- "Were you on a star-cruiser or a...?"
- ―Luke Skywalker
Star Cruiser was a widely used designation for spaceships in general as well as a term for a prominent Mon Calamari warship production line, a series of Old Republic warships and a subclass of large battlecruisers.
The term was sometimes used to describe spacecraft in general, and in this context, it was sometimes written lowercase as star cruiser.. The term could also be used to specify a type of large battlecruiser, and was used as designation for a series of Republic hammer-headed warships during the Great Galactic War and, later, to describe a series of large Mon Calamari warships during the Galactic Civil War.
The Galactic Republic evidently used the term to describe their hammer-headed warships, like the Thranta-class corvette, that were active in the Great Galactic War. The smuggler Hylo Visz knew them by this term, as she compared the Defender-class prototype to the larger, similar-looking vessels.
The famous Mon Calamari Star Cruisers were the main capital ships of the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic. A typical Star Cruiser of the Galactic Civil War was around 1200 m, such as the iconic MC80 Liberty type Star Cruiser, but the term could also apply to the 500 m Kuari Princess, and to larger Mon Cal ships, like the Home One.
The lowercase term "star cruiser" was also applied to Imperial Navy warships, where it was used as an alternate designation for Star Destroyers. It was also used as a synonym for the standard cruiser designation, which referred to all combat warships above approximately 400 m in length, as for example the Strike-class medium cruiser. Smaller warships, like the CR90 corvette, were also called this at times.
Some ships named with the uppercase "Star Cruiser" were bigger than standard Star Destroyer designs, and were large enough to be thought of as Super Star Destroyers. They were an Imperial warship class separate from both Star Destroyers and Star Dreadnoughts, considered by some to be a subtype of the battlecruiser class used in the Anaxes War College System. Among many naval historians, any official inclusion of this subtype into their ship classification-system was debated and contested. A typical example of this Star Cruiser design was the Allegiance-class battlecruiser, a 2200 m long model of Super Star Destroyer that was utilized by the Galactic Empire. Likewise, the Secutor-class Star Destroyer's length would technically have placed it under the Star Cruiser classification, but its comparative lack of armament, as well as its carrier-like role, qualified it as a Star Destroyer.
Behind the scenes
The term "star cruiser" first appeared in dialogue in Star Wars, written as "star-cruiser" and "starcruiser" in various versions of the script. Early Expanded Universe material such as Marvel's Star Wars comics uses the term quite loosely, including for the Executor. In the script for The Empire Strikes back, the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate is called a "Star Cruiser," with the words capitalized. Since Return of the Jedi, however, the term has been most widely used to describe Mon Calamari Star Cruisers.
In his endnotes for The Essential Guide to Warfare, Jason Fry mentioned that he had planned to give an explanation for Luke asking if C-3PO and R2-D2 were on a Star Cruiser, but it was cut before the book was released. In addition, due to input from a TheForce.net test reader known only as Tzizvvt78, Fry placed the Star Cruiser line at the smaller end of the overall battlecruiser ship class. Fry liked the idea because it accounted for the continuity for Star Cruisers without sacrificing the West End Games cruiser ship classifications incorporated into the Anaxes War College System.
Known Star Cruiser classes
- Mon Calamari Star Cruiser:
- Allegiance-class battlecruiser
- The Old Republic: Smuggler's Vanguard (Mentioned only)
- Jedi Quest: The Trail of the Jedi
- Jedi Quest: The Dangerous Games
- Jedi Quest: The Changing of the Guard
- "MedStar: Intermezzo"—Star Wars Insider 83 (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (First mentioned)
- Star Wars (Marvel)
- Star Wars comic strip
- Star Wars Galaxies
- (Mentioned only)
- Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel (First appearance)
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi junior novel
- Dark Empire
- Dark Empire audio drama
- Star Wars Word Puzzles
- A Guide to the Star Wars Universe
- The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook
- Dark Force Rising Sourcebook
- Star Wars Gamemaster Handbook
- Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy
- Star Wars: Complete Locations
- The Bounty Hunter Wars
- The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
- The Rebel Alliance Scrapbook
- Starships of the Galaxy (Saga Edition)
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Guide to Warfare
- Jason Fry's Tumblr - Endnotes Pt.7
- Jason Fry's Tumblr - Endnotes Pt.11
- Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook
- Fly Casual
- Strongholds of Resistance
Notes and references
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.
- ↑ Star Wars (Marvel)
- ↑ Star Wars comic strip
- ↑ Star Wars: Complete Locations
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 The Essential Guide to Warfare
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Old Republic: Smuggler's Vanguard
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- ↑ Starships of the Galaxy, Saga Edition
- ↑ Star Wars Galaxies (Quest Journal description for space mission "Kessel System: Seek and Destroy the Imperial Corvette")
- ↑ Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy refers to Rebel personnel using the term Star Cruiser for an Imperial warship type in-between Star Destroyers and Star Dreadnoughts in size and power.
- ↑ In Starship Battles Preview 1, the Super Star Destroyer term itself is described as a colloquial outgrowth from the word Star Destroyer, which described the large dagger-shaped warships used by the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars. The same article states that Super Star Destroyer was a term applied to several different dagger-shaped Imperial warship classes, making no mention of any Rebel ships being called this.
- ↑ http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/post/24881617404/eg-to-warfare-endnotes-pt-11