January 18, 2025 • 48 mins
Hello there! We're back after our end of 2024 hiatus, we hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and that you're raring to go, with us, to dive into some great new Star Wars this year.
In this week's episode, it's all about Skeleton Crew, highlighting its unique approach to storytelling and character development. We discuss how the show successfully avoids the typical reliance on established Star Wars characters, instead focusing on a fresh narrative centred around a group of kids on a mysterious planet.
We reflect on the blend of familiar themes reminiscent of classic films like The Goonies and Stand By Me while praising the performances of the child actors, particularly Wim and Fearne, who experience significant character growth throughout the series.
Also, we wax on the creative choices made in design and storytelling, emphasizing how the series manages to feel distinctly Star Wars without adhering to the usual tropes.
With an overall rating of eight out of ten, we certainly thought it was a solid series. Enough to get a season 2 in the future? Who knows. For now, sit back, grab some blue milk and join us for our review of Skeleton Crew.
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This is Spark of Rebellion, the weekly Star Wars podcast for casual fans and veterans alike.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hello there. We would behonored if you would join us.
Hello there and welcome toSpark of Rebellion. This is your
weekly Star wars podcast. Andwho are these guys? Who are these
(00:23):
guys? Back after a little minibreak, A little hiatus if you will,
over Christmas and New Year. Ihope you had a good one. Feels nuts
that we're. We're catching upwith people to say Happy Christmas
and stuff. But yes, we hopeyou had a good, safe Christmas and
you did something Star Warsy.What'd you get under the tree? Some
new Star Wars Lego, whatever.Hopefully something Star Wars Y.
(00:43):
I got a Star wars calendar,which was nice. My sister always
does this. What should we getGarry for Christmas? I don't know.
What is he into? Doctor who,Star Wars. We'll get him something.
It's normally Star wars socksor T shirt or something. So.
Yes.
But we are back anyway to talkabout skeleton crew. Going to get
onto that in a second. I'mgonna give you some. Some housekeeping.
(01:08):
I'll bring on my co host in asecond. But yeah, this is a continuation
if this. You are first timelistener Spark Rebellion. It's great
to have you here. If you'rekicking off the new year as we sometimes
do with like new Star warspodcast, I want to listen to stuff
not checked one out beforethen make sure you're following or
subscribing whatever podcastyou listen to this now, hit the old
follow button. Then you'll geta reminder when you get a new episode
(01:29):
drop and as we go through theepisode, if you like it, if you think
these guys are cool, throwthem some beer money, whatever. You
can do that over onsparkrebellion.com support. You can
toss us a few quid for a roundor you can become a member, even
choose your dark side or yourlight side and you can join some
other cool people who supportSor, Kev, Denise, Danny, Mark, Pascal,
(01:52):
you guys, very cool. Thank youvery much for your support and hope
you had a good Christmas. Anew year as well. My name's Garry.
I'm one of the dudes here. I'mgoing to bring on my co host. It's
the guy that I think he'sstill a bit reeling, to be honest.
He did have the part. He flewout there and everything. But then
I gave it to Jude Law in theend he was going to be in it. But
Mark Asquith, we do have the.
(02:13):
Same hairline and 2007 me hasthe same wardrobe as in.
Yes, Mark's growing his hairout a little bit. At the moment.
So he's disguising that. Maybethis is a thing now. Knocking on
a bit. Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you what itwas. So I went to London for work.
(02:37):
I was like. And I had likethis board meeting to go to. I was
like, I look a little bitscrappy. I'll go for a go for a shave
and a. And a haircut, right?So I went into the hairdressers,
like a barbers in Seoul,right, Thinking it's, yeah, look
at me, fancy little, you knowwhat I mean? And so I went in and
I'd grow. I'd actually grownit a little bit anyway. So I went
(02:58):
in and the guy, I remember hisname, he's on my Instagram. Like
he forced me to follow him. SoI was like, went in. I'm like, all
right, sunshine. It's like,oh, my go sit down, mate. Was like,
I don't know what you said,mate, but yes, I will do if you show
me the actions that accompanythose words. Please guide me. So
I did. I end up sat down. Iwas like, what do you normally have
done, mate? And I was like,well, it's normally like, you know,
(03:22):
like a short fade sort ofthing. Like maybe a zero or a one
fade. And he went, at yourage, mate, are you sure about that?
And I was like, right, grow itthen. Shall I. Shall I grow it then?
Shall I grow it then? What doyou want to do is like, give you
a number four, mate. I waslike, number four. Am I at school?
(03:43):
So that's how it started. Andyeah, so it's been good, it's been
good. But then I've not beenvery well either. I've had like a
bit of pneumonia overChristmas, so I just put my hat on.
And then today, because I'vegot to go for this work conference
tomorrow, thought I'll go andget it cut. And he literally, like
my guy, the normal guy in thevillage, literally got the clippers
(04:04):
out and just went like. Hesaid the words as he was moving to
cut. It was like, skin fade. Iwas like, no.
Oh yeah.
It was properly freaked out.And then he went like, to top it
off, he went, well, I supposehe could grow it. I'll have rock
(04:25):
in a hard place.
The adventures, eh, of stylingas a 30 plus year old.
Yeah, but, yeah, so that's,that's the story behind that, mate.
But I do have some otherinteresting news. So Christmas Day,
got some socks, Star warssocks. I was sat with my brother,
I've got a brother called Rickwho lives in Rotherham. And he was
(04:48):
like, oh, I've got a mate, youknow. I was like, oh, yeah, nice
one. There's new achievements,so. Oh, this is cool. And he went,
yeah. He told me the other daythat he's really into Star wars and
he listened to this podcastand he really likes it. It's called
Spark Rebellion. I was like,I'm sure that's my brothers. And
then he told him, it's mybrothers. And the guy was like, what?
(05:10):
That's crazy. So, Stephen, ifyou're listening. Hello. Yeah, I'll
send you some gear and I'llsend you some stickers and stuff.
I'll send them. I'll packagethem up with my brother and send
them to you. But thanks forlistening, man. It's. It's a. That's.
That's. That's happened a fewtimes with different podcasts that
we've run, so. Really cool,Stephen. Yeah, yeah, I was. I was
flattered by that. I was goingto text you on Christmas Day. I was
(05:31):
like, jesus won't want that.So I didn't.
Not when I'm making wine and.Nah, all the usual things, you know.
But that's cool, though, dude.I love that.
It's cool in it.
Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah,I've had that a few times, really
weirdly, in other parts of theworld as well. Been on a thing in
the US before.
Yeah.
And someone said, I recognizeyour voice. I listen. I'm sure it's
(05:52):
you from this Doctor whopodcast that I listen because I love
British TV and I love old sortof British sci fi, and I check out
a few podcasts. I'm surethat's you. Is your name Garry? I'm
like, yeah, that'd be me.
That's awesome.
Yeah. Halfway around theworld. I love that. Yeah, Stephen,
welcome aboard, dude.
Welcome, Stephen. Yeah, yeah,yeah. Well, we'll send you some gear.
It might not be this week ornext because I am away, but I'll.
(06:12):
I'll send you some gear. ButI. It happened to me in the village.
We moved into the village thatwe live in now. I'm sat in the pub.
This new pub opened, and themayor of the village just came up
to me and thrust my ownTwitter profile in my face. Went,
is that you? I was like, yeah,that's me. Why? I listen to your
podcast and then I post onInstagram, like, the village, like
(06:32):
a story. And then someonereplied, like, what you're doing
in my village? I was like, Ilive here, mate. I was like, you're
joking. I listen to yourpodcast. I was like, so there's two
people in this little village.This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous.
They are now great friends.
Awesome source. I love theword awesome. I know you love it.
(06:52):
Ah, one of my top three. Butyeah. Sorry. I digress then. No.
Happy New Year.
Yeah. All that aside, I've notdone anything Star wars actually
in the. In the hiatus. What Idid do though, was found out that
I'd lent a bunch of books tosomebody ages ago, years ago. I can't
get hold of them now because Ifancy catch up on some old books
(07:13):
I read.
Really?
Yeah, yeah. Like a couple ofmonths ago, I think, like end of
October or something likethat. I'd finished up reading these
old Han Solo adventure books,and I thought, you know what? Some
of the older Star wars booksare really cool. So I'm going to
dig out here to the Empire,you know, the original spin off the
books that kicked it all off.I can't find them anywhere, dude.
(07:35):
Like, I'm sure I lent them tosomebody like, many moons ago. Okay.
Bloody remember? And I thoughtI remembered and I couldn't get hold
of them, so, dude, I had toorder them again, didn't I?
Oh, that's annoying becauseyou'll find them then.
I will. Yeah.
But I hate that the.
The thing that's got this isonly a small thing. I think certain
collectors will understandthis mindset. But when I had the
books before, it was theoriginal covers. You know, the old
(07:58):
covers.
The cool ones.
Yeah. You know, a lot of bookillustrators back in the day took
like, Drew Struzan forinspiration and whatnot.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, so now I had to getthe newer cover, so it's labeled
up as like legends and. Andall that jazz. We're not the end
of the world. It's the book'sthe book. But irritated by that.
(08:18):
Big time. Have you done anything?
Yeah, it is frustrating.Frustrating that. What have I done?
I've done the glass. I'm aboutjust over halfway through this glass
abyss. This Mace Windu book,which is actually pretty good. It's
actually pretty good.
Who's that?
It was in that one.
No, who wrote the book?
(08:39):
Who done that one? StephenBarnes. Barnsley.
Barnesi yeah.
Yeah. So it's. It's about. It goes.
It's.
It's set between just afterPhantom Menace and. And it's. He
gets this mission from Qui Gonafter his death. It's like, look,
you know, go and saw this out.Shagger and. But it's like Mace Windu
(09:00):
Undercover, which is actuallypretty cool. Playing two sides against
each other. So it's. It isactually pretty good. But I was like.
When I first saw it, I waslike, the glass abyss, Mace Windu,
very good. It falls out of awindow. Shut up your dick. But it's
nothing to do with the window.So we're good. Yeah, it's actually
pretty good.
Nothing to do with Palpatine'sdouble glazing bill.
(09:21):
Well, that's the other thingwith that in it. Because at that
height, it's going to beproper reinforced gear, you know,
that's going to be inch and ahalf thick. You know, proper stuff.
We should get into thelogistics of that. But, like, I've
got some glass balustrade,mate, and I'll tell you for nothing,
you can't throw anyone throughthat. Not easily anyway.
Not anymore.
(09:41):
Anymore.
We should do that. We shoulddo an episode where we proper geek
out and just be a pair oftwats about, like, the logistical
real world impact of things todo with Star Wars. Like.
Oh, yeah, like, you see thoseguys on Twitter, like, they're not
quite trolls, but they're likescience bros. It's like. But they're
always like. It's like thatone that we saw with I met Carl the
(10:04):
prop guy, and it's like, oh,it looks like they invented Phillips
head screwdrivers. You'relike, dude, there's like six armed
creatures in hyperspacetraveling. There's like, yeah, force
telekinesis, man. Like. Andyou're worried about Phillips screwdriver.
