"The Millennium Falcon Pursuit" is the fifth episode of The Empire Strikes Back radio drama. It first aired on National Public Radio on March 14, 1983.^[1] The episode adapts events of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, covering the final stage of the Battle of Hoth, the Rebels' escape from Echo base, and Darth Vader's relentless pursuit of the Millennium Falcon across space.

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,
it is a dark time for the Rebellion. Darth 
Vader, with an Imperial starfleet at his 
command, has attacked the Rebels' fortress 
base on the ice planet Hoth. 

Stormtroopers, assaulting the base in walkers, 
enormous armored war machines, are about to 
breach their defenses. The Rebels are rushing 
to evacuate the base as the Imperial ground 
commander inside the lead walker prepares for 
a final assault.

Plot summary[]

General Veers orders all Imperial walkers to direct their fire at Echo Base's power generators. He informs Darth Vader that the defensive shield will be down momentarily. In the South Corridor of the base, the strike on the generator causes a collapse, blocking Princess Leia and See-Threepio from getting to their transport. Han Solo comms the transport to say that they will evacuate aboard the Millennium Falcon with him. As they race aboard, Imperial Stormtroopers enter the hangar bay. Chewbacca has bad news: repairs to the Falcon's reactor have not been successful. Ignoring Threepio's warnings, they take off anyway, just as Vader himself enters the hangar. A group of TIE fighters pursues the ship once it's aloft.

Meanwhile Luke Skywalker reaches the base, having walked from his crash site on the Hoth battlefield. His fellow Rogue Flight pilots Wedge and Tarrin have been waiting for him; they and Artoo-Detoo have readied Luke's X-wing fighter. Wedge tells Luke of the plan to regroup beyond the Galactic Rim.

Out in space, two Star Destroyers bear down on the Millennium Falcon. Han maneuvers between them, tricking them into colliding. He initiates the jump to lightspeed—to no avail. Threepio has already noticed that the hyperdrive motivator was damaged, preventing any jump. Leia and Threepio fly the ship while Han and Chewbacca rush aft to make repairs. Flying their fighters, Luke, Wedge and Tarrin see the same Star Destroyers, but they are too far away to be a threat. Luke tells the other pilots that they should jump to lightspeed without him because he wants to keep his eye on the Imperial ships. Wedge is confused but complies. Once his fighter is alone in space, Luke enters a new course: to the Dagobah system.

Before Han and Chewie can fix the Falcon's hyperdrive, the ship starts to get buffeted by asteroids. Han decides to fly directly into the asteroid field in order to lose the TIE fighters that are still in pursuit. He executes several reckless maneuvers, and the TIEs either crash or fall behind. Han lands in a cave in one of the asteroids to lie low and finish the repairs. Aboard Vader's ship, Admiral Piett interrupts Vader while in meditation without his helmet and mask. Vader is enraged but listens to Piett's report that the Millennium Falcon has been lost inside the asteroid field. Vader orders Piett to find the ship, reminding him of the fate of Admiral Ozzel.

Threepio has made some progress: by speaking with the Falcon, despite the ship's "rude" style of communication, he learns that the power couplings need to be replaced. Chewbacca gets to work, leaving Han and Leia alone. Han again tries flirting with Leia, this time with more success. The two kiss, though Threepio interrupts, and soon after Leia is back to calling Han a "simpleton." The three organics have to go outside the ship when they discover mynocks chewing on the power cables. Han shoots one, and the entire cave rumbles and shakes. He realizes that they are not in a cave at all, but the mouth of an enormous space slug. He hurries everyone back aboard and takes off just before the creature's mouth closes. Almost immediately, a new group of TIE fighters resumes the chase— and the hyperdrive still has not been fixed.

Behind the scenes[]

Just before taking off from Hoth, Leia sarcastically says, "Well, let's see the famous Han Solo solution". This is a reference to the title of the seventh episode of the first Star Wars radio drama, in which Han's solution was to fly fast and evade the Imperials.

Continuity[]

"The Millennium Falcon Pursuit" adds two brief scenes to the events from the film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Both are conversations between Luke and his fellow Rogue Flight pilots Wedge and Tarrin. The episode is the first appearance of Tarrin Datch, who would later be identified with an extra from the film. Some Legends sources developed his backstory and role in the Rebellion.^[3]

The one-page story "Running the Gauntlet," which first appeared in Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back (1989), gives an account of Wedge Antilles' escape from Hoth that differs from the radio episode. In that story, Wedge takes off alongside Hobbie and Janson rather than Tarrin and Luke. They are escorting a transport through the blockade, whereas Wedge in "The Millennium Falcon Pursuit" specifies that all transports have already departed. The 1996 second edition of the guidebook, in its profile of Tarrin, harmonizes the accounts by making Tarrin the pilot of the transport Thon's Orchard. This retroactively reinterprets the radio scene to put Tarrin in a transport rather than a fighter and to have them encounter an Imperial Star Destroyer just after parting ways with Luke. ^[3]

Credits[]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

• The Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization

Notes and references[]

External links[]

• Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back Radio Drama on the Internet Archive