Q: So Dark Empire was still at Marvel at that point?
TOM: Yes it was. Archie Goodwin was our editor and we were rolling. …But then a curious chain of events began.
Bantam decided to keep Zahn in the dark about the existence of Dark Empire until he had finished plotting Heir to the Empire. My suggestion that we collaborate on the post-ROTJ timeline fell on deaf ears.
Indeed, when he turned in his own synopsis for Heir to the Empire, he was apparently unaware that the comics project even existed. Then, once his synopsis was approved, somebody got the idea of asking him to critique the story treatment I had written for Dark Empire.
Q: That sounds like one of those situations that people in the movie industry like to get into – everybody “giving notes” on projects that are already in motion. …Was that a big problem for you?
TOM: Not really. It was just a pain in the ass. And it reminded me that the “carte blanche” we had received initially had caveats – even after our outline was fully approved!
Anyway, one fine day I received a copy of Zahn’s detailed notes on Dark Empire. Along with it, I received a copy of his synopsis of Heir to the Empire. And Lucasfilm asked if I would respond to Tim’s critique and as write my own comments on his plot!
Q: Amazing.
(...)
Q: Are you going to cover any more of Zahn’s criticisms?
TOM: Sure. He raised a few interesting points, as did some of the readers of the finished comic. I’d especially like to address the question of “Force Storms”, which appear right in the first chapter of our story.
Q: I thought the “Force Storm” worked, because it cuts to the chase regarding Luke and the Emperor confronting each other. But if the Emperor can make these energy storms, what does he need a Deathstar for? He could control the Galaxy by striking with raw Force energy!
TOM: Exactly. And that was one of the questions that Tim Zahn raised as well. But as a logical writer, he should have realized that since the Empire built two Death Stars, obviously the “Force Storm” must have limitations as an instrument of destruction!
In fact, in the Dark Empire Glossary which we provided to Lucasfilm (and to West End Games, for their Dark Empire Sourcebook), a Force Storm is defined thus:
Tornado of energy released by great disturbances in the Force. Also called Energy Storm. Unpredictable, but powerful Dark Side adepts have had limited success in purposely creating such storms.
And in my response to Zahn, I said:
“What is the mechanism of a Force Storm? I would suggest that it is a function of two powerful minds focused on each other: Luke and the Emperor. It’s as if a wormhole in the Force has opened between them, causing a massive release of energy. The Emperor, unlike Luke, has learned how to use this rare event to his advantage.”
That’s the explanation we used in the finished comic book. But in my letter to Zahn, I also mentioned there could be other explanations, equally as valid — for instance having to do with something (such as a Sith holocron) Luke found in the Imperial Palace. That’s just part of the fun, you know — dreaming up imaginative special effect sequences — and then figuring out the logic of how and why they can happen. If the logic can’t be found, then yes, the effects should be jettisoned.
Q: What if the use of the Force in this way was a recent discovery by the Emperor? He might have unearthed that bit of sorcery from ancient Sith archives, or from powers locked in Sith temples.
TOM: Sure. That works. And speaking of logic, I’ll tell you something else. In the films the Death Stars are portrayed as the ultimate technological weapon you would use to control a Galaxy of thousands (or even millions) of inhabited star systems. But did you ever consider that the logic of the Death Star is deeply flawed?
Q: You mean it was vulnerable to being destroyed by a tiny X-Wing?
TOM: No, not just that. The Death Star is an extremely impractical use of hyperspace travel. The realistic way to control a Galaxy (if I may use the word “realistic” relative to a science fiction fantasy) is by firing hyperspace missiles from stationary bases. You can build an untold number of such projectiles, each capable of destroying a planet. And when a system gets uppity or joins the Rebellion, you simply launch one of these faster-than-light missiles and they are obliterated.
Q: That sounds like your “Galaxy Gun” from Dark Empire!
TOM: Yes. My theory is that Lucas was so focused on the Death Star idea, that he missed the flawed logic and the impracticality of it.
Q: But so did everybody who saw the movie. I mean, it was so cool. And so big.
TOM: Definitely awesome. But once the Galaxy Gun concept hit the light of day in our comics, Death Stars became obsolete. In fact, in the J.J. Abrams film, The Force Awakens, they used our concept as the basis for the hyperspace superweapon mounted on Starkiller Base. This weapon is described as “capable of destroying entire star systems halfway across the galaxy.” It is also described as the result of an evolution in “hyperspace tunneling.”