Yeah, that's definitely theproblem. You know what I mean? Like,
shut up your peck.
(10:24):
Yeah, that is going a bit farin it. Yeah. Fascinated by that.
But people's view on thatstuff. I think it all started with
Kevin Smith, wasn't it? Andhis. On one of his podcasts, I think
he was talking about when LukeSkywalker took down the Death Star,
there was like thousands ormillions of employees of the Empire
on the Death Star, which is nofault of their own. They're just
(10:46):
earning a crust.
Yeah.
And he, like, takes down themall. Yeah. So the implications of
things like that is prettycool, but.
And then you get like a loadof the books, then explore it like
Lost Stars. That's a mintbook. But it's like, it's that, like,
that's how Cobra Kai starts init. You know what I mean? It's like,
no, that wasn't a legal kick.And then suddenly it becomes a thing.
So it's. Yeah, we should yeah,they should do. I know there's been,
(11:08):
like, a bit of talk of it, butI don't think it'll happen. But like
a what if of Star Wars. Do youknow what I mean? What if Luke hadn't
used the Force or what if, youknow, whatever else. So anyway, talk
about that all day. But, yeah,Skeleton crew. We should probably
get to that, shouldn't we?
We should get to that,shouldn't we? That's the crux of
the episode. So we took a minibreak so we could take some time
off because news was looking abit thin, let's be honest, with Star
(11:30):
wars at the time. And wethought, let's take a break. We can
chill out, watch some skeletoncrew come back, review that. So this
is the. This is the nuts andbolts of the episode. So quick, real
quick, super recap, 20 secondsrecap on Skeleton Crew. The kids
are on a planet called. I'lllet you decide how you guys want
(11:51):
to say this one. It's eitherat Aten or at Aten, depending if
you want to get your T's inthere, put your teeth in, whatever.
They think it's just aneveryday normal planet, but they
end up finding the ship. Theyblast off and they find out that
they can't get home becausetheir home planet doesn't appear
on any star charts, any maps.All a bit of a mystery. They bump
(12:14):
into a pirate dude. Hebefriends them, tricks them into.
Into trying to get them homebecause they've got like a bunch
of credits in their pockets.He's like, okay, cool. Money to be
had here. And then they go onthis adventure of, like, bumping
into other pirates, findingout the mystery behind At Aton. There's
a little bit of mystery aroundJude Law's character, Jod Nar Narwood.
(12:38):
We find out towards the end,he's nothing but spoilers, by the
way. He's nothing but a. Apirate. Used to be involved with.
With. With the Order in someways. He was trained to a certain
degree, but ended up doing theoff ski. And then we find out that
@aten is actually a planetthat produces all the Old Republic
credits. Is a bit of a mint,mint planet. And yeah, so it's more
(13:02):
like a sort of skullduggerypirate thing. Kids trying to get
home. So, yeah, straight offthe bat, dude, I want to get your
thoughts on this, but I wantto ask your thoughts based on initial
question, if I may. When wefirst saw the trailer for this, one
of the things that you pickedup on, I think A lot of people saw
this was. The trailer showedthis kind of earth, like, suburban
(13:25):
nature of Star wars, you know,with the kids in the street and the
houses and going to school andstuff. I didn't really allude to
much about what they would bedoing on said adventure. And it all
looked a little bit civilianonce we got episode one out the way
or whatever. Did you stillfeel like that as you went through
the story or did you feellike, yeah, this is still a bit.
(13:46):
What's the word to use?Pedestrian, civilian, whatever you
want to call it. But yeah.What are your thoughts based on that?
Yeah, I. It was sort of backto the Phillips screwdriver head.
You know, it's. There's aphrase for it. I can't remember what
it is, you know, this where.Where civilizations come to the same
discoveries because scienceand technology lead you in the same
(14:06):
direction, you know, so thelogical, you know, if I'm. If I'm
going like, okay, let's be anerd about it, then, yeah, it's totally
cool like that that wouldhappen. I think, I think looking
back on it, because it wassuch a small part of the series,
it worked quite nicely for mebecause it was. I think it allowed
(14:28):
you to relate to the kids andto the adventure a lot more. I think
it was clearly intended as abit of an homage to like E. T. Stand
by me, you know, small townGoonies sort of vibe, you know, the
burbs and, you know, this ideathat nothing really goes on and let's
just make that feel quitefamiliar. But then it. We did. We
(14:49):
never really then saw too muchof that again. So it was all right
and it was good. And it was.Yeah, I thought it was fine. Yeah,
I thought it was fine in theend, dude, I thought it was fine.
I didn't want it to be like,okay, you know, let's set it here.
And it all exists in thislittle town and this is all we're
going to see. And it wasn'tthat. So that was cool, man. But
what about you? Did you. I'massuming you felt pretty similar
(15:09):
on that.
Yeah, pretty much the same.Yeah. That first episode, when you
look back on it now, you'reright. Yeah, they did a good job
of portraying the kind ofeveryday life that people who know,
who don't know any differentto what's been put upon them. So
it turns out that because itwas kind of weird how the parents
(15:31):
and all the droids and stuffwere really sort of hammering home
this idea of like, youreducation is like A non negotiable
thing. And we find out lateron that it's all part of this thing
called the, the good work orsomething. Was it the good great
work which.
Is really like part of likethe High Republic hangover. You know,
(15:52):
it's. It's the great workswhich were the group of the projects
that were like StarlightBeacon and it was like Lena. So,
so I quite liked that hangoverfrom the High Republic and it was,
it was quite, it was quitenice that they sort of had that in
place. So that was, that wasactually quite a pleasant little
surprise, that.
(16:12):
Yes. Yeah. So when you lookback on it, it's like, okay, you
can see exactly why theyfeatured that in the trailer. That's.
That's pedestrian stuffbecause the actual adventures that
they go on in each, all theepisodes after episode one, they
are, they're quite varied. Youknow, they go to some different planets
and we get some differentcharacters thrown in there, which
(16:33):
is good. So yeah, my, I did, Iwas thinking about it at the start
of that first episode thinkinghow long are we going to be on in,
in this area and have thiswhole thing? But really it was only
that first episode didn'treally think about it too much. And
the thing that I liked about.Before we dive into a few details,
the thing I liked about thisoverall was that we didn't need to
(16:57):
have any one show up to savethe day, you know?
Yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah, we didn't need Mando toshow up. We didn't need Ahsoka. We
didn't need, yeah, anybody toshow up.
And I was sort of worriedabout that. To interject. Sorry man.
I was worried about that onthe finale. I was like, it's all
gonna go tits up. Like what's,what's gonna happen? Are we gonna
(17:18):
get someone show up and it's,you know, play the savior. And I
was, I was, I was certainlyglad that they didn't. And it was,
you know, this idea of we can,we can stop the crap that's happening
from this scoundrel, but itmeans getting rid of the barrier.
But then it opens us up to thegood guys still being around and
like the complexity of JudeLaw's character at the end, like
(17:42):
the fate of him and was hereinforced by the idea that good
guys still exist or not or washe just a bit of an all along or
who knows. So they, theymanaged to really self contain it
nicely whilst also giving yousome X wings flying around and not.
They didn't save the day. Theydid the things that they couldn't
do for themselves that theyneeded and do you know what I mean?
(18:04):
But it was, it was, it was thekids that managed to. And, and, and
that, you know, that classictrope of the parent realizing that
the kids, you know, it's allright to be a kid and we should all
adventure a little bit moreand be a little bit more ballsy.
So it was, man, it was full oftropes like that. So yeah, I agree.
I'm glad no one showed up. Idon't think it needed it at all.
And it was, I'm sure you'llagree, but the entire series was
(18:26):
better for not having anyconnection to anything else.
Yeah, yeah. Defo as I was. Iworried about that in the last episode
because they mentioned thatthey were going. Because I think
Wim turns around to Jude andsays like, you know, the real good
guys are going to come andsave the day sort of thing. Because
the conversation between thekids before that was like, let's,
(18:48):
let's get hold of the littleowl character. Is it Kim? So she
can call the X wings in againand save the day. And I thought,
ah, got X wings coming down.Are they gonna bring like a tentpole
character with them? You know,is this going to be a save the day
moment? So. But it didn't.Like you said, it was a nicely self
contained sort of ending tothis. And I'm not sure how it. I'm
(19:13):
not sure if it tees up asecond season enough. I've got a
funny feeling, you know, thatthis could just be a one and done.
Yeah.
Kind of thing. Because with TVnowadays, you're always looking for
the next season. Right. You'realways looking to, to do that. With
some rare exceptions. But Idon't know. I think. And if they
didn't do a second season, Ithink I'd be cool with that.
(19:34):
You know, I would. I thinkthat the things that, you know, if
you were to play a devil'sadvocate a little bit, you could
easily say, well, on thatCorvette, you know the one that looks
like the tantive. There was,there was Harrison Duller or someone
that was big enough, butwasn't Luke Skywalker or Ahsoka or
a Jedi, you know, there wouldbe opportunity to have someone militarily
(19:58):
step in and lead into a seasontwo. And I feel that there were enough,
there were enough threads leftopen that it could be interesting.
You know, what happened toJude Law's character? He was a bit
on the fence. Like he wasclearly certainly at the End of that
episode, it was. It was verymuch, you know, let's add some moral
(20:21):
ambiguity. He's always had ita little bit rough. It's been really
freaking hard for him. Hedoesn't really know any better. He
doesn't know any better thandoing this because he's always had
to fight for it and scrap forit and deal with everything and whatnot.
So this is just his nature,you know, nature versus nurture sort
of scenario. But then is heactually, you know, semi good guy?
(20:42):
So there's like. There's thatlittle thread that could be pulled,
but then there's the whole,like, why, genuinely, why were these
planets protected? We canassume it's because they all had
mints on them. And it's. Butit was freaking dangerous to. Not
to. To leave them open becausethat's where all the credits are.
But there are bigger mysteriesthat if they wanted to, they could
(21:02):
go into. But it's almost. It'salmost one of those things that benefits
from no answers. You know, youjust leave it. And. But then I sort
of then think to myself, andwe spoke. I spoke to Kev on this
one, like. Like, Jude Law is abig actor. And do you cast Jude Law
(21:24):
in Star wars? Not to use himagain? And I just don't know whether
you do.
Yeah, that's a good point. Ithink out of. Out of anything that
you would want to progress, itwould probably be his character.
Because where it concerns thechild actors and those characters,
they could have done theobvious with that, right? One of
(21:46):
them ends up accidentallyusing the Force to save one of them.
