From Fan Fiction to Fantha Tracks A Star Wars Journey with Mark Newbold

Ever wondered what it's like to turn a childhood obsession into a dream career? Join us as we journey to a galaxy far, far away with Mark Newbold, Editor-in-Chief of Fantha Tracks!

Mark, a lifelong Star Wars devotee, shares his incredible story, from battling illness with the Force by his side to interviewing legends like Anthony Daniels and Jon Favreau.

Remember writing Star Wars fan fiction as a kid? Mark does, and he turned that passion into a profession! He reflects on the evolution of fandom, contrasting his early, solitary experiences with the vibrant, interconnected world of today's online community. He shares fascinating insights from his interviews, including a surprising connection between Rick McCullum and actor Michael York!

For all you dads out there reliving the magic of Star Wars through your kids’ eyes, this episode is a must-listen. Mark dives into the unique atmosphere of Star Wars Celebration, compares it to the Star Trek universe, and shares his excitement for upcoming projects like "Starfighter" and Rey's return. Plus, he offers inspiring advice for aspiring writers. Get ready to jump to lightspeed and explore the power of passion with Mark Newbold!

Follow Mark on socials @prefect_timing
Follow Fantha Tracks @fanthatracks
Check out www.fanthatracks.com

Looking for more episodes? https://podfollow.com/tatooine-sons-a-pop-culture-podcast/home

Join our Facebook Community SPECIFICALLY for Star Wars Dads! > https://www.facebook.com/groups/starwarsdads

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Imagine being a twelve year old kid. You're feeling under
the weather, you've actually been sick for a little while,
and your mom hands you a magazine that reignites your
passion for a galaxy far far away. That moment changed
everything for our guests this week, Mark Newbold, who spent
decades since living and breathing Star Wars. Mark shares his

(00:26):
incredible journey from a young fan to editor in chief
of Phant the Tracks. He's revealing unforgettable stories from his
interviews with absolutely iconic figures and insights into the evolution
of fandom. So whether you're a dad who's looking to
relive those childhood memories or you're just a diehard Star

(00:47):
Wars enthusiast, you're not going to want to miss this conversation.
Stick around as we explore the magic of Star Wars
through Mark Newbold's eyes. This is Tattooine Sons.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Welcome to Tatooine's Sons, a Star Wars podcast, the only
fan podcast to name a cannon Star Wars creature and
to be endorsed by the writer and director of The
Last Jedi, Ryan Johnson. Getting ready to explore a galaxy
far far away across the generations. Here is your host,
David the bow Tie Jedi Guy, along with his special guest,

(01:23):
recognized Star Wars insider and editor in chief of Phanta Tracks,
Mark Newbold.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
I farving ready, all right, Mark, you have been immersed
in the Star Wars galaxy for decades now with it.
What was that one moment, that pivotal experience that kind
of cemented your lifelong obsession here with Star Wars? Was
it a specific toy of viewing and experience something else entirely?

(01:53):
What was that for you?

Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's a really good question because I think paper get
asked what was the first thing that got you in
to it? But what was the thing that cemented it?
It's kind of a different question because there's the assumption
that just seeing it initially was enough to hook you forever,
and it's not, because so many people sort of step
off or step off and come back up or whatever
I would say. I'd say the thing that cemented it

(02:17):
was I had a brief period sort of late seventies
into the early eighties where I still loved it, but
I wasn't as madly into it, and so I think
I stopped. I was a big reader as a kid,
but I think for whatever reason, I think kind of
falling out of a friend or something, and it was
just one of those sort of court in the crossfire
type things. Hey, he loved Star Wars and ives like
I don't like Star Wars anymore, so so I left

(02:38):
Stars alone for a little bit. And then I think,
in fact, I know I was ill and was off school,
and Mom knew that the best way to sort of
cheer me up was generally to give me a magazine
or a comic or something to read, just to keep
you busy, you know, obviously decades before the Internet and
all that stuff, would keep us busy and just sitting
sitting on the sofa feeling sorry for myself reading I

(03:00):
think it was probably Star Wars Monthly or something like
that back then, and absolutely loved it. So this would
be about about eighty two, I would say, so I'd
probably stopped reading it for a couple of years, and
then I'd started doing fanfic. So I decided, then, with
this specific issue of the monthly, the UK Monthly, that

(03:24):
I was going to go and write a sequel story
to it, not quite cottoning on. That next month Marvel
would actually release the sequel story to it or the
reprint of the American version, And so I wrote my
own sort of little fanfic story what happened to you know,
Lando and Layer and Luke and all those characters you know,
on the hunt for hand solo, and started doing fanfic.
And I think ever since then, I can pretty pretty

(03:46):
confidently say that there hasn't been a day since I
haven't either written Star Wars, been fanfic in pre internet days,
or done audio when I went through a phase of
doing fan audio up to fanazines and then websites and
write through to today. So we'll probably say the cementing
moment was was feeling ill and my mom buying me
a copy of Star Wars Monthly.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
That's uncol How old were you in eighty two?

