TK - 710 TK - 710 was the designation of a human male stormtrooper who served the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War . In the year 0 BBY , he was stationed aboard the first Death Star battle station when the YT - 1300 light freighter " Millennium Falcon " was pulled in by the station ' s tractor beam s . TK - 710 and fellow stormtrooper TK - 421 were posted to guard the ship ' s entrance in Docking Bay 327 while a scanning crew checked the interior of the vessel . The " Falcon " crew ambushed the scanning crew and then impersonated them in order to lure TK - 710 and TK - 421 inside , incapacitating the stormtroopers and taking their armor . Biography . Tricked aboard the " Falcon " . TK - 710 was the designation of an Imperial stormtrooper during the Galactic Civil War . In the year 0 BBY , TK - 710 served aboard the Empire ' s first Death Star battle station with a security level of zeta while it was in the Alderaan system to destroy the rebel - affiliated planet Alderaan as a display of Imperial might . Shortly after the planet ' s destruction , the YT - 1300 light freighter known as the " Millennium Falcon " was pulled into Docking Bay 327 aboard the Death Star by tractor beam s . After the freighter was searched by stormtroopers , TK - 710 and comrade TK - 421 were assigned to guard its entry ramp . A scanning crew was then sent aboard to scan the entire vessel for lifeforms ; however , before they could begin , they were ambushed by the " Falcon " captain , Han Solo , and his Wookiee co - pilot , Chewbacca . Solo then impersonated one of the crew and called down to TK - 710 and TK - 421 , asking for them to help with some of the equipment . The two troopers made their way up the freighter ' s boarding ramp and quickly drew their weapons upon seeing Solo and Chewbacca , but the " Falcon " crew was faster . Chewbacca clasped one of them around the throat from behind while Solo managed to grab the other ' s arm and divert the trooper ' s shots above his head , simultaneously shooting the trooper at point - blank range through a joint in his armor . An impersonated Imperial . Solo then took TK - 710 ' s stormtrooper armor while his ally Luke Skywalker took TK - 421 ' s . Their disguises allowed the pair to sneak through the Death Star in a successful effort to rescue the imprisoned Prince ss Leia Organa of the Rebel Alliance . The repair droid MSE - 6 - G735Y encountered the disguised pair during their journey through the Death Star and recognized the two troopers ' armor , noting to itself that someone other than TK - 421 was wearing his armor , but Chewbacca scared the droid away before it could act on the discovery . The Empire later became aware of what had happened to TK - 710 and TK - 421 after TK - 421 ' s corpse was discovered hidden in a crawl space . Personality and traits . TK - 710 was a human male . Han Solo was impressed by how quickly TK - 710 reached for his gun on board the " Millennium Falcon " , although the trooper was still not fast enough to save himself . Upon donning TK - 710 ' s armor , Solo discovered that the helmet had an odor of bad breath , and he complained that it smelled as though the trooper had slept in it . Equipment . TK - 710 wore stormtrooper armor and carried an E - 11 blaster rifle . Behind the scenes . TK - 710 first appeared in the new " Star Wars " canon in the film , which was released in 1977 . The character was played by an uncredited extra . Stephen Bayley , who played TK - 421 , has said that he never knew the name of the extra playing TK - 710 but described him as an older gentleman whom he suspected had passed away by 2016 . The stormtrooper ' s canon designation was revealed as TK - 710 by the short story " Of MSE - 6 and Men , " which was written by Glen Weldon as part of the anthology book " From a Certain Point of View " , published on October 3 , 2017 . In the 2015 " Star Wars " LINE Webtoon , written by Hong Jac Ga , TK - 710 is referred to as " TX - 4120 " ; however , LucasBooks executive editor Jennifer Heddle has stated that the comic series is ambiguously canon , so this article assumes that the designation used in " From a Certain Point of View " is correct . For " Star Wars " Legends , the character first appeared in the 1976 of a " A New Hope " by Alan Dean Foster . The stormtrooper eventually received the designation TK - 422 in Legends as part of the 1998 " Special Edition Limited " expansion set of the " Star Wars " Customizable Card Game .