"Fast Friends" is the second episode of the Return of the Jedi radio drama. It first aired on National Public Radio on November 12, 1996^[1]. It adapts events from Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi depicting the rescue of Han Solo and the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon.

Opening crawl[]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, 
there came a time of revolution, when rebels 
united to challenge a tyrannical empire. Now,
the Empire is pressing hard to complete a 
second Death Star, a planet-destroying battle 
station intended to crush the Rebel Alliance 
once and for all. But on the desert planet of 
Tatooine, a more immediate disaster looms for 
the key members of the Rebel leadership. 

In a grim fortress-palace, Princess Leia, Han 
Solo, and Chewbacca the Wookiee are prisoners 
of the vile gangster, Jabba the Hutt. The 
droids See-Threepio and Artoo-Detoo, sent to 
Jabba as gifts by Luke Skywalker, are 
powerless to help. 

Though Leia has managed to thaw Han from the 
carbonite slab in which he was imprisoned, he 
has emerged blinded by hibernation sickness. 
And as the Princess becomes a captive play-
thing of the evil Jabba, Han is being dragged 
to dungeons deep under the palace...

Plot summary[]

A disoriented Han Solo is thrown into a cell already containing Chewbacca. Chewie tries to reassure his friend that Luke Skywalker will arrive soon to complete the rescue plan; Han is skeptical. Boba Fett comes along to gloat over Han's impending death. Up in the audience chamber, Lando Calrissian reveals himself to the captive Leia: he is posing as a guard for Jabba under the alias of Tamtel Skreej. Both Leia and Lando acknowledge that they are stuck in their positions until Luke arrives.

Luke indeed arrives soon after. He deftly uses a mind trick to coerce Bib Fortuna into admitting him into the palace and then into the audience chamber. Jabba berates Fortuna as a weak-minded fool. He refuses to bargain with Luke, resists his efforts at mental manipulation, and laughs off his threats. Jabba then opens the trapdoor that sends Luke into the pit of the savage rancor, together with an unfortunate guard. The guard ignores Luke's attempts to help him and is quickly eaten. Luke evades the rancor as Leia shouts advice and encouragement. She gives Luke the idea to lure the creature under its own gate. Luke tosses a bone to activate the mechanism, crushing the rancor under the door's weight. Jabba, enraged, tells his guards to bring in Han and Chewbacca. With See-Threepio translating, Jabba announces that all three will now be fed to the almighty Sarlacc while he and his court watch and feast aboard his sail barge.

Aboard the barge, Threepio is reunited with Artoo-Detoo, who is serving drinks. Artoo assures his counterpart that this is all part of the plan and that he is about to to get into position—a statement that Threepio does not understand—while Threepio returns to duty translating for Jabba. Aboard a sand skiff with the other condemned prisoners, Luke is led onto a plank. Lando, still disguised as a guard, removes Luke's binders, whereupon the plot is sprung. Artoo launches Luke's lightsaber into the air for Luke to catch. He ignites it, and he and Lando begin to take control of the skiff. Han, still mostly blind, needs Lando to explain what is happening.

New threats emerge from the barge's pivot gun, which fires on the skiff, and Boba Fett, who uses his jetpack to fly over. The gun knocks both Fett and Lando overboard. While Luke jumps over to fight the guards on a second skiff, Han and Chewie try to extend Lando a spear to pull him back up. Then Fett returns to the skiff. Han attacks blindly, striking Fett's jetpack; it flies him directly into the Sarlacc's pit. Han and Chewbacca return to helping Lando; Han has to shoot at the Sarlacc's tentacle in order to save him, and Chewbacca pulls them both back aboard. They steer the skiff away from the barge, unsure exactly what is happening to Luke, Leia, and the others still inside it.

Continuity[]

"Fast Friends" opens with two scenes that are original to the radio drama: Boba Fett's visit to Han and Chewbacca's cell and Lando's conversation with Leia while in disguise. After this, the episode closely follows the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. The radio scene in the rancor pit has Leia, rather than Luke, think of trapping the rancor under the heavy door.^[2] In this way the audio drama can use Leia's dialogue to explain what is happening.

At the end of the episode, Han pointedly asks Chewbacca and then Lando if they can confirm that Boba Fett is really dead; neither can answer for sure. This connects the episode to the Dark Empire comic series (published in 1991–1992), in which Fett is revealed to have survived his fall into the Sarlacc's throat.^[3]

Credits[]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

• Return of the Jedi: The National Public Radio Dramatization

Notes and references[]

External links[]

• Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi Radio Drama on the Internet Archive