It is widely known that the Star Wars Holiday Special has its detractors. Not least of which is George Lucas who I believe once said he'd like to wipe every trace of it from the face of the Earth. So although hardly anyone has actually seen it in recent years, it must be affectionately thought of in some quarters since two characters and a species from the show were included in Round 7 of Hyperspace's What's the Story contest.

As it turns out, one of my submissions for the character hitherto known only as 'Lion Man' was accepted. So now here's a little bit of info about how the story of Myhr Rho came to be.

Somewhere in my thinking about ideas for the character I remembered a line in the Star Wars Technical Journal of the Planet Tatooine about a character called Myhr. He was described as "an enterprising cat-like fellow out of Mos Eisley" who had set up the Skywalker Tour, showing visitors around the important sites in Luke's life on the planet. For some reason I always liked the idea of a feline character in Star Wars but of course there were none in the films. So when Lion Man from the Holiday Special was used in WTS it seemed like the ideal (if not the only) opportunity to give Myhr an on-screen identity. After all, he was undeniably cat-like, he lived in Mos Eisely and it was in the right era. I think it was also nice that it showed how an ordinary being benefitted from the victory of the Rebellion and even tried to cash in on it. So even though Myhr wanted to celebrate the new era of freedom and praise the heroes who fought for it, he didn't see why he couldn't make a few credits doing it.

So there were many details in place already and I just worked them into an entry for the character. I did create his surname though which doesn't have any specific meaning, I just wanted it to be short and to fit in with his first name. I decided that since he was 'enterprising' it would be a good angle if he was an intelligent being but starved of opportunities on the planet he'd been brought up on. Also, being feline I thought he may not find it pleasant on such a planet and so that was something else that gave him the impetus to succeed and improve his lot in life.

As for Myhr's species, he turned out to be a Cathar which wasn't the name I suggested but I suppose they wanted to make him a member of an established feline race. It seems there are more than enough disparate catlike species in the EU (see this Hyperspace Insider Online article) and so they must not have wanted to add another one to the list. I was also surprised to see in the published entry that there were details from the story of Cebann Veekan, another character from Round 7. For a moment I thought I must have simultaneously developed clairvoyant abilities and severe amnesia but then came to conclusion that it had been added by the editors . It definitely worked out nicely that that was where Myhr got the idea from and shows how the lives of the cantina patrons are interconnected.

So there you have it. Although he's a minor character I think it was great that I was able to put in a balance of exisiting elements and my own details to make the entry. I hope you enjoyed reading it.