Skip to main content

Are communications jammers common in the Star Wars universe?



During the speeder bike chase in Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywaker instructs Leia to jam the communications of the Imperial Scout Troopers they are chasing/being chased by.


The jammer seems to be activated by a simple switch, which strikes as odd. Is communications jamming such a common function of a speeder bike such that it needs a prominent, easy to reach control?


The explanation I've come up with is that the Empire enforces control by preventing the general populace from spreading information quickly. Comms jammers are routinely installed in all Imperial vehicles and equipment, much like cameras and RFID technology come in a lot of electronic devices in our world.


So, does communication jamming technology appear a lot in Star Wars – both movies and extended universe? Does the theory hold up?



Answer



The technology is extremely common in the Expanded Universe. Jamming technology is used, not just by the Rebels and Imperials but also by smugglers, in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. Han Solo and Lando Calrissian come up with a low-tech way to jam Imperial communications in Vision of the Future, and Thrawn successfully jams a Trade Federation task force's communications while still working for his native Chiss in Outbound Flight. And that is merely Timothy Zahn's work.


Communications jamming, as well as eavesdropping, is consistently shown to be very common in the Star Wars EU. As Han and Lando show in Vision of the Future, it would seem that jamming communications is not especially difficult, and therefore it's very common. Even Centrepoint Station, a space station that pre-dates the invention of artificial gravity without the need for rotation, is shown to possess communications-jamming capabilities in The Corellian Trilogy. It is obviously a side-effect of the Star Wars hypercomm technology that it is very easy to jam.


As for the theory, I couldn't tell you. Communications technology has never been very well-explored in Star Wars lore, with the slight exception of The Corellian Trilogy. Even then, the jamming was referred to as a "brute force technology," which even the technologically-illiterate Human League could pull off, provided they had a strong enough power-source. Repulsor and hyperdrive technology is much better examined. Without a knowledge of how Star Wars communications actually work, I couldn't possibly guess at how well the theory behind jamming it holds up.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more