STAR WARS Radio Audio Dramas Trilogy Review

[00:00:00] This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information. We missed. We loaded it. We edited it.

[00:00:24] Sometimes we get so deep into conversation that we have separate segments worthy of their own place in the sun. Here is a reshuffled mini-episode.

[00:00:55] What I found interesting about New Hope was the running time was a lot longer than the movie, so they included things in it that was not in the movie. Yeah, that's what I read. The other deleted farmers who also appear in the comic book adaptation, and I was looking that up too, because I got the cast list in front of me, but I was like, who was Fixer again? That was one of Luke's friends. Right, right.

[00:01:20] But listening to it, I was just like, who is in it? And then I look him up, and I'm like, whoa, both him and the wife character were deleted, but they were in the comic, and they actually appeared in a bunch of the original Marvel first run Star Wars comics. I'm like, damn, that's full.

[00:01:39] And supposedly in the Mandalorian, when he was tattooing, and the moisture farmers are bothering, like, you know, the bartender's being bothered by the bikers. The couple in there is Cammy and Fixer. Yeah. That are in that movie, so. And kudos. I also wondered how so many of these actors ended up together.

[00:02:04] I'll do a run-through of them, because they're pretty well known, but it turned out, John Madden, not to be confused with the late, great sports commentator, who Frank Caliendo does impressions of. So, we're talking about the guy who did the best exotic Mary Gold movies, and Shakespeare in Love, and some TV shows like Prime Suspect, and other awesome period piece movies. Yeah, no, he apparently had worked in a bunch of stage plays with a lot of these actors.

[00:02:33] So, for those who don't know, Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels, you know, Luke Skywalker and C-3PO themselves reprised their roles. Later on, they actually did get Billy Dee Williams to reprise his role as Lando in these Star Wars audio dramas. But I gotta really applaud him. I mean, they had so many other minor actors as well. It was just like, man, it's just a who's and who was. Gary King, I think. Yeah, Gary King.

[00:03:02] The soap opera king, I call him. Yeah. John Lethgow even, I think, played Yoda in one. Yep. Yeah. He was the biggest. He had done a lot of plays with Madden, and this was just another day on the ranch where they were just like, hey, I need you to come in and do an audio voiceover. And the first two were produced for NPR. The third one was for a different radio station. But a lot of people joked how this was actually technically was a big ratings hit for NPR. So it really saved their bacon. Yeah.

[00:03:32] I think what happened was they didn't have enough money. So NPR needed the money. NPR and the BBC got together. And I think the BBC gave some money. And Lucas said it could only be broadcast on, like, I think it was like KUSC or something like that. Like his alma mater or something like that, from what I can remember. I think so. I think you're right. I, it is one of those complex.

[00:04:02] It's like literally just looking it up and like talk about a rabbit hole. It's like, why does no one talk about this? This is fascinating. I found a car. I was, I was interested in letting, you know, though, it's a fun thing to do while you're working. Listening to these things. Absolutely. The day goes by so fast. And I mean, the closest I had to this was kind of like growing up. There's this little thing called cassettes. And I would do that with like Disney storybooks.

[00:04:30] And, you know, they'd play certain audio clips from the movie. And I used to have one for the original Star Wars. And without fail, every time, like Luke yells out, no, when Obi-Wan dies. And just the biome would blow out my eardrums. The sound effects were very loud. This kind of brought back what was radio dramas when my dad and my mom were growing up. Because my dad can remember, you know, the war of the worlds with the world.

[00:05:00] Orson Welles. But there was like all these other shows that were like suspense. The shadow. I keep thinking of a bulldog drumming. Yeah. You know, that they kind of brought back that era. Really good. You know, like, you know, CBS suspense theater, mystery theater, you know, Lux, you know, Lux mystery theater, you know, all those things. But, you know, it was kind of like, you know, okay, let's bring back.

[00:05:29] If you can imagine it, if you can see it on the screen, let's imagine it in our minds. Absolutely. And that's what I think they did. They brought back a lot of the stuff. I think the thing that gets me the most is when you read the cast, you know, Ed Asner playing Jabba the Hutt. That was perfect casting. Like, he's really having a lot of fun in his readings. Don't get me wrong. Lithgow is still like the scene still for me.

