cloning

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• 

From the Movies

History has recorded ethics becoming a casualty of scientific progress on a disturbing number of occasions. Breakthroughs become twisted for violent applications, leading to terribly efficient warfare. Cloning is just one such example. While its beneficial application to the field of medicine is unquestionable, no one will soon forget the scourge of the Clone Wars.

The clone troopers introduced in that long conflict were crafted by the scientific geniuses of Kamino, aliens renowned for their genetic knowledge. The Kaminoan hatcheries used genetic material harvested from the host template, a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. This material was grown into thousands of soldiers inside glass-walled incubation wombs.

The Kaminoans employed growth acceleration techniques to effectively double the rate of clone development. Without such measures, it would take a full life-time to grow a mature clone. Their adult clones were ready for combat in less than a decade. Throughout a clone's growth, constant physical and mental training honed the warrior's skills. Unlike the mindless battle droid armies of the commerce guilds, clones could think creatively and operate much more independently.

From the Expanded Universe

Though the Kaminoan methods of cloning are generally regarded as the best in the galaxy by the few who know of them, they are by no means the only culture to explore genetic manipulation.

The planet Khomm, an otherwise unremarkable world in the Deep Core, has instituted cloning as the de facto method of reproduction. So content were the Khommites upon reaching the zenith of their society that they "froze" the evolution of this culture and turned to producing clones of previous generations. Like the Kaminoans, the Lurrians of Lur developed exceptional genetic sciences out of necessity, and their research was closely monitored following the atrocities of the Clone Wars. The extragalactic invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong, who prefer organic technology are also extremely skilled in their own brand of cloning, having developed such living weapons as the deadly voxyn.

One of the fastest known methods of cloning involves the use of Spaarti cloning cylinders. These four-meter tall tanks hold a developing clone suspended in a protective gelatin that accelerates growth and helps preserve the genetic code of the template. Each Spaarti cylinder contained a computer processing system that jacked directly into the cerebral cortex of the developing clone, "flash-pumping" information into the growing mind. The Spaarti method had one key side effect that limited its use. Clones produced through this method caused a disturbance in the Force, possibly as a result of identical "patterns" resonating in the Force. This disturbance would lead to a frightening affliction called clone madness, which could be countered by slowing the process down. Recommended procedures advised at least a year of growth for a clone to remain mentally stable.

The Imperial tactical genius Grand Admiral Thrawn was able to side-step this limitation through his brilliant use of ysalamiri, creatures that naturally push back the Force. By growing clones in areas devoid of the Force, Thrawn did not have to worry about the consequences of clone madness, and could produce mentally stable clones in 15 to 20 days.

Though the Kaminoan methods were not nearly as rapid, they were far more reliable. The time taken allowed Kaminoan scientists to carefully develop the psyches of their clones, crafting an army of unswerving loyalty. The Kaminoan cloners recondition an average of seven aberrants for every two hundred clones produced, maintaining superb standards.

Behind the Scenes

Cloning has existed in the Star Wars story since the early drafts of A New Hope's script, though all that survived the four drafts to the final was just the tantalizing mention of the "Clone Wars." In the very first draft of Star Wars, the planet Aquilae was said to be a "treasure of biotic science" with incredible knowledge of cloning and genetics. This first draft even had an outlandish science fiction concept of General Luke Skywalker transporting the brains of 23 scientists in liquid forms, which would then be reinstated into cloned bodies.

During the development of The Empire Strikes Back, the notion of refugees from the Clone Wars was explored in early iterations of Lando Calrissian and Cloud City. Lando was to be Lando Kadar, a survivor of the Clone Wars who lived on a planet of clones.

The Clone Wars would remain a mystery for years, since it wasn't until Episode II that the details of that conflict would finally be revealed. Previous to that, only vague intimations about the Clone Wars were hinted at, and its exact placement in the timeline of Star Wars events slid around. For years, it resided at the "35 years before A New Hope" mark, before sliding forward to 22.

A new generation of clone wars came about in modern Star Wars fiction, first with Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy of novels, which saw Grand Admiral Thrawn piece together a new and improved method of building an army. Around the same time, the Dark Empire comic series brought its own type of clone-based war stories into the expanded universe. In that breakthrough series, it was revealed that Palpatine was capable of cheating death by keeping a cache of clone bodies into which he could transfer his dark soul.