"The White Witch" was the pilot episode of the animated series Star Wars: Droids . It first aired on September 7, 1985. While it was released on VHS twice, according to Wookieepedia, the episode has not been released on DVD. The series as a whole follows the adventures of the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope.
Finding a New Master
When the episode begins, R2-D2 and C-3PO have just been dumped on the desert planet Ingo by their former master, a smuggler who won them in a card game and then got arrested. C-3PO worries about how they will find a new master.
To their good fortune, two speeder racers show up: Thall Joben and Jord Dusat. After examining R2-D2 and finding him in good condition, Thall and Jord agree to be the droids' new masters. On their way home, however, they are attacked by a defense system for a secret base. They all escape alive, but Jord's speeder is destroyed.
Thall and Jord take R2-D2 and C-3PO to their speeder shop. Jord mourns the loss of his speeder, but reveals the prized speeder they built together: the White Witch. With the help of R2-D2's services as an astromech droid, they hope to enter the Boonta Speeder Race.
An Evil Plot
As Thall takes the droids home for the night, however, he realizes that they are being followed. After losing the tail, they return to the shop, only to find Jord missing and the shop ransacked. Kea Moll, a woman who has been tracking them since she spotted their speeders in the desert, says that she saw Jord get kidnapped and offers her help.
The Annoo-dat gangster Tig Fromm (son of Sise Fromm, the leader of the Fromm Gang) attempts to capture Thall as well, but Kea takes the White Witch and helps Thall and the droids escape. It turns out that Jord and Thall had stumbled upon a secret base where the Fromm Gang is building a secret weapon, the Trigon One. He wants to capture Thall and Jord to prevent them from revealing Fromm Gang secrets to their rivals, such as the Hutts.
A Daring Rescue
With the help of R2-D2 to map out a safe route, Thall launches a rescue plan to break Jord out of the secret base. Thall pilots the White Witch through the service tubes while C-3PO and Kea use a computer terminal to reroute other service tube traffic. Meanwhile, Tig reveals his secret plan to Jord, who had no idea what the base was for until then--demonstrating that he isn't nearly as smart and competent as his father.
Thall picks up Jord and the White Witch is fast enough to race past the base's initial defenses. Tig sends deadly droids, however, to prevent them from escaping. With R2-D2 and C-3PO's quick thinking, they are able to reactivate the sentry droids they encountered on their first trip around the secret base. The two sets of droids attack each other, becoming distracted long enough for the White Witch to escape.
As Tig Fromm worries about how his father will react, Jord, Thall, Kea, and the droids head to the Boonta Speeder Race to enter the White Witch.
Next Episode: Escape into Terror
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