AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: SOLO'S FAREWELL!

The new Rebel Command Centre on Hoth is a hive of activity.

With a recent incident to his life via a bounty hunter on the world of Ord Mantell, Han Solo knows he has to leave the Rebels and pay off his debt to Jabba the Hutt sooner rather than later. Informing General Rieekan (played by British/Canadian actor Bruce Boa, whose voice was later dubbed in post production) of his imminent departures, the news comes as a shock and disappointment to a soon angry Princess Leia Organa.

Continuity polaroid by Pamela Mann.

Bruce Boa as General Rieekan.

Han strides off after Leia gives him a goodbye cold shoulder, in an angle not seen in the film.

The Rebel Command centre scenes were mostly filmed over early Spring 1979, of which George Lucas was an on set visitor/advisor during the start of principal photography for The Empire Strikes Back.

Rehearsing Han and Leia's early verbal conflict.

Right from the start, Harrison Ford enjoyed working with new director Irvin Kershner.

Going through the scene with Kershner and Kurtz.

Chris Parsons as the other droid of Echo Base, K-3P0, watched behind by a female technician (Brigitte Kahn) and Kershner.

Lucas's old friend Walter Murch visits the early filming.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40:C-3PO RETURNS!

With his skills in communication and protocols handy to the Rebel Alliance, golden droid See-Threepio is now in his purposeful element, despite the harsh environment around him on the ice planet of Hoth. Soon enough, though, the universe comes crashing down on the droid via Imperial attack, separating him away from Master Luke and his buddy Artoo Detoo, and instead finding Threepio saddled with the much less appreciative Han Solo and Chewbacca, as their Millennium Falcon, with an unhappy Princess Leia also in tow, makes a series of perilous, never- tell-them-the- odds escapes, only for them all to ultimately step into the worse kind of trap - and literally a body breaking experience for the golden droid - at Bespin's Cloud City!

A valuable assistant to Princess Leia during the Rebel base evacuation from Hoth.

With a fellow droid operative K-3PO (Chris Parsons) in a posed publicity image.

Buying some escape time for his comrades linked to the Wampa storage area in an ultimately deleted scene.

Going for an unforgettable trip through an asteroid field!

'The Professor' at work!

Blundering into a trap at Cloud City!

Threepio's gone all to pieces!

Atop Chewbacca in the film's doom-laden Cloud City scenes.

A deleted moment of the near-helpless droid from an early movie trailer.

Almost back together again after being reunited with Artoo!

Together again for the film's sombre finale.

Back in the golden suit it was his destiny to inhabit and bring to life so uniquely in the Star Wars universe, British actor Anthony Daniels wins deserved new respect with his return to the role of galactic butler-type C-3PO from the original 1977 movie. Now he gets a better made and less painful to wear costume, a better financial situation, and has a bigger crediting on The Empire Strikes Back's film posters and media publicity.

A posed image at Elstree Studios circa 1979.

Mask and costume test at Elstree, circa 1979.

Mask and costume test images at Elstree, circa 1979.