That's what they could havedone. And then they progress to be
a, you know, a Force user. Andthey, you know, there's a second
series that focuses on thatcharacter because they can now use
the Force and, you know, allthat stuff, but they didn't. So any
of those kids have. Howevercool they were at certain moments
(22:07):
throughout this first season,there's probably. Now that they're
back home and they're aware ofwhat their home planet's purpose
is, and they're aware ofwhat's going on. I don't know. It'd
be weird. And this ispotentially the problem with why
we haven't had a secondGoonies film. Because, you know,
once you've gone off andyou've done the adventure and you're
(22:27):
back home and everything'scool, how do you then go into a second
adventure? You can't do itjust for the sake of it, you know,
I mean, you have to have somekind of thing that propels them into
doing a second thing. Youcan't just. I know the Force Awakens
was kind of a copy of A NewHope, but that was, you know, slightly
(22:47):
just different enough towarrant it. But yeah, so if they
were to do a second season, Ithink it would probably be around
Jude Laws and like you said,his ambiguity and you know, does
he want to pick up. Does hewant to carry on being a pirate and
bit of an asshole, go off todo another scam, whatever it might
be? Or does he want to be.Actually, yeah, quite like this 4
stuff again that I'verediscovered. So, yeah, not sure
(23:12):
about a second season, butoverall the self containedness of
it. And I'm also quitesurprised that we didn't get any
more name dropping or any morethings. Normally within Star wars,
even if you don't want toleverage the other characters or
leverage a main storyline, youstill get like a bajillion Easter
eggs, you know, and you stillget references to all the other things.
(23:36):
But I was quite surprised thatthis was really fresh in terms of
that it focused mainly on thepirate culture and the pirate adventures
and all that stuff andcompletely steered clear of like.
I don't think we heard theword Sith mentioned at all. I don't
think we heard the word theEmperor, Palpatine, Leia, you know,
(23:58):
anything like that at all. Itwas completely bare bones to a degree.
So do you think they went toofar with that? Do you think we needed,
needed some kind of referenceto make it feel more like it was.
There was sort ofinterconnectivity there or again,
just happy it was completely fresh.
Yeah, I think it was betterfor it because I think it, it, it,
it. You know, every story isrealistically on screen about Jedi
(24:20):
and Sith at some point. So Ithink it was really good that you
know, because you got to thinkthat most of the galaxy didn't know
that Palpatine was a Sith orthat Vader was a Sith. You know,
we just see the stories wherepeople find out, but generally speaking,
the galaxy didn't know. And Ithink it was, I think it was, it
(24:40):
was good good how they usedthe Jedi notion, this idea that they'd,
you know, the pre fall of theJedi, not propaganda, but the, the
education that people receivedaround the Jedi was still in place
on our, on our Tatum becauseyou, you had. They didn't really
(25:04):
know about the galactic civilwar at a suburban level. You know,
the last communication thatStephen Fry got was the Jedi are
All traitors. But he didn'tpass that down. That's not the education
that he gave the kids and soon and so forth. So it was still.
And I think it was reflected alittle bit in the, the, the lightsaber
that Jod found it. I'm not.There was no guarantee, but it certainly
(25:29):
looked very high Republic.Very silver, very gold. It looked
very high Republican. It's in,in how ornate it was in the style
of it. So I think it was sortof, it was all, all looking through
the lens of a kid, you know.And what, what would you believe
the Jedi to be? These amazingpeacekeepers that can do anything.
(25:49):
And they didn't realize, evenat the end when's trying to black
it, they didn't realize theJedi had gone, you know, so it was.
I think they used, used thelaw of the Force well enough and,
and, and, and again, throughthe lens of a kid, through the lens
of this protected planet,through the lens of the Jedi being
the peacekeepers that we'vealways told, always been told that
(26:12):
they were. And I don't thinkit needed anything else. I don't
think it needed like otherJedi always battle the Sith and the
Sith of the bad guys andwhatever else, because it's. I, I
feel like that would theninvite like the trolls, you know.
You know, they said something.Oh, actually that's not strictly
true. Like, piss off. Youdon't need it to be strictly true.
(26:32):
So just stay away from it, youknow, it's cool.
So.
Yeah, no, I thought it wasgreat, man. I thought it was perfectly,
perfectly pitched.
Cool. Yeah. And that lookingat it through the lens of a killer,
it was cool that the, our viewof the Jedi because we've been exposed
to so many stories in eitherfilms or video games, whatever, it
(26:53):
was cool to see that amazementagain through the eyes of Whim. You
know, at the beginning whenhe's just looking at videos on his
little handheld switch orwhatever it was of Jedi is having
a scrap and stuff like that.He's just amazed by them. You know,
we haven't seen that in manystories for a while now. It's always
been, you know, just theSkywalker stuff or whatever it might
(27:17):
be. So, yeah, it was cool tosee the story through his eyes, at
least at the beginning. Andjust it was almost like when you
were watching Star wars forthe first time, like many moons ago,
and you were like, ah, theJedi. So cool. You know, you're sharing
in that amazement with him.So. Yeah, I get that. So before we
talk about just a couple ofcharacters in detail. Mainly the.
(27:38):
The. The. The kid actors. Alot of people describe this as like
Goonies in space before itwent out, which it totally was to
a large degree. But did youalso get some indie vibes in this
as well? There was a scene inabout Halfway through when they go
into the planet. You know,it's like a sort of luxury spa planet
(28:02):
now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
La Nopa, I think it's called.And the old pirate who. Who used
to own the ship that they'vegot, he had one of his. His sort
of base of operations downthere, the vault sort of thing. That
whole scene when they gothrough the booby traps, through
the corridors, and then, youknow, the light in as the big skull
comes up at the throne skullat the end and stuff. To me, that
(28:24):
was straight out of like,Temple of Doom and stuff like that.
100%. Yeah.
So, yeah, so the whole. Andthere was another couple of scenes
as well, where it's like evadeand capture and. And that sort of
thing. It just felt veryindie. So Christopher Ford and John
Watts, the writers on it. Ithink there was another. Another
person that did some writing,but just props to those guys, man,
(28:46):
just for not looking at, oh,we want to make a Star wars show.
Let's just look at, you know,the Skywalker saga. Let's base stuff
off of that. It was reallycool that they just branched out
and looked at other films andstuff for inspiration. So that was
very cool.
Yeah, it was. I think the. Ithink the idea of. Of them almost
(29:06):
doing what the mando had doneand having different directors, like
the Bryce Dallas Howardepisode and so on, and I. I think
there were. There werecertainly, certainly elements and
like, homages to those things,like Templar, Doom, clearly Stand
By Me Goonies, you know, allthat sort of stuff. The what, you
know, when they split up on.On the following episode after that
(29:28):
one, like, pure Stand By Mestuff. Do you know what I mean? And
it was, you know, follow me onmy road. You follow, you know, you
follow them on their road sortof thing. Like wizard of Oz at the
end. Lots of homage to thatwith the droid. Like, you know, it's.
It's not a supervisor, it's adroid. Holy crap. Are you kidding?
And just. Just a lot of. A lotof little homages, which I thought
(29:52):
were really good. But inparticular, I think that was really
bolstered by the use ofpractical costumes, practical effects
and stop motion. Like for thebig giant spider, like, that was
stop motion and just, youcould tell. You could tell. And it
just, it felt like, it, itfelt like Star wars like you said.
(30:15):
It felt ambling, it feltGoonies Stand by Me. You know, it
felt all that stuff, but itfelt Star wars because of all that.
And, and it's like you saidthe sort of. They've tried to give
a little bit of that magicback to something that you saw as
a kid through, through the waythings look and feel. So yeah, I
(30:38):
was, I was really impressed bythat. But then it was cool that you
could then jump up to theproduction value of the space scenes
and you know, the battles andthe X wings. And so it was a really,
it's like the best sort ofbalance I think I've seen in a Star
wars production recently whereit's not, it's sort of not forgotten
(30:58):
about the 70s and that's howwe did things then. So yeah, I thought
it was really nice mix, man.
Yeah, agreed. Yeah, it wascool. Some characters then, dude,
Nick Frost really hamming itup with his. Is his pirate voice
is SM33.
(31:20):
Yeah.
Do you know what? This musthave been like a dream come true
for Nick Frost because I thinkhim and Simon Pegg, you know, they've
tag team a lot over the yearson things and I think because they
were such massive Star warsfans and probably still are from
when they used to knock aroundtogether when they were younger.
I think Nick Frost probablyfelt a bit left out when Simon Pegg
(31:43):
not had a starring role, buthe was involved in some capacity
with Star Wars.
He played, he played thecharacter that trades rare for a
food.
That's it. Yeah. In the ForceAwakens. Yeah. So he wasn't like,
you know, it wasn't like Starwars starring Simon Pegg, but he
was involved in it and I thinkhe had a, I think Simon Pegg had
like breakfast with GeorgeLucas or lunch or something and stuff
(32:05):
like that. So for Nick Frostto help have a Star wars and arguably,
you know, he's had a biggerinvolvement than Simon Pegg does,
but I bet he was over the moonto get the call to say, yeah, you've
got, you've got the role ofSM33, but an interesting droid that
one dude. Because more so thananything else, really, really was
(32:26):
programmed to be a pirate inall sense of, you know, every sense
of the word. It wasn't just adroid that was hired by pirates,
you know, to do whatever, tomake the tea. The way he talks and
even got a peg leg and, andall that stuff is like, I don't know,
it's just a proper pirate, buta droid.
Mmm.
Yeah.
(32:47):
And it was like, it's funnywith all the code and stuff though,
you know, I mean it's like.Yeah, but I said this. It just shows
some of that weird stuff thatyou see in like Pirates of the Caribbean
and all that stuff. And itwas, yeah, it was just quite interesting
to see that it can flip andflop and his loyalty is to like the
pirate code and like I said,to being a pirate and to the ship.
(33:11):
So yeah, it was like you said,very, very hammed up but like sort
of fit because nothing elsewas hammed up. You know, it wasn't
ott. It was like that sort ofnot even the comic relief, more just
the, you know, again, notprobably not light hearted, but probably
the, like a bit of levity attimes. You know, it was just enough.
(33:35):
So again, it's all about thebalance with that one because it
could, it could just have beena caricature of everything that you
expect from a pirate, but itagain just, just the balance was,
was just about there.
Yeah, no, it was kind of cool.Yeah. I don't remember no Aton.
Yeah, until he does.
Yeah. Oh yeah, that one,remember that one?
(33:57):
I forgot about that. Of courseit was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry,
Shaggers.
Yeah, A couple of standoutsfor the, the kids on the, in the
team. So it focused on whim tobegin with for the reasons mentioned
earlier. But it actually movedover more to the character of Fearne,
(34:19):
I thought, because she was, Ithink she had the biggest sort of
character progressionthroughout the series because whim
was just whim. Right. He justwanted adventure, didn't want to
sit behind a desk. And thenwhen he got out to have adventure,
he had flip flopping betweensort of being upset and wanting to
be back home, but at the sametime kind of loving the fact that
they're out, you know,breaking the rules, having an adventure.
(34:40):
And that was him from start tofinish pretty much. Whereas Fearne,
she started off as a bit of arebel, bit of a badass, not really
giving a shit. And then by theend of it she's like, you know, she
wants to save the planet, saveher mum, all the rest of it. So I
think the, the focus shifted alittle bit to her as we went through.
