The Road to Episode Infinity: The Aliens of “Empire” & "WHAT THE HECK IS YODA?"

“The Empire Strikes Back” is the Star Wars film featuring the least number of sentient alien species. Except for Yoda we don't have a lot of aliens. There is that brief bounty hunter scene and some cloud city citizens. Although shots of aliens are sparse, the ones we do get a look at have become important to the larger Star Wars canonicity. And as far as Yoda goes there are still a great number of mysteries surrounding the species that he belongs to. Let’s dive in...

Trandoshan

Trandoshans, such as Bossk, are known as the greatest hunters in the Galaxy. More often than not, the prey they hunt is Wookiees. Trandoshans boasted the rare ability to grow their lost limbs back (like Deadpool).

Few Star Wars fans realize that Trandoshans owe their existence to another reptilian species called the Saurin. Two Saurin appeared in the “New Hope” cantina scene. They look pretty much like Bossk, but shorter. This is because one of the Saurin costumes was altered and turned into the costume for Bossk. Both Bossk and the unaltered Saurin can be seen in Return of the Jedi in the background of Jabba’s Palace.

Wookiee

Wookiees are known to pull people’s arms out of their sockets, but they are also known to bake “Wookiee-ookiees”. Wookiee-Ookiees are, of course, an invention of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special which saw Chewbacca’s father, wife, and son celebrating “Life Day” in their Kashyyyk home. The wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk would reappear in “Revenge of the Sith” which saw a team of Australian basketball players portray the warrior race in battle. After the fall of Kashyyyk most wookiees were made into imperial slaves including Chewbacca and Sagwa, who both appear in “Solo”. Many believe Wookiees to be a primitive species because they live in trees, but technology is a big part of Wookiee culture and many are talented pilots.

Gand

The Gand are an insectoid species who breath ammonia. The planet Gand itself is very foggy and hard to navigate, though individuals called “Findsmen” specialized in locating places, people, or objects. The bounty hunter, Zuckuss, was on of the few Gand who ventured off-world. The ones that did leave planet Gand, would wear respirators in order to breath in oxygen-rich environments.

Features of the Gand include large insectoid eyes and mandible mouthparts (although the mouthparts are usually hidden under the breathing mask). The LOM series of protocol droids (who served the Gand) were designed with similar eyes and facial features. Zuckuss, often worked with a LOM series droid named 4-LOM. Early Star Wars fans may have been confused over the identities of Zuckuss and 4-LOM because the Kenner action figure line accidentally swapped their names. This mistake was not corrected until the publication of the 1989 Galaxy Guide.

Snivvian

Snivvians are from the cold world of Cadomai Prime and the long winters would force Snivvians to live in subterranean caves for most of the year. While living in the caves Snivvians would produce great works of art including painting, sculpture, music, and writing.

The most famous Snivvian among fandom is Zutton who was called “Snaggletooth” when his action figure was released. For more about that action figure’s strange history check out my previous blog, “The Strange Story of Snaggletooth”. Snivvians appear in all three of the original Star Wars films, including on cloud city in “The Empire Strikes Back”, but fans will have to look closely to see them.

Lutrillian

Like many mammal-like species, Lutrillian evolved on a cold planet where having warm-blood was advantageous. Their thick skin and blubbery faces helped to protect them from the elements. Though Lutrillians appear in “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back” they are barely visible onscreen. The best chance to spot a Lutrillian onscreen is probably “The Star Wars Holiday Special” where Bea Arthur is seen interacting with a Lutrillian known as General Solomahal.

Ugnaught

Ugnaughts originally hailed from the swampy, volcano planet of Gentes. Due to the harsh nature of their homeworld Ugnaughts evolved to be strong and resilient. Some had tusks on their faces that could be used in blood duels. In “The Empire Strikes Back” Ugnaughts can be seen all over Cloud City, most notably in the Carbon Freezing Chamber. Another Ugnaught is visible in Jabba’s Palace in “Return of the Jedi”. It is notable that the Chief Ugnaught was played by Jack Purvis, who also played the Chief Jawa in ANH and Teebo the Ewok in ROTJ.

Human

Humans were the dominant species of the Star Wars Galaxy. Although humans were thought to have originated on Coruscant, they quickly spread out to other Core worlds such as Coreillia and Alderaan. Many humans also settled on Mid Rim planets such as Naboo and Outer Rim planets such as Mandalore. Because of the fact that humans were so common and widespread, other species in the galaxy were sometimes referred to as aliens, non-humans, or humanoids. The Galactic Empire were very prejudice against non-humans to the point where most non-humans were made into slaves or systematically destroyed. Some fans theorize that humans on Earth are descendants of the humans from the Star Wars Galaxy since it takes place “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away”.

Yoda’s Species

In the script for “The Empire Strikes Back”, Yoda is an old wizened stranger. He is almost a millennia old, and there has always been a shroud of mystery surrounding the character. The most mysterious aspect of him may be his species. In the Expanded Universe, Yoda has no home planet, he has no species name. We do know, however, that Yoda is not alone. In “The Phantom Menace” Yaddle, a female member of Yoda’s species, sits on the council. The EU has, at times, presented us with other examples of Yoda’s species, but exclusively as Jedi, which causes me to wonder if Yoda’s species actually founded the Jedi Order.

Before Yaddle’s appearance in “The Phantom Menace”, Lucas did not even want to admit that Yoda was a member of a species. When a 1993 trading card depicting other members of Yoda’s species was to be released, Lucas ordered all copies of it to be destroyed. Although some cards escaped the pulping and a few have been sold on Ebay for $400 or more. The biggest controversy around Yoda’s species (and perhaps the biggest mystery) is the number of toes on Yoda’s feet. In the Original Trilogy, Yoda has three front-facing toes and one back-facing toe. In “The Phantom Menace”, however, puppets of Yoda and Yaddle are missing the back-facing toe. Various toys and sources depict Yoda as having three, four, or five toes, though three fingers and three toes seem to be the most common depiction. Some fans even refer to Yoda's species as "Tridactyl" in reference to this fact.

Star Wars Aliens

The Aliens of the Cantina

http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-aliens-of-cantina_1.html

The Aliens of “The Empire Strikes Back"

http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-aliens-of-empire-strikes-back-what.html

The Aliens of Jabba’s Palace

http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2018/07/aliens-of-jabbas-palace.html

The Aliens of Max Rebo’s Band

http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-aliens-of-max-rebos-band.html

The Aliens of the Battle of Endor

http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-aliens-of-battle-of-endor.html

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