George Roubicek George Roubicek is an , as well as a and for versions of foreign and . Roubicek portrayed Nahdonnis Praji in " " , although his voice was dubbed by a different actor . Prior to that , the - born actor appeared in small film roles throughout the 1950s , ' 60s and ' 70s , including parts in " " ( 1967 ) and two " " films : " " ( 1967 ) and " " ( 1977 ) . He appeared in " " , a four - part " " , as well as two episodes of " " , playing different roles each time . Although he continued acting in small parts well into the 1990s , Roubicek ' s later career was more focused on dubbing foreign films and television shows into English - language productions . He directed the dubbing of previously unaired episodes of the series " " , as well as such films as " " ( 1985 ) , " " ( 1989 ) , " " ( 1996 ) , " " ( 2006 ) and " " ( 2008 ) . Biography . Early acting career . George Roubicek was born May 25 1935 in , . In 1958 , he appeared in the original cast of the play " " , where he played the role of Lester Cole , the student of a professor who has fled from prosecution in his home country . The play was first staged at the in on May 22 , 1958 . Roubicek ' s first roles were bit parts in the late 1950s , and included such parts as a prisoner in the 1957 film " " and a in the 1963 " " . Roubicek continued performing in small roles in the early 1960s . Among them were a cleaning service man in the 1962 British " Burn , Witch , Burn ! " , a sentry in the 1963 British war film " " , and the character Lieutenant Berger in the 1965 film " " . In 1967 , he played Private Arthur James Gardner in the American war film " " . That year , Roubicek also appeared in the British " " , where he played the small part of Edgar , and as an in the " " film " " . Roubicek appeared in " " , a four - part " " that aired in September 1967 . He portrayed Captain Hopper , the commander of a rocket that brings an expedition to the planet to study the , a race of . , a science fiction writer who served as a " Doctor Who " in later episodes , strongly criticized Hopper ' s dialogue in his book , " Through Time : An Unauthorised and Unofficial History of Doctor Who " . Hopper , who is supposed to be an , frequently uses the word " guy " and what Cartmel called " odd fake American " like " It ' s not exactly peaches . " Although Cartmel did not address Roubicek ' s performance , he asserted that the dialogue was written " in a way that suggests the writers have never traveled across the and have paid precious little attention to the films or books that have flowed the other way . " , a who has written about television and culture , wrote that Roubicek ' s character embraces a common " Doctor Who " stereotype of American who act gruff but provide very little actual support . Cull pointed to the fact that Hopper talks tough and repeatedly offers to help but plays little part in the action and declines to follow into danger at the end . Roubicek appeared in two separate episodes of the " " , playing different characters both times . In " The White Dwarf , " an episode that first aired February 9 , 1963 , he played Luke Richter , the son of a prominent who was murdered shortly after discovering that a was going to collide with and destroy the . Roubicek appeared in " Invasion of the Earthmen , " which was first broadcast on January 15 , 1969 . In that episode he played Bernard Grant , a who is killed by a giant while investigating a mysterious school called the Alpha Academy . Roubicek made guest appearances in several other television shows in 1968 , including " " , " " , " Detective " , and " " . In 1969 , Roubicek appeared in the war film " " , where he played the to a played by , and " " , where he played a . The next year , Roubicek played the supporting role of Karkov in " Foreign Exchange " , a based on a spy of the same name by . In 1971 , he appeared as a German operator in " " , a film remake of the . Roubicek continued performing in supporting roles in various television shows during the late 1970s , including " " and " " , a / television series that ran from 1978 to 1980 . He performed a few of the parts in the of " Monkey " , and had a minor role in the technical dubbing aspects . " Star Wars " . In 1976 , Roubicek was cast in " " , the first film in the original " Star Wars " trilogy , where he played the small role of a commander in the Galactic Empire , who was later given the name Nahdonnis Praji . He appeared early in the film , after the Imperial forces seize the Rebel Alliance starship " Tantive IV " and capture Princess Leia Organa . However , his lines were dubbed by an American actor , so the character ' s voice did not at all resemble that of Roubicek . He appears in only seventeen seconds of the film , and his role consists of three sentences of dialogue spoken to Darth Vader . Identified in the script only as " Second Officer , " the character was not given the name Praji until nearly two decades later with the 1995 release of the Premiere Limited set of Decipher , Inc . ' s Star Wars Customizable Card Game . The character ' s first name , Nahdonnis , was not identified until September 2007 , when it was featured in the " Star Wars Insider " article " . " Roubicek ' s scene was filmed over a three - day period in July 1976 , around the final days of . Roubicek did not anticipate at the time that " Star Wars " would become such a cultural phenomenon — his first impression of the franchise was wondering what it was " all about . " During a 2007 interview , Roubicek indicated that he had had no idea of the cultural impact the " Star Wars " film would eventually have , nor had he believed anyone else involved quite understood it either . In 2007 , three decades after the first theatrical release of " Star Wars " ( later renamed " A New Hope " ) in 1977 , Roubicek ' s image was used for a Commander Praji 12 - inch action figure issued by Sideshow Collectibles . In a review of the figure , the designer toy website " Plastic and Plush " noted the sculpt mostly resembled the actor , but that it was difficult to capture his likeness because he did not have a very distinctive look . Roubicek has participated in and signed autographs at several " Star Wars " conventions , including Celebration IV in , in 2007 , and Celebration V in , in 2010 . Later career . In 1977 , Roubicek appeared in " " , his second " James Bond " film . He played a submarine captain working for , the villain character played by . Roubicek continued some acting throughout the 1980s and 1990s , including small roles in such films as " " , a 1980 about a psychology professor seduced into a wild sexual affair , and " " , a 1995 film about a freelance journalist who travels to for a story about . However , most of his later career focused on the script adaptation and dubbing of foreign films into English . He wrote the English adaptation of the 1985 " " , a film about a crew embarking on an interstellar test flight . Roubicek followed that film up with several English - language adaptations of anime works , including " " ( 1986 ) , " Junk Boy " ( 1987 ) , " " ( 1988 ) , " " ( 1988 ) , " " ( 1989 ) and " " ( 1989 ) . Roubicek served as the dialogue director for the English - language screenplay of " " , a 1989 / animated film based on the French . British motion picture historian was critical of the adaptation , which she called a " dull adaptation of a far wittier comic - book original . " He directed the adaptations of " " ( 1989 ) and " " ( 1993 ) , two anime films inspired by the about giant in a near - setting . Between those films , he adapted the anime films " " ( 1990 ) , " " ( 1990 ) , " " ( 1992 ) , and " Tokyo Babylon 2 " ( 1993 ) . In 1996 , Roubicek handled the English script adaptation of the 1991 " " . The Japanese anime film by focuses on an elderly man and a futuristic computerized , which takes on a life of its own . That year , he also adapted " " , a film based on the series about a young man who must determine humanity ' s fate at the turn of the . In 2004 , Roubicek was asked to work again on " Monkey " , on which he had done some peripheral dubbing work in the late 1970s . He was hired as the director of the English - language dubbing for thirteen previously untelevised episodes of " Monkey " , which were to be released on that year . The episodes had been included as a bonus feature on past DVD releases , but were only and had never before been dubbed into English . Roubicek was tasked with adapting the original Japanese scripts into English and directing the original cast in the dialogue for the dubbing . Roubicek stated that both he and the cast enjoyed being brought back together for the project , but that it proved particularly challenging . The recording sessions required what he called a " horrendous " amount of concentration , but he found the script adaptation process even more difficult — Roubicek had to ensure the translation was not only accurate , but that it preserved the humor of the original Japanese scripts . Fabulous Films Ltd . , the company handling the DVD releases , originally provided Roubicek only with transcripts of the English subtitles for the thirteen episodes , but Roubicek disregarded them and had to start writing from scratch , as he believed that subtitle transcripts never bore any relation to a dubbing script . In 2008 , Roubicek worked with filmmaker to adapt an English - language version of Ocelot ' s 2006 animated fantasy film , " " , which boasts what " " described as a " flat , storybook - style worlds away from the sculpture digital aesthetic pioneered by . " " Azur & Asmar " tells a - like tale of two young boys in a setting . Roubicek and Ocelot together wrote and directed the English version of the film , which Roubicek described as " really a very traditional , meets . " The original film included dialogue in mostly French with small portions in . During the adaptation , Roubicek and Ocelot chose to translate the French dialogue into English but preserve the Arabic without dubbing or subtitles . Michael Phillips , a film critic with the " " , opined that this was the correct decision because it allows the viewers to share the same " momentary confusion " as characters who do not understand Arabic and are suddenly thrown into " disorienting surroundings . "