Any kid who had a copy of the Star Wars Storybook was undoubtedly confused by the inclusion of pictures the scene shot at Tosche Station. Here were shots of Luke Skywalker hanging out on Tatooine with some mustachioed cool guy in cape. In the days before the Internet, there were very few ways to find out Star Wars information outside of the latest issue of Bantha Tracks and this is of course long before every home video release featured alternate endings and deleted scenes. The legend of these deleted scenes grew—they were also included in Marvel’s comic book adaptation as well as the novelization—and were eventually released on the Star Wars Blu-Ray set released a few years ago. Star Wars documentarian Jamie Benning has cut together a short documentary titled Blast It Biggs, Where Are you that tells the story of the lost Star Wars scenes. Benning cut together the short over an interview with Garrick Hagon, the actor who brought Biggs Darklighter to life. Say what you will about Lucas’ writing ability, but the man has a knack for names.
The story goes that even in the ‘70s when George Lucas was writing Star Wars, people were critical of his artistic choices telling him that the script was “THX 1138 all over again” and that he should include some human characters earlier in the film and not a bunch of droids. So Lucas added the scenes of Wormie—Luke’s high school nickname—Camie—portrayed by adult film star Koo Stark—and Fixer hanging around on a dull afternoon on Tatooine. With the scenes of teenagers putzing around the local hangout, Lucas was then accused of just doing American Graffiti in space. You can’t please all of the people all of the time.
The scenes were eventually cut as they disrupted the pacing of the opening. However, Biggs does turn up later in the film during the Death Star attack. Without the Tatooine scenes, some of the weight is taken away from Biggs’ death during the battle of Yavin; it would lead some people to wonder why Luke was so broken up about the pilot with the Cheap Trick checkerboard themed flight helmet being shot down. The 1997 Special Edition attempted to rectify that by re-instating a cut scene of Biggs and Luke reconnecting while the pilots are boarding their X-Wings before the big battle.
The documentary combines on set home movies, behind the scenes footage, and stills into an interesting look at a film that’s been poured over for over 30 years.
Blast it Biggs! Where are you?! – By @jamieswb from Filmumentaries – Jamie Benning on Vimeo.