Palo Torshan was a major within the Rebel Alliance, a Human, and one of the foremost security officers stationed at Echo Base. Echo Base served as the Alliance High Command headquarters on the ice planet Hoth. He pioneered counterintelligence strategies at Echo Base, one of which involved unleashing the flamboyant red protocol droid, R-3PO, to detect Imperial spy droids. Previously, Torshan had served under General Jan Dodonna on Yavin 4 and participated in the planning sessions for the Rebellion's attack on the Galactic Empire's Death Star battle station during the Battle of Yavin.
During the Galactic Civil War, Major Palo Torshan held the position of officer in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. He was under the command of General Jan Dodonna at the Rebel Alliance headquarters located on Yavin 4. Torshan was present for the strategic planning meetings related to the Battle of Yavin, an engagement where the Rebels successfully attacked and destroyed the Galactic Empire's first Death Star battle station. Subsequently, Torshan continued his service with Alliance High Command at Echo Base situated on the ice planet Hoth.
As the security coordinator for Echo Base, Torshan was responsible for developing various counterintelligence methods. One of his ideas was to reprogram R-3PO, a protocol droid known for being temperamental and causing trouble at Echo Base, and then deploy it to seek out Imperial espionage droids. Torshan also advocated against performing a memory wipe on R-3PO or changing its red exterior, believing that no one would suspect such a conspicuous and irritable droid of being a spy. As a result, R-3PO successfully thwarted several Imperial attempts to infiltrate Echo Base.
Right before the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY, Torshan was in Echo Base's tauntaun stable on the night that Rebel Commander Luke Skywalker disappeared during a standard scouting patrol around the base. While Torshan and another soldier were exerting all their strength to control an agitated tauntaun attempting to escape, Han Solo passed by and left the base in search of Skywalker.
The correctness of Palo Torshan's intuition about R-3PO's potential as a spy droid was proven when R-3PO successfully prevented multiple Imperial infiltration attempts at both Echo Base and, subsequently, Alliance High Command. Torshan also exhibited a degree of Force-attunement. He was a Human with light-toned skin.
During his time at Echo Base, Torshan wore the standard cold-weather armor issued to Rebel personnel on Hoth. His outfit consisted of the set's headgear, anti-glare goggles, padded vest, lightweight tunic, gloves, leggings, and boots.
Palo Torshan made an appearance in the 1980 movie, Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. He is seen wrestling with a restless tauntaun in the scene where Han Solo departs from Echo Base to look for the missing Luke Skywalker. The actor Richard Bonehill played the character in the film, although he was not credited. Bonehill, who also portrayed several other masked characters in both The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, initially stepped in as Han Solo's tauntaun handler, replacing actor Kit Hillier. Harrison Ford, the actor who played Solo, personally replaced Hillier during a rehearsal because Hillier struggled to maintain control of the mechanical tauntaun's reins.
The character of Torshan was first named and given a brief background description on the "Major Palo Torshan" card, which was part of the Special Edition Limited expansion set released in November 1998 for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. The card for Torshan identifies him as "Force-attuned." This level of Force sensitivity is considered a step below "Force-sensitive" and significantly less potent than that of a full Jedi or Dark Jedi character in terms of gameplay.
