Neimoidians in Mos Eisley ?

There is a quick shot in the Cantina scene when Luke/Obi first walk in, of two Neimoidian-looking chaps having what looks like a heated (drunken) discussion.

I'm guessing Lucas & co. took that random alien and built a race/organization around it for the PT. It's nice to speculate that those two Neimoidians in the Cantina were once part of the Trade Federation, and went into hiding/exile (Qui-Gon: "most here do not want to be found") after the Empire took over.

Of course I could be totally wrong. But they sure look like Neimoidians to me.

 

I think those are Duros...

 

Picture please

 

I'm pretty sure what you're referring to are the Duros.

[image=http://www.starwars.com/databank/species/duros/img/movie_sm.jpg]

edit - from the OS:

During the pre-production of Episode I, the Neimoidians were originally going to be computer-generated and appear similar in shape to their battle droids, suggesting that the Neimoidians created the droids in their image. When realizing digital Neimoidians became impractical, Director George Lucas instead decided to make the Neimoidians animatronic masks. He referred the creature department to an original photo of the "Goggle-Eyes" alien from the cantina, and decided that's what a Neimoidian should look like.

Since the Duros already had a backstory, when the Neimoidian backstory was developed, the two aliens were tied together by a connected history.

 

Yeah i think that's what he's on about.

Def not Neimodians sorry

 

Those are Duros, the genetic cousins of the Neimoidians.

 

Yes, the Nemoidians are an offshoot of the Duros, or is it the other way around? All I know is that thousands of years before TPM, one group moved to another planet system and evolved seprately from there on.

 

It's the Neimoidians that evolved from the Duros. The Duros were one of the first species in the galaxy to develop hyperspace travel, and thus settled throughout the galaxy. A group of Duros in colonies that are now known as the Neimoidian Purse Worlds decided to stop travelling and start hoarding. They didn't keep in contact with the Duros, and after a few thousand years, they've developed into a separate species.

 

"When realizing digital Neimoidians became impractical, Director George Lucas instead decided to make the Neimoidians animatronic masks."

Would they have been impractical in 2004, too?

 

I don't see why it should pose a problem really.

 

Would they have been impractical in 2004, too?

Good question. If they were impractical in '98, theres at least a fair chance it would have still been impractical 6 years later. On the other hand, computers really are advancing so quickly that it could have become practical - and just too late to change anything.

 

By impractical I doubt he means they couldn't do it I mean, the gungans were all digital. But he probably meant impractical as in there wasn't enough time/money, so physically costumed characters would be much faster and easier if they wanted to stay on schedule.

 

The original design for the Neimoidians was actually used for the Geonosians, so yes it would have been possible in 2004.

Edit: From the official site...

"In its pre-production development, Geonosis was described by George Lucas as a world of rock and insects. The basic Geonosian design finds its roots in early Neimoidian concepts developed for The Phantom Menace. For Episode I, the original idea for the Neimoidians was that they commissioned the battle droids to be created in their own image. As such, the conceptual Neimoidians had long, narrow faces and slight, stick-figure builds. These characteristics were incorporated into Geonosian designs since the Neimoidians ended up being realized as animatronic masks for Episode I."

 

I'm sure you can see the irony now that there's no reason why you can't think this.

Someone wrote a backstory for them (relatively a long time ago) I believe they were in West End Games Galaxy Guide 4, Alien Races. GL wanted to use them in TPM and for whatever reason decided he wanted a clean slate for the race's origin. So there's an identical race now called Neimoidians. Then how do we know if what we saw in the Cantina were Duros or Neimoidians, only the from the EU, so you're really free to think what you want.

This kind of reminds me of how the Tonnika sisters (the girls with the braids in the cantina) were originally supposed to be identical twin swindlers and then it was realized that they weren't even the same height, much less twins. This led to the story that these two girls we actually see in the cantina are just impersonating the real Tonnika sisters.

Maybe we'll find out one day the Neimoidian you thought you knew in the cantina actually was a trade federation high ranking official hiding out under the alias, Ellorrs Madak, Duros smuggler.

 

All this stuff is even funnier when you see this:

http://index.echostation.com/trilogy/cantina4.htm

(scroll down to "Duros Aliases" )

 

Well from now on, for anyone not familiar with EU, they might as well be Neimoidians.
I know I'm not going to 'correct' anybody.

 

They are Duros. All one has to do is look at a Duros and then look at a Neimoidian and they can see the differences between the two.

They are like Leopards and Jaguars, they look similar but are two different species that live on different continents.

 

But they also look similar enough in a fictional universe that someone will just readily think 'Oh! It's those aliens from Phantom Menace!'
Not every wookiee has the same facial structure as Chewie, but we typically don't consider random wookiee A to be not a wookiee.
Now, I'm not saying the EU didn't call them something different so that removes any doubt from some fans' minds. They like the EU and what it has to say. I'm just saying I could easily see someone thinking those are the 'Phantom Menace aliens'.
In fact... I'm going to point them out as Niemoidians next time I'm watching the series with a casual fan to see how easily they buy it. Should be interesting.

 

I heard George Lucas officially considers them to be Neimoidians... so to me, Duros is just another word for Neimoidian... go away EU!

 

I have never seen the resemblence between a Neimoidian and a Duro.

 

Yeah I never put the two together, but it's believable that one evolved from the other. I just looked in the species guide, and it says that the neimoidians are descendants of Duros who colonized Neimoidia. They look different due to, "25 000 years of development in a different environment."

 

dont know who the duros are but they are definitely closely related to nemoidians,i love these little connections between the trilogies,i was delighted to discover the fact that walrusmans race were part of the separatist movement,little touchs like this make the sw universe so much more believable