Droid (Star Wars)

• 1. A Word Is Born

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  George Lucas completed the second draft script of Star Wars on the 28th of January 1975, and it is where he first used the word droid. A single clipped syllable was enough to name a whole population of machines that translate, repair starships and fight wars. In the Star Wars franchise, a droid is a fictional robot with some degree of artificial intelligence. A few questions follow from that small beginning. Where did the word really come from, and did Lucas coin it alone? Who owns it today? What jobs do droids perform in the story, and how are they brought to life on screen? And what have scholars made of machines that serve, obey and sometimes rebel?

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• 2. Ancestry of a Word

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  The Ancient Greek noun eîdos, meaning form, image, shape, appearance or look, is the oldest root buried inside the word droid. Greek also supplied andrós, the genitive of anēr, which means an adult man or a human being. Joined together, the two pieces became the New Latin androīdēs, meaning manlike. English borrowed it as android, a word originally reserved for robots designed to look and act like a human. Droid is a clipped form of that longer word.

  In 1952, the science fiction writer Mari Wolf used the word droid in a story whose title calls on the robots of the world to arise. Nobody knows whether Lucas had read it. He may equally have come up with the term on his own. Whatever its path, the word would soon acquire an owner.

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• 3. A Protected Word

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  Lucasfilm Ltd registered droid as a trademark in 1977, the year the first Star Wars film began the franchise. The company has held that registration ever since, and it has licensed the word to others.

  Verizon Wireless used the term under licence from Lucasfilm for a line of smartphones based on the Android operating system. Motorola's late-2009 phone, built on Google's Android, was called the Droid. The line later grew to include the HTC Droid Eris, the HTC Droid Incredible, and the Motorola Droid X, Droid 2 and Droid Pro.

  Lucasfilm also used the word inside its own projects. EditDroid was a non-linear editing system, and SoundDroid was an early digital audio workstation. The 2004 Pixar movie The Incredibles borrowed the name Omnidroid, with permission from Lucasfilm, for a line of lethal robots built by the film's antagonist. None of those products had to answer to the classification system that governs droids inside the story.

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• 4. Classes and Companions

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  Five numbered classes sort the droids of the Star Wars universe by skill-set. First class covers physical, mathematical and medical sciences. Second class covers engineering and technical sciences. Third class handles social sciences and service functions. Fourth class belongs to security and military functions, and fifth class to menial labor and other jobs that need no intelligence.

  Background material says most droids lack true sentience. They receive only enough processing ability to carry out their assigned function. Over time, though, experience can lead a droid to develop sentience on its own. Periodic memory wipes can prevent that, and droids that escape the wipes begin to develop personalities.

  C-3PO, introduced in Star Wars and featured in all sequels and prequels, is the most notable protocol droid. Protocol droids specialize in translation, etiquette and cultural customs, and they are typically humanoid in appearance. They ease communication during diplomatic or business negotiations and often serve their owners as personal assistants. Militaries use them as administrators, couriers or spies. They also have a tendency to be eccentric and fussy.

  Other protocol droids show how far the type can stray. 4-LOM turns bounty hunter and answers Darth Vader's call to capture the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980. TC-14, a droid with feminine programming, appears in The Phantom Menace in 1999. ME-8D9 works as a translator at Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana in The Force Awakens, released in 2015.

  R2-D2 is the astromech droid who arrived in 1977's Star Wars and returned in every later film. Astromech droids are small, versatile utility robots used for the maintenance and repair of starships and related technology. Their tool-tipped appendages are stowed in recessed compartments. On ships such as X-wing starfighters they double as the navigational system, and they work with the hyperdrive to plot a safe course at faster-than-light speeds.

  R5-D4, a malfunctioning astromech, makes a brief appearance in Star Wars. U9-C4 is a timid droid sent on a mission with D-Squad, an all-droid special unit, in The Clone Wars. C1-10P, nicknamed Chopper, is an oft-repaired, outmoded astromech and one of the main characters of Star Wars Rebels. BB-8 serves X-wing pilot Poe Dameron in The Force Awakens. Other droids were built for far grimmer work than translation or repair.

