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That is exactly what I am talking about.
Leia certainly has the ability to use the Force herself, so the usual trick was absolutely useless with her.
Regarding the bot I like the version that it is a modification of a former medical bot, retrofitted with some illegal stuff. But wait, who said that the things we see on its body are there to cause injure? They might be a leftover from the original version and could be used to hold one's arm while injecting the drugs or monitor the biological parameters to work as a lie detector? I tend to think that the expanded universe stuff descrbes the matter way too cruel. And I also think that the bot was produced kinda illegally in very small quantities and was not easily availible around.
And do you think that Lucas did not film or describe that part intentionally for some reason? Thay did not seem to be limited with their filming capabilities, of course I am not talking about imagination of those guys... Usually these movies did not leave gaps in both the storyline and the technical details...

 

^ Vader should have been able to sense her force sensitivity really. Is this another inconsistency or can someone give me an in-universe explanation?

 

Less than a year actually.

Given that the movie was aimed at kids - they weren't going to show torture on-screen that early.

ESB has most of Han's torture take place offscreen - a couple of twitches from the shocks, then some screaming overheard in the next room.

Are you thinking of the radio play? That was aired a bit later.

The relevant quotes from the ANH book:

Leia studied the contraption fearfully. She had heard rumors of such machines, but had never really believed that Imperial technicians would actually construct such a monstrosity. Incorporated into its soulless memory was every barbarity, every substantiated outrage known to mankind - and to several alien races as well.
Vader and Tarkin stood there quietly, giving her plenty of time to study the hovering nightmare. The Governor in particular did not delude himself into thinking that the mere presence of the device would shock her into giving up the information he needed. Not, he reflected, that the ensuing session would be especially unpleasant. There was always enlightenment and knowledge to be gained from such encounters, and the Senator promised to be a most interesting subject.


"You don't know how hard I found it to sign the order for your termination." His expression changed to one of mock sorrow. "Of course, had you cooperated in our investigation, things might be otherwise. Lord Vader has informed me that your resistance to our traditional methods of inquiry-"
"Torture, you mean." she countered a trifle shakily.
"Let us not bandy semantics." Tarkin smiled.
"I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility for issuing the order on yourself."

It still leaves a certain amount to the imagination.

There's 3 versions - Death Star, Captive of Evil, and The Rise & Fall of Darth Vader. The latter two draw on the radio play version - in which Vader pretends to be Leia's foster father Bail:

Star Wars Journal: Captive to Evil
I'm weak. And dizzy. It's hard to speak or even lift my head. I can't make it to my cot. I'm lying on the floor.
Like an animal. This is what they did to me.
I try not to feel hatred. Because that's what they want. Hatred weakens the spirit as pain weakens the body.
I didn't think such pain existed. In any universe.
I have to rest now. To prepare for next time. But I record this fact.
He ... did not ... break me.

The torture began with one needle. It probed my most sensitive nerves. Darth Vader stood by. The pain grew until I broke my promise not to scream and let out a cry that came from the deepest part of myself.
I practiced my mind techniques in the beginning. But as the pain began to take over, I could no longer reason properly. And then, as my sanity was slipping away, Vader spoke to me. He spoke in the voice of a friend. He wanted to end my pain — didn't I want it to end too? It would be so easy. It would happen immediately. All he had to do was raise his hand. And all I had to do was reveal where the Death Star plans were, or the location of the hidden Rebel base. Either piece of information would bring me sweet relief.
I held on.
"Never," I gritted out. Just that one word cost me a great deal of effort.
The needle probed deeper. The pain grew and grew until I lost consciousness. They revived me.
And then they started all over again.
More pain. More terror.
I would have broken if I hadn't been trained so well. I clung to the pieces of my training that had been shattered by the pain. Vader used the Force, trying to convince me that he was working for the Rebellion. That my father wanted me to reveal the location of the hidden base. Didn't I want to please my father?
Confused and in raging pain, I held out against that voice. In the end, my resistance became nothing more tan a single point of consciousness. A pinprick of light illuminating the darkness around me. I concentrated and concentrated on that tiny particle of light, knowing that if I let go—all was lost.
Then from somewhere far away, I heard Vader's voice. I heard him say "Enough."
He wanted me alive. They would try again later.
My eyes were closed, and my grip on consciousness was weak. But I heard the hiss of the door with relief.
I'd made it through.

