Tatooine Graffiti part 1

For many years only a select few had seen the elusive deleted Tatooine scenes from Star Wars (or A New Hope as it was retitled) in their, albeit grainy, entirety. Having only been screened twice (once at a convention), they remained a source of fascination for fans. These scenes fleshed out the ever-popular Biggs Darklighter and his friendship with Luke Skywalker, but also showed us that there were more girls in the universe than just Princess Leia. Koo Stark, who garnered a modest notoriety for once dating Prince Andrew, played Camie Marstrap, and she was just about as angry as Leia too. Camie's boyfriend was Laze Loneozner (or Fixer, which is much easier to say) played by Anthony Forrest, and Luke's other friends Deak and Windy Starkiller, also appeared. These scenes threw new light on Luke's being stuck on the planet that was farthest from the bright centre of the universe, and would have further grounded his humdrum sandy existence as a future moisture farmer, contrasting them even more sharply with his dreams to be a star pilot, and eventually a Jedi, like his father before him. Ostensibly Lucas (and Alan Ladd) cut the Tosche Station segments as they bore too much of a resemblance to his previous film 'American Graffiti' and also slowed the pace of the film.

 

 

The scenes were initially set after the boarding of the Star Destroyer and would have introduced Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to the audience for the first time. Luke, repairing a moisture vaporator accompanied by a treadwell droid, watches the fire fight play out in the sky above through his binoculars. He then jumps into his landspeeder and rushes to Tosche Station to tell his friends, almost running over an old lady on the way. Fixer (Anthony Forrest) and Camie (Koo Stark) are snuggling on a couch while Windy (?) and Deak (Jay Benedict) are playing some computer console game animatedly in the background. Biggs (Garrick Hagon) greets Luke after speaking to them, and he, Luke, Camie and Fixer go outside to see the sky battle. It seems to have subsided by this time and Camie angrily ridicules 'Wormie' (Luke) while her boyfriend paws her. Biggs and Luke then share a touching goodbye as Biggs sets off for the Imperial Academy.

 

 

The hangar scene between Luke and Biggs which was added to the Special Edition has given a further background to Biggs before his death in the attack on the Death Star.

 

Tosche Station was mentioned later in the dinner scene when Luke is whining talking to Owen and Beru. The Tosche station scene and dialogue with Biggs, Fixer and Camie was retained in the original Marvel Comics adaptation of Star Wars. When the Blu-ray of Star Wars A New Hope was released, the deleted scene was presented as an extra.