- There’s a lot more exposition about the state of the Galaxy. There’s a scene where a Rebel commander explains that after the Death Star was destroyed, many systems joined the Rebellion, but the Imperial navy is still very powerful, and is currently spread thin around the Galaxy pursuing rebel cells. This kind of exposition is missing in the final version, requiring us to infer these background details ourselves. (Also the final version seems to imply Echo Base is the only rebel base.)
I do like that the idea of knowing more about what occurred in the galaxy after the Death Star was destroyed. But for some reason, probably Kershner’s skill as a director and keeping the tension and stakes high, the focus on Hoth does leave us thinking this could well be most, if not all, of the rebels.
Yes. Willard prompting the droids to bring up the ‘Galactic Map’ would have been cool to see, as well as his Basil Exposition:
“Since we destroyed the Empire’s Death Star, many more systems have found courage to join the rebellion. At the last count, one thousand and twenty-six. But as you see, we’re widely scattered and still vastly inferior in ships and men. This base, if we can establish and hold it, is strategically placed for….”
The love triangle between Han, Leia and Luke is, uh, a little strange and unsettling, to say the least, given what we saw on the actual screen and since.