Major Palo Torshan was an officer of the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Galactic Civil War. He served under General Jan Dodonna at the Rebel Alliance headquarters on Yavin 4 and attended the strategy conferences planning the Battle of Yavin, in which the Rebels assaulted and destroyed the Galactic Empire's first Death Star battlestation. Torshan later continued to serve with Alliance High Command at Echo Base on the ice planet Hoth.
Palo Torshan (left) stands beside a tauntaun in Echo Base.
Torshan coordinated Rebel security for Echo Base and developed counterintelligence techniques. He suggested that the Rebels reprogram R-3PO, one of Echo Base's more temperamental and troublesome protocol droids, and set it loose to search for Imperial espionage droids. Torshan also suggested not giving R-3PO a memory wipe or repainting its red body, since no one would suspect such a flamboyant and moody droid of being a spy. R-3PO proceeded to foil several Imperial infiltration attempts at Echo Base.
In 3 ABY, just before the Battle of Hoth, Torshan was present in Echo Base's tauntaun stable on the night Rebel Commander Luke Skywalker went missing during a routine scouting mission of the base perimeter. As Torshan and another soldier were struggling with all their physical strength to calm one of the agitated tauntauns that was trying to break free, Han Solo passed their position and departed the base in search of Skywalker.
Palo Torshan's instincts concerning R-3PO's value as a spy droid proved correct after R-3PO snuffed out several Imperial infiltration attempts at Echo Base and, later, with Alliance High Command. Torshan also possessed a certain level of Force-attunement. A Human, he had light skin.
During his service at Echo Base, Torshan donned the cold-weather armor standard of the Rebel personnel on Hoth. His outfit included the set's headgear, anti-glare goggles, padded vest, lightweight tunic, gloves, leggings, and boots.
Actor Richard Bonehill outside The Empire Strikes Back set
Palo Torshan appeared in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. He struggles with a wild tauntaun during the scene in which Han Solo departs Echo Base to search for the missing Luke Skywalker. Actor Richard Bonehill portrayed the character in the film, uncredited. Bonehill, who also played several other masked characters in both The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, originally filled in as Han Solo's tauntaun handler in place of actor Kit Hillier, whom actor Harrison Ford—who played Solo—personally replaced during film rehearsal because of Hillier's inability to hold onto the mechanical tauntaun's reins.
The Torshan character was first named and given a brief backstory on the "Major Palo Torshan" card as part of the November 1998 Special Edition Limited expansion set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Torshan's card identifies the character as "Force-attuned." This level of Force ability is a step down from a "Force-sensitive" and significantly less than a full Jedi/Dark Jedi character for gameplay.
- Star Wars: The Action Figure Archive
- Star Wars: Behind the Magic
- Star Wars Customizable Card Game — Special Edition Limited
- "Who's Who in Echo Base" — Star Wars Insider 74