[00:05:55] Because for all I know, like, as far as I'm concerned, like, when you listen to it, you're just like, is that Frank Oz? Or is that just a really good imitator? But it doesn't matter. He owned the part. Like, he's doing the character really well. So, it's very wild. Like, Alan Rosenberg of L.A. Law fame. You know, Last Intention of Christ. You've seen him in a bunch of stuff. He's done voiceovers like Rescue Wears Down Under sequel. He plays Boba Fett in Empire.

[00:06:22] And then they have Ed Begley Jr. replace him in the Fett role. And both are very interesting. Speaking of Jabba the Hutt, Ian Gomez from Dracari's show is Salacious Crumb. Anne Sax voices Princess Leia throughout this whole thing. Couldn't find anything on her. But yeah, Perry King, he did pretty respectable as Han Solo. Ari Gross plays Lando in the Jedi one. But hats off to Brock Peters of To Kill a Mockingbird and his various Star Trek roles.

[00:06:51] He plays Darth Vader. This goes dad. Yeah. Yeah. And who was it? The crooked admiral in the Trek movies. Natalie Nodjulik, who's that asshole admiral who's always chewing Picard out, gets to play Mon Mothma. I thought I recognized that voice. Yeah. She's one of those... Nachaev, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she's one of those Polish-Russian actresses.

[00:07:18] Whenever she shows up, I'm like, oh, she's going to be the fortune teller or the diplomat. David Dukes, no relation. That's a big actor. Not the KKK guy. Wait, wait, that's the guy who raped Edith Bunker in All of the Family. I think you're right. I think he did do a few sitcom appearances in that one. Yeah. Jeez. So Joshua Forden plays Luke in Jedi. Couldn't find anything on him.

[00:07:45] But there's also background voiceovers in the first two. And those include Sam McMurray, Jeffrey Pearson, who you'll know as the police chief on Dexter. Look him up. You're like, I've seen him play a congressman or vice president a million times. David Alan Greer and Jerry Harden. So there you go. Doug David Pamer. He was playing a minor character, Deke. Adam Arkin played Fixer, son of Helen, who's gone on to be a...

[00:08:14] You know him from Chicago Hope and Halloween H2O. I know him from Full Moon High. Oh, there's a throwback. There you go. David Ray, she played Sledgehammer. Yeah, Sledgehammer gets to play Admiral Pete. I've always dug that character. And everybody always kind of forgets he's in there until the special editions came out and there were extra scenes with him having the holy shit look, you know, Lord Vader's coming.

[00:08:43] It really was, like you guys say, since we're going by the script version, you know, we're seeing these extended deleted scenes that previously were only known to fans in comics and novel spinoffs. So it is cool seeing the complete thing then with occasional sound effects and John Williams score. And so it really is its own entity. Some people might be bored because they're not introduced to radio or they feel like they're just listening to the movie,

[00:09:12] but you should really give it a go. Well, the jungle... I'm sorry. The jungle... Listen to at least Empire. Like, you know, that one is one of its own kind. Like, I feel like someone is telling me a very freaky campfire tell, you know? Bernard Bunny Beathrins plays Obi-Wan. And I couldn't find much on him, but he appears to be one of those other just UK stage actors. He apparently was in The Man with Two Brains and Galaxy of Terror for Roger Foreman. So I picked that with a grain of salt.

[00:09:42] I applaud all the YouTubers, though, for just editing all 13 parts of each of these together seamlessly. And one thing I like about the YouTube, what I saw on YouTube for what I was listening to, when I was at lunch, I would take it out and look at it because they were using stills or panels from comic books. That was really complimentary, yeah. Because, yeah, there must have been Dark Horse, though, because I wasn't that familiar with the art or the pan.

[00:10:09] I think they were, instead of being Alan Dean Foster or whatever stuff, I think they were more modern comic books. The Archie Goodwin stuff from, like, the first couple of years. Yeah. It couldn't be Rob Liefeld because there weren't enough pouches. Yeah. I need more room in my picnic basket.