Q: Then it’s really an adaptation of the Galaxy Gun?
TOM: Yes it is. But it’s not that difficult to understand that all kinds of hyperspace weapons are inevitable, once you posit hyperspace travel. Lucas overlooked that fact because he was hypnotized by the Death Star idea.
Q: You could say the same about Star Trek. I don’t think they have used lightspeed weaponry yet, but they could. If they haven’t, it might be because they are more about characters than technology.
TOM: I believe phasers and photon torpedoes can be fired while a warp speed. But as far as I know nobody has fully explored the implications of that. …The fact of the matter is that faster-than-light missiles or projectiles could truly master a galaxy. But they would also result in galaxy-wide wars between competing technological cultures. Sort of like the situation we have on earth right now, with a number of countries already armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. Extrapolate that situation to a galaxy – or THE Galaxy – and you have a truly explosive situation.
As a matter of fact, that’s another of the built-in flaws of the Star Wars saga. Thousands upon thousands of independent planetary systems would be functionally autonomous and hidden from the prying eyes of “the Empire”. It would take an unthinkably massive surveillance and control network to bring a Galaxy under a central government. You think we have trouble with Iran or North Korea developing nuclear weapons deep inside a mountain? Imagine the technologies of war being developed in secret — or even in the open — by independent civilizations on thousands, or perhaps millions, of planets!
Q: And then there is the “illegal” arms trade. Out of sight out of mind. The possibilities are mind boggling.
TOM: Yes, I can imagine that in a real Star Wars Galaxy hyperspace weapons would be developed and traded all over the place. And every peaceful planet would have to worry about planet-busting missiles popping out of hyperspace at any time…with nobody knowing who launched them!
Q: I wonder if anybody on Star Trek ever thought a beaming a bomb aboard the Enterprise or from the Enterprise to another vessel?
TOM: I believe the concept was used at least once on Star Trek Voyager. Google “Star Trek transporter bomb” for lots of discussion on this.
- EXCLUSIVE: 16 PAGES OF DARK EMPIRE AUTHOR TOM VEITCH’S NEW STAR WARS BOOK!
As a veteran in comics, Veitch understood he was writing for a visual medium that relied on fantastical illustrations and scenarios for its storytelling power. Consequently, he resolved to risk excess when scripting his panels and images, as the Star Wars films had, rather than play it safe. He backed up the big visual moment in issue one — the Force Storm — by explaining that it was not a chaotic super weapon, but a "function of two powerful minds focused on each other: Luke and the Emperor. It's as if a wormhole in the Force had opened between them, causing a massive release of energy."
- Star Wars Insider Magazine Issue 159, Death to the Dark Side! The Making of Dark Empire, Part III
TFN: With the "Hand of Thrawn" duology, the situation seems reversed 180 degrees. Because now instead of Lucasfilm saying there were some things you can not touch, there almost seems like there's some "damage control" going on here. When you see Mara Jade saying that she doesn't believe the Emperor was resurrected, and that kind of segues into what's going on now with Star Wars literature. Were there any kind of instructions you were under, like, "go in and fix this"?
TZ: (laughing) No no, not at all. It was my perception of some of the things that I didn't care for. All the stuff passed Lucasfilm, and it was all authorized. But other authors' visions of what Star Wars is and what it should be are not necessarily what I would do. And one reason I agreed to do the "Hand of Thrawn" was to kind of get the last word, so to speak. Now... the New Jedi Order is taking off with my character Mara Jade. But I wanted a "last word", one more bit of input into certainly my characters and my vision of Star Wars. But there were some things there that I thought were out of character, were not the way I saw Star Wars. And I wanted to kind of talk about them, make some kind of rationale about them, bring things back to what I thought, and if Lucasfilm agreed, it would come out in the books. If it didn't, we would have some problems of reconciliation. One of the dangers you always have with a "superman"-type character is making them too powerful. And I think that was the direction Luke was being taken: he was getting more and more powerful. The danger of that is, the books get boring: "why can't he just wave his hand and fix the problem on page four?" I wanted to bring him back down to a level that you saw Yoda and Ben doing in the movies, where there's certainly a power there, but it's not as flamboyant as, say, some of the things in some of the books. So I did what I thought was useful and necessary and made sense, and Lucasfilm apparently agreed. Or at least decided it was no better or worse than anyone else's ideas.
- TheForce.Net, Interviews - Face To Face With The Masters, Timothy Zahn (2008)
(Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20200803192238/https://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/zahn.asp)