trough@ihuxa.UUCP (11/30/83)
A recent news item reminded me of the "slip" in SW that had the M.Falcon making the Kessel (sp?) run in under n parsecs. It bothered me too, but with hyperlight drives it might make sense to measure distance by how far it seems to be; if your ship is fast the distance seems less (of course the distance seems longer if your ship is only half-fast). It probably was just a mistake, but it could be interpreted as a "common unit" to those familiar with the practicalities of faster-than-light smuggling. Chris Scussel Bell Labs Naperville, Ill
stan@teltone.UUCP (12/02/83)
In the Star Wars book written by George Lucas, the term parsec is not used. (I believe the writing of the book preceded the making of the movie, though maybe the book was published after the movie.) The exact term I don't remember, but it was something like 'Time Units' (no b.s. here). My point is that the use of parsec was probably the result of the script writer(s) wanting to make the dialog more colorful, and so the writer(s) just pulled some astronomy term out of a hat and used it. To a layman, 'parsec' does seem to be a term involving time units. So don't direct to much antagonism at George Lucas for this boner. By the way, for a big Star Wars fan the book might be worth reading. I believe the original script is based on the book, and also all the original filming was also, but some of it was lost during editing. Those who listened to the Star Wars radio series will find that the content of that series and the book are almost identical (and also gives a slightly more complete story than the movie).