But I thought those two were astandout. Apart from one episode
(35:01):
where kb, you know, the girlwho's had the implant. Yeah, for
an accident. That scene on thebeach when they followed all the
little trash crab things andher Capacitor blew out and went out
to save her. She was reallygood in that. And then Neil, bless
him, the little elephantlooking dude, he was just more sort
of cute than anything else.But in terms of child acting, like,
(35:23):
you know, pretty goodactually. Mate, sometimes with child
actors you got to be really.Sometimes they're just awful, like
really bad. But I thoughtthese ones are pretty good, dude.
But yeah, so Ravi Cabo Conyersas Wim, I thought he was really good.
And then Rhian Kira Armstrongas Fern. So those two man, for me
were good. Yeah.
(35:44):
Well, I think the entire thingwas like when you compare that to
the Acolyte.
Oh, mate.
Like the kid actors werebetter than anyone in the Acolyte,
apart from managers into.
Because crazy that you saythat. It is in it.
It's true though.
It's true.
And like, I think a lot ofthat came down to the actor that
plays Sungyoon in. In SquidGame, you know, that language barrier
(36:09):
and all of that. I just, Imean, I'm no expert. I don't want
to slight him in any waybecause he's a great actor. And certainly
in Squid Game you can see hedelivers a range of emotions. But
it was like in Acolyte, itjust never fit. It was almost like
he was. He had to deal withthe language barrier first learned
that did really well, but thencouldn't quite. It's like me learning
Spanish. I wouldn'tnecessarily know quickly enough where
(36:33):
the emotions should be inrelation to the words. And I just.
Yeah, I don't. I'm not anactor. I'm not anything to do with
dramatic performancewhatsoever. But I just wonder if
that's a factor.
You mean the nuance around thedelivery of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The enunciation of things, thedelivery of certain impactful moments
(36:55):
and it just, yeah, it feltlike that was a little bit off in
the Acolyte. But then it alsofelt like many of the sets on the
Acolyte, you could tell theywere in a studio. Even though it's
supposed to be outside. Youcould just tell they were in a studio,
like never ending storyquality level stuff, you know. And
(37:17):
I think like when you add thatand then the acting, it's like, well,
that's a bit much. And I justfeel like the. Sorry, the skeleton
crew, entire combination justwas a lot better. And the script
was better. The script wastighter. The dialogue wasn't Star
(37:39):
wars dialogue. It wasn't, youknow, I hate sand. It's coarse. You
know what I mean? It wasn't.It Was it wasn't George Lucas dialogue,
which I think the acolyte sortof was getting into that realm a
little bit. So I feel therewere just a few layers. I mean, John.
John Watts, you know, I knowhe's a director, but, you know, way
that he had to get theperformances, it clearly worked.
(38:05):
So, yeah, I thought it wasgood. I thought it was really good
from that perspective. Ithought the parents were good as
well. They could have hammedit up. I think Whim's dad was like
an interesting tiny littlearc, you know, the difference between
him at the beginning and theend. And it's that, again, it's that
cliche of rediscovering yourchild as. And taking the risks and
moving for the adventure andnot worrying about your little safe
space and trying to find thatbalance. And it was. It had every
(38:30):
cliche that you'd haveexpected from it, but it pulled it
off with enough charm that youdidn't really give a. It was a cliche,
which I think sometimes Starwars gets wrong. Like, it pulls off
cliches and you're like, oh,that's just. That's just not. It's
not that good, is it? So,yeah, again, I thought the kid actors
(38:50):
were great, and I thinkeveryone. I can't think of one. I
honestly can't think of onebad actor or not bad actor, but anyone
that pulled me out of it maybea little bit on that spa planet.
That lady was. She was likethe. The hostess. She was from Better
Call Saul. She's always alittle. Hi. Hi. And again, this is
like. This is really pickingnitpicking stuff. But it was. I don't
(39:17):
even. I don't even think. Idon't even think that pulled me out
of it enough to think, oh,that's a bit dodgy. I think everyone
was just sound and it wasquite interesting because no one
stood out, which I think is agood thing as well. Very often, like
in the Acolyte, Manager Sintowas so good and his character was
so good and his delivery ofthe character was so good that you
sort of pissed off that wedon't get more of it. And he stole
(39:39):
every scene and he was thatcharming, and it was so good to see
that. But it made the rest ofit. It made you see how the rest
of it wasn't to his standard.But I think with something like,
it really is like an ET Or aStand By Me in that you. I couldn't
name a standout actor out ofStand By Me. Like, you'd Instantly
(40:03):
go, corey Feldman. And thenyou go, yeah, but what about. What
about Will Wheaton? Like, hewas good. And what about River Phoenix?
And so you. You talk yourselfinto this. Oh, everything's an 8
out of 10. Everything's a 9out of 10. And it's just this steady
progress throughout a film,and you don't notice anyone because
they're genuinely acting andthey're genuinely playing the part.
(40:26):
And I feel like that's whatSkeleton Crew did really well, man.
Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Just goesto show, doesn't it, when you have
a decent story and you're nottrying to. You're not trying to pull
at the big threads ofeverything. Because I think with.
With the big players. I saythe big players. You know, I mean,
by like Mandalorian and theseother. And the acolyte especially,
(40:50):
it's almost like the writersare scared to. To try something too
new because it'll pull youaway from, quote, unquote, what Star
wars should be. So you end upwith this sort of writing yourself
into a corner a little bitbecause you've got this, you know,
well, we can't do thatbecause, you know, in this comic
book, they didn't end up onthat planet, so they would never
have got to there. So youcan't. All that stuff, you know,
(41:11):
it's like spaghetti junction.So with this, it was really nice
just to have the writers justhave a solid idea and just be out
here on the periphery, canjust do their own thing, you know,
and introduce.
New things that can beexplored. Like I said, why are these.
Why are these not in thedatabase? You know, And. And why
(41:33):
are they protected? Is itbecause they're mints or is it something
else? Is every planet a mint?Is everything. Is it. Or are the
other. Are there other thingson these planets or are they protected
by the Republic or are theyaware of the Republic? Are the Republic
aware of them? Are what. Didthey themselves, as a council, decide
to close themselves down andall these eight or ten planets, whatever
(41:56):
it is, so there's a lot ofreally fresh stuff in there that
you could get to because, youknow, even if you go even further
with that, like, if you get aJedi on one of those protected planets
after order 66, they're prettymuch safe because this planet survived
the Emperor, like, unscathed.Unscathed, you know, so there's lots
(42:17):
of little things that youcould do with that. All right, we'll
send 50 Jedi there, like 25men, 25 women. Go and start a new
order. There's Loads of littlebits like that, that, that, that
if they ever wanted to, theycould tell pretty interesting stories
about and I think there'd bean appetite for it.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And justlastly for me, I really liked the
(42:40):
fact that the designers on itand everybody really resisted the
urge to not put Star Warsystuff on at Aton because you know,
the, the design of the droids,you know the droids that were overseeing
everything and even like thebig computer at the end, the big
AI thing that's controllingthe planet, you know the administrator,
all of that stuff looks somelike just old school generic sci
(43:03):
fi. Like.
Yeah, that's a great shout.Didn't look Empire, didn't look Republic,
did it?
Exactly, yeah. So it wouldhave been really tempting to have
the droids and just put likeastromech droids, like R2D2s wheeling
around and all that stuff. Butnone of it was like any other droid
or computer or anything like that.
So even the blasters andstuff, you're right on that, on that
(43:24):
planet. Like the blasters onAtatom were just, they were like
sleek blasters that could havebeen out of Battlestar Galactica
or any like you said, theycould have been from like Irobot
or from the creator or any ofthese more modern sci fi, you know,
AI taking over sort of movies.It looked very similar to that, which
(43:45):
was quite interesting. Inoticed it. But it was one of those
things where you sort of like,you notice it but you sort of not
sure why it feels different.And it's all the combinations of
those little design choices.And even like the Onyx Cinder ship
is not really like a ship thatwe've seen in Star Wars. It's pretty
(44:08):
cool.
Yeah.
And it was. Yeah, I thought itwas really good because then when
you went off to that, you knowthat, that, that the planet that
I went to in the secondepisode, the one where there was
like the original MillenniumFalcon design parked up, then where
they had that little Easteregg, suddenly then you're back in
Star Wars. It's like all thespecies are there, all the ships
(44:29):
are there and it looks normal.And then the X wings turn up later
on. You like, okay. Actuallyit's just enough reminding me that
this is Star wars and it's.Yeah, it's cool. It's such a, an
interesting problem for himnow. Like how, how much more of this
sort of stuff do you do?Because you could tell amazing stories
in the Star wars universe, butdo. How much of a tolerance to the
(44:52):
trolls have for it and thefans have for it. You know, if it's
like, we'll give you moreSkeleton Crew style stuff or we'll
give you Ahsoka Season 2.Like, but you've got to pick. You
know, it's, it's, it's a hard choice.
Yeah. Interesting problem tohave. Okay, what's. What's next?
Is it andor for Disney plus?Is it and or season two?
(45:16):
About three months in April.Yeah. And or season two, which I
think is gonna be freaking excellent.
Yes, agreed. Alrighty then,for. Let's stick a pin in it for
this moment in Disney. Starwars and the latest release, Skeleton
Crew. If you have to put ascore on it, dude, out of 10, I.
(45:38):
Would go a straightforwardeight out of 10. Eight out of 10.
Solid eight. Yeah. I thinkI'll be up there with that as well,
dude. For me, it's hoveringaround a sort of seven and a half
eight we should look at.
While we're doing that, weshould look at like Rotten tomatoes.
Okay. Yeah, 91. So we'rethere. There about 77.2 out of 10
(46:02):
on IMDb. Yeah, about right.Pretty. I mean, for Rotten Tomatoes
to give a 91. Like, so we'vegot the tomato meter and the popcorn
meter. The Tomato meter is 91.The popcorn meat is 80. So that's
(46:24):
pretty solid all around. Thatmeans critics and fans, which is
rare for Star wars these days,both really liked it. So that's a
success.
Nice one, John Watts.Christopher Ford, good job. Thumbs
up. We'll wait and see if weget a second season, but for now,
that's going to do it forSkeleton crew and episode 239. Thank
(46:58):
you for coming back andjoining us as we kick off 2025 with
a brand new episode of SOR andour review and thoughts on Skeleton
Crew. A solid eight all aroundfor that one. We'll be back to our
regular schedule, I believefrom this week onwards. Mark is away
next week. He's at a workconference, but I'll do an episode
next week as there's a bunchof stories that have just sort of
(47:21):
trickled in over the lastcouple of weeks. So we'll keep you
up to speed on what's going onwith Star wars next week. And we
should be back together weekafter that. So stick around. Make
sure you're following on theold podcast apps and whatnot so you
get a notification when newSOR shiz drops. You can also listen
online. Just go tosparkrepelling.com all the apps are
(47:42):
on there. And if you head overto Slash Support. You can also ding
us some beer monies. And thankyou to all of you that have done
that thus far. Until nexttime. Dude, it's been. I've missed
you. I've missed you, genuinely.
Oh, it's good to be back init. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. You sort
of like, there was no news,was there? And then now here we are
(48:05):
and there's piles of news. So,yeah, no, it's nice to be about that.
Enjoyed it. But see your badselves next week.
Indeed. Until then, as always,you know the drill by now. Take care
of yourselves and may theForce be with you always.
(48:32):
Sa.
Hello there. We would behonored if you would join us.
Hello there and welcome toSpark of Rebellion. This is your
weekly Star wars podcast. Andwho are these guys? Who are these
(00:23):
guys? Back after a little minibreak, A little hiatus if you will,
over Christmas and New Year. Ihope you had a good one. Feels nuts
that we're. We're catching upwith people to say Happy Christmas
and stuff. But yes, we hopeyou had a good, safe Christmas and
you did something Star Warsy.What'd you get under the tree? Some
new Star Wars Lego, whatever.Hopefully something Star Wars Y.
(00:43):
I got a Star wars calendar,which was nice. My sister always
does this. What should we getGarry for Christmas? I don't know.
What is he into? Doctor who,Star Wars. We'll get him something.
It's normally Star wars socksor T shirt or something. So.
Yes.
But we are back anyway to talkabout skeleton crew. Going to get
onto that in a second. I'mgonna give you some. Some housekeeping.
(01:08):
I'll bring on my co host in asecond. But yeah, this is a continuation
if this. You are first timelistener Spark Rebellion. It's great
to have you here. If you'rekicking off the new year as we sometimes
do with like new Star warspodcast, I want to listen to stuff
not checked one out beforethen make sure you're following or
subscribing whatever podcastyou listen to this now, hit the old
follow button. Then you'll geta reminder when you get a new episode
(01:29):
drop and as we go through theepisode, if you like it, if you think
these guys are cool, throwthem some beer money, whatever. You
can do that over onsparkrebellion.com support. You can
toss us a few quid for a roundor you can become a member, even
choose your dark side or yourlight side and you can join some
other cool people who supportSor, Kev, Denise, Danny, Mark, Pascal,
(01:52):
you guys, very cool. Thank youvery much for your support and hope
you had a good Christmas. Anew year as well. My name's Garry.
I'm one of the dudes here. I'mgoing to bring on my co host. It's
the guy that I think he'sstill a bit reeling, to be honest.
He did have the part. He flewout there and everything. But then
I gave it to Jude Law in theend he was going to be in it. But
Mark Asquith, we do have the.
(02:13):
Same hairline and 2007 me hasthe same wardrobe as in.
Yes, Mark's growing his hairout a little bit. At the moment.
So he's disguising that. Maybethis is a thing now. Knocking on
a bit. Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you what itwas. So I went to London for work.
(02:37):
I was like. And I had likethis board meeting to go to. I was
like, I look a little bitscrappy. I'll go for a go for a shave
and a. And a haircut, right?So I went into the hairdressers,
like a barbers in Seoul,right, Thinking it's, yeah, look
at me, fancy little, you knowwhat I mean? And so I went in and
I'd grow. I'd actually grownit a little bit anyway. So I went
(02:58):
in and the guy, I remember hisname, he's on my Instagram. Like
he forced me to follow him. SoI was like, went in. I'm like, all
right, sunshine. It's like,oh, my go sit down, mate. Was like,
I don't know what you said,mate, but yes, I will do if you show
me the actions that accompanythose words. Please guide me. So
I did. I end up sat down. Iwas like, what do you normally have
done, mate? And I was like,well, it's normally like, you know,
(03:22):
like a short fade sort ofthing. Like maybe a zero or a one
fade. And he went, at yourage, mate, are you sure about that?
And I was like, right, grow itthen. Shall I. Shall I grow it then?
Shall I grow it then? What doyou want to do is like, give you
a number four, mate. I waslike, number four. Am I at school?
(03:43):
So that's how it started. Andyeah, so it's been good, it's been
good. But then I've not beenvery well either. I've had like a
bit of pneumonia overChristmas, so I just put my hat on.
And then today, because I'vegot to go for this work conference
tomorrow, thought I'll go andget it cut. And he literally, like
my guy, the normal guy in thevillage, literally got the clippers
(04:04):
out and just went like. Hesaid the words as he was moving to
cut. It was like, skin fade. Iwas like, no.
Oh yeah.
It was properly freaked out.And then he went like, to top it
off, he went, well, I supposehe could grow it. I'll have rock
(04:25):
in a hard place.
The adventures, eh, of stylingas a 30 plus year old.
Yeah, but, yeah, so that's,that's the story behind that, mate.
But I do have some otherinteresting news. So Christmas Day,
got some socks, Star warssocks. I was sat with my brother,
I've got a brother called Rickwho lives in Rotherham. And he was
(04:48):
like, oh, I've got a mate, youknow. I was like, oh, yeah, nice
one. There's new achievements,so. Oh, this is cool. And he went,
yeah. He told me the other daythat he's really into Star wars and
he listened to this podcastand he really likes it. It's called
Spark Rebellion. I was like,I'm sure that's my brothers. And
then he told him, it's mybrothers. And the guy was like, what?
(05:10):
That's crazy. So, Stephen, ifyou're listening. Hello. Yeah, I'll
send you some gear and I'llsend you some stickers and stuff.
I'll send them. I'll packagethem up with my brother and send
them to you. But thanks forlistening, man. It's. It's a. That's.
That's. That's happened a fewtimes with different podcasts that
we've run, so. Really cool,Stephen. Yeah, yeah, I was. I was
flattered by that. I was goingto text you on Christmas Day. I was
(05:31):
like, jesus won't want that.So I didn't.
Not when I'm making wine and.Nah, all the usual things, you know.
But that's cool, though, dude.I love that.
It's cool in it.
Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah,I've had that a few times, really
weirdly, in other parts of theworld as well. Been on a thing in
the US before.
Yeah.
And someone said, I recognizeyour voice. I listen. I'm sure it's
(05:52):
you from this Doctor whopodcast that I listen because I love
British TV and I love old sortof British sci fi, and I check out
a few podcasts. I'm surethat's you. Is your name Garry? I'm
like, yeah, that'd be me.
That's awesome.
Yeah. Halfway around theworld. I love that. Yeah, Stephen,
welcome aboard, dude.
Welcome, Stephen. Yeah, yeah,yeah. Well, we'll send you some gear.
It might not be this week ornext because I am away, but I'll.
(06:12):
I'll send you some gear. ButI. It happened to me in the village.
We moved into the village thatwe live in now. I'm sat in the pub.
This new pub opened, and themayor of the village just came up
to me and thrust my ownTwitter profile in my face. Went,
is that you? I was like, yeah,that's me. Why? I listen to your
podcast and then I post onInstagram, like, the village, like
(06:32):
a story. And then someonereplied, like, what you're doing
in my village? I was like, Ilive here, mate. I was like, you're
joking. I listen to yourpodcast. I was like, so there's two
people in this little village.This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous.
They are now great friends.
Awesome source. I love theword awesome. I know you love it.
(06:52):
Ah, one of my top three. Butyeah. Sorry. I digress then. No.
Happy New Year.
Yeah. All that aside, I've notdone anything Star wars actually
in the. In the hiatus. What Idid do though, was found out that
I'd lent a bunch of books tosomebody ages ago, years ago. I can't
get hold of them now because Ifancy catch up on some old books
(07:13):
I read.
Really?
Yeah, yeah. Like a couple ofmonths ago, I think, like end of
October or something likethat. I'd finished up reading these
old Han Solo adventure books,and I thought, you know what? Some
of the older Star wars booksare really cool. So I'm going to
dig out here to the Empire,you know, the original spin off the
books that kicked it all off.I can't find them anywhere, dude.
(07:35):
Like, I'm sure I lent them tosomebody like, many moons ago. Okay.
Bloody remember? And I thoughtI remembered and I couldn't get hold
of them, so, dude, I had toorder them again, didn't I?
Oh, that's annoying becauseyou'll find them then.
I will. Yeah.
But I hate that the.
The thing that's got this isonly a small thing. I think certain
collectors will understandthis mindset. But when I had the
books before, it was theoriginal covers. You know, the old
(07:58):
covers.
The cool ones.
Yeah. You know, a lot of bookillustrators back in the day took
like, Drew Struzan forinspiration and whatnot.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, so now I had to getthe newer cover, so it's labeled
up as like legends and. Andall that jazz. We're not the end
of the world. It's the book'sthe book. But irritated by that.
(08:18):
Big time. Have you done anything?
Yeah, it is frustrating.Frustrating that. What have I done?
I've done the glass. I'm aboutjust over halfway through this glass
abyss. This Mace Windu book,which is actually pretty good. It's
actually pretty good.
Who's that?
It was in that one.
No, who wrote the book?
(08:39):
Who done that one? StephenBarnes. Barnsley.
Barnesi yeah.
Yeah. So it's. It's about. It goes.
It's.
It's set between just afterPhantom Menace and. And it's. He
gets this mission from Qui Gonafter his death. It's like, look,
you know, go and saw this out.Shagger and. But it's like Mace Windu
(09:00):
Undercover, which is actuallypretty cool. Playing two sides against
each other. So it's. It isactually pretty good. But I was like.
When I first saw it, I waslike, the glass abyss, Mace Windu,
very good. It falls out of awindow. Shut up your dick. But it's
nothing to do with the window.So we're good. Yeah, it's actually
pretty good.
Nothing to do with Palpatine'sdouble glazing bill.
(09:21):
Well, that's the other thingwith that in it. Because at that
height, it's going to beproper reinforced gear, you know,
that's going to be inch and ahalf thick. You know, proper stuff.
We should get into thelogistics of that. But, like, I've
got some glass balustrade,mate, and I'll tell you for nothing,
you can't throw anyone throughthat. Not easily anyway.
Not anymore.
(09:41):
Anymore.
We should do that. We shoulddo an episode where we proper geek
out and just be a pair oftwats about, like, the logistical
real world impact of things todo with Star Wars. Like.
Oh, yeah, like, you see thoseguys on Twitter, like, they're not
quite trolls, but they're likescience bros. It's like. But they're
always like. It's like thatone that we saw with I met Carl the
(10:04):
prop guy, and it's like, oh,it looks like they invented Phillips
head screwdrivers. You'relike, dude, there's like six armed
creatures in hyperspacetraveling. There's like, yeah, force
telekinesis, man. Like. Andyou're worried about Phillips screwdriver.
Yeah, that's definitely theproblem. You know what I mean? Like,
shut up your peck.
(10:24):
Yeah, that is going a bit farin it. Yeah. Fascinated by that.
But people's view on thatstuff. I think it all started with
Kevin Smith, wasn't it? Andhis. On one of his podcasts, I think
he was talking about when LukeSkywalker took down the Death Star,
there was like thousands ormillions of employees of the Empire
on the Death Star, which is nofault of their own. They're just
(10:46):
earning a crust.
