As far as favourite scenes from the original STAR WARS go, the Trash Compactor with the one-eyed Dianoga creature, and its fascination with Luke Skywalker, must surely rank high-up on many fans lists. Originally, however, this sequence was to have been far more ambitious- our heroes wandering through a disused Death Star sub hallway/corridor and entering a murky,water submerged service tunnel, where the originally called "Dia Nogu" creature would surprise attack them (notably scaring the lovable Chewbacca in the process!). Fully realised by UK practical effects man John Stears and the UK prop makers, the transparent Jellyfish/Octopus-like alien was ultimately too big and bulky for the small contained set and not deemed good enough for filming, with a hastily made tentacle and a later ILM stop-motion insert of the creature's eye popping out of the water having to suffice within an adjusted script/environment. Anthony Daniels would recall the original prop's ultimate fate: being unceremoniously dumped on the Elstree Studios backlot and joking that canines would likely come along and urinate on it!
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| Two technicians in diving suits adjust the tentacle around Mark Hamill. |
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| The Dianoga tentacle prior being prepared at Elstree. |
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| The waterless Trash Compactor set with abandoned tentacle. |
Here are the original script pages for the scene from the 1st January 1976 script, as posted by Peter Mayhew on his TWITTER feed recently...
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