Star Wars Identities and Diefenbunker we see...the Force is strong in us...

July 8, 2013

Star Wars Identities and Diefenbunker we see... the force is strong in us...

The Canadian Aviation and Aerospace Museum has this great exhibit called “Star Wars Identities”, which is an interactive game, and by the questions  and choices and individual makes, it form’s your unique Star Wars identity.

In forming a unique identity, we get to choose our name, where we live, what we do, our characteristics, our personalities and presented with a life event and a choice on how to deal with it.  In the end we have to  choose, like many Jedi before us, between joining the “dark side” or rejecting it.  

Along with this interactive game that consisted of 10 stations to develop our characters, were the original costumes to all the main characters in the movie, 

from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader and everything in between.  

         

The exhibit houses a ton of sketches and artwork and history of how a character developed from the beginning to the finished form.  Yoda, for instance started out looking like an elvish figure - sorta like the travelocity gnome to what he looked like in the end.  Chewbacca started off looking more like Shrek in men’s armor, and then eventually looked like the Chewbacca we know and love today.  (He was was based on Lucas’s dog, and his voice came from a cross between the sounds of a bear and a walrus).

Before he was the Yoda we know

We also learn that the character of Luke Skywalker, was briefly thought of to be a woman, and then George Lucas decided to do the twin thing.

George Lucas’ inspirations came from many places.  The blue and silver stripes on Anakin’s pod racer were colors from George Lucas’ sports car and were used to differentiate Anakin’s pod racer from the others.

Anakin Skywalker's pod racer built full size for  close up shots

The Millennium Falcon’s design inspiration was from a hamburger, the mandibles were put on to give a clear picture of the front and back of the ship.

Yoda was given the eyes of Albert Einstein because he was the wisest person George Lucas could think of.

The evolution of Jar Jar Binx

Jar Jar Binks was developed because Lucas believed he needed silliness and comedy relief in each of the movies (a character silly enough to be  give away with happy meals according to Phil - I happen to like Jar Jar Binks and was going to pick his species for myself!)

Was a fun and interesting way to spend the morning.

We then head west of Ottawa to a small town called Carp where we find the Diefenbunker, built in the early 60’s to house the Canadian Government in case of a nuclear attack.  This 4 story building under the ground  was pretty much nuclear bomb proof, except of course it suffered a direct hit.

The  t tunnel to the Bunker 

During the Cuban missile crisis plans were underway to move the Government and all Canada’s gold reserves (Canada was still on gold standard at that time) to the bunker.

This bunker could house up to 500 people for a week or 30 people for 30 days.  It had everything from a medical and surgery center to dental, games room and communication and intelligence equipment to keep in contact with NORAD and any large centers surviving the attack.  There was also a spot  for corpses in the food freezer.

Bank of Canada vault in this complex could house 8000 bars of gold, the door weighted over 5 tons, and each of the 4 people required to open the door had individual combinations that were only known to them.

“The bunker is a square shape, so no one could get lost, you just go around in circles” is a direct quote from the front desk clerk. LOL!

Every day is a good day in these shoes! 

Getting our “list of things to do” done early today, we decide to rent a canoe at the hotel we are staying at and go for a paddle on the Rideau River.  We managed to keep afloat and were able to steer it in the direction we wanted.  

Paddling Rideau River

The hotel where we are staying for these couple of days is on the Rideau River, out of town from Ottawa.  It’s such a a tranquil  and quiet setting, clean, furnished up to date, and is family friendly - meaning they have a pool, spa, play area and canoes to rent which you can take right off their boat dock - laundry and free continental breakfast.

The boat dock at the hotel

The canoe paddle on the river was the perfect way to end the day.