TO CELEBRATE the annual Star Wars Day on May 4, we look back at the famous connection between Pembroke Dock and the 68 billion-dollar franchise.
The winter of 1978-79 will be remembered by most movie fans as the time people first saw Christopher Reeve as Superman or watched Dame Maggie Smith's Oscar-winning performance in California Suite.
However, the world still had Star Wars fever from the release of the first film in 1977, and a sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, was hugely anticipated.
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During production of the film, the only full-scale model of the classic spaceship, the Millennium Falcon, was built in Pembroke Dock's flying boat hangers.
The Millennium Falcon is one of the most recognisable icons in cinematic history, piloted by legendary characters Han Solo and Chewbacca, but very few from outside west Wales realise it was built locally.
John Clark was the foreman for the firm that built the spaceship, and his pictures of the design are now in Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre's archives.
The prop was built with CIA-level secrecy before travelling to Pinewood Studios in London for filming the second movie in the franchise.
Nowadays, The Empire Strikes Back is regarded as one of the greatest sequels of all time, along with The Godfather: Part Two and Terminator Two: Judgment Day, and a iconic part of the movie and the franchise's legacy will always have a special connection to Pembroke Dock's dockyard.
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