$17,000 bucks for a two-hour plane ride?

In addition, I found this quote from the George Lucas' novelization (which, I understand, was ghost written by Alan Dean Foster, based on George's script):

Luke arched his back, and the pose was so strange Han couldn’t keep his chuckle in. The kid must have heard it because he scowled and switched the lightsaber off. “Oh, this is pointless. What can I really learn on a ship in a few hours?”

Exactly. Han dropped his mask back down over his face and returned to the circuitry in front of him.

“I do not expect you to master everything in mere minutes, and you should not expect that of yourself, either. That is a path to frustration, anger—and both are dangerous.”

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Luke infers that he'll only be on the ship a few hours. 3 hours?

More evidence that the trip is 3 hours or less and not days.

Water Bob said:

Well, WEG is known to have well researched material that Lucasfillm went over with a fine toothed comb.

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I think most of us can pretty much recite Star Wars by heart. I'd argue the average fan has "researched" the movie as well as any company has.

The WEG material was used, for years, as the "bible" for all things Star Wars. When Timothy Zahn was writing Heir to the Empire, the book that launched the EU, Lucasfilm sent him loads of WEG material, and you can see it in his writing as he references vehicles and items in his books. Other Star Wars authors and game designers also used WEG materials as a universe bible.

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Well, if we're arguing official canon, all the EU, games, novels, video games, etc. has been declared non-canon.

All we have to go on, therefore, is the actual movie. I love the WEG game, but it has no more authority than FASA's had on Star Trek.

I'm leaning towards the "hours" version.

But, [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] said to present the compelling arguments I found on the net. OK, here's an argument for the otherside--that thinking that the trip is a couple of days.



This is the "days" version. But, it's a weaker argument.

1. We assume that the scene where Han comes from the cockpit and says, "I told ya I'd outrun 'em," didn't happen right after the jump to hyperspace. Maybe they were worried about being tracked through hyperspace or had been talking about it on the journey as Han went to the cockpit to check on the controls. This could have been a day or more later as we've got the cut to the Death Star and Alderaan being destroyed between the Falcon jumping to hyperspace and Han coming from the cockpit to watch Luke train.

This is a weaker argument because we've got to make a real leap of faith that Han is not coming from the cockpit and seeing Ben and Luke for the first time since the jump happened. Minutes in the cockpit, even an hour or so, is more believable than he's slept overnight and returned to the cockpit.



2. Leia was captured on Vader's Star Destroyer. The SD has to rendezvous with the Death Star (or send her in a ship to the DS). The DS had to jump to the Alderaan system and destroy Alderaan. It can't do all this in just a few hours.

This is a weaker argument because Leia was captured early in the film, and there were obvious days--absolutely one day at the minimum--that the Imperials had time to ship Leia off. Other Imperial SDs showed up at Tatooine after a call went out that Vader's SD had intercepted the Rebels with the DS plans (when Vader took over Leia's ship at the opening shot of the film) like cops piling on and arriving late at a crime scene. The Death Star has plenty of time to receive Leia, torture her, and make its way to Alderaan

Morrus said:

Well, if we're arguing official canon, all the EU, games, novels, video games, etc. has been declared non-canon.

All we have to go on, therefore, is the actual movie. I love the WEG game, but it has no more authority than FASA's had on Star Trek.

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Fair enough. Let's drop the WEG support of the argument and just use the film scene as I outlined in post #19.

Water Bob said:

In addition, I found this quote from the George Lucas' novelization (which, I understand, was ghost written by Alan Dean Foster, based on George's script):

Luke infers that he'll only be on the ship a few hours. 3 hours?

More evidence that the trip is 3 hours or less and not days.

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Nah, he just implies he's doing a few hours' training while on the ship.

Morrus said:

Nah, he just implies he's doing a few hours' training while on the ship.

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And...the evidence in post #19?

Water Bob said:

And...the evidence in post #19?

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I'm on a phone. Doesn't show post numbers. Remind me?

It feels like you have a decision and are just looking for validation of it? If so, sure. It's 3 hours.

Star Wars hyperdrive speeds have always been "speed of plot", but they do seem to operate more in hours than days. Look at Attack of the Clones (go on, it'll only hurt a little bit) - Obi Wan is captured whilst spying on the Separatists on Geonosis, who are bringing their plans to fruition. Anakin and Padme set off from Tatooine to rescue him, after forwarding his SOS to the Jedi temple on Coruscant. Clearly they're not expecting to be days late to the party, so for them at least it must be a short trip. By the time Anakin and Padme have been captured and added to Obi Wan's already-scheduled elaborate arena-style execution, Mace Windu has journeyed from Coruscant and infiltrated the arena with a few dozen Jedi, and Yoda is only minutes behind him having flown to Kamino, rounded up a few thousand clone troopers into battleships, and then flown to Geonosis.

Or consider Luke Skywalker in Episodes V and VI. His primary mode of transport, going from Hoth to Dagobah to Bespin, then from Tatooine to Dagobah again and then to Sullust to rendezvous with the Rebel fleet is an X-Wing. Comfortable enough for hours at a time, perhaps, but days?

Morrus said:

I'm on a phone. Doesn't show post numbers. Remind me?

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I'll copy it for you:

POST 19

The biggest argument is the film itself. Go back and watch A New Hope (another Homework Assignment!). Note the scene where Luke trains with the light saber and remote, blast shield down on the helm. Han comes out of the cockpit corridor and says, "Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. I told ya I'd outrun 'em."

Obviously, this is the first time Han has seen Luke or Ben since making the jump to hyperspace.

Some time has passed. But, it doesn't look like a lot of time. Luke and Ben were on the bridge when the jump was made. Now, they're in the lounge with Luke practicing with saber and remote. Chewie and droids are deep into a game of holochess.

The scene is continual, without cutting elsewhere. Han talks about hokey religions and tells the droids to let the Wookiee win. Ben shows off his pupil by putting a helmet on Luke with the blast shield down.

The scene is several minutes, but still a shot period of time. Then, the alarms go off, and Han says, "Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan."

The question is: How long did Han stay in the cockpit before going aft to join the others?

Days? No way.

Hours? Possibly.

Minutes? Most likely.




I could definitely buy half an hour.

Luke and Ben went aft and started training.

Chewie, at some point, leaves Han in the cockpit, wanders aft and gets into a game of holochess with the droids. It is likely that he didn't go straight back there and start the game, but he might have. He could go back, say something like, "Well, we've got less than an hour to kill. Who's up for some holochess? Ben? Luke? No? Okay, you droids, play holochess with me."

The revised D6 Star Wars time I wrote above could be spot on, given all of this evidence. 30 minutes or 1.5 hours, I could definitely see, given the scenes in the film.

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It feels like you have a decision and are just looking for validation of it?

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I was more on the "2 days" side of the fence when I started this thread, but after reviewing the movie (what I write above), I think it's more clear that we're talking about a few hours at most--possibly less than one hour.

It's also a bonus that the movie supports the D6 WEG rules.

I'd say that seems fairly convincing. Taking movie evidence only, looks like the trip is hours, now days. You've convinced me.