Death Star
Although details, such as the superlaser's location, shifted between different concept models during production of "Star Wars", the notion of the Death Star being a large, spherical space station over 100 kilometers in diameter was consistent in all of them. George Lucas gave the original task of designing a "Death Star" to concept artist and spaceship modeler Colin Cantwell, who had collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the 1968 film "". In a 2016 interview, Cantwell related that "I didn't originally plan for the Death Star to have a trench, but when I was working with the mold, I noticed the two halves had shrunk at the point where they met across the middle." As it "would have taken a week of work just to fill and sand and refill this depression," Cantwell suggested a trench to Lucas to save the labor. Lucas liked the idea, and the Death Star model was created by John Stears. The buzzing sound counting down to the Death Star firing its superlaser comes from the "Flash Gordon" serials. Portraying an incomplete yet powerful space station posed a problem for Industrial Light & Magic's modelmakers for "Return of the Jedi". Only the front side of the 137-centimeter model was completed, and the image was flipped horizontally for the final film. Both Death Stars were depicted by a combination of complete and sectional models and matte paintings.
RMS Cedric
"Cedric" was laid down in 1902 at the shipyard of Harland and Wolff, Belfast. She was the second of White Star's series known as the "Big Four", the other three being , and . "Celtic" was the first ship to exceed Brunel's in overall tonnage, which was quite an accomplishment, considering Brunel's giant ship held the size record for almost 40 years. Except for the "Adriatic" all of these in turn, when built, would be the largest ship in the world for a short time. RMS "Cedric" was a 21,035-gross ton ship, long and abeam, with two funnels, four masts, two propellers and a service speed of . There was accommodation for 365 first-, 160 second- and 2352 third-class passengers, and a crew of about 350. She was launched in Belfast on 21 August 1902, in a private ceremony which included several guests, amongst others William Pirrie, the chairman of Harland and Wolff and Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line. RMS "Cedric" commenced her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 11 February 1903. This was the only route on which she was ever used, although "Cedric" was also sometimes used for winter cruises to the Mediterranean.