Captain Elk, Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser commander
When we wrote about how one of Colin’s Star Destroyer designs became part of Star Wars canon, we detailed the ship’s appearance in “The Daughters of Ferrix,” the 11th episode in the first season of the TV show Andor on Disney+. It pursues Luthen Rael’s ship as he attempts to return to Corsuscant after running a mission for the nascent Rebel Alliance. (We also had a chance recently to talk to production designer James Clyne, who plucked Colin’s Star Destroyer design out of the Lucasfilm archives for the movie Solo and was thrilled to see it appear in Andor.)
Of course, cementing the Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser in canon also meant that it needed an in-universe origin for the name, so we detailed the history of Republic starship designer Walex Cantwell Blissex I in another blog post. Thankfully, he later joined the Rebel Alliance and his identity was assigned to a previously unnamed background character aboard the flagship Home One in Return of the Jedi.
But what about the captain of the Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser that harassed Luthen Rael? We wouldn’t be Star Wars nerds if we didn’t go deeper down the rabbit hole and look at the history of the character named Captain Elk.
Captain Elk enters Star Wars canon
Captain Elk, portrayed by actor Roger Barclay in Andor, was a human officer in the Galactic Empire’s Imperial Navy. In the “Daughters of Ferrix” episode, the
Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser under his command was tasked with looking for suspicious activity near the planet Segra Milo, where Rebel leader Saw Gerrera had established a base in some abandoned mines.
Captain Elk’s ship was equipped with three tractor beam dishes that enabled it to grab wayward spacecraft and pull them aboard so their occupants could be interrogated, which was often preferable to simply destroying them, since the prisoners and the contents of their ship might provide valuable information. Luthen’s haulcraft was one such ship, and Elk decided to detain it to give his boarding party some practice.
Elk was devoted to the Imperial cause, and when Luthen increased the power to his ship’s engines in an attempt to break away, the captain ordered an increase of the tractor beams’ power. However, Luthen managed to defeat his more powerful opponent by releasing a cloud of shrapnel that shredded the Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser’s forward tractor beam dish and then deploying counter measures to destroy the TIE Fighters and TIE boarding craft that had been sent in pursuit of him.
Captain Elk could only watch in frustration as Luthen’s ship jumped to hyperspace and escaped. That was his first and only appearance in Star Wars canon so far, but don’t be surprised if he shows up again in another movie, Disney+ streaming show, comic book, or novel. Maybe he’ll have better luck next time.