Yeah.
And he, like, takes down themall. Yeah. So the implications of
things like that is prettycool, but.
And then you get like a loadof the books, then explore it like
Lost Stars. That's a mintbook. But it's like, it's that, like,
that's how Cobra Kai starts init. You know what I mean? It's like,
no, that wasn't a legal kick.And then suddenly it becomes a thing.
So it's. Yeah, we should yeah,they should do. I know there's been,
(11:08):
like, a bit of talk of it, butI don't think it'll happen. But like
a what if of Star Wars. Do youknow what I mean? What if Luke hadn't
used the Force or what if, youknow, whatever else. So anyway, talk
about that all day. But, yeah,Skeleton crew. We should probably
get to that, shouldn't we?
We should get to that,shouldn't we? That's the crux of
the episode. So we took a minibreak so we could take some time
off because news was looking abit thin, let's be honest, with Star
(11:30):
wars at the time. And wethought, let's take a break. We can
chill out, watch some skeletoncrew come back, review that. So this
is the. This is the nuts andbolts of the episode. So quick, real
quick, super recap, 20 secondsrecap on Skeleton Crew. The kids
are on a planet called. I'lllet you decide how you guys want
(11:51):
to say this one. It's eitherat Aten or at Aten, depending if
you want to get your T's inthere, put your teeth in, whatever.
They think it's just aneveryday normal planet, but they
end up finding the ship. Theyblast off and they find out that
they can't get home becausetheir home planet doesn't appear
on any star charts, any maps.All a bit of a mystery. They bump
(12:14):
into a pirate dude. Hebefriends them, tricks them into.
Into trying to get them homebecause they've got like a bunch
of credits in their pockets.He's like, okay, cool. Money to be
had here. And then they go onthis adventure of, like, bumping
into other pirates, findingout the mystery behind At Aton. There's
a little bit of mystery aroundJude Law's character, Jod Nar Narwood.
(12:38):
We find out towards the end,he's nothing but spoilers, by the
way. He's nothing but a. Apirate. Used to be involved with.
With. With the Order in someways. He was trained to a certain
degree, but ended up doing theoff ski. And then we find out that
@aten is actually a planetthat produces all the Old Republic
credits. Is a bit of a mint,mint planet. And yeah, so it's more
(13:02):
like a sort of skullduggerypirate thing. Kids trying to get
home. So, yeah, straight offthe bat, dude, I want to get your
thoughts on this, but I wantto ask your thoughts based on initial
question, if I may. When wefirst saw the trailer for this, one
of the things that you pickedup on, I think A lot of people saw
this was. The trailer showedthis kind of earth, like, suburban
(13:25):
nature of Star wars, you know,with the kids in the street and the
houses and going to school andstuff. I didn't really allude to
much about what they would bedoing on said adventure. And it all
looked a little bit civilianonce we got episode one out the way
or whatever. Did you stillfeel like that as you went through
the story or did you feellike, yeah, this is still a bit.
(13:46):
What's the word to use?Pedestrian, civilian, whatever you
want to call it. But yeah.What are your thoughts based on that?
Yeah, I. It was sort of backto the Phillips screwdriver head.
You know, it's. There's aphrase for it. I can't remember what
it is, you know, this where.Where civilizations come to the same
discoveries because scienceand technology lead you in the same
(14:06):
direction, you know, so thelogical, you know, if I'm. If I'm
going like, okay, let's be anerd about it, then, yeah, it's totally
cool like that that wouldhappen. I think, I think looking
back on it, because it wassuch a small part of the series,
it worked quite nicely for mebecause it was. I think it allowed
(14:28):
you to relate to the kids andto the adventure a lot more. I think
it was clearly intended as abit of an homage to like E. T. Stand
by me, you know, small townGoonies sort of vibe, you know, the
burbs and, you know, this ideathat nothing really goes on and let's
just make that feel quitefamiliar. But then it. We did. We
(14:49):
never really then saw too muchof that again. So it was all right
and it was good. And it was.Yeah, I thought it was fine. Yeah,
I thought it was fine in theend, dude, I thought it was fine.
I didn't want it to be like,okay, you know, let's set it here.
And it all exists in thislittle town and this is all we're
going to see. And it wasn'tthat. So that was cool, man. But
what about you? Did you. I'massuming you felt pretty similar
(15:09):
on that.
Yeah, pretty much the same.Yeah. That first episode, when you
look back on it now, you'reright. Yeah, they did a good job
of portraying the kind ofeveryday life that people who know,
who don't know any differentto what's been put upon them. So
it turns out that because itwas kind of weird how the parents
(15:31):
and all the droids and stuffwere really sort of hammering home
this idea of like, youreducation is like A non negotiable
thing. And we find out lateron that it's all part of this thing
called the, the good work orsomething. Was it the good great
work which.
Is really like part of likethe High Republic hangover. You know,
(15:52):
it's. It's the great workswhich were the group of the projects
that were like StarlightBeacon and it was like Lena. So,
so I quite liked that hangoverfrom the High Republic and it was,
it was quite, it was quitenice that they sort of had that in
place. So that was, that wasactually quite a pleasant little
surprise, that.
(16:12):
Yes. Yeah. So when you lookback on it, it's like, okay, you
can see exactly why theyfeatured that in the trailer. That's.
That's pedestrian stuffbecause the actual adventures that
they go on in each, all theepisodes after episode one, they
are, they're quite varied. Youknow, they go to some different planets
and we get some differentcharacters thrown in there, which
(16:33):
is good. So yeah, my, I did, Iwas thinking about it at the start
of that first episode thinkinghow long are we going to be on in,
in this area and have thiswhole thing? But really it was only
that first episode didn'treally think about it too much. And
the thing that I liked about.Before we dive into a few details,
the thing I liked about thisoverall was that we didn't need to
(16:57):
have any one show up to savethe day, you know?
Yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah, we didn't need Mando toshow up. We didn't need Ahsoka. We
didn't need, yeah, anybody toshow up.
And I was sort of worriedabout that. To interject. Sorry man.
I was worried about that onthe finale. I was like, it's all
gonna go tits up. Like what's,what's gonna happen? Are we gonna
(17:18):
get someone show up and it's,you know, play the savior. And I
was, I was, I was certainlyglad that they didn't. And it was,
you know, this idea of we can,we can stop the crap that's happening
from this scoundrel, but itmeans getting rid of the barrier.
But then it opens us up to thegood guys still being around and
like the complexity of JudeLaw's character at the end, like
(17:42):
the fate of him and was hereinforced by the idea that good
guys still exist or not or washe just a bit of an all along or
who knows. So they, theymanaged to really self contain it
nicely whilst also giving yousome X wings flying around and not.
They didn't save the day. Theydid the things that they couldn't
do for themselves that theyneeded and do you know what I mean?
(18:04):
But it was, it was, it was thekids that managed to. And, and, and
that, you know, that classictrope of the parent realizing that
the kids, you know, it's allright to be a kid and we should all
adventure a little bit moreand be a little bit more ballsy.
So it was, man, it was full oftropes like that. So yeah, I agree.
I'm glad no one showed up. Idon't think it needed it at all.
And it was, I'm sure you'llagree, but the entire series was
(18:26):
better for not having anyconnection to anything else.
Yeah, yeah. Defo as I was. Iworried about that in the last episode
because they mentioned thatthey were going. Because I think
Wim turns around to Jude andsays like, you know, the real good
guys are going to come andsave the day sort of thing. Because
the conversation between thekids before that was like, let's,
(18:48):
let's get hold of the littleowl character. Is it Kim? So she
can call the X wings in againand save the day. And I thought,
ah, got X wings coming down.Are they gonna bring like a tentpole
character with them? You know,is this going to be a save the day
moment? So. But it didn't.Like you said, it was a nicely self
contained sort of ending tothis. And I'm not sure how it. I'm
(19:13):
not sure if it tees up asecond season enough. I've got a
funny feeling, you know, thatthis could just be a one and done.
Yeah.
Kind of thing. Because with TVnowadays, you're always looking for
the next season. Right. You'realways looking to, to do that. With
some rare exceptions. But Idon't know. I think. And if they
didn't do a second season, Ithink I'd be cool with that.
(19:34):
You know, I would. I thinkthat the things that, you know, if
you were to play a devil'sadvocate a little bit, you could
easily say, well, on thatCorvette, you know the one that looks
like the tantive. There was,there was Harrison Duller or someone
that was big enough, butwasn't Luke Skywalker or Ahsoka or
a Jedi, you know, there wouldbe opportunity to have someone militarily
(19:58):
step in and lead into a seasontwo. And I feel that there were enough,
there were enough threads leftopen that it could be interesting.
You know, what happened toJude Law's character? He was a bit
on the fence. Like he wasclearly certainly at the End of that
episode, it was. It was verymuch, you know, let's add some moral
(20:21):
ambiguity. He's always had ita little bit rough. It's been really
freaking hard for him. Hedoesn't really know any better. He
doesn't know any better thandoing this because he's always had
to fight for it and scrap forit and deal with everything and whatnot.
So this is just his nature,you know, nature versus nurture sort
of scenario. But then is heactually, you know, semi good guy?
(20:42):
So there's like. There's thatlittle thread that could be pulled,
but then there's the whole,like, why, genuinely, why were these
planets protected? We canassume it's because they all had
mints on them. And it's. Butit was freaking dangerous to. Not
to. To leave them open becausethat's where all the credits are.
But there are bigger mysteriesthat if they wanted to, they could
(21:02):
go into. But it's almost. It'salmost one of those things that benefits
from no answers. You know, youjust leave it. And. But then I sort
of then think to myself, andwe spoke. I spoke to Kev on this
one, like. Like, Jude Law is abig actor. And do you cast Jude Law
(21:24):
in Star wars? Not to use himagain? And I just don't know whether
you do.
Yeah, that's a good point. Ithink out of. Out of anything that
you would want to progress, itwould probably be his character.
Because where it concerns thechild actors and those characters,
they could have done theobvious with that, right? One of
(21:46):
them ends up accidentallyusing the Force to save one of them.
That's what they could havedone. And then they progress to be
a, you know, a Force user. Andthey, you know, there's a second
series that focuses on thatcharacter because they can now use
the Force and, you know, allthat stuff, but they didn't. So any
of those kids have. Howevercool they were at certain moments
(22:07):
throughout this first season,there's probably. Now that they're
back home and they're aware ofwhat their home planet's purpose
is, and they're aware ofwhat's going on. I don't know. It'd
be weird. And this ispotentially the problem with why
we haven't had a secondGoonies film. Because, you know,
once you've gone off andyou've done the adventure and you're
(22:27):
back home and everything'scool, how do you then go into a second
adventure? You can't do itjust for the sake of it, you know,
I mean, you have to have somekind of thing that propels them into
doing a second thing. Youcan't just. I know the Force Awakens
was kind of a copy of A NewHope, but that was, you know, slightly
(22:47):
just different enough towarrant it. But yeah, so if they
were to do a second season, Ithink it would probably be around
Jude Laws and like you said,his ambiguity and you know, does
he want to pick up. Does hewant to carry on being a pirate and
bit of an asshole, go off todo another scam, whatever it might
be? Or does he want to be.Actually, yeah, quite like this 4
stuff again that I'verediscovered. So, yeah, not sure
(23:12):
about a second season, butoverall the self containedness of
it. And I'm also quitesurprised that we didn't get any
more name dropping or any morethings. Normally within Star wars,
even if you don't want toleverage the other characters or
leverage a main storyline, youstill get like a bajillion Easter
eggs, you know, and you stillget references to all the other things.
