How did the shuttle Tydirium get its name?

September 13, 2007 7:21 PM

How did the shuttle Tydirium get its name?
posted by djacobs to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

Best answer: From the Star Wars name FAQ:

Tydirium:
Tydeus was the father of Diomedes, a Greek hero of the
Trojan War. The Latin genitive plural would be _Tydeorum_,
"belonging to Tydeuses."
Tyndareus (Lat. gen. pl., "Tyndareorum") was the consort of
Leda, Queen of Sparta, whom Zeus courted in the shape of a swan.

Obviously a "real-world" rather than in-universe answer.
posted by niles at 7:26 PM on September 13, 2007

Unless there's footage of Lucas saying, before ROTJ was released, that these are the roots for "Tydirium," I think it's vastly more likely that Lucas, that useless hack, just mushed together a name that sounded vaguely Roman Imperial by sticking an -ium at the end of some nonsense.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:04 PM on September 13, 2007

I mean, this is the same guy that named a character "Count Dooku," presumably so even people as dumb as he imagines his audience to be will understand that he's a bad guy.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:06 PM on September 13, 2007

I considered that, ROU_Xenophobe. I mean, how much time does he have to sit around making up elaborate names?

But then, if you squint, Lambda-class shuttles do look like swans. Right?
posted by niles at 8:16 PM on September 13, 2007

Response by poster: But then, if you squint, Lambda-class shuttles do look like swans. Right?

Definitely.
posted by djacobs at 8:24 PM on September 13, 2007

I get the feeling that these things were thought through a lot more in the original trilogy.
posted by borkingchikapa at 10:31 PM on September 13, 2007

But then, if you squint, Lambda-class shuttles do look like swans. Right?
and they were built by Cygnus Spaceworks.
posted by tellurian at 10:56 PM on September 13, 2007

I get the feeling that these things were thought through a lot more in the original trilogy.

You mean like 'Yak Face" and "Hammerhead"?
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 11:02 PM on September 13, 2007

and they were built by Cygnus Spaceworks.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I never liked the "Star Trekization" of Star Wars. A lot of the physics and designs of the latter were more fanciful and less hard science. But now there's technical guides and detailed stories behind everything, and while you don't have to acknowledge that stuff, it sort of takes away from the original escapist spirit of the movies.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 11:06 PM on September 13, 2007