Detention Block AA-23

This article is about the detention block. You may be looking for other uses of AA-23.

Detention Block AA-23—sometimes referred to as Detention Block AA 23 or Detention block A A-twenty-three—was a brig located within Detention Block AA on the fifth level of the first Death Star. Just prior to the Battle of Yavin, Cell 2187 was used for the interrogation and detainment of Princess Leia Organa. It was located 400 meters (1,300 feet) below Docking Bay 327.

Darth Vader interrogates Leia Organa in Cell 2187 of Block AA-23.

After the Millennium Falcon was captured by the Death Star, Luke Skywalker discovered that the Princess was scheduled to be executed. Skywalker embarked on a mission to save the Princess after enlisting the support of the smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca. Relying on their recently procured stormtrooper armor to disguise their identities, Skywalker and Solo "escorted" Chewbacca to detention block AA-23.

The ruse seemed to work until they arrived at the detention block. After the three of them stepped out of the turbolift, they were immediately asked where they were taking Chewbacca by Lieutenant Shann Childsen. Skywalker told Childsen that he and Han were transferring Chewbacca from Cell Block 1138 to Detention Block AA-23. As Childsen contacted his superiors, Skywalker and Solo pretended that Chewbacca was breaking free of his handcuffs and handed him a blaster rifle.

The resulting firefight claimed the lives of Lieutenant Childsen, Sergeant Major Enfield, Corporal Prescott, and Devin Cant, as well as the destruction of the detention block's surveillance equipment. Before he died, however, Childsen activated an alarm switch, alerting the Death Star's security staff to the fact that there was an emergency situation in Detention Block AA-23. All areas aboard the Death Star were alerted.

Han Solo and Chewbacca firing in Detention Block AA 23's cell bay

After Skywalker freed the Princess, they discovered that there was only one way out of the detention block, and stormtroopers were coming from that direction. After procuring a blaster rifle from one of her "rescuers," she blasted a hole through a grate into a garbage chute leading to Garbage Compactor 3263827. Chewbacca, Skywalker, and Solo reluctantly followed.

The Bothan prisoner VAB-927 was also held in Detention Block AA-23 on one occasion.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Detention Block AA-23 appeared in the first Star Wars film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. AA-23 has been referenced several times in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, including shuttle AA-23 in Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance.