The Pirates of Tarnoonga

"Every time I touch anything mechanical, it turns hostile."

- C-3PO

"The Pirates of Tarnoonga" is the seventh episode in the Star Wars: Droids animated television series, and the seventh episode in season one. Written by Peter Sauder and directed by Raymond Jafelice, it originally aired on ABC on October 19, 1985.

Plot summary
Jessica Meade and the droids, C-3PO and R2-D2 are on board her freighter ship transporting fuel supplies to King Mon Julpa on Tammuz-an. Jann Tosh pilots an RZ-1 A-wing interceptor and escorts the freighter back towards the planet. He mentions that an empty decoy ship has been deployed and dispatched in a different direction in the hopes of discouraging possible pirate attack.

As luck would have it though, Captain Gir Kybo Ren-Cha and his pirates, piloting stolen Imperial TIE/LN starfighters attack the freighter ship. They latch onto Jessica’s freighter with a tractor beam and bring it back to a hidden mountain base on the watery planet known as Tarnoonga. Kybo secures Jessica in his ready room. He becomes infatuated with the young pilot’s enthusiasm and brazen demeanor. He decides to keep her as his personal consort.

Jann meanwhile, follows the pirates back to Tarnoonga. He sends a coded emergency message to King Julpa informing him of the attack. As soon as he lands within the mountain base, Captain Kybo’s henchmen swarm upon him and imprison him in the dungeon hold of a sail skiff. Jann is reunited with the droids and the pirates force them to walk the plank into the seas below. A large green sea-monster, known as Miridon, rises from the ocean depths and begins attacking them. R2-D2 activates a propeller system from the top of his dome and begins swimming away. 3PO and Jann grab a hold of R2’s legs as the small astromech droid evades Miridon's powerful teeth. R2 manages to outmaneuver the sea-monster and causes him to ensnare himself within the wreckage of a sunken freighter ship.

Meanwhile, Jessica Meade escapes from Captain Kybo’s ready room. She keeps him distracted with a remote seeker, while she makes her way down the corridor. Kybo's henchman, Jyn Obah tries to catch Jessica, but she succeeds in getting back to her ship. She traps Jyn within the blast doors of her freighter.

Back at the sea caverns, Jann and the droids steal a sea-skimmer and try to find Jessica. Kybo's men open fire on the skimmer from a cliff-side mounted laser cannon. Fortunately for the heroes, Miridon resurfaces and sends Kybo’s men scurrying for higher ground.

Captain Kybo eventually gets the upper hand however. He captures Jann, Threepio and Artoo and brings them aboard his personal capital ship – a stolen Imperial Star Destroyer known as the Demolisher. Kybo sets a course for Tammuz-an. He brags about his ability to completely deplete the planet of its supply of riches.

Captain Kybo notices Jessica's freighter sailing away from Tarnoonga and opens fire on it. She manages to reach an escape pod however, and jettisons herself before her ship is destroyed.

The Demolisher approaches Tammuz-an. King Mon Julpa sends out the entire Tammuz-an space navy. Squads of A-wing fighters swarm over the Demolisher and engage Kybo's TIE fighters. Inside the Star Destroyer, R2-D2 sabotages the ship’s weapons systems by inverting a proton torpedo tube inside the launch bay. As the ship's systems begin going haywire, Jann, 3PO and R2 manage to get back to Jann's fighter and escape from the ship. They reunite with Jessica Meade and return to Tammuz-an. The other pilots of the space navy successfully repel Captain Kybo's fighters, forcing them to retreat.

Cast

 * Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
 * Don Francks as Jann Tosh
 * Dan Hennessey as Jyn Obah
 * Chris Wiggins as Mon Julpa
 * John Stocker as Sollag
 * Taborah Johnson as Jessica Meade

Behind the scenes
"The Pirates of Tarnoonga" was released on DVD in 2004 as part of the The Pirates and the Prince feature film. The English subtitles on the DVD spells Captain Kybo’s name as Kyboren. Information supplied by the Databank provides the correct spelling. The episode was adapted into the children's storybook entitled The Pirates of Tarnoonga: A Droid Adventure by Ellen Weiss.

The landscape of the interior caverns of Tarnoonga bears a striking resemblance to the sinkhole grottos of Utapau as seen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Whether the production design for the Utapau landscapes were inspired from the Star Wars: Droids animated series or not is unknown. The red symbols seen painted on the deflector wings of Kybo's TIE fighters are meant to represent Wampa skulls. Kybo has a similar design painted on the front of his shirt.