Haynes publishing manual
books got their start making owner’s technical manuals for automobiles but why
stop there? They expanded into all sorts of things including the vast array of
science fiction related materials. The
world of science fiction offered an incredible catalogue of choices for Haynes
to create their manual books. This also included one of the biggest and most
intimidating creations in science fiction history. I am of course talking about
the dreaded Death Star!
In Star Wars Episode: IV A New Hope the mighty Death Star was just
declared to be fully-operational and officially the most terrifying weapon in
the galaxy. It was the size of a small moon. A gargantuan space station
controlled by the Empire that boasted a massive super laser cannon capable of
destroying an entire planet! It was a fate that the citizens of Alderaan know
all too well as it was the first inhabited target to feel its feared wrath. Now
destroying a planet is no easy feat. A giant asteroid slammed into our fair
planet killing the dinosaurs and wiping out nearly all life but planet Earth was still
able to survive and rebuild. Annihilating an entire planet right off the galaxy
map, now that takes some massive fire power and energy of truly biblical proportions.
Needless to say having a weapon like that in one’s arsenal is enough to put fear
any creature’s heart.
The idea of the Death Star
was in the mind Emperor Palpatine and his chief right hand man Governor Tarkin
for quite some time. The concept dates back to the Clone Wars but due to that
messy war, Palpatine having to wipe out the entire Jedi Order, consolidating
his power and establishing his massive galaxy wide military, and of course the
massive undertaking of building such a space station/weapon there were
naturally some delays in getting her complete. In the meantime there were
predecessors that Palpatine had going that helped lead to the ultimate creation
of the Death Star. The original concept for the Death Star came from the
spherical design of the Trade Federations battleships. The spheres were able to
detach from a large semi closed disc and dock in atmospheres. The “Eye of Palpatine” was space station
that was designed to look like a floating asteroid for camouflage. The Torpedo
Sphere was basically a giant weapon with multiple armaments designed to rip
through planetary defenses, and after the eventual destruction of the first
Death Star at the Battle of Yavin the “Tarkin”
was created. It was basically another super laser only not as powerful. “Tarkin” was never fully operational and
the rebels sabotaged it by infiltrating the vessel and reversing it wiring
causing it to fire on itself.
The Death Star had it all. A
giant super laser, living quarters for hundreds of thousands of personnel,
countless hangar bays for docking ships. You name it and she probably had it.
She had her own small army on site that could be deployed at a moment’s notice
to carry out the empires bidding. It was basically inconceivable that she could
be destroyed but she was due to a design flaw. All the energy required to keep
her going had to have heat exhausts placed throughout her structure otherwise
she would overheat and pretty much fail. Small thermal exhaust ports were
placed all over the vessel to allow her to “breathe”. It was this flaw that the
rebels took advantage of and Luke Skywalker used to fire two photon torpedoes
into, which went right into the Death Stars belly and blew her into a million
pieces. So what did Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader and the empire do in
response? They chose to build a second Death Star that was nearly twice as big.
Unfortunately that massive beast was never fully completed and the rebels
succeeded in destroying her as well. In my opinion it was a truly humiliating
defeat for the empire. Palpatine boasted that it was all part of his plan to
lure to rebels in close because his ultimate goal was to have Luke Skywalker
kill his own father Darth Vader and become his new apprentice. But honestly
that “plan” of his turned out to be a dud. Palpatine was murdered by Darth
Vader, his second death star destroyed, and an entire company of his best
troops were defeated by a small band of ill-equipped rebels and teddy bears.
The Death Star certainly
brings fear into the minds of many but at the same time she has been defeated
twice now. So yes, she can pack a wallop but I imagine most must think that she
can still be beat. She is an audacious and an ambitious beast to create and maintain
but that might be her ultimate problem. She is too damn big to maintain! I can’t
even begin to imagine the cost to upkeep such a thing let alone build her in
the first place. I also can’t imagine that Palpatines Generals, Admirals, and
finance experts were 100% on board either, in fact, they weren’t! But in those
days nobody dared challenge Palpatines decision making. In another post where I
focus on the entire Star Wars universe I will explain how I feel about the
entire empire as a whole and how Palpatine reign really was significant but
arrogant and sloppy which lead to its downfall. The Death Star was certainly an
intimidating heavy handed approach to authority but so heavy that even the
empire itself could barely hold her weight for too long. Once she went down
(twice) it was a real symbol that the empire could no longer hold its weight
and gave the rebels all the confidence they needed.
Read my previous post, also about a Haynes Technical Manual!
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