The rumors are true: Everyone’s favorite Valley-Girl-in-space, Stacey from the Pink Five fan film trilogy, turns up in the new Star Wars novel, , by Timothy Zahn. Since the Pink Five movies present info that alters your perception of the original Star Wars trilogy, Zahn returns the favor, casting a new light on Stacey’s relationship with her “boyfriend;” in a scene on pages 106-107, Stacey has a full-on flirt session with the man in the black vest himself, Han Solo. Asked for his thoughts on her appearance, Trey Stokes, co-creator of Pink Five, replied, “Well, of course I love Stacey’s little cameo scene in Allegiance; why wouldn’t I?”
For those unfamiliar with the Pink Five flicks, they follow the accidental exploits of Stacey (Amy Earhart), a girl who’s perhaps not the brightest lightsaber in that galaxy far, far away. The original Pink Five can be found at Atom Films; it won the George Lucas Selects Award in the 2003 Star Wars Fan Film Awards (i.e. Lucas himself chose it as his favorite of the year). The follow-up, Pink Five Strikes Back, also available at Atom Films won the Audience Choice Award in the 2004 Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards. The trilogy’s finale, Return of Pink Five, has been in production for a few years, and you can get all the dirt on it at the Pink Five website.
Fan filmmakers are used to playing with characters that someone else created, so how did it feel for the tables to be turned, with someone else taking a shot at depicting Pink Five herself? “Other than the spelling of her name–we spell it with an “E” but you can’t tell that from the movies–I thought Zahn depicted her really well,” said Stokes (pictured here with Earhart; Photocredit: othercinema.com). “Well enough that people recognize her when she shows up, even if they didn’t know she’d be in the book. Just in the course of that one scene, he managed to show that Stacey never calls anyone by their name (she says “the big guy” in lieu of “Chewbacca”), and I loved Han’s inner monologue about how her cheerfulness is even more annoying than Luke’s. He also worked within our timeline by setting up a flirtation between the two of them that makes Leia jealous.
“Interestingly, just a moment before Stacey shows up, Han refers to Leia as ‘Her Royal Plush Gowns and Hair Fashions’–which is exactly the sort of thing Stacey would say, except she’s not in the scene yet. About the only quibble I could raise is that in our canon, Han knows Stacey a little bit better than Zahn suggests; he called her during the Battle of Yavin, after all. But it would be too much of a stretch to suggest that Stacey was in the Battle of Yavin in the official timeline, so it doesn’t surprise me that Zahn glossed over that part.”
Regardless of glossing or not, this marks the first time that a character created for a fan film has become part of the official Star Wars canon. However, while the character’s appearance is primarily an in-joke that doubles as a plot device to show Han’s growing attraction to Leia, the whole thing has started a tempest in a teapot over her jump from “fanon” (Good grief–who comes up with these terms?) to canon.
Stokes explained, “The whole ‘Does this mean Pink Five is canon?’ question has set off a minor flurry of debate among folks who care about such things. Last year, somebody created a ‘Stacey’ page on Wookieepedia.com, which was then voted down because a fan film character didn’t rate her own page. Now the page is back, though it’s been edited multiple times by folks who clearly are offended that a fan film character has become official, and by other folks who think it’s great. I suspect that depends on whether the person in question likes our movies or not. The hard-liner stance is that ‘Stacey,’ as seen in our movies is not canon; instead there’s now a canon character named ‘Stacy’ and all we know about her is what’s in Zahn’s book. To which I say, ‘Whatever, dude.’”
Regardless of the efforts of various wet blankets, Stokes, unsurprisingly, feels that Stacy and Stacey are one and same, and is thrilled to see the character he and Earhart created make the jump to the big time. “I’m still reading the book,” he admitted, “so I don’t know if she ever shows up again. I doubt she will, but now that a female X-Wing pilot named Stacy is official canon, maybe she’ll show up in another book someday.”
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