Tamizander Rey

Esseles, a planet within the Core Worlds known for its advanced technology and rich culture, was the birthplace of Tamizander Rey, a Human. Prior to the Battle of Yavin, Rey was a member of the Esselian defense force, the local military. However, he resigned from his position following the dissolution of the Imperial Senate by Galactic Emperor Palpatine in 0 BBY.

Rey subsequently became a member of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, where he served as a commander and highly skilled starship pilot. By 3 ABY, he was stationed at the Alliance High Command's secret Echo Base on the icy Outer Rim Territories planet of Hoth. As the senior deck officer at Echo Base, Rey was in charge of all docking bay operations in the main hangar of the base, collaborating closely with Lieutenant Romas Navander, who oversaw command center communications to Rebel ships. Every landing and takeoff on the ice planet required Rey's authorization.

When Han Solo came back to the base along with Luke Skywalker after a regular scouting mission around Hoth, Rey was present in the docking bay. He was supervising maintenance on the base's T-47 airspeeders, known as "snowspeeders," and directing repair droids to help with the difficulty Echo Base was having getting the speeders to function in the planet's sub-freezing nighttime temperatures. General Carlist Rieekan, who was in charge of the base, and Princess Leia Organa instructed Rey to go to the command center as soon as Skywalker and Solo got back. When Rey tried to send Solo to the command center, the smuggler was more concerned about the state of his freighter, the Millennium Falcon. Solo was unhappy to learn from Rey that base technicians had been diverted from working on his ship to deal with the more urgent needs of the snowspeeders.

Later, Solo realized that Skywalker hadn't reported back to base after looking into a supposed meteorite that had crashed on Hoth during their scouting mission. He questioned Rey about whether anyone had heard from Skywalker. Rey responded hesitantly that he hadn't seen him but thought Skywalker might have entered through the base's southern entrance. Though Solo didn't have the authority to give orders, he told Rey to check on Skywalker's whereabouts, which Rey did. Eventually, Rey discovered that Skywalker was indeed missing.

As pilots from Rogue Group were getting ready to leave the base the following morning in snowspeeders to search for Skywalker and Solo, who had left the base just as night fell to look for his lost friend, Rey informed Rieekan that the outside temperatures were now within the speeders' operational range and that the base's shield doors were ready to open. Rey then oversaw each Rogue's departure from the hangar.

Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Rey suggested to General Pharl McQuarrie, Rieekan's second-in-command, that no ship be allowed to leave Hoth until the base's shield generator was activated. Rieekan agreed to this safety measure, which effectively grounded the many non-Rebel pilots who were delivering supplies to Echo Base, and they became angry with Rey. Rey was later seriously wounded during the Alliance's defeat in the Battle of Hoth while coordinating the departures of the Rebel evacuation transports. However, he continued to oversee the evacuations faithfully. Despite the crushing Rebel defeat, a large number of Echo Base's people and equipment were able to escape the Imperial attack, including thirteen of the thirty GR-75 medium transports.

Tamizander Rey decided to join the Rebel Alliance as a talented starship pilot because of the growing Imperialization of the galaxy during the Galactic Civil War, which included the Imperial Senate's disbandment in 0 BBY. As the senior deck officer at Echo Base, he advised the base's command staff to keep all ships on Hoth until the shield generator was activated, despite the criticism he received from non-aligned pilots. He faithfully continued to oversee the departing escape transports during the Imperial invasion of Hoth, even after suffering serious injuries.

Rey's relationship with Han Solo was especially rocky; Solo's brashness often clashed with Rey's responsibilities as senior deck officer. Solo often responded to Rey's requests to follow base procedure with his signature sarcasm, ignoring a direct order to report to the command center and later instructing Rey to check on Luke Skywalker's whereabouts without the authority to do so. When Solo snapped at Rey to quickly check on Skywalker because of Hoth's dangerous nighttime cold, Rey responded that he was well aware that Hoth's sun was setting, joking that his perceptiveness was why he joined the Rebellion.

Tamizander Rey was first introduced in the May 1980 novelization of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, written by Donald F. Glut, just before the movie's release. In the film, he was portrayed by Norman Chancer, who was only credited as one of several "Other Officers." The character's name was first revealed in the November 1996 Hoth Limited expansion set for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, which also provided Rey's backstory.

Rey's interaction with Solo is much more detailed in The Empire Strikes Back novelization than in the film. In the novelization, Rey, who is referred to as a "deck sergeant," has an aide with him when Solo first questions him. Additionally, Rey is the one who tells Solo that Skywalker hasn't returned to Echo Base through the south entrance, and he warns Solo that Hoth's falling nighttime temperatures will cause his tauntaun to die as he leaves the base to find Skywalker. In the film, this role is filled by Tigran Jamiro, played by Ray Hassett, to whom Solo replies that he will "see in Hell."

The Rey character plays an even bigger role in The Empire Strikes Back radio drama and dramatization script. The "Deck Officer," voiced by Ron Frazier, combines the film's characters of Rey, Jamiro, Bren Derlin, and Cal Alder into one. The "Deck Officer" is also called a "Lieutenant" in both the scene occupied by Jamiro in the film and the scene in which he oversees Rogue Group's morning departure to find the stranded Skywalker and Solo. Because neither Rey nor Jamiro are canonically lieutenants and both characters are combined into one role, there may be some confusion as to which character actually appears in the Rogue departure scene. Since the deck officer in this scene is directing the departure of craft from the hangar, which is more closely related to Rey's responsibilities, this article assumes that it is Rey who appears in that scene.

The Empire Strikes Back Storybook, a 1980 illustrated children's adaptation of the film, shows Rey's film interaction with Solo as a brief comlink exchange rather than a face-to-face meeting. The story only refers to the character as "the deck officer."