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• 5. Armies of Tin

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  Standing 1.93 m tall, the B1 battle droid was built with a humanoid body so that it could operate existing machinery and weaponry. Battle droids are war robots, used as an easily controlled alternative to human soldiers. Audiences meet them mostly in the prequel trilogy and in the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where the B1 and B2 models are frequent antagonists. The terms B1 and battle droid are used interchangeably, and the B2 is also called the super battle droid. They serve as the primary troops of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, also known as the Separatist Alliance, opposite the clone troopers of the Galactic Republic.

  Designer Doug Chang said the look of the B1 was inspired by African figurine sculptures. The tall, thin model resembles the Geonosian species, whose Baktoid Armor Workshop designed and built the droids for the Trade Federation and later the Separatists. They were meant to be cheaply mass-produced in large numbers.

  During the Battle of Naboo, a central command computer controlled the battle droids, a choice made to save money. By the time of the Clone Wars that weakness had been fixed. The droids gained limited independent thought, and these self-described "independent thinkers" fought beside older models that still needed central computers. The B2 super battle droid debuted in the Battle of Geonosis. The Techno Union designed it and Baktoid manufactured it as an improvement on the B1. It is heavily armored, capable of limited independent thought, and carries an integrated dual laser cannon in its right arm.

  B1 battle droids have been criticized as ineffective and boring opponents, easily destroyed and devoid of personality. Rafael Motamayor of SyFy Wire argues that the 2008 Clone Wars series rehabilitated their image. In it, the droids are upgraded to think independently, and they show awareness that they are cannon fodder. Their comments on their tragic situation, and their questioning of orders that would get them killed, are played for comic relief.

  The droideka is a three-legged heavy infantry unit designed by the Colicoids, a bloodthirsty insect-like species that it resembles. It carries twin blasters and a deflector shield generator. It can transform into a wheel form and roll toward the enemy at speeds of up to 75 kph. BX-series commando droids are sturdier versions of the B1, with armor against blaster fire and more advanced combat programming. T-series tactical droids advise Separatist commanders, while super tactical droids serve as generals of droid armies and fleets. Vulture droids, Dwarf spider droids and Hailfire droids are among the droid vehicles and spacecraft.

  After the Clone Wars, the Imperial Senate banned the manufacture of battle droids, but it left loopholes for building security droids and experimental combat droids. Moff Gideon's pure-droid, heavy-duty Dark Troopers are one result. The Imperial military's KX-series is another, and K-2SO is one of its examples.

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• 6. Probes and Specialists

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  Probe droids appear in The Empire Strikes Back, where the Empire sends them to search for hidden rebel bases. They travel in hyperdrive-equipped pods to almost anywhere in the galaxy. Also called probots, they stand 2 m tall, float on repulsorlifts and are propelled by silenced thrusters. Their equipment includes motion detectors, ultraviolet sensors, a blaster for self-defense, and a HoloNet transceiver for reporting discoveries to Imperial forces.

  The probot's look may trace back to a comic. While the film was in production, Joe Johnston drew storyboard panels influenced by Dan O'Bannon and Moebius's short comic The Long Tomorrow, from 1975. One panel reuses a pose that Johnston admitted he borrowed from that work. The same panel of the comic features a robot designed by Moebius, which may have been the basis of the probot that Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie created for the film.

  Labor droids handle everything from lifting heavy objects to repairing machinery or administrating entire facilities, though their programming is very task-specific. Mining droids extract valuable resources, often from hazardous environments. Power droids are mobile fusion reactors that recharge ships, machines and other droids. Interrogation droids use devices, chemicals and techniques to exploit a prisoner's weaknesses and extract information. Assassin droids such as the IG-series hunt their targets with ruthless efficiency, and some serve masters while others operate independently. Medical droids work tirelessly as assistants, midwives or doctors, and many know the physiology of different species well enough to diagnose patients properly.

  A medical droid in The Empire Strikes Back tends to Luke Skywalker in the bacta tank after the Wampa attack on Hoth, and it replaces Luke's hand. A 2-1B droid also treats Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith.

  IG-11 is a bounty hunter and assassin droid who first teams up with the Mandalorian to find and kill the Child. The Mandalorian wants the Child alive, so he betrays and destroys IG-11. Kuiil later rebuilds and reprograms the droid as an ally. IG-11 looks after the Child, treats the Mandalorian when he is injured, and finally sacrifices himself with his self-destruct mechanism so the others can escape Moff Gideon's Imperial Remnant.

