfleet Academy.

As a further note, Komödiant means comedian.

Regardless, Comodante is a fair phonetic approximation of Kommandant.

Posted: 2004-07-21 08:06pm
by Lord of the Farce
DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Galvatron wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:Also, it's a pretty mean feat, how you got the Trilogy before it was written.
I think you need to specify which Han Solo trilogy you're talking about. Brian Daley's or A.C. Crispin's?
The prequel ones.
Prequel to what? It'll be clearer if you specify whether you are talking about the older Solo Trilogy, vs the newer Solo Triology (with, IIRC, Han's first love: Bria Tharen).

Posted: 2004-07-22 12:07am
by DPDarkPrimus
The ones that came out a few years back.

Posted: 2004-07-22 06:49am
by Lord of the Farce
DPDarkPrimus wrote:The ones that came out a few years back.
Given the fact that you seem to be mentioning the neutron star incident, I would say that you would be talking about A. C. Crispin's Han Solo triology (1997 - 1998), rather than the Brian Daley's (1979 - 1980). Then again, looking at the copies of both triology in front of me, you may actually be right (in a couple of ways).

Brian Daley's books (my copy is the omnibus version) is also titled as "The Han Solo Adventures", while A. C. Crispin's is straight out "The Han Solo Triology". Also, the first couple of books (and some of the third) of A. C. Crispin's triology is also set before Brian Daley's trilogy.

Re: Seldom noticed yet uniquely Star Wars words or phrases

Posted: 2004-07-23 11:17pm
by Tychu
Galvatron wrote:Scopes

"and that, Lord Vader, was the last time they appeared on any of our scopes."
Im pretty sure he said "and that lord Vader, was the last time they appeared on any of our sensors"

I have heard that many audible things were changed in the Special Edition than the original but im pretty sure they said sensors in that case.

Re: Seldom noticed yet uniquely Star Wars words or phrases

Posted: 2004-07-23 11:19pm
by Techno_Union
Tychu wrote: Im pretty sure he said "and that lord Vader, was the last time they appeared on any of our sensors"

I have heard that many audible things were changed in the Special Edition than the original but im pretty sure they said sensors in that case.
"And that Lord Vader was the last time they appeared on any of our scopes; considering the amount of damage we've sustained they must have..."
At least that's the SE.

Posted: 2004-07-23 11:24pm
by Tychu
i can quite possibly be wrong, i havent watched the movies in a while the Original trillogy though.

Posted: 2004-07-23 11:26pm
by Stofsk
Blasters

All sci-fi shows/films usually have their own unique name for weapons, but Blasters seems to apply for a wide range of weapon systems - from personal handweapons, to anti-personnel E-web repeating blasters, to Snowspeeder blasters, to blaster cannons on AT-ATs and AT-STs.

Am I right about the above?

Posted: 2004-07-23 11:26pm
by Stofsk
Tychu wrote:i can quite possibly be wrong, i havent watched the movies in a while the Original trillogy though.
It's scopes. I'm sure it is.

Posted: 2004-07-23 11:34pm
by Galvatron
Tychu wrote:i can quite possibly be wrong, i havent watched the movies in a while the Original trillogy though.
It was always scopes.
Stofsk wrote:Blasters

All sci-fi shows/films usually have their own unique name for weapons, but Blasters seems to apply for a wide range of weapon systems - from personal handweapons, to anti-personnel E-web repeating blasters, to Snowspeeder blasters, to blaster cannons on AT-ATs and AT-STs.

Am I right about the above?
You're right, of course, but that's not exactly "seldom noticed." :wink:

To a lesser degree, the terms spacer and slicer are also commonly used, even though I think neither of them were ever mentioned on-screen in the OT.