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Sate Pestage
By T-bone
Published: May 10, 2005
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Just who is this guy known as Sate Pestage? He appears in quite a few places but we never saw the guy on screen. In the book Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays by Laurent Bouzereau, Sate Pestage is discussed briefly on page 174 and also had a different name for a while:

In the second draft Vader talks on the video screen to Sate Molock, 'Grand Vizier to his eminence the Emperor,' in his holograph chamber. Molock tells Vader that the Emperor is in a bad mood. Vader reports that the base on Hoth has been destroyed and that he is tracking down the survivors. Later Vader has his talk with the Emperor. The Emperor tells Vader to turn Luke to the dark side, and before his image fades away, he passes his hand over Vader's head.

In the revised second draft, Sate Molock is called Sate Pestage. This character was ultimately deleted.


Here's how the script reads from both the Revised 2nd Draft and the 4th Draft of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, which have the exact same passage:


286. INT. VADER'S STAR DESTROYER - VADER'S CHAMBER.
Darth Vader stands before a shimmering holographic image which slowly comes into focus. The image is that of Sate Pestage, Grand Vizier to His Eminence, Emperor.

VADER
Sate Pestage, I would see the Emperor.
He commands it.

PESTAGE
I must warn you, Lord Vader,
The Emperor is in a foul mood.
He bids you wait.
Have you any progress to report?

VADER
The rebel base on Hoth has been destroyed.
I am tracking down the survivors.

PESTAGE
The Emperor will be with you in time.

VADER
I wait at his convenience.



The big question on everyone's minds is...was this scene ever filmed? Well, although I can't really confirm it, I can tell you that there is a mention of it in the shooting schedule for EMPIRE. It appears that they filmed all of the "hologram" or video screen footage all on the same day which, according to the shooting schedule I've seen, was on June 18th, 1979. That's only a few days before shooting was to be over and post-production started. The schedule clearly states: Int. Black Velvet Pestage and the scene number is 286. That matches the scene above. Too bad really; just one scene only for Sate Pestage and it was ultimately cut.

In case you're wondering what black velvet has to do with anything, when they shoot the actors who are later to be seen in hologram form, they usually shoot them against a black velvet backdrop (or at least they used to). The other hologram shots that were filmed that day include the characters of Obi-Wan (for the ghostly shots), Captain Needa, The Emperor, and the Imperial Captains - just for trivia's sake.

So I'm going to assume that if the scene wasn't filmed, it was at least scheduled to be filmed. Perhaps they only shot Pestage's part and scrapped the idea before filming Vader's parts. Perhaps they filmed the whole thing and scrapped it later. Perhaps they never got to it on the schedule. One thing is for sure though, Sate Pestage made it all the way from the script to the schedule which means he must have been cast. I REALLLLLY want to know who was cast as Sate Pestage!

Oh, and in case you're wondering why there's a picture above from RETURN OF THE JEDI, well, the easy answer is that I don't have any real pictures of Sate Pestage. However, over at Starwars.com in one of their Q&A sessions with that uppity librarian Jocasta Nu, this question was asked:

In Return of the Jedi, who are the gentlemen that exit the shuttle with Emperor Palpatine?

Her answer was this:

Accompanying Emperor Palpatine in several scenes is a cadre of Imperial advisors. They are alternately known as Imperial dignitaries, or more sinisterly, the Emperor's Inner Circle. They wear burgundy and purple robes and have pale skin and sunken features. Many of them are key officials in the managing of the Imperial bureaucracy.

Among the members of Palpatine's Inner Circle are: Sate Pestage, Janus Greejatus, Sim Aloo, Ars Dangor, and Kren Blista-Vanee.

So that's what we like to call confirmation here on the site, although it's quite vague as to specifically which dignitary is Sate Pestage. Well, it's confirmation that technically he appears in RETURN OF THE JEDI. There's no information on his scheduled appearance in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. So which guy in the pic is he? Personally, I'm banking on the guy who looks like Frau Blücher, but I could be wrong. For now, let's just leave it at that, shall we?

Too add more to the saga of Sate Pestage, friend of the site, Trevor, sent in this little story:

Recently at GalacticHunter.com there was a weekly Q&A with Adam Pawlus (www.galactichunter.com/q_and_a/030512.asp). One STAR WARS fan asked:

"I recently bought Kenner's vintage Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Playset from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, at a toy convention. I felt like Indiana Jones when I stumbled across an unopened, like new box with the toy I always wanted inside. As I looked it over when I got home, I noticed an interesting feature description on the side of the box. The box specifically states: "Darth talks to the Grand Vizier with the pretend viewing screen." Who is the Grand Vizier? I assume he is the Emperor, but who came up with that name? Grand Vizier sounds much more interesting than "The Emperor," why was it dropped? Was the Grand Vizier in any of Lucas' scripts? I have never heard this term, and I am surprised it made it to final print on the box. Please shed some light on this if you can."

Using Google, I came across your website, specifically about Sate Pestage. I found no mention about Darth Vader's Star Destroyer toy. At Toysrgus (www.toysrgus.com/images-toys/figuretoys/dvsd.html), the toy is shown. One of the images (www.toysrgus.com/images-toys/figuretoys/dvsd-back.jpg) shows on the top right the actual quote, "Darth talks to the Grand Vizier with the pretend viewing screen." It even looks like the Grand Vizier may have a registered trademark symbol next to his name, but I cannot tell. [Here's another image: http://www.12back.com/playsets/destroyer-inst6.gif]

As you may know, Kenner (now Hasbro) is notorious for using parts of the movies in their toys that then never make it into the movie. The first Fode & Beed (http://www.rebelscum.com/EP1jabbaannouncer.asp) was based on the original humans cast instead of the CGI character. The EPISODE I version of R2-D2 (http://www.rebelscum.com/EP1r2d2.asp) had booster rockets which were never shown until EPISODE II.

In any case, the Grand Vizier reference with Darth Vader's Star Destroyer toy shows that the character had reached such a stage Kenner thought it was going to make the movie.

I thought that was a fun little piece of information and many thanks to Trevor for sending it in. As you can see from the above script excerpts, the Grand Vizier is in fact Sate Pestage who was originally slated to appear in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and is supposedly seen in RETURN OF THE JEDI, though it's not very apparent who it is.

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