Death Star
"And now, Your Highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel base." Vader told her.
As the interrogator droid floated in behind him, Vader saw her defiant expression falter. He felt her fear as the machine approached her.
Good ...
He heard the door slam down behind them.

But, after half an hour, despite the truth drugs, electrical shocks, and other inducements he had administered, it was evident that her resistance had not been lowered enough for him to probe her mind. That was surprising.
She was physically weakened and in considerable pain, but her mind remained shielded. She had revealed nothing.
Most unusual for anyone except a Jedi to have such control, he mused.
He kept his anger and frustration under tight rein, letting none of it show. He had other matters that required his attention — for now.
"We are not done here," he told her. To one of the technicians he said "Have a medic tend to her."
The technician said, "But isn't she sentenced to die?"
"When I decide it is time," Vader said. "If she is not alive and well until that moment, I will hold you personally responsible."
The tech grew visibly paler. Vader swept by him and out of the cell.

The Rise & Fall of Darth Vader
Looming over the prisoner, Vader said "And now, Your Highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel Base."
There was an electric hum from behind Vader, then a spherical black interrogator droid hovered slowly into the cell. The droid's midsection was ringed by a repulsorlift system, and its exterior was festooned with devices that included an electroshock assembly, sonic torture device, chemical syringe, and lie determinator.
Leia's eyes went wide at the sight of the droid, and Vader could practically taste her terror. She said "Keep it away from me!"
Vader seized his prisoner, pinning her arms to her sides while the interrogator droid moved in closer. There was a brief hiss from the droid's injector arm, then Leia cried out and fell backward, slumping against the cell wall with a thud. "You can't ... she said. "You c —"
"Your Highness," Vader said in his most soothing tone. "Listen to my voice."
Leia's eyes rolled in their sockets, unable to focus on anything. She stammered, "V-voice ..."
"That's right. Listen ... I am your friend."
"Wha — friend?" Leia said, then winced. "No ..."
"Yes!" Vader insisted, watching her plunge deeper into a hypnotic state. "You trust me, you can confide in me. All your secrets are safe with me."
"Mmmm?" Leia licked her lips. "Safe?"
"That's right, safe. You are safe here. You're among friends. You can trust me. I am a member of the Rebel Alliance, like you."
A look of relief swept over Leia's face as she muttered "Rebel?"
"What did you do with the Death Star plans, Leia? Where are they? The Rebels need to know! Help us, Leia!"
"No," she moaned, closing her eyes. "Can't!"
"It's your duty," Vader urged. "Your duty to our Alliance. Your obligation to Alderaan and to your father. It's your duty to tell us where those tapes are!"
"Father?" Leia said, her eyes still shut.
"Yes," Vader said. "Your father commands you to tell us!"
"Father ... wouldn't."
Growing impatient, Vader used his own psychic powers to make Leia believe she was in excruciating pain, but after several minutes, he ended the interrogation. He sensed that her willpower was formidable but must have been augmented with certain physical and mental disciplines. She would not be broken easily.
Leaving the detention cell, he went to report to Grand Moff Tarkin in the Death Star control room. Vader said. "Her resistance to the mind probe is considerable. It will be some time before we can extract any information from her."

