(Snip)

bmanske said:
My memory from 1977 tells me that there were 4 or more "Standby"s. I though that they drew out this scene to an almost comical length (and this was a much younger and less critical self). I also recall that among the tension building scenes of the lighted panels of buttons was were scenes showing the outside of the Death Star where the weapon circle would fire from, inside where they showed a huge tube that became brilliantly lit by the weapon’s light and then became a small beam of the larger weapon when cut back to the outside. This is where I remember the Death Star announcer saying “Standby” a few more times. I remember the beams that form the weapon all converging and thinking it strange that they met without the main planet destroying beam forming. Then the Death Star exploded.

So is it just my memory or does anybody else remember these things?

Is there any chance of that theater’s projectionist playing shenanigans with that scene by, say, cutting in earlier material from the destruction of Alderaan?