"While Giants Mark Time" is the fourth episode of the Star Wars radio drama. It first aired on National Public Radio on Monday, March 23, 1981. The episode closely parallels the first Tatooine scenes of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. It follows the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 as they cross the desert and intrude into the life of Luke Skywalker, while Artoo pursues his mission to locate Obi-Wan Kenobi.
After landing in the middle of the Tatooine desert, Artoo and Threepio argue over where to go, finally setting off alone in two different directions. Meanwhile a group of imperial troops explore the wreckage of their escape pod and find evidence of droids. They conclude that a droid is carrying the Death Star plans.
Threepio is found by a clan of Jawas and taken into their sandcrawler, but what he believes to be a rescue is quickly revealed to be a capture. Threepio asks some of the Jawas if they have seen Artoo-Detoo, inadvertently revealing his location to them. Meanwhile Luke speaks with his Uncle Owen about buying new droids. He has not found any in Anchorhead but wants to see if the next Jawa sandcrawler to pass through might have any. Owen would still prefer not to buy any droids, but he reluctantly agrees.
Threepio now finds that Artoo has also been captured, thanks to the information that he provided. Some time later, the Jawas stop at the Lars homestead. While lined up for sale, Artoo sabotages an R5 astro droid. When Owen buys C-3PO and the R5 unit, it malfunctions, prompting him to buy Artoo instead. In the tech dome, Luke cleans the droids. R2-D2 plays a small part of Princess Leia's recorded holographic message, telling Luke that the Jawas' restraining bolt is preventing him from playing the rest of it. Luke removes the bolt to no effect. He then leaves for supper, and Artoo tells Threepio that playing the recording was a ruse to allow him to escape and continue his mission to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. Artoo again sets off into the desert.
Beru and Owen worry about Luke's future in their differing ways.
Inside the house, Owen quickly dismisses Luke's questions about "Obi-Wan Kenobi." He also puts his foot down when Luke asks whether he could reapply for the Imperial Space Academy, now that there are more droids to work on the farm. When he leaves, Beru warns Owen that he can't postpone forever Luke's leaving the farm - or telling him about his father. In the tech dome, Luke discovers Artoo's escape and is terrified of what Owen will do if he finds out; but he cannot go looking for him with night falling.
Like most of the subsequent radio episodes, "When Giants Mark Time" follows the events of the film while adding a few additional short scenes. C-3PO's conversation with the Jawas replaces a wordless scene in the film where Artoo is ambushed while moving through the desert, making up for radio's lack of visual information. Luke and Owen have a brief conversation in which Luke convinces his uncle to buy droids from the next Jawa sandcrawler. Artoo's escape from the Lars tech dome is depicted in another short scene, whereas in the film it happened off-camera.
Artoo's sabotage of the red R5 droid is also added in the radio version for the first time. This makes the unit's blown motivator more clearly part of Artoo's pursuit of his mission, rather than a lucky accident. In the 2017 Canon story "The Red One," written from R5's point of view, Artoo begins this act of sabotage but is caught; he then explains to R5 that the fate of the Rebellion and the Galaxy depend on his mission. This convinces R5 to simulate a blown motivator of his own accord. In the same scene in this episode, Luke also calls the droid an "R5 unit" rather than an "R2 unit" as in the film. Later works in both Star Wars Legends and Canon have followed this usage.
- Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization
- The Making of Star Wars For Radio: A Fable For the Mind's Eye