 

I have read all that stuff and as I have stated in previous posts I still like the two later versions and especially the last one although the first one could be a first person description of the same procedure as recalled by Leia with regard to the effects of intoxication and hypnosis.
What still remains quite unrealistic for me is that the imperial engineers would create a fully capable technologically complex droid with the only purpose of professionally causing pain... That is just too simple and irrational to be the truth. It just makes no sense. That is why I do not like the first version. Another thing against the version of the actual torture is that they needed actual information not a fake admission of guilt or any crap of that sort usually associated with tortures. Also, why would a twenty year old girl from a peaceful planet that never had any military of any kind at all have a special training of that sort? The only reasonable explanation is the Force... What would they do without it, especially regarding the fact that Vaider and the Emperor are the only ones around able to use it? Vaider was not very surprised probably as you do not need to be able to use the Force to resist it to some degree and he thought that more attempts would let him achieve the result he needed. Leia did not know herself she was able of such things... But Leia still was a very special occasion. What do you think was the usual procedure if some tough guys from the rebellion forces got captured? I suppose they would beat them manually a couple of times if they refuse to disclose classified stuff and send them to prison or get rid of them quite quickly, like probably anyone would do in such situation? Also, the Rebellion did not use any of the more sophisticated questioning methods but up to my opinion managed to run their intelligence quite well if not say very well. What could be done to a few Rebellion high command officers including our characters if the imperials managed to capture them alive again in the episode six? Although I bet they would not surrender that easily if they would not know that the imperials are already in the ambush and nobody is going anywhere... Would they just keep them to kill them later or use them to exchange for some of their own command people if they got trapped? And do you think that not filming something that could be considered too cruel would make people imagine things way much more cruel? At the same time nothing seemed to prevent them from filming burnt bodies and cut limbs... Weird...

 

In TCW, there's other torture droids - which closely resemble the one seen in Jabba's palace.

 

Of course the expanded universe stuff has lots of things including bots that are not seen or do not take part in the original story...

I have found an interesting piece of information recently. There is some amount of materials on that topic including imperials scoffing at Solo that have been actually filmed. But as I understand those are the known cut scenes. Is that correct? To be said at that time Leia again gets away with no signs of any harm while captain Solo and Chewbacca obviously have been harmed. Carrie Fisher tells that there have been some ideas on making the interrogation scene and even making Leia unconscious when the guys find her. What I did not manage to get explicitly is if those have ever been performed and filmed. Does anybody know?

 

If that bothers you so much, just imagine that's it's Vader's personal property rather than standard Imperial issue. Like the medical suite where Vader got his suit, or the suit itself, or his private sphere compartment from ESB, it can be exclusive "Sith tech," if there is any such thing. Anakin is a tinkerer -- he might have custom-built that droid himself! For that matter, he might have built it from the wreckage of the medical droids he wrecked in ROTS as a kind of macabre souvenir. From building C-3PO, to being buddies with R2-D2, to this as his new robotic sidekick. Disturbing!

Now I think the old EU stated that it is in fact Imperial standard issue. But that may never be re-established; now that we've seen the Vader creation room, the idea that this is a sinister Sith item and not mass-produced hardware might even someday become the real explanation.

 

Best source I've ever found for what scenes may or may not have been shot is here:

http://www.starwarz.com/tbone/category/cutscenes/

This is the updated version, the old one which included a section called 'The Trash Compactor' addressing rumoured and debunked scenes is archived here:

http://www.starwarz.com/tbone/archive/index.php?categoryid=8

Regarding Leia's torture scene, I think it's been established that Carrie Fisher is mistaken, probably recalling stuff from an early script discussion and/or the radio drama:

http://www.starwarz.com/tbone/archive/index.php?categoryid=15&p2_articleid=9

 

Sorry, what do you mean under the old expanded universe?
And why do you say that it may never be established again?
What should be considered the real explanation here?
As up to my opinion the official movie creators could release canonical and real explanations for fan questions...
As regards the bot that looks like a good idea as that is a bit too much even for a totalitarian regime like this...
But on the other side why would Vaider actually need to invent and construct such thing regarding his Force abilities.
If that is clear that the scene with Leia was never filmed or even supposed to be filmed how could she possibly recall it as one of the hardest filming days?

 

There used to be an elaborate hierarchy of canon based on the films overruling TV when there was a conflict, but TV overruling (most) books and games when there was a conflict, and there were all sorts of corner cases and exceptions. Now, most everything has been killed, or, as we like to call it, "rebranded as Legends." The six films happened, and the Clone Wars happened, and Rebels will have happened. So most appearances of the torture droid and its origin now have as much weight as what we write in this very forum, which is to say nothing. Future books/games might re-visit the no-longer-settled questions and give us the same answers, or new ones. Or no answers.