[00:10:39] Oh, man. I gotta say, it's funny that the last one comes out in 96. Yeah. You know, Jedi comes out in 96 and then 97. Before the special editions is like... The special editions came out and we're all kind of, like, going... Because it was kind of like, you know, Star Wars was, like, in the science fiction wilderness before then. Right. You had rented the hell out of the CBS Fox tapes. Yeah. You played the hell out of your tapes that weren't remastered in THX and they weren't in Letterboxd.

[00:11:07] And then all of a sudden, bang, you know, we're all sitting there in the movie theater when Independence Day comes out. Yeah. Also, like, we see, like, we go, you know... You bastards. You stole a Death Star. Yeah. Well, the last, you know, the only way you could see Star Wars was on the small screen. But you haven't seen it yet. And when the X-Wing flew out, everybody in the movie theater cheered. I bet. And we were just, like...

[00:11:37] My friends and me were just going, where has this been? I mean, we all have the, you know, the original... My father used to have a VHS HBO recording of Jedi. Yeah. It was interesting watching that because I think a lot of people, they... Just like with any celebrity, they like to remember the bad. But I think there is some legit good stuff in the special edition, like the extra X-Wings and everything.

[00:12:05] They just remember just the unconvincing Jabba the Hutt that they remastered twice. But I have no issue with getting the Jango Fett portrayal to Mor Morrison to voice Boba. But... And the new Emperor Palpatine hologram. But I think that is it. Everyone just likes to talk shit about the Tatooine stuff that they don't agree with. But I understand why he did it. It's just... I'd be tempted to go back to the world, too, if I had new technology. I mean, someone was going to do it, you know?

[00:12:36] But I mean, yeah, I think these radio shows were still keeping... Star Wars in the loop for a lot of us. They really were. Remembering, you know, and then the extra stuff were kind of... Radio was king. It still is. There will always be an audience for it. Kind of like the internet. People always like to speculate one or the other is going to go away. I'm like, as long as there's someone who uses it every day, it's never going away. I mean, I don't listen to a lot of it now and again.

[00:13:04] But, you know, I've been borrowing someone's car lately. And it's on NPR. So, I... There is quality radio out there. It's just... I think we just have too much to wade through. And since there's a lot of bullshit to wade through. And I think, too, the one thing that kind of brought the idea forward is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Because I think that was done on BBC Radio first. That's true.

[00:13:30] If you could take, you know, Douglas Adams' book, you know, and then apply it to this cultural cinema, you know, cinematic, you know, landmark. And make people say, oh, wait, there's more parts in here than we know? It's like opening up a hidden room, you know? Oh, there's this part here. That part there.

[00:13:59] No, and I don't remember that part, you know. And I just started thinking to myself as I think, you know, well, you know, there were the storybooks. And we did have some things in there that we weren't told. Yes. Yes. And it's funny. I can only imagine pre-internet what that must have been like. Someone misremembers. It's like, was that on one of the VHS tapes?

[00:14:24] It's like, no, I'm remembering one of the movie, you know, I'm remembering the audio drama version. Oh, the one thing about it. Imagination is a hell of a drug, especially if you misremember. The start, like the original Star Wars, it lends itself very well to a serialized approach to the movies, kind of reminiscent of the serials that they had in the 40s, you know, 40s and 50s stuff. Yep.

[00:14:53] And that also is also, it was one that made a very good transfer to radio. Totally. Because of that serial. Because you're not just thinking of, you know, what place this is in the movie. It's like, it's, you're accepting it as its own kind of intro. It's a different movie. And then the John Williams score really helped it. It really did. I can't imagine. Yeah. The thing about radio, the thing about radio these days is that it seems cookie cutter anymore. It really is. Listen to it.

[00:15:22] You can listen to a country station and then swoop down the aisle and get to like a 90s and hits the 90s, 2000s and today or get down to an oldie station, get down to a sports station. It's all pretty much the same. Yeah. What the radio drama did for Star Wars is it reignited. It reignited.

[00:15:51] It reignited my love of the original movie. It really captured me because of the theater of the mind concept. Right now, radio doesn't do that. Radio is pretty much the same thing, almost the same thing as television. It's just, what can we re-eurgitate now? It's over saturation. And then what can we do to duplicate that and duplicate that until something new comes along? Next thing you know, we're going to have... Yeah. I can only imagine...

[00:16:22] Can you imagine today's... How today's pitch meetings go? It's like, we can't take too many chances, but we got to take a chance if we want ratings, but we're not going to get any ratings, so I guess we're just not going to try. Yeah. We're just going to take a... No, they do this. Let's just play it safe here so we don't offend anybody. Yeah.

[00:16:42] It's like, when we were talking about radio and Gil brought up the serials of the 30s and the 40s and the early 50s, my dad can remember watching, I think, or my mom can remember watching, you know, like, I don't know, like Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, which was the basis for... Oh, sweet. Yeah.

[00:17:06] You know, what Star Wars was, or Gene Autry and the Invisible Empire, which was like, you know, a big thing that came out in the late 30s, early 40s. And, you know, like, all those, you know, series, like, you know, like, you know, the Lone Ranger, you know, Hopalong Cassie, all that.

[00:17:53] Like, you know, it was... And I was like, you know, like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

[00:18:23] I don't know. I don't know. Yeah.

[00:18:52] Because they did... I know they did, you know, the Thrawn trilogy. And then they did, you know, Dark Empire, which was after the Thrawn trilogy. And those were all kind of like early 90s before the whole re-release of the original movies again. So those were all kind of like, you know, that was the whole Timothy Zahn, you know, he gets the rights and he writes the stories up and all that stuff.

[00:19:21] And that kind of, you know, that kind of puts it into play, you know, what you're going to hear and see for the next three, you know, the next three, which I think should be canon. You know, I'm sorry. I know a lot of people are like saying, well, you know, what about the sequels? Oh, the sequels, okay. They're fine. But they didn't seem like Star Wars, you know. So, but the Thrawn trilogy with, you know, Admiral Thornton. I mean, the whole fact that we're disputing the EU, I'm like, well, I don't...

[00:19:51] I know everyone varies on that. I still don't understand why this had to be a dispute. Like, this... To me, it's almost like a mirror universe of Star Trek. If you want to acknowledge where this part of the story goes, you can do that. But it's really ridiculous that they've had to make it re-canon again in the Mondo shows and recent cartoons. It's like, well, it's just as prolific in Star Wars. I mean, these have been referenced in the video games, in comics.

[00:20:21] It's not just the books. That's why a lot of people even in some ways you could probably argue post-90s got into Star Wars because of the expanded universe. Well, I'm not sure which radio one I listened to. It might have been Dark... I think you're right. I think you're right. Dark Empire. Dark Empire. It's one where Luke is... Seems to be more tempted by the... Yeah, there's a clone of the Emperor. Yeah. Yep.

[00:20:51] Yep. Yes. Rise of Skywalker did a knockoff of... But Leia, yeah. But Leia had more of a use of her... More play with her powers of the Force. Mm-hmm. Than I have ever seen in anything else I've watched or read. Yep. And that's what cracks me up about the last... The Rise of Skywalkers. I think they were kind of like going, oh, okay, Dark Empire, Clone of the Emperor. Let's bring...

[00:21:20] But, you know, everybody kind of... I remember my friend who's a big Star Wars fan kind of was like going... He was in the movie theater and he whispered to his girlfriend. He said, they just redid Dark Empire. And I'm like, she's like, what? I said, look, look, it's a clone of the Emperor. And like each kind of went, okay, I don't know what you're talking about. And he's like, don't worry, I'll explain it to you later. But I mean, you know, the Dark Empire series was great to read. You know, I thought that was...

[00:21:49] I think we're just the dumb generation. I mean, look at today's protests. We're kind of getting vibes of Vietnam right now. And I'm kind of getting that with fandom, too. Where people will look at a trailer and then they come out of a movie semi or lukewarm entertain. That's not a Star Wars pun. But... Lukewarm. But it is one of those... And then they're like, man, that movie sucks. And repeat... I'm like, I kind of thought it was going to suck based on watching the trailer.

[00:22:18] I mean, it didn't tell me anything. There's a lot going on, but nothing gets accomplished. And Star Wars, though, the first free in book form and some of the initial spinoffs, you get so much. You get a very vast world that even Lucas didn't know how vast it was going to become in some capacity. You know? Well, that's the thing. He kind of gave a lot of these writers permission to go forward and go deeper into what was there.

[00:22:48] He loved the Thrawn character. So then from that point on, he's like, we need more with this character. We need more with this character. That's why when they did Rebels and they did Ahsoka, they brought Thrawn into the picture. That was such a good idea. Yeah. I remember when he was going to be on Rebels, everybody kind of went, holy shit, you know? Yeah. I remember when they showed the blue face with the red eyes, everybody went, oh my god, it's happening. I remember when they showed the blue face with the red eyes. I remember when they showed the blue face with the red eyes.

[00:23:17] And I was just like, well, here's the thing. That's kind of all Thrawn does in the books. He's the Imperial who makes all the other ones shit their pants because he's intimidating. And he... He's a master tactician. He's a master tactician. He's looking at the diagrams. And it's always funny how he plays everybody for a fool. He'll tell all the other Imperials, try out this plan. And then he's got like a plan B and C.

[00:23:45] And then by the time those have already happened, he's already on an away shuttle, you know, five galaxies away, you know? No, his thing, his character is more like, okay, they're going to do this. I'm going to do this. They're going to try and push me here, but I'll already be over here. I'll guess their next move. But what he didn't realize is that he doesn't... See, he's kind of like the Emperor. The Emperor... He doesn't have the foresight.

[00:24:12] The Emperor was more of a, you know, I'm just blue sky. Well, no, he was blue sky. Thrawn was more of a character where he's like, okay, I know where this... He sounds like... I always picture him as Lorne Michaels. Okay. Here's where you're going to do this with the Star Destroyer. All right. So me, Mick, and... Oh, I don't know. Lobot or in a restaurant one night.

[00:24:40] And, you know, but like, you know, that's the thing about him. He's so... He's such a good tactician, but he doesn't realize what's up the other sleeve. You know? He doesn't, but he also... I mean, I got to applaud him for just deciding, you know what? I'm not even going to play this chess game. I'm going to play my own game. Yeah. Yeah. There is no game to play. I got to say this. Brock Peters playing the Emperor... Oh, Darth Vader.

[00:25:09] ...is a great friggin' piece of character. You mean he played Darth Vader, yeah? Darth Vader. Don't play Darth Vader. He's playing an iconic villain, and you really feel it. Yeah. Because if you hear his voice, that voice, I can remember Brock Peters being in Star Trek. You know, the fourth one. The fourth and sixth. He's the crooked admiral. Yeah. Yeah. He's not the crooked admiral just yet.

[00:25:39] Right. But yeah, not until the second one. Yeah. And then he was playing Sisko's dad. The way he played that voice of his is so... It's like James Earl Jones. James Earl Jones had a dark timber, forgive the term. But he had that dark timber to his voice. So did Brock Peters. So you have those two characters. They could have gotten Roscoe Lee Brown, which would have been really good. Yes.

[00:26:06] But he did the storybook when we were kids. Yes. But Brock Peters, that's a great bit of casting right there. You know, to have him play Darth Vader. Which adds him to the list of many people who have been in both Trek and Wars. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, you know, that's one thing. There were some great bits of casting there, and I think Brock Peters is the best bit of casting. I have to re-go. What did you think of Paul Hetch as the Emperor?

[00:26:37] He's a mostly Broadway kind of guy. Some cartoon voiceovers. I never heard him do the Emperor. Did he sound more like Ian McDermott? It was more... Yeah, less like McDermott, but still kind of like Lithgow's interpretation of Yoda. He understands the character, but he's doing his own take on it. So, kudos to him for playing the raspy but reserved, you know, spooky.

[00:27:04] Kudos also to Mark Adair Rios, who some people might know as one of the defense prosecutors on Bosch. He's another prolific TV guy. He got to play Admiral Ackbar. Oh, cool. I was really surprised I didn't see some other guys who've done cartoon voiceovers or even Muppet type stuff, but I think that's kind of the deal. Like, we're... You might as well be listening to an actual theater play, you know? Well, I thought...

[00:27:34] I recognized Perry King pretty quickly when he started speaking his voice. He has that voice. Yeah. Oh, man. Joe... Was it the possession of Joe Delaney? That voice? And then not only that one, he did, like, Riptide and... Riptide was the one that I used to see him on all the time, you know? Oh, yeah. Yes. Who was the other guy on that show, Riptide? I think it was Joe Penny. Yeah, yeah. Joe Penny, yeah. Joe Penny. You've seen him in Sopranos. And the nerdy guy. The nerdy guy.

[00:28:03] I don't know where... Oh. Yeah. He was in a... I think he was in a... It's gonna drive me crazy. Deep Star 6? I think he might have been in Deep Star 6, maybe. He might have been in one of those goofy 80s horror movies, yeah. I didn't recognize John Lithgow as Yoda. I just remember seeing his name. Yeah, you would never have guessed it's him. But I knew it was a highlight. I remember... I can remember... Entertainment Tonight talking to me.

[00:28:30] I was thinking about this when they were going to do it in 83. Whoa. They said, yeah, we're getting... Oh, yeah, we got Billy Dee Williams to play Lando Calrissian. They were like, yes, Star Wars is hitting the radio waves. And they got... I know Mark Hamill was, I think, in the middle of doing The Nerd or The Elephant Man or Amadeus or one of those plays he was doing. So they got him. They got Lithgow to come in. And I didn't like John Lithgow. But when I was watching him do Yoda, I was like, oh, that's pretty cool.

[00:28:59] You know? And I got to watch him in The World of Gordon's... According to Garth later as, you know, Roberta Muldoon. Yeah. Yeah. Which I loved him in. And Harry and the Henderson. So that kind of didn't make... That kind of made him less more of a threatening character actor to me. Because he had already, you know, been doing Brian De Palma type, you know, psycho thrillers. Yeah. Different. And hey, he also...

[00:29:24] Let's not overlook his best role and one that got snubbed at the Oscars, Dr. Emilio Lizardo in The Adventure of the Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th dimension. You laugh now, monkey boy. Hey. I have a Buckaroo Banzai t-shirt I wore one day to work and everybody's going, who the hell's Buckaroo Banzai? I'm like, if I told you the movie, you wouldn't believe it. He's a brain surgeon, star physicist who basically discovers...

[00:29:53] It's a very divisive cult movie, but you know instantly whether you're in it or not based on what crowd you're watching it with. It is one of those kinds of cult movies. And like Rocky Horror, it's going to be way better if you watch it with a crowd. It's kind of like a Carpenter movie who, especially those who can quote it verbatim, they've seen it 50 times. Yeah, that movie itself is kind of like an acid take on Doc Savage. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:22] Oh, and by the way, if you've ever seen the one guy who's done Star Wars and he was in Buckaroo Banzai, and that is, what's his face? The guy who voiced Lex Luthor. Oh. Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown. Yeah. Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown. The Kurgan. And I like how he's played various Wars roles. He's only done one track appearance, but I love how he has done voiceovers, and then now

[00:30:51] he's played in live action two different Mandalorian era characters, so it's like, they always get him, the Kurgan. He also had a role in the most recent John Wick movie. Yeah. I knew the guys were total Highlander fans, and for me, that was just like, if there's any actor who can elevate B-movie material to A-list, he's the guy. Somebody made the comment. Does his character die in Buckaroo Banzai? No. They said he doesn't.

[00:31:20] He's actually in a hibernated state. Yeah. The guy who was the director, they asked him, they said, hey, does Clancy Brown's character die? And I think that's, I forgot his code name in the movie. I know there's some comic books that have expanded the world since. Yeah. And they said, no, he's basically what it is, is that he's basically in a hibernated state, and Buckaroo and John, the guy Carl Lumley plays.

[00:31:50] He gives them the antidote for it. Like, there's a, they put it in a scene where, like, you know, he doesn't die. He gives them an antidote for the lectoid that hit him, you know, in the neck, and they think he's dead, but he's not dead. He's basically just in a hibernated state. So they just got to give him, they got to give him the thing, and, you know, it helps them come back from the dead. That's why you see him walk out with everybody at the end. Everybody's going, wait, didn't he die in the movie? They're like, no, no, he didn't die. He didn't die. You know. Nice.

[00:32:16] By the way, here's another key character who first appeared in the original Star Wars radio drama, but only got recently expanded upon in New Jedi Order and some of the more recent Marvel Star Wars comics, Lord Taion, who's the guy who does the briefing explaining how Princess Leia got the Death Star schematics. I've never heard of that. Yeah, I'll link him with you.

[00:32:42] Apparently, he's now been kind of retconned as Nineveh Taion, but he's just one of those other just Imperials just giving exposition to Lord Vader saying how the Death Star plans got stolen. But it's just interesting just how I think that's why people love Star Wars so much. Each time they find something new and even just, I mean, kind of like TK421, who we joked about in the past, is like, you know you're a Star Wars fan when you know every other just

[00:33:12] the most minor character who's just like mentioned on screen for like five seconds, you know? TK421, why aren't you repost? TK421, I always wanted to just have him yell, I'm taking a shit! Shut up! Yeah. I'm about to get blasted by Slia. TK421, I just got blasted, you asshole, go fuck off. That's the one that gets me. What did they do with the bodies? I mean...

[00:33:41] I think they spaced them out. Chewie opened up the hatchet. Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, Jesus. Okay. I think they stormed for parts. Oh! Hey-oh! Hey! Yeah. Probably in the same place where Chewie's repairing 3PO. Well, of course, yeah. Parts. They're probably... That's something they missed out on.

[00:34:08] They should have started disguising the droids as Imperials. I'm going to save so much time. I captured their stunt doubles. I get the feeling Chewie snapped both their necks. Like, you know, both the Imperial guys... First, the Imperial guys come up, and then they're like... You just hear like... I think Chewie just kind of crushed them. And then when it gets up to the guys, I think what happens is I think Han just stuns

[00:34:36] them, and he's like, okay, put them in the compartment, and then we'll just bring them to wherever the hell we're going, and we'll just dump the bodies there. You know? It's like, leave the gun, take the cannolis bit, you know? Yeah. Use the blasters, take the cannolis. Yeah. Yeah. Man. That got dark. Oh, man. Love it. Love it. Oh, man.

[00:35:06] This has been cool, guys, because I think it's just reaffirming the love. And a novelization couldn't have ever come close to this. I don't think. No. Kudos to Alan Dean Foster for doing the first Star Wars novel that even predated the original movie, you know. The Mind's Eye. That's the one, yeah. The Eye's Mind. I always remember Eye's... I had that book, and all I remember is looking at the cover going, okay, where's Han and

[00:35:36] where's Chewie? It looks like Dagobah. Yeah. That's the first time they mentioned Kyber crystals and stuff like that. So, JJ, were you remembering some of the stories you were telling from the comic books or from the radio dramas? I was kind of remembering some of the stories from the comic books. Yeah. Back when... Without that, I doubt any... You would have...

[00:36:06] And the Alien vs. Predator ones. I don't think you'd have as big an audience for Dark Horse. Yeah. And I can remember... I had the first... Gil, I had the first... I had the first couple... I had the first midway run from... Of the Star Wars Marvel books. And I had it up till the last issue. Yeah. I had... Yeah. The old Marvels, I had, like, the first 30 issues, and then I had, like, the last issue of the old Marvels.

[00:36:35] And then I never did collect anything or read anything for the Dark Horse run of Star Wars books. Yeah. The Dark Horse run was very good. It was very well thought out. It wasn't... It wasn't style over substance. Like, the... You can tell, like, these were just comic book fans who were also just great storytellers. They knew where to put the thought boxes and how cool how it would be every...

[00:37:02] On occasion, you would see the spaceships or the laser blasts cutting into the other boxes as a cool transition. And I think the thing was, Gil, with that, with the Dark Horse stuff, like, I can remember the Marvel stuff. When it got to the Dark Horse stuff, you know, I'd be reading the graphic novels and I was always thinking, okay, these are guys that really know their shit, you know? They don't draw an ad at, like, you know, an elephant, you know? They don't... They know how... They know how, you know, this works. They know how that works, you know?

[00:37:29] You can hear Harrison Ford doing Han's voice, you know, saying this, you know, and saying that, you know? And that's the thing I loved about it, because you could hear the characters in your head, you know, talking and everything like that. And that's the thing I loved about it, you know? It was the Dark Horse stuff and the Marvel stuff. So it's kind of like... They kind of, like, you know, amalgamate into each other. I...

[00:37:59] You know, I have, I think, two or three of the Dark Horse books. And when Marvel got the licensing rights back, and now they're retconning everything between Empire and Jedi, you know? So why does Luke have the yellow saber? You know, why this is... You know, I'm kind of like going, oh, you kind of lost me, but I kind of get it, you know?

[00:38:28] I like how Windu had a blue one prior to having a purple in the movies, you know? Yeah. Yeah, well, that's something they kind of retconned on, too, with Dark... I think Dark Horse was still doing that. Ahsoka's got a yellow one now, so I guess she really is a Skywalker student. I just wondered, because you were describing what I was listening to earlier this week, so I was like, okay, I didn't read the book.

[00:38:52] Yeah, I had Dark Empire, and the Dark Empire one always kind of amazed me. I want to get the second Shadows of the Empire one where Dash Rendar isn't really dead, because, you know, Dash Rendar was a character created for... To take the place of Han Solo. They always kept it ambiguous. In the video game, you're not sure if he survived or not. In comics, in the book, same deal. You're not sure if he's alive or not.

[00:39:22] There was a part they did cut out, from what I remember, where... Oh, wow. They shared... I promise we'll do a whole episode on that. Oh, I can remember that video game being so hyped up. And I have the Outrider toy up in my room. Sweet! I always wanted to get a copy of that. They never made one of Kyle Katarn, to my knowledge. Oh, they did. They made it. They did? They made it. Okay. I will hunt that down one of these days.

[00:39:53] Coming soon. I kid you not. So, I have a... What I wanted to do as a fan film years ago, and now that everyone's kind of embracing audio dramas in podcast form, I've been tempted to actually do a fan drama about the future adventures of Katarn and Rendar, because they were both kind of one and the same. There's that rebel spy who they send, because, you know, Solo is away, but they need someone who can...

[00:40:21] Is good with computer hacking and has some other outside sources. I always said the thing about Rendar was, he's like, he's still the dashing smuggler, but he's not involved with Princess Leia. And then, you know, Kyle Katarn is like this, like, he's like the wild Jedi, you know? And I can remember playing that video game. Such a good one. We'll return after these messages.

[00:40:50] Do you ever find yourself thinking about who would win in a fight between Goku and Superman? Hi, I'm James Gavsey, and on the Who Would Win show, me and my co-host Ray ignore anything important happening in the outside world, and debate fictional battles between characters from comics, movies, and video games. We got a new show every week, and almost always am I the winner. Yeah, not true, Ray. In the past, we've discussed such matches as Captain America vs. Darth Vader, Solid Snake

[00:41:15] vs. The Iron Giant, classic matchups like Robocop vs. Terminator, and even The Muppets vs. Sesame Street. That one was crazy. So if you're a fan of geek culture and love a spirited debate, check out The Who Would Win show wherever you get your podcasts, or check us out at whowouldwinshow.com.

[00:41:33] Follow us on the web on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The podcast is available on Podbean, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Anchor, Apple, and anywhere else podcasts are available. Feel free to review our show and leave comments on any of those sites. Thanks a million for listening. It's a jacked up review show.