(23:36):
But I was quite surprised thatthis was really fresh in terms of
that it focused mainly on thepirate culture and the pirate adventures
and all that stuff andcompletely steered clear of like.
I don't think we heard theword Sith mentioned at all. I don't
think we heard the word theEmperor, Palpatine, Leia, you know,
(23:58):
anything like that at all. Itwas completely bare bones to a degree.
So do you think they went toofar with that? Do you think we needed,
needed some kind of referenceto make it feel more like it was.
There was sort ofinterconnectivity there or again,
just happy it was completely fresh.
Yeah, I think it was betterfor it because I think it, it, it,
it. You know, every story isrealistically on screen about Jedi
(24:20):
and Sith at some point. So Ithink it was really good that you
know, because you got to thinkthat most of the galaxy didn't know
that Palpatine was a Sith orthat Vader was a Sith. You know,
we just see the stories wherepeople find out, but generally speaking,
the galaxy didn't know. And Ithink it was, I think it was, it
(24:40):
was good good how they usedthe Jedi notion, this idea that they'd,
you know, the pre fall of theJedi, not propaganda, but the, the
education that people receivedaround the Jedi was still in place
on our, on our Tatum becauseyou, you had. They didn't really
(25:04):
know about the galactic civilwar at a suburban level. You know,
the last communication thatStephen Fry got was the Jedi are
All traitors. But he didn'tpass that down. That's not the education
that he gave the kids and soon and so forth. So it was still.
And I think it was reflected alittle bit in the, the, the lightsaber
that Jod found it. I'm not.There was no guarantee, but it certainly
(25:29):
looked very high Republic.Very silver, very gold. It looked
very high Republican. It's in,in how ornate it was in the style
of it. So I think it was sortof, it was all, all looking through
the lens of a kid, you know.And what, what would you believe
the Jedi to be? These amazingpeacekeepers that can do anything.
(25:49):
And they didn't realize, evenat the end when's trying to black
it, they didn't realize theJedi had gone, you know, so it was.
I think they used, used thelaw of the Force well enough and,
and, and, and again, throughthe lens of a kid, through the lens
of this protected planet,through the lens of the Jedi being
the peacekeepers that we'vealways told, always been told that
(26:12):
they were. And I don't thinkit needed anything else. I don't
think it needed like otherJedi always battle the Sith and the
Sith of the bad guys andwhatever else, because it's. I, I
feel like that would theninvite like the trolls, you know.
You know, they said something.Oh, actually that's not strictly
true. Like, piss off. Youdon't need it to be strictly true.
(26:32):
So just stay away from it, youknow, it's cool.
So.
Yeah, no, I thought it wasgreat, man. I thought it was perfectly,
perfectly pitched.
Cool. Yeah. And that lookingat it through the lens of a killer,
it was cool that the, our viewof the Jedi because we've been exposed
to so many stories in eitherfilms or video games, whatever, it
(26:53):
was cool to see that amazementagain through the eyes of Whim. You
know, at the beginning whenhe's just looking at videos on his
little handheld switch orwhatever it was of Jedi is having
a scrap and stuff like that.He's just amazed by them. You know,
we haven't seen that in manystories for a while now. It's always
been, you know, just theSkywalker stuff or whatever it might
(27:17):
be. So, yeah, it was cool tosee the story through his eyes, at
least at the beginning. Andjust it was almost like when you
were watching Star wars forthe first time, like many moons ago,
and you were like, ah, theJedi. So cool. You know, you're sharing
in that amazement with him.So. Yeah, I get that. So before we
talk about just a couple ofcharacters in detail. Mainly the.
(27:38):
The. The. The kid actors. Alot of people describe this as like
Goonies in space before itwent out, which it totally was to
a large degree. But did youalso get some indie vibes in this
as well? There was a scene inabout Halfway through when they go
into the planet. You know,it's like a sort of luxury spa planet
(28:02):
now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
La Nopa, I think it's called.And the old pirate who. Who used
to own the ship that they'vegot, he had one of his. His sort
of base of operations downthere, the vault sort of thing. That
whole scene when they gothrough the booby traps, through
the corridors, and then, youknow, the light in as the big skull
comes up at the throne skullat the end and stuff. To me, that
(28:24):
was straight out of like,Temple of Doom and stuff like that.
100%. Yeah.
So, yeah, so the whole. Andthere was another couple of scenes
as well, where it's like evadeand capture and. And that sort of
thing. It just felt veryindie. So Christopher Ford and John
Watts, the writers on it. Ithink there was another. Another
person that did some writing,but just props to those guys, man,
(28:46):
just for not looking at, oh,we want to make a Star wars show.
Let's just look at, you know,the Skywalker saga. Let's base stuff
off of that. It was reallycool that they just branched out
and looked at other films andstuff for inspiration. So that was
very cool.
Yeah, it was. I think the. Ithink the idea of. Of them almost
(29:06):
doing what the mando had doneand having different directors, like
the Bryce Dallas Howardepisode and so on, and I. I think
there were. There werecertainly, certainly elements and
like, homages to those things,like Templar, Doom, clearly Stand
By Me Goonies, you know, allthat sort of stuff. The what, you
know, when they split up on.On the following episode after that
(29:28):
one, like, pure Stand By Mestuff. Do you know what I mean? And
it was, you know, follow me onmy road. You follow, you know, you
follow them on their road sortof thing. Like wizard of Oz at the
end. Lots of homage to thatwith the droid. Like, you know, it's.
It's not a supervisor, it's adroid. Holy crap. Are you kidding?
And just. Just a lot of. A lotof little homages, which I thought
(29:52):
were really good. But inparticular, I think that was really
bolstered by the use ofpractical costumes, practical effects
and stop motion. Like for thebig giant spider, like, that was
stop motion and just, youcould tell. You could tell. And it
just, it felt like, it, itfelt like Star wars like you said.
(30:15):
It felt ambling, it feltGoonies Stand by Me. You know, it
felt all that stuff, but itfelt Star wars because of all that.
And, and it's like you saidthe sort of. They've tried to give
a little bit of that magicback to something that you saw as
a kid through, through the waythings look and feel. So yeah, I
(30:38):
was, I was really impressed bythat. But then it was cool that you
could then jump up to theproduction value of the space scenes
and you know, the battles andthe X wings. And so it was a really,
it's like the best sort ofbalance I think I've seen in a Star
wars production recently whereit's not, it's sort of not forgotten
(30:58):
about the 70s and that's howwe did things then. So yeah, I thought
it was really nice mix, man.
Yeah, agreed. Yeah, it wascool. Some characters then, dude,
Nick Frost really hamming itup with his. Is his pirate voice
is SM33.
(31:20):
Yeah.
Do you know what? This musthave been like a dream come true
for Nick Frost because I thinkhim and Simon Pegg, you know, they've
tag team a lot over the yearson things and I think because they
were such massive Star warsfans and probably still are from
when they used to knock aroundtogether when they were younger.
I think Nick Frost probablyfelt a bit left out when Simon Pegg
(31:43):
not had a starring role, buthe was involved in some capacity
with Star Wars.
He played, he played thecharacter that trades rare for a
food.
That's it. Yeah. In the ForceAwakens. Yeah. So he wasn't like,
you know, it wasn't like Starwars starring Simon Pegg, but he
was involved in it and I thinkhe had a, I think Simon Pegg had
like breakfast with GeorgeLucas or lunch or something and stuff
(32:05):
like that. So for Nick Frostto help have a Star wars and arguably,
you know, he's had a biggerinvolvement than Simon Pegg does,
but I bet he was over the moonto get the call to say, yeah, you've
got, you've got the role ofSM33, but an interesting droid that
one dude. Because more so thananything else, really, really was
(32:26):
programmed to be a pirate inall sense of, you know, every sense
of the word. It wasn't just adroid that was hired by pirates,
you know, to do whatever, tomake the tea. The way he talks and
even got a peg leg and, andall that stuff is like, I don't know,
it's just a proper pirate, buta droid.
Mmm.
Yeah.
(32:47):
And it was like, it's funnywith all the code and stuff though,
you know, I mean it's like.Yeah, but I said this. It just shows
some of that weird stuff thatyou see in like Pirates of the Caribbean
and all that stuff. And itwas, yeah, it was just quite interesting
to see that it can flip andflop and his loyalty is to like the
pirate code and like I said,to being a pirate and to the ship.
(33:11):
So yeah, it was like you said,very, very hammed up but like sort
of fit because nothing elsewas hammed up. You know, it wasn't
ott. It was like that sort ofnot even the comic relief, more just
the, you know, again, notprobably not light hearted, but probably
the, like a bit of levity attimes. You know, it was just enough.
(33:35):
So again, it's all about thebalance with that one because it
could, it could just have beena caricature of everything that you
expect from a pirate, but itagain just, just the balance was,
was just about there.
Yeah, no, it was kind of cool.Yeah. I don't remember no Aton.
Yeah, until he does.
Yeah. Oh yeah, that one,remember that one?
(33:57):
I forgot about that. Of courseit was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry,
Shaggers.
Yeah, A couple of standoutsfor the, the kids on the, in the
team. So it focused on whim tobegin with for the reasons mentioned
earlier. But it actually movedover more to the character of Fearne,
(34:19):
I thought, because she was, Ithink she had the biggest sort of
character progressionthroughout the series because whim
was just whim. Right. He justwanted adventure, didn't want to
sit behind a desk. And thenwhen he got out to have adventure,
he had flip flopping betweensort of being upset and wanting to
be back home, but at the sametime kind of loving the fact that
they're out, you know,breaking the rules, having an adventure.
(34:40):
And that was him from start tofinish pretty much. Whereas Fearne,
she started off as a bit of arebel, bit of a badass, not really
giving a shit. And then by theend of it she's like, you know, she
wants to save the planet, saveher mum, all the rest of it. So I
think the, the focus shifted alittle bit to her as we went through.
But I thought those two were astandout. Apart from one episode
(35:01):
where kb, you know, the girlwho's had the implant. Yeah, for
an accident. That scene on thebeach when they followed all the
little trash crab things andher Capacitor blew out and went out
to save her. She was reallygood in that. And then Neil, bless
him, the little elephantlooking dude, he was just more sort
of cute than anything else.But in terms of child acting, like,
(35:23):
you know, pretty goodactually. Mate, sometimes with child
actors you got to be really.Sometimes they're just awful, like
really bad. But I thoughtthese ones are pretty good, dude.
But yeah, so Ravi Cabo Conyersas Wim, I thought he was really good.
And then Rhian Kira Armstrongas Fern. So those two man, for me
were good. Yeah.
(35:44):
Well, I think the entire thingwas like when you compare that to
the Acolyte.
Oh, mate.
Like the kid actors werebetter than anyone in the Acolyte,
apart from managers into.
Because crazy that you saythat. It is in it.
It's true though.
It's true.
And like, I think a lot ofthat came down to the actor that
plays Sungyoon in. In SquidGame, you know, that language barrier
(36:09):
and all of that. I just, Imean, I'm no expert. I don't want
to slight him in any waybecause he's a great actor. And certainly
in Squid Game you can see hedelivers a range of emotions. But
it was like in Acolyte, itjust never fit. It was almost like
he was. He had to deal withthe language barrier first learned
that did really well, but thencouldn't quite. It's like me learning
Spanish. I wouldn'tnecessarily know quickly enough where
(36:33):
the emotions should be inrelation to the words. And I just.
Yeah, I don't. I'm not anactor. I'm not anything to do with
dramatic performancewhatsoever. But I just wonder if
that's a factor.
You mean the nuance around thedelivery of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The enunciation of things, thedelivery of certain impactful moments
(36:55):
and it just, yeah, it feltlike that was a little bit off in
the Acolyte. But then it alsofelt like many of the sets on the
Acolyte, you could tell theywere in a studio. Even though it's
supposed to be outside. Youcould just tell they were in a studio,
like never ending storyquality level stuff, you know. And
(37:17):
I think like when you add thatand then the acting, it's like, well,
that's a bit much. And I justfeel like the. Sorry, the skeleton
crew, entire combination justwas a lot better. And the script
was better. The script wastighter. The dialogue wasn't Star
(37:39):
wars dialogue. It wasn't, youknow, I hate sand. It's coarse. You
know what I mean? It wasn't.It Was it wasn't George Lucas dialogue,
which I think the acolyte sortof was getting into that realm a
little bit. So I feel therewere just a few layers. I mean, John.
John Watts, you know, I knowhe's a director, but, you know, way
that he had to get theperformances, it clearly worked.
(38:05):
So, yeah, I thought it wasgood. I thought it was really good
from that perspective. Ithought the parents were good as
well. They could have hammedit up. I think Whim's dad was like
an interesting tiny littlearc, you know, the difference between
him at the beginning and theend. And it's that, again, it's that
cliche of rediscovering yourchild as. And taking the risks and
moving for the adventure andnot worrying about your little safe
space and trying to find thatbalance. And it was. It had every
(38:30):
cliche that you'd haveexpected from it, but it pulled it
off with enough charm that youdidn't really give a. It was a cliche,
which I think sometimes Starwars gets wrong. Like, it pulls off
cliches and you're like, oh,that's just. That's just not. It's
not that good, is it? So,yeah, again, I thought the kid actors
(38:50):
were great, and I thinkeveryone. I can't think of one. I
honestly can't think of onebad actor or not bad actor, but anyone
that pulled me out of it maybea little bit on that spa planet.
That lady was. She was likethe. The hostess. She was from Better
Call Saul. She's always alittle. Hi. Hi. And again, this is
like. This is really pickingnitpicking stuff. But it was. I don't
(39:17):
even. I don't even think. Idon't even think that pulled me out
of it enough to think, oh,that's a bit dodgy. I think everyone
was just sound and it wasquite interesting because no one
stood out, which I think is agood thing as well. Very often, like
in the Acolyte, Manager Sintowas so good and his character was
so good and his delivery ofthe character was so good that you
sort of pissed off that wedon't get more of it. And he stole
(39:39):
every scene and he was thatcharming, and it was so good to see
that. But it made the rest ofit. It made you see how the rest
of it wasn't to his standard.But I think with something like,
it really is like an ET Or aStand By Me in that you. I couldn't
name a standout actor out ofStand By Me. Like, you'd Instantly
(40:03):
go, corey Feldman. And thenyou go, yeah, but what about. What
about Will Wheaton? Like, hewas good. And what about River Phoenix?
And so you. You talk yourselfinto this. Oh, everything's an 8
out of 10. Everything's a 9out of 10. And it's just this steady
progress throughout a film,and you don't notice anyone because
they're genuinely acting andthey're genuinely playing the part.
(40:26):
And I feel like that's whatSkeleton Crew did really well, man.
Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Just goesto show, doesn't it, when you have
a decent story and you're nottrying to. You're not trying to pull
at the big threads ofeverything. Because I think with.
With the big players. I saythe big players. You know, I mean,
by like Mandalorian and theseother. And the acolyte especially,
(40:50):
it's almost like the writersare scared to. To try something too
new because it'll pull youaway from, quote, unquote, what Star
wars should be. So you end upwith this sort of writing yourself
into a corner a little bitbecause you've got this, you know,
well, we can't do thatbecause, you know, in this comic
book, they didn't end up onthat planet, so they would never
have got to there. So youcan't. All that stuff, you know,
(41:11):
it's like spaghetti junction.So with this, it was really nice
just to have the writers justhave a solid idea and just be out
here on the periphery, canjust do their own thing, you know,
and introduce.
New things that can beexplored. Like I said, why are these.
Why are these not in thedatabase? You know, And. And why
(41:33):
are they protected? Is itbecause they're mints or is it something
else? Is every planet a mint?Is everything. Is it. Or are the
other. Are there other thingson these planets or are they protected
by the Republic or are theyaware of the Republic? Are the Republic
aware of them? Are what. Didthey themselves, as a council, decide
to close themselves down andall these eight or ten planets, whatever
(41:56):
it is, so there's a lot ofreally fresh stuff in there that
you could get to because, youknow, even if you go even further
with that, like, if you get aJedi on one of those protected planets
after order 66, they're prettymuch safe because this planet survived
the Emperor, like, unscathed.Unscathed, you know, so there's lots
(42:17):
of little things that youcould do with that. All right, we'll
send 50 Jedi there, like 25men, 25 women. Go and start a new
order. There's Loads of littlebits like that, that, that, that
if they ever wanted to, theycould tell pretty interesting stories
about and I think there'd bean appetite for it.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And justlastly for me, I really liked the
(42:40):
fact that the designers on itand everybody really resisted the
urge to not put Star Warsystuff on at Aton because you know,
the, the design of the droids,you know the droids that were overseeing
everything and even like thebig computer at the end, the big
AI thing that's controllingthe planet, you know the administrator,
all of that stuff looks somelike just old school generic sci
(43:03):
fi. Like.
Yeah, that's a great shout.Didn't look Empire, didn't look Republic,
did it?
Exactly, yeah. So it wouldhave been really tempting to have
the droids and just put likeastromech droids, like R2D2s wheeling
around and all that stuff. Butnone of it was like any other droid
or computer or anything like that.
So even the blasters andstuff, you're right on that, on that
(43:24):
planet. Like the blasters onAtatom were just, they were like
sleek blasters that could havebeen out of Battlestar Galactica
or any like you said, theycould have been from like Irobot
or from the creator or any ofthese more modern sci fi, you know,
AI taking over sort of movies.It looked very similar to that, which
(43:45):
was quite interesting. Inoticed it. But it was one of those
things where you sort of like,you notice it but you sort of not
sure why it feels different.And it's all the combinations of
those little design choices.And even like the Onyx Cinder ship
is not really like a ship thatwe've seen in Star Wars. It's pretty
(44:08):
cool.
Yeah.
And it was. Yeah, I thought itwas really good because then when
you went off to that, you knowthat, that, that the planet that
I went to in the secondepisode, the one where there was
like the original MillenniumFalcon design parked up, then where
they had that little Easteregg, suddenly then you're back in
Star Wars. It's like all thespecies are there, all the ships
(44:29):
are there and it looks normal.And then the X wings turn up later
on. You like, okay. Actuallyit's just enough reminding me that
this is Star wars and it's.Yeah, it's cool. It's such a, an
interesting problem for himnow. Like how, how much more of this
sort of stuff do you do?Because you could tell amazing stories
in the Star wars universe, butdo. How much of a tolerance to the
(44:52):
trolls have for it and thefans have for it. You know, if it's
like, we'll give you moreSkeleton Crew style stuff or we'll
give you Ahsoka Season 2.Like, but you've got to pick. You
know, it's, it's, it's a hard choice.
Yeah. Interesting problem tohave. Okay, what's. What's next?
Is it andor for Disney plus?Is it and or season two?
(45:16):
About three months in April.Yeah. And or season two, which I
think is gonna be freaking excellent.
Yes, agreed. Alrighty then,for. Let's stick a pin in it for
this moment in Disney. Starwars and the latest release, Skeleton
Crew. If you have to put ascore on it, dude, out of 10, I.
(45:38):
Would go a straightforwardeight out of 10. Eight out of 10.
Solid eight. Yeah. I thinkI'll be up there with that as well,
dude. For me, it's hoveringaround a sort of seven and a half
eight we should look at.
While we're doing that, weshould look at like Rotten tomatoes.
Okay. Yeah, 91. So we'rethere. There about 77.2 out of 10
(46:02):
on IMDb. Yeah, about right.Pretty. I mean, for Rotten Tomatoes
to give a 91. Like, so we'vegot the tomato meter and the popcorn
meter. The Tomato meter is 91.The popcorn meat is 80. So that's
(46:24):
pretty solid all around. Thatmeans critics and fans, which is
rare for Star wars these days,both really liked it. So that's a
success.
Nice one, John Watts.Christopher Ford, good job. Thumbs
up. We'll wait and see if weget a second season, but for now,
that's going to do it forSkeleton crew and episode 239. Thank
(46:58):
you for coming back andjoining us as we kick off 2025 with
a brand new episode of SOR andour review and thoughts on Skeleton
Crew. A solid eight all aroundfor that one. We'll be back to our
regular schedule, I believefrom this week onwards. Mark is away
next week. He's at a workconference, but I'll do an episode
next week as there's a bunchof stories that have just sort of
(47:21):
trickled in over the lastcouple of weeks. So we'll keep you
up to speed on what's going onwith Star wars next week. And we
should be back together weekafter that. So stick around. Make
sure you're following on theold podcast apps and whatnot so you
get a notification when newSOR shiz drops. You can also listen
online. Just go tosparkrepelling.com all the apps are
(47:42):
on there. And if you head overto Slash Support. You can also ding
us some beer monies. And thankyou to all of you that have done
that thus far. Until nexttime. Dude, it's been. I've missed
you. I've missed you, genuinely.
Oh, it's good to be back init. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. You sort
of like, there was no news,was there? And then now here we are
(48:05):
and there's piles of news. So,yeah, no, it's nice to be about that.
Enjoyed it. But see your badselves next week.
Indeed. Until then, as always,you know the drill by now. Take care
of yourselves and may theForce be with you always.
(48:32):
Sa.
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