Stuff in the movie novelizations apparently happened as long as it doesn't contradict what's on-screen, and internal monologue, or a depiction of what happened after the cell door slams down, doesn't contradict the film, so I guess the novelization events are the realest answer we have for the moment.

 

So, regarding all the things that I have heard, I would suppose that the thing we see probably is not Vaider's personal property and more than one of them exists, especially regarding that Leia heard different legends and rumors about them, but neither their existence is official or legal, so they are to be unofficially used as an extreme measure if someone like Vaider or even the emperor gives a green light for that. They are basically a combination of a highly complex lie detector and an automatic drug injector, able of sounding the alarm if anything goes wrong or too far. Does all that sound like a canonic explanation built over the compilation of the available sources?
But I am still quite confused with how could Carrie Fisher remember something that was removed from the screenplay long before it was approved as a part of the filming job?
What I remember from the bits of that interview as I did not yet manage to get the book I believe it comes from, is that she says she would love the idea of having yellow eyes and being carried for the half of the movie and I am not sure what she says about the filming of that bit, but I believe that she does say something on that.

 

There's also tie-in books like the Visual Dictionaries for each movie.

 

Just posted another one accidentally

 

Sorry, what is that and what are they for?
Never heard of such thing before.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Complete_Visual_Dictionary

It's full of cross-sections of things like Artoo and the Sarlacc - background info, labels of each of the important features of a character, or a droid, and so forth.

 

Is it much the same as The Essential Guides?

 

Not really. The Essential Guides have a lot of EU content - whereas every article in the Visual Dictionary concerns something from the movies.

The Essential Guides also go into more detail.

 

Thank you!

How would one possibly go into detail about something here without using a lot of the expanded universe content?
Do you know a good place where I can get the book by the way?

What do you think of my post 486?

Do you know if the Deleted Magic series for the episodes five an six exist?
And what about the first episodes? Not sure if that was planned for the first episodes...

 

As far as I can tell, most large Waterstones shops stock the Complete Visual Dictionary.

 

Thank you!

 

Have the Deleted Magic series been ever released for the other episodes? Or are they still planned to be released?
I have only heard of them as the trailers on the disc with the original Deleted Magic and I can find no further mentioning anywhere.

In the original Deleted Magic film there are some pieces of black and white footage with the actors performing what looks like the third draft of the screenplay for the audio recording. What was that done for? It does not look like a piece of the radio drama. At least I think so.
Can I get the whole footage somewhere nowadays?
If they have really performed the complete third draft there that could be what Carrie Fisher remembers...

 

Does anybody know?

 

They're the original auditions for Star Wars (from 1975, I think). You should be able to find most of them on YouTube and the like, including auditions by other actors who didn't get the parts, like Cindy Williams, Kurt Russell and William Katt. Some here:



Doesn't explain Carrie Fisher's recollections about the torture scene, though - the scene in the third draft is virtually identical to the finished film. She's most likely a bit mistaken, recalling the radio drama, and probably embellishing a little bit, too (Mark Hamill's notorious for it).

 

I always thought that the third draft is the actual source of that scene...
At least the version of it that I have read.
I mean the one where she was supposed to be hanging upside down when she was found.
Where does it actually come from if not from the third draft of the screenplay?
As far as I understand the torture scene was never written...

 

Sorry, it's a later scene in the third draft, but it doesn't appear in the fourth draft (shooting script) at all. Here's the quote from Carrie Fisher which led to the rumour:

She never actually says it was shot, anyway, just that it was in an earlier version of the script. Some of the wording's a bit misleading - "when Mark and Harrison found me, I was hanging upside down" and "it was cut from the film" - which might suggest it was shot, but she's just talking about the characters they ended up playing (actors often switch between referring to the characters and the actors playing them), and that the scene didn't make it to filming stage.

As for that bit about it being one of the hardest filming days, I don't know where that's from, but it could easily be something unrelated that's been confused over the years.