Death Star's Transit

As Vader's cruiser approaches the Death Star, he has the Princess Leia brought to him. He shows her the Death Star outside the main viewport, and in her shock she reveals that she already knew of its existence. He warns her that neither her status as a senator nor the law will protect her from the power of this ultimate weapon.

After the ship arrives at the station, Vader attends a meeting of imperial officers with Governor Tarkin. One officer, General Tagge, fears the reaction of the Senate to Leia's arrest; Tarkin assures him that the Emperor has dissolved the body. Another officer, Admiral Motti, questions Vader's competence given his failure to recover the Death Star plans and criticizes his devotion to the Force. Vader chokes Motti telepathically, silencing him.

Vader interrogates Leia, subjecting her to a series of mental tortures and manipulations. Leia suffers but does not reveal the location of the Death Star plans or the Rebel base. After the injection arm of an interrogation device gives her a mind-altering hallucinogen, Vader tries different tactics. He claims first to be a member of the Rebel Alliance, then Leia's own father. When Leia does not relent, he subjects her to intense, burning pain. When she still does not tell him anything, Vader ends the interrogation and orders a medical tech to make sure that she is uninjured and ready for another round.

In another part of the Death Star, Motti informs Tarkin that the station is fully operational, including its prime weapon. Motti goes on to say that Tarkin now has the power of life and death over every living thing in the Galaxy, adding that "the Emperor is far from here." Before Motti can pursue this idea further, Vader enters the room. He seems to suspect that both men's loyalty to the Emperor may be wavering, speaking in general terms about the foolishness of betrayal and ambition. Vader reports that Leia has been trained to resist his interrogation and will need more time. Tarkin decides that an alternative approach is necessary: threatening the entire planet of Alderaan; and in addition, destroying Alderaan will make the Death Star more effective as a deterrent. Vader tells Tarkin that such a decision requires consulting with the Emperor; Tarkin dismisses this idea. The scene makes it clear that Tarkin is thinking about Motti's words and the amount of power that he now controls.

Brought before Tarkin and Vader, Leia is faced with the destruction of her home planet. She gives a name for the rebel base - the Dantooine system - but Tarkin orders Alderaan to be destroyed anyway. Leia cries out in grief for her father and her world. Later, Vader is with Tarkin. They receive a report that a starship believed to be carrying the droids holding the Death Star plans escaped Mos Eisley spaceport and ran the Imperial blockade. Tarken criticizes Vader for failing yet again to retrieve the plans. Motti then enters to report that imperial scouts have found a base on Dantooine, but it has been abandoned. This means that both Vader and Tarkin's methods have failed to make Leia talk. Angered, Tarkin orders her execution.

In the film , Vader's interrogation and torture of Princess Leia are implied, conveyed by a door closing as they are in her cell with a floating IT-O Interrogation Unit. In "Death Star's Transit," Vader's actions are portrayed explicitly. After injecting Leia, Vader tortures her with vivid mental suggestions planted with the Dark Side of the Force. Leia's anguish - and her dogged resistance - build over the course of a four-minute scene. In an interview, Ann Sachs remembered this as a difficult, frightening scene to record. Afterward, Brock Peters gave her a comforting hug. She added that Tom Voegeli's sound mixing also adds depth to the scene.

"Death Star's Transit" introduces a subplot into the drama that had not been in the film: Motti's attempts to form a conspiracy with Tarkin. In this and later episodes, Motti floats plans to take advantage of the Death Star's ultimate power, eliminating Vader and perhaps challenging the Emperor himself. This storyline was brought into the Star Wars canon in the 2017 short story "Verge of Greatness," written from Tarkin's point of view. The story reuses some of the exact dialogue from the radio drama, integrating it with the events of Rogue One and other canonical information about the Death Star.

• Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization
• The Making of Star Wars for Radio: A Fable for the Mind's Eye on archive.org