Quiz: May the Fourth be with you
To celebrate May the Fourth, we bring you a special Star Wars themed quiz. Special thanks to Nine to Noon producer William Ray, for bestowing his huge Star Wars knowledge on us.
Click on each question to reveal the answer, or click on the 'Show all the answers' link to see how you went and to learn more. Let us know any suggestions you have for improving the quiz by emailing quizmaster@radionz.co.nz.
Q 1 Who is the first character to utter any kind of speech in the original 'Star Wars'?
A C-3PO
C-3PO says "Did you hear that?" to R2D2. Who replies "bleep bloop bleep blip." (That's a rough translation).
The actor who played C-3PO, Anthony Daniels, couldn't sit down for most of the filming because of his costume.
Q 2 How many parsecs did the Millenium Falcon complete the Kessel Run in?
A (Less than) 12
Interestingly a parsec is a measure of distance not time (about 3.26 light-years). The Kessel Run is normally an 18 parsec trip but Han and Chewie managed to shave off that distance by flying dangerously close to a black hole, exploiting the way a collapsed star warps space and time.
Q 3 In The Force Awakens, what is Finn's stormtrooper designation?
A FN-2187
2187 is a reference to the cell Princess Leia is held in in A New Hope. It gets even better (nerdier). "Cell 2187," in turn, references Arthur Lipsett's short film 21-87, which reportedly inspired George Lucas to make the film THX-1138.
Q 4 In an early draft of A New Hope, the Dark Side of the Force was known as…
A The Bogan Force
And the light side was called the Ashla force before George Lucas' mates convinced him to do a major re-write of the film
Q 5 Which fictional corporation designed and built the X-Wing?
A Incom
The Incom T-65 X-Wing seen in the original trilogy was built by Incom engineers who defected from the Galactic Empire to join the Rebellion. Kuat Drive Yards built the Imperial Star Destroyers while Seinar builds Tie Fighters.
Q 6 What species of alien is Yoda?
A Nobody knows
Yoda's species appears only twice in Star Wars cannon: Yoda himself and Yaddle, who sits on the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menace and sports a sweet hairstyle.
Q 7 According to C3PO the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are…
A 3720 to 1
In real life asteroids are spaced so far apart that NASA estimates the chances of hitting one of the rocks sitting in the asteroid belt at about a billion to one.
Q 8 What is the name of the superweapon controlled by the First Order in The Force Awakens?
A Starkiller base
Starkiller is a reference to an early draft of A New Hope and was Luke's original second name. There was also a video game called The Force Unleashed where the main character was named Starkiller and was in training as Darth Vader's apprentice.
Q 9 Which planet (or moon) is host to the Rebel base in A New Hope?
A Yavin 4
The temple on the fourth moon in orbit around Yavin, where the rebels hid their base, was built by an alien race called the Massassi to worship Naga Sadow, a Sith Lord. In the Extended Universe novels Luke returned to those temples to establish his new Jedi Academy but it's unclear whether this is still canon with the release of The Force Awakens.
Q 10 Who shot first? Han or Greedo?
A All of the above
One of the biggest controversies in Star Wars history. The original film features a close up of Greedo's face which gets obscured by a cloud of smoke as the blasters fire. Some fans took this to show that Han had gunned Greedo down in cold-blood so in the re-release Lucas added some frames making it clear that Han was returning fire after Greedo first shot at him. The legitimacy of that change has been debated ever since.
