CT The name of the Death Star

Silly question but is, or do you think, the name of the Death Star, is the Death Star or is that some word that the rebels use to make it sound scary or evil. Does anyone in the Empire call it the Death Star in the movie or just rebels? It seems like a slag word

 

If memory serves this is addressed in the radio drama. Death Star was a code word that Leia acquired when the plans were stolen. Or something...

 

Yes, in fact Leia's identity as a Rebel is revealed when she lets the name slip in conversation with an Imperial (Lord Tion).

 

That Lord Tion was a nasty piece of work!

 

Happy Fun Ball? Doom Sphere? The possibilities are endless.

 

Papa Palpy's Planet Popper ...

 

Tarkin's Terrible Technological Terror of Torment

 

STOP IT! STOP IT!!

 

The Laser Ball

ZAPPY-ZAPPY-PLANET-BOOM-BUSTER 3000

Tarkin's Compensation

Vader's Disappointment

The EgoBall

The Little Moon that Wanted to be a Space Station

Death Planet

Vader's Very Vexing Viewpoint

God's Golf Ball

 

"The Empire will be feared now that The Laser Ball is fully operational!"

 

"We have a new enemy: the young Rebel who destroyed the Death Star...."

 

The technical name is DS-1 orbital battle station, but I'm pretty sure we all know what DS stands for. The names of pre-imperial concepts and designs were "Expeditionary Battle Planetoid" and "The Ultimate Weapon." Similar to Star destroyers, probably named by the designers to express the power.

 

Forgot about that - and that line wasn't in ESB prior to the 2004 DVDs. Hmm...

 

Didn't Vader refer to the DS2 as "The Death Star" a few times in ROTJ?

"The Death Star will be completed on schedule, Master"
"You have done well, Lord Vader. And now I sense you wish to continue your search for young Skywalker"

 

It's cited in some of the earliest dialog:

[Darth Vader is choking a Rebel Officer]
Stormtrooper: [to Vader] The Death Star plans are not in the main computer.
Darth Vader: [to Rebel] Where are those transmissions you intercepted? What have you done with those plans?

It's in the original opening crawl as well.

 

Oh, for the love of - of course it is! The opening crawl doesn't necessarily mean much, but yeah, the stormtrooper says it outright to Vader.

It's probably telling that it isn't referred to as such in the Imperial briefing (rather, "This battlestation"), but it's quite clearly in widespread use amongst the Imperials, it's not just a derogative term given to it by the Rebels.

 

Though it was formally called the Death Star, Lucas also referred to it as battle station and mobile fortress in the early drafts. It didn't have a call sign like the Executor and the Avenger.

 

An imperial officer states aboard the Tantive "The Death Star plans are not in the main computer."

 

Which begs the question: did they *not* have a back-up version of the Death Star plans? You'd think for something as big and monumental as the Death Star, they'd have a lot of back-ups, and if the original get stolen, look over the back-ups for any sign of weaknesses like...I don't know...an open exhaust port.

But what do I know, I'm just the guy who plans ahead and not rely on name alone and ego to save the day. They're probably akin to the rich kid who relies on wealth and ego to pass a test and not actual preparation and back up plans for any possible worse case scenarios. :/

 

The plans that the Rebels stole were the backup plans. An Imperial researcher aboard the station saved a copy in his own archives on the planet Danuta. Then Kyle Katarn invaded that facility and stole them.

 

They probably did have backup plans. The point is that the Rebels now have access to them, which could potentially be a huge problem should they decide to do something like, I don't know, blow up the Death Star. They must recover the plans before the Rebels can utilize them.

 

I recall around the time Jedi reading or hearing some place that in the back store the Empire built 3 Death Stars. The one in ANH, then two that were unfinished. Is this in the novel, or just some BS some kid told at school in 1983

 

I've seen art of 3 but I don't recall for which film.

 

It was for ROTJ - early on in the story development, there were meant to be two Death Stars under construction above the Imperial capital.

(Later on in the script, the number of Death Stars in orbit is specified as two)

 

The nickname probably preceded the technical name too. I'm trying to think of any real world military equipment that's better known by its nickname than official name.