Hello there.

And welcome back to A Long Time Ago… the series where guests share their favourite Star Wars story and historical site. This started as a tie-in to my first piece of traditionally published writing, the article ART WARS for Star Wars Insider #226. The whole archive of my exploration of fourteen ancient art sites and every Star Wars story on my shelves can be found here.

Today, I hand over to Melissa T. Miller!

Melissa is a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and freelance science writer, with bylines for Star Wars Insider and Nerdist, among other outlets. She is also co-host of the podcast Star Warsologies, which covers how real-life science is represented in a galaxy far, far away. Melissa also made Star Wars wildlife documentaries and organizes panels at pop culture conventions like San Diego Comic-Con and Star Wars Celebration.

In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…

I love any story that involves a rancor! As a child of the 80s, I have no memory of watching the original trilogy for the first time. My earliest memories just include Star Wars - the movies recorded on VHS (with commercials), action figures all over the house and yard, bedsheets, Halloween costumes, you name it. The rancor scene in Return of the Jedi is tense and scary and I’m known to be a wuss, watching many things while hiding behind my hand. But I cannot overstate the impact of the rancor keeper rushing in and crying over the monster that our hero Luke Skywalker has just slain in order to save himself. The fact that this comes with no context in the movie is remarkable. Some of the most impactful things about Star Wars in general are the stories left untold - small moments and background characters. Someone cared that this rancor was dead. In fact, someone was completely devastated.

Twelve years later, Kevin J. Anderson told the full story in “A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper’s Tale.” This short story in the compilation book “Tales from Jabba’s Palace” absolutely blew my mind. Not just the in-universe plot - the keeper and rancor are strongly bonded and about to escape Jabba’s greedy clutches once and for all. But also the fact that an author could turn a few seconds of screentime into 40 pages of wonder, heartbreak, and empathy for all creatures. There is a direct link from that story to my own Star Wars writing. If I could write every article about critters, I would. My favorite panels to put together are about the animals in a galaxy far, far away. I even made some short wildlife documentaries to show off all the critters great and small! 

And I always love to see more rancors! Many people have opinions about the show Book of Boba Fett. My strongest one is that we needed to see a whole training montage between Danny Trejo and that baby rancor! Why was that not the whole episode? I hope it at least got some chin scritches after going full King Kong on the Pyke Syndicate. Such a good boy.

Terryl Whitlatch’s amazing book “The Wildlife of Star Wars” introduced me to the idea that rancors bonded with witches of Dathomir and often gave birth to twins. The more recent “Star Wars Bestiary” continues the story, sharing how they imprint on their trainers and let birds clean their teeth. Everything about rancors is a delight to learn!

All Around the World…

Invisible lines fascinate me. I work in oceanography and some of these come with storied crossing ceremonies and historical names. I’ve taken a boat across the equator (which makes me a shellback) and into the Arctic and Antarctic Circles (blue nose and red nose, respectively). Crossing the Prime Meridian (0 degrees longitude) was one thing, but making it over the International Date Line to earn my Golden Dragon certificate was more complicated because the line does not just run down the 180th line of longitude. It juts back and forth and even curls around islands for various political reasons. But I have crossed all these lines - some more than once - and I love it every time.

In 2015, I got to go to the North Pole on a Coast Guard icebreaker. When we reached the historic spot, the three GPS devices all freaked out and read completely different values despite only being a few hundred feet apart. I did a lap around the ship’s deck so that within a few minutes I had been in every longitude degree on Earth. 

You can cross many of these lines easily enough on land, no oceanography or naval career required. I put one foot in the Western Hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern while in London for Star Wars Celebration in 2023. While in Quito, Ecuador (Spanish for equator), I went to a monument with a wide white line running through the plaza. Delightfully, the line is 790 feet south of the actual equator. But those who measured the location in 1736 got pretty close and that’s a fun fact in and of itself.

Another memorable photo op is with the Tropic of Capricorn sign in Kruger National Park in South Africa. It’s right next to the road in a park where you’re supposed to stay in the car lest you get eaten by a leopard. My visit was a hasty one, but I needed to get a photo. 

At this point, I have only a few degrees of latitude left to traverse, but they’re difficult ones. It is unlikely that my work or my budget will take me to the South Pole, but I’m hoping to hit up a few more between 68 and 90 degrees South. Trying to collect them all!     

Thank you so much Melissa!

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MTFBWY,

Harvey