The Star Wars — Dune Connection

Lucas has often acknowledged Dune as an inspiration. In early drafts of the Star Wars script the influence was much more obvious – the story was full of feudalistic Houses and dictums, and the treasure the Princess was guarding wasn’t the Death Star plans, but a shipment of “aura spice.” The final version of Star Wars is related to Dune mostly in spirit: a science fiction heroic fantasy treated seriously. Of all the ideas George Lucas inherited from Frank Herbert, the subtle lesson was how to use science fiction to create myth. His lesser borrowings might include:

Star Wars	Dune
Princess Leia	Princess Alia (pronounced a-leia)
Villain turns out to be hero’s father	Villain turns out to be hero’s grandfather
Tatooine a desert planet	Arrakis (Dune) a desert planet
Sandcrawler – Vehicle piloted by Jawas, “left over from a forgotten mining era long ago”	Sandcrawler – Vehicle piloted by Arrakins, used to mine for spice
Moisture Farmers (like Uncle Owen)	Dew Collectors: “…used by Fremen to line concave planting depressions where they provide a small but reliable source of water”
Spice Mines of Kessel (mentioned in passing)	Spice is the most valued commodity in the universe, mined from Dune
Jedi Mind Trick – Jedi ability which controls the actions of others	The Voice – Bene Gesserit ability which controls the actions of others
Jedi Bendu, the Jedi training technique which gives them excellent internal control as well as supernatural prowess in combat	Prana Bindu, the Bene Gesserit training technique which gives them excellent internal control as well as supernatural prowess in combat
Vision of Obi-Wan appears to Luke on Hoth, while he’s seemingly dying	Vision of Pardot Kynes appears to Liet-Kynes in the desert, while he’s dying
Luke practices his lightsaber technique against an automated training remote	Alia practices her sword technique against an automated training dummy
Millennium Falcon barely escapes from the jaws of giant, sightless space slug before it falls back into the asteroid.	The Duke’s ornithopter barely escapes from the jaws of a giant, sightless sandworm before it falls back into the dunes.
Luke spies on the Sandpeople using electrobinoculars	Paul spies on the Fremen using electric binoculars
Repulsors – Small devices which counteract gravity (used in the landspeeder, speeder bikes, pod racers and Jabba’s barge)	Suspensors – Small devices which counteract gravity (used to suspend the Baron Harkonnen and Glowglobes)
Jabba (1983) is a worm/slug thing, about 15 feet long, with human-like facial features, arms and hands, who sits atop a dais	Leto II, God Emperor of Dune (1981), is a worm/slug thing, about 15 feet long, with human-like facial features, arms and hands, who sits atop a dais

Check out the entire article at Moongaget (AKA: Jitterbug Fantasia by Kristen Brennan).