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Anybody else ever hear of any cast or crew address this or any missing footage?

Blast it Biggs, where are you?


Update

When I receive Issue #35 of Star Wars Insider I will be adding much more. Stay tuned....

Mark Hamill Speaks Out

Entertainment Weekly, Issue #361, January 10, 1997, has a cover story on the Star Wars Special Edition. Mark Hamill has an interesting quote reguarding the Biggs Darklighter footage.

From pages 23 to 24:

Mark Hamill, who hasn't yet seen the new edition, has editorial ideas of his own. He wishes Lucas would reinstate a deleted opening sequence, which pictured Luke in a Tatooine hangout with his pilot pal Biggs Darklighter. (It's described in Lucas' 1976 novelizaton but was cut and hasn't been resurrected for the reissue; another Biggs scene later in the movie has been reinstated.)

"Biggs eventually gives up his life to enable Luke to enter the Death Star ... The heroism of that act would be accentuated if that introduction was still in."

What you won't see
Luke and Biggs at Toshi station.
(Spelling from the Script in The Art of Star Wars)
Toshi Station
What you will see
Luke and Biggs talking with Red Leader.
Both pictures from Ryan Silva's Compendium.
Massassi Temple

Go here to read about how the Massassi scene is different in SW:SE.

Garrick Hagon Reflects

Star Wars Insider, Issue #32, Winter 1997, has a article covering many of the actors who played Rebel pilots in the trilogy. Garrick Hagon, who played Luke's boyhood friend, Biggs Darklighter, discusses many things.

(This portion of the article is noted as being contributed by James Swallow. My comments are in parenthesis.)
From page 29:

He mentions that Biggs' cape was a major point of conversation, and describes Mark Hamill's jokes when they met for a costume fitting. "He threw his arms around me and said 'You're my best buddy!', and it began to dawn on me that this might be an important role!"

(Hagon discusses having to get his hair cut while acting in A Bridge Too Far and then having to go back and face George Lucas.)
So I did, and then I had to go back to George and say 'Look at my hair', and George said, 'What's the matter? You got your hair cut at the Academy, that's okay!' Then he gave me this wonderful flight helmet and said, 'What do you think? I think you've got the best one'. I wish I'd kept it!"

Hagon as Biggs Darklighter
From Topps Star Wars card #243 (Green Set)
Green Topps card #243

Bigg's first onscreen moments were originally to have been early on in the movie, in a cut scene where Luke visits some friends at Anchorhead, including one friend who was portrayed by actress Koo Stark. Here we would have seen Luke's first inklings of the "larger world" Ben Kenobi mentioned when Biggs confessed to him he was bound for the Rebel Alliance, imploring Luke to come with him. As fate would have it, the two would catch up to each other a lot quicker, meeting once again (in another excised moment) in the hanger bay on Massassi, just before the Rebels took off to attack the Death Star. During the battle, Biggs (with the characteristic black and yellow checkerboard helmet) took up Luke's wingman position, Red three. George Lucas decided that Biggs ealier scenes hampered the flow of the movie, so there were cut from the original film, and won't be included in the Special Edition.


I have read the script and I don't exactly recall Biggs asking Luke to leave with him. He only asks if Luke is headed for the Academy.


For more info on all the Biggs Darklighter sub-plot, go here and follow the link. But please come back when you are done.

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Copyright © 1997, Michael A. & Tammy G. Hendershot