Trivia and In-Jokes

About the Story:
This story in its original form begun with AL already having the Shuttle (the ship) and Shorty (now Treads) and breaking down in space where she is rescued by JediBen who then makes (in his eyes) the mistake of introducing her to Luke Skywalker. As I’ve since phased JB out of AL’s timeline, the story had to change. I decided that the new story should start prior to AL acquiring her ship and droid. I had to take a few liberties with the layout of the Lars homestead. While Wookiepedia has a layout image of it, it’s really hard to gauge how one gets in and gets the ships in and out. This story takes place a year before A New Hope; Luke is 18. I entertained the thought of changing the title but ultimately decided to stick with the old one.

Chapter One:
where she needed to be: The first of several Doctor Who references in this story. As a way of explaining just how and why AL always winds up somewhere that there’s usually a problem to solve, enemies to fight or someone to fall in love with I decided that when she has no real destination in mind her powers will bring her where she needs to be (in this case, meeting Luke and – if one were to ask their opinion – rescuing the ship and droid from the scrapheap) much like the Doctor’s TARDIS, in such that while it almost never takes him where he wants to go, it always takes him where he needs to go.

the Sahara or Arizona: Tunisia, Africa was where the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars: A New Hope were filmed and it contains the northern reaches of the Sahara desert. The Tatooine scenes in Return of the Jedi were filmed in Arizona’s Yuma Desert.

Rasse Cymas: An anagram of the clothing stores Sears and Macys.

“Uh…denim?”: To be honest I was tempted to have her wear khakis to make the reference even more apparent, but AL’s style is more jeans than khakis.

tokens of exchange: How the Second Doctor described money to Shockeye from the Doctor Who episode “The Two Doctors”.

Chapter Two:
Achuta! My pee kasa: Huttese for “Hello! My name is” according to my Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide.

Ref’no Imam: An anagram of IM Foreman, the scrap merchant who owned the junkyard mentioned below.

Tagwa: Huttese for “yes”.

Stet-Tor: An anagram of Totter’s for Totter’s Lane, the junkyard where the Doctor’s TARDIS was first seen in Doctor Who.

Haku?: Huttese for “what”.

a series of high-pitch “whoops”: Droidspeak for “Please help me” according to the aforementioned phrase book.

I don’t speak that.: Finn’s words to BB-8 in The Force Awakens.

The droid’s internal power attachment: This is a small reference to Flaming Trails’ Back to the Future/Spider-Man crossover “Eight Arms to Hold You”. Within the story, Doc Brown invents the Doctor Octopus tentacles and gives the four of them a special internal attachment: a knife, a smaller tentacle, a small set of pincers, and a power attachment. Although I doubt WED Treadwell droids’ arms had such internal workings, I needed it to have it for the purpose of this story.

Chapter Four:
The translator module using the English alphabet instead of Aurebesh: This is a reference to the pre-Special Edition version of A New Hope where the tractor beam information gauge on the Death Star showed English letters before being changed to Aurebesh for subsequent re-releases.

Chapter Five:
Luke blushed and cleared his throat, fiddling with the translator module in his hands…Grateful for the distraction, he over-exulted, “Look! It’s working!”: This is an homage to Mark Hamill’s appearance on The Muppet Show in 1980 during the “Pigs in Space” skit (this was prior to the reveal that Luke and Leia were siblings). Google it. :)

I’ve never seen it personally but I heard of a case where a droid developed a personality beyond its original programming because it was abandoned and someone forgot to shut it off.: This is a reference to the Disney/Pixar film WALL·E, wherein that exact thing happened to the title character prior to the events of the film.

Chapter Six:
She couldn’t very well say that she spent her time saving planets, fighting monsters, solving mysteries.: Besides the reference to the Children in Need Doctor Who special “Time Crash”, if I were to list all of AL’s previous adventures before coming to Tatooine I’d be here all day. Just go to “The Guys” page on her section of my website and see who she’s been with before Luke and you’ll get the general idea.

“Can you drop the ‘Mistress’? I’m…not too keen on the term. You can call me ‘Lisa’.”: AL doesn’t like the term due to Missy, the female incarnation of the Master from Doctor Who.

Giju stew: According to Wookiepedia, Giju stew is “a dish with a foul odor that was best made with a bit of Boontaspice.” It doesn’t mention whether or not it tastes better than it smells, but I figured it should. At least, I hope so. ^^

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