Rogue One The Murder Door: What is the function of the deadly looking constantly opening / closing aperture?

That arm strength though.

 

"That whole practical effects thing and all" was mostly touted as a "The Force Awakens" selling point. That movie still had more computer generated visual effects shots than prequels simply because there is no getting around that now.

 

So I was reading the (Canon, this is important) novel "Tales from a Galaxy Far Far Away Volume 1 - Aliens" and in the story "All Creatures big and Small", it relates a story about during the attack on the Death Star by the Rebellion over Yavin, that inside of the Death Star, doors were malfunctioning and opening and closing randomly. So doors suddenly freaking out in the middle of battle may be an Imperial design. Maybe not even a bug but a feature. Especially in that era!

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the note about doors opening and closing on the Death Star does come from an unreliable narrator. But it seems rather specific that both on the DS and on Scariff they have randomly opening and closing apertures in the midst of a heated battle. Someone really screwed up in the Imperial Base Design corps, didn't they? "If I'm scared I'm going to die the doors should reflect that too!"