Episode IV: A New Hope (or, simply Star Wars)

For most of what is relevant here, I refer you to the 1975 third draft.

I might as well elaborate, however, on some of the visuals intended.

Ben Kenobi was apparently meant to look like Toshiro Mifune in The Hidden Fortress as an older man, with dark eyes and white hair. Basically, imagine Mifune wearing the sort of old-age makeup used on Max von Sydow in The Exorcist.

It’s quite likely that, on Utapau, Ben Kenobi would have worn a simple settler’s outfit, similar to Luke’s but with a pocketed utility vest. (This idea appears repeatedly in John Mollo’s 1975 costume sketches.) But once on board the Millennium Falcon, he would have donned his old Jedi robes and brown hooded cloak once more.

Also, keep in mind that in the 1975 third draft, Luke merely ran away from his home on Utapau/Tatooine; the Empire did not destroy it on screen, nor as yet kill Owen and Beru.

C-3PO was meant to be bronze-colored, like the Robot Maria on the set of Metropolis, instead of the gold sheen he has in the final film. It’s a subtle difference, but true; the scripts from ESB onward drop the “bronze” descriptor and use “gold” instead. R2-D2, meanwhile, was at this stage apparently silver in color, as in Ralph McQuarrie’s paintings (or like the Maria robot on film).

As for Leia, most of Ralph McQuarrie’s sketches show her as a blonde, but a few show Leia with dark hair. Still, perhaps her hair could have been brown, or even red, like that of like Leia Aquilae in the 1974 rough draft.

When Leia was discovered unconscious in the prison cells of Alderaan, the Cloud City, she would have been subjected to torture—in fact, she’d have undergone the first stage of the Sith ordeal of initiation. As such, she would appear bloody and bruised, and would likely be in a state of extreme déshabillé, wearing a tattered dress or even simply a loincloth. (This is actually evident in several of Ralph McQuarrie’s thumbnail sketches for the chasm swing painting.)

In the finale, Leia’s wounds would be shown as healed. For instance, she’d have likely lost a tooth, and replaced it with a seamless dental bridge. Her right ring finger, perhaps cut off during her torture (in a nod to The Lord of the Rings), would have been replaced with a droid prosthetic beneath synth-flesh.

Notably, John Mollo’s costume sketches for the final scene show Leia wearing an altered version of her earlier nun-like dress: apparently one with a largely transparent top, with only a pair of crossed fabric straps across the chest to preserve her modesty.

Meanwhile, Luke’s farmer outfit would have included a white cloak, instead of his brown poncho. He’d probably give this to Leia to cover her partial nudity once they had escaped from Alderaan. As in the scene where TE Lawrence wears a borrowed an army uniform in Lawrence of Arabia, the blood from the lash marks on her back would visibly seep into the cloth.

Han’s overall outfit wouldn’t have changed much—but it’s possible that his shirt would’ve been black, or even slightly transparent. This last idea is indicated in some of Ralph McQuarrie’s costume sketches, and it derives from the transparent snowsuits worn in Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon comic strip.

(Didn't I tell you there was originally a more mature tone to SW overall?)

Additionally, there is the matter of the Kiber Crystal.

The crystal appears to have little relevance to the film’s story, and so it was cut out in the fourth draft. But Luke’s sword wasn’t initially relevant either, and it went on to have major importance in ESB.

So it’s almost certain that the Kiber Crystal was meant to have some sort of greater relevance in the sequels which we know GL was already planning.

Most probably, the Crystals (plural, in the third draft) served as a gateway of sorts. They would’ve been a means to open up one’s latent Force potential, and bring it into the open, so it could be further developed by the explicit use of Force powers. (Rather like a gateway drug… or the spice melange, which opens up one’s mind to prescience in Dune.)

This activation presumably happened when a Jedi first touched a Kiber Crystal with his or her bare hand. In just the same way, the Lensmen in Doc Smith’s books first gained their superlative mental powers when they were granted their Lenses. But the best Lensmen grew out of their need for this crutch, though they still used them as supports in times of greatest mental strain, as when doing mind-to-mind battle with a powerful foe.

In other words, that scene where Luke is wearing the blast helmet on the Millennium Falcon wasn’t originally about Ben training Luke to use the Force—at least, not in the way he imagined. It was merely an exercise of willpower, to give him confidence in his own latent abilities.

Therefore, the real moment where Luke first truly taps into the Force in the 1975 third draft comes during the Death Star trench run—when he grasps the Kiber Crystal in his hand, just as he prepares to make his first of two runs at the exhaust port. And even then, he still has to make the approach twice before he succeeds.

Note also Vader’s dialogue during this scene: “You’re next, Blue Five… I have this feeling I know you.” (Actual verbatim quote!)

We really ought to ask—in what way?