  K-2SO is an Imperial security droid stolen and reprogrammed by the Alliance, and he first appears in Rogue One. During the Ghorman Massacre, a member of the Ghorman Front incapacitated him. Cassian Andor salvaged the wreck and took it to the Rebel Alliance base on Yavin 4 for repair and reprogramming. His appearance helps when infiltrating Imperial installations, but after reprogramming he tends to speak his thoughts bluntly and tactlessly. Stormtroopers destroy him while he protects Jyn Erso and Cassian during the raid on Scarif to steal the Death Star schematics.

  L3-37 is the trusted pilot droid of Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and she was the original co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon. She is a no-nonsense robot revolutionary who frees the droids in the spice mines of Kessel. When Lando asks if she needs anything from outside the cockpit, she quips "equal rights." She was heavily damaged during the mission to Kessel, and her brain was uploaded into the Falcon's central computer.

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• 7. Behind the Costume

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  Droids reach the screen through robotics, actors inside costumes and computer animation. In one case the performer in the costume stood on stilts.

  Kenny Baker is credited as R2-D2 for Episodes I-VI and as a consultant for Episode VII, while Jimmy Vee is credited for Episodes VII-IX and Rogue One. Anthony Daniels plays C-3PO in Episodes I-IX, Rogue One, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka, and he also voices the character in animated series such as The Clone Wars and Rebels. Dave Chapman and Brian Herring perform BB-8 in Episodes VII-IX, with Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz supplying the voice. Alan Tudyk plays K-2SO in Rogue One and Andor, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays L3-37. Dave Filoni voices Chopper in Rebels, Forces of Destiny and Ahsoka.

  The boxy GNK power droid, a walking power generator that moves very slowly, was performed by a long list of actors. They include Rusty Goffe, Latin Lahr, Jack Purvis, Kenny Baker, Kiran Shah, Raymond Griffiths, Arti Shah and Ivan Manzella, with Ben Burtt providing the voice. It first appears in the Jawas' sandcrawler in the original 1977 Star Wars, and The Bad Batch affectionately nicknames it Gonky.

  The production puppet for IG-88 was assembled from recycled props from A New Hope, with the Mos Eisley cantina drink dispenser serving as its head. The Empire Strikes Back script called the character a "chrome war droid," and during production it was known as Phlutdroid. Ralph McQuarrie's production sketches showed a sleeker design, which later served as the model for the IG-RM Thug droids in Star Wars Rebels.

  Kenner's original action figure line also turned droids into toys. A Power Droid figure arrived in 1978, along with an RA-7 Death Star droid figure, and an FX-7 figure followed in 1980 for the Empire Strikes Back line. The first 4-LOM figure was misidentified as Zuckuss. One pink R2 unit, R2-KT, was named in honor of Katie Johnston, a seven-year-old Star Wars fan and cancer patient.

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• 8. Reading the Droids

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  Dan Rubey sees the original film as establishing a "race hierarchy" with droids on the bottom rung. J. P. Telotte reads a similar ladder, one that places humans above nonhumans and the living above the nonliving. He describes the droids as "essentially slaves to a superior mankind, embodying a romantic dream of obedience and dogged faithfulness to a master." Diana Sandars treats droids as a negative counterpoint to humanity, epitomized in Darth Vader's mechanical body, which has "vanquished his human nobility."

  Lane Roth saw the droids as a way of establishing the moral standing of human characters. Sympathetic figures such as Obi-Wan treat them kindly, calling R2-D2 "my little friend" and listing the droids as passengers rather than cargo. Initially unsympathetic ones, such as Han Solo and the Tatooine bartender, neglect or abuse them. Cyrus Patell reads them in a similar way, calling the droids both "an ethical index" and a manifestation of technophobia.

  Nicholas Wanberg focuses on the droid characters of the prequel films. He sees them playing on racialized sexual and reproductive anxieties, through contrasting origin settings for more or less "White" droids, different relationships between mind and body, and reenactments of "swamping fears." Roth's reading predates the prequels, in which Obi-Wan Kenobi's relationship to droids differed from the one in the original trilogy.

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