Tatooine Haunts

In Ben Kenobi's hut, with Artoo-Detoo assisting, Luke Skywalker reads instructions in an old book and meticulously tries to align the crystals that will form the heart of his new lightsaber. He is frustrated, having failed several times to construct the weapon successfully. But remembering some of the words of Master Yoda, and realizing that he has read the instructions more than enough already, Luke closes the book and lets the Force guide him as he assembles the pieces. The saber ignites, and Luke knows that he is ready to be a Jedi Knight.

Far away, the Emperor Palpatine discusses Luke's growing strength with Darth Vader. Vader wants to return to his earlier mission: turning Luke so that he will join forces with them. The Emperor forbids this: he considers this task to have failed, and he now commands Vader to go to the Moon of Endor to bring the engineers there back on schedule, if necessary by "making examples".

Back on Tatooine, Artoo and See-Threepio walk through the desert toward Jabba's Palace. Threepio is nervous and unsure about the details of the plan to rescue Han Solo from the famous crime lord. He asks Artoo to show him the message that Luke had recorded for Jabba, but Artoo responds that it is "classified." At the palace door, Threepio briefly explains their purpose, whereupon the door opens into the dark, cavernous interior—then shuts behind the two droids, trapping them inside. Bib Fortuna greets them, then directs them into Jabba's audience chamber.

Threepio addresses Jabba courteously as "your Magnitude," then instructs Artoo to play the message. To Threepio's dismay, in the recording Luke presents the droids to Jabba as a gift and an invitation to bargain for Han Solo. Jabba replies that he will not give up his favorite wall decoration, at which point Threepio realizes that Solo is there with them, still frozen in carbonite. Gamorrean guards lead the droids deep into the palace, where they meet the supervisor droid Ninedenine. She is in the middle of torturing a power droid. She has Threepio and Artoo fitted with restraining bolts and separated: Artoo will work aboard Jabba's sail barge, while Threepio will work as an interpreter in the audience chamber.

An anxious Threepio arrives at his new assignment. He notices Boba Fett among the gathered crowd and speaks with Jabba's newest dancing girl, Arica. She begins to ask him about Skywalker but is interrupted by an altercation between Jabba and another dancer, Oola. Oola resists Jabba's advances and he has her executed. Immediately the palace is disrupted again by a single blaster shot. The threat comes from a bounty hunter, Boushh, who has arrived with Chewbacca in chains, demanding payment. Threepio translates as Boushh threatens the entire palace with a thermal detonator, at which point Jabba agrees to his demand.

That night, Threepio is made to hide behind a curtain with Jabba, Fortuna, Boba Fett, and other hangers-on of the crime lord. They watch Boushh sneak into the audience chamber and melt Han Solo's carbonite block, freeing him. The bounty hunter reveals himself to be none other than the Princess Leia. She tells Han that she loves him and will help him escape. Jabba laughs and opens the curtain. He has Han taken away, then pulls Leia close and makes lewd comments. The closing narration reveals that "a solitary, unarmed knight" is now walking toward the palace.

Like "A Wind to Shake the Stars" and "Freedom's Winter," the first episodes respectively of the Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back radio dramas, "Tatooine Haunts" opens with new scenes that had not been in the film. The first, Luke Skywalker's construction of his lightsaber in Ben Kenobi's hut, connects directly with the description of the same event from the epilogue of the Shadows of the Empire novel. The novel was released in April 1996, a few months before the episode aired. Luke had also built his lightsaber in a deleted scene from the film, but the details of radio scene do not follow the film. The deleted scene had taken place in a cave, not Ben's hut; and it featured both C-3PO and the voice of Darth Vader heard through the Force, both of which were absent from the radio episode.

The second new scene, a conversation between Vader and the Emperor, serves to introduce the drama's two villains; their arrival on the Death Star, which served as their introduction in the film, would not appear until the third radio episode, "Prophecies and Destinies."

Threepio's conversation with Arica also relates directly to recently-published fiction: Arica was introduced as an alias of the Emperor's agent Mara Jade in the story "Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade" by Timothy Zahn. The story appeared in Tales from Jabba's Palace, published in December 1995. In the episode Arica asks questions about Luke Skywalker; this alludes to her mission from the Emperor as depicted in the story.

"Tatooine Haunts," produced in 1996, features the song "Lapti Nek," the music played in Jabba's palace for the film's original release. It was replaced in 1997 by "Jedi Rocks" for the film's Special Edition.

• Return of the Jedi: The National Public Radio Dramatization