Speaker 3 (04:10):
I'd been eleven, ten or eleven, so I'm fifty four
and now, so that's a long old ball.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
You know. It's funny you've seen so much in Star
Wars fandom evolve over the years and and changed dramatically.
What are some of the biggest differences that you see
between how you experienced Star Wars as that twelve year
old reading a monthly magazine and as a kid, and
how kids you feel like are experiencing it today other

(04:40):
than I mean obviously the Internet and things like that.
But what are some of the different differences you noticed.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, I think I've said this before. I think when
we were kids, and this is I want to say why.
I mean all of us individually, because it would be
the same for you. Our internet, our Worldwide Web was
the playground pretty much. And so generally unless you went
away on holiday for a week to the coast and
there was a Star's Arcade machine, you'd end up playing
that and talking to the kids that were playing it
as well. Generally your friendship group was you know, that

(05:09):
was that was the world wide Web. So the difference
then to the difference now is that I couldn't envisage, Okay.
So in nineteenninety three I had a letter printed in
return of the Jedi Weekly, which was the came a
couple of issues, a couple of iterations after that. Star
was a monthly that I did that I read and
I sent the letter in and back in the day

(05:30):
you would put your address. So there's a copy of
Stars Weekly, issue eleven August nineteen eighty three, not like
I can't remember it, and there's my little letter with
my old address when I lived in Bertwood, which is
where I live now. Moved back there a few years ago,
and my fan fit name Yan Lamona, So that was
my character had created off the back of feeling ill

(05:50):
and sorry for myself. And so I've got a few
fan letters from people who thought Yan was actually jan
Jan as in Janet or Janet, so all these people
thought I was a girl. But the point being was
that being a Star Wars fan then felt a lot
more maybe personal, because not everyone at school was into
Star Wars. You were see Star Wars everywhere back in

(06:13):
the mid eighties, especially leading up to Jedi, but I
think as it's moved forward, it's become so much more
universal and global that you know we mentioned before we
started recording. I was in Japan for celebration, which was
a great treat and I never thought I'd ever see Japan,
so I'm thrilled to have done that. But I could
have been studying on an elevator in a left in

(06:34):
a hotel lobby, loads of people there that I knew,
but loads of people that I didn't, and just start
chatting about Star Wars. So I think the big difference
is now I wrote a lot back then, an awful
lot of fiction, and a tiny amount of people read
it or have ever read it. Later on, it went
onto a site around called Lightsailer, which was like a

(06:56):
fanfic site, and that sort of blossomed into the new
stuff that I do. But I never assumed that that
many people read it. I just didn't think people would
read it. Whereas so now I know if I'm writing
something on Panther or something for Insider or ILM or whatever,
that a lot more eyes are on it. So that's
a difference for me personally, But generally, I think it's
just become so much more. It's such a part of

(07:19):
the zeitgeist, but it's a permanent fixture. It's not gone away.
So a Star Wars reference, any kind of oblique style
Wars reference, is going to catch on with people. They're
going to get what you're talking about. May the whatever
be with you. You know, they know what you're saying,
they know that they get the construction of the joke.
I think that's the big difference to me, But then
maybe that's me as an adult looking back with different

(07:41):
eyes to me as a twelve year old, because when
I was twelve and I still am Team Star Wars,
but I was like, silly team Stop to the point
I wanted to shooting to rip ET's arms off because
Et took more money than Star Wars. That's how silly
Style Wars fan. You know how crazy is it? I
was back then, So I say, that's the difference. It's
just so much more out there than it was back
in the day.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
You know, it's fun to hear how as a twelve
year old writing fanfic evolved to where this is what
you do every day, Like you're writing constantly for Phanta
and all of these other amazing publications with it, it's incredible.

(08:23):
Can you share maybe a particular memorable or surprising piece
of Star Wars lore, star Wars history, something behind the
scenes or whatever that you uncovered Why you were writing
about these things that you think would is just it
was like, when you think about like these types of moments,

(08:45):
it's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that that
I got to be a part of that or experience at.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
The first thing that comes to mind was I interviewed
McCullum about two thousand and seven that sort of time,
which was all so as I said, I ran I
called Lightsaber for a long time. It started off as
a site called wire Zone, and then when Phantom was coming,
we changed the name to Lightsaber because it was more
of a Star Wars name, and it started off small,

(09:10):
and by the time we'd finished lights Aber in two
thousand and nine, we were getting a million hits a year,
so we were doing pretty well for a site. Bear
in mind, there was way bigger sights than that back
in the day. Are many more sites back in the day.
It's not actually that many Star Wars dedicated sites now
compared to how they used to be. It's all on
social media stuff now. But I'd got quite a good

(09:32):
reputation for doing interviews in the sort of the mid
two thousands, just around the time we were starting with Insider,
and I'd interviewed I might be getting my slightly in
the wrong order, but I remember I'd interviewed Anthony Daniels
and he said I came recommended by Lucasfilm, so I
knew that I was on their radar, which was nice.
And then I interviewed Rich McCullum and had a great

(09:55):
interview with Rick and he set me up an interview
with Irvin Kirshner, which I'll never be able to think
enough for because that was amazing. But during the interview
with with Rick, it came out that his and I
hope I'm remembering it this right, his stepfather was Michael York,
who was basile exposition in the you know, in the

(10:15):
Austin Powers films, and and in the Full Musketeers and
Logan's running all these great films. And I had no idea.
So this this completely miss unrelated to Star Wars really,
but this little bit of trivial I thought, that is
the coolest bit of trivia. Course I did not know this.
That's the that's the one thing that comes to mind.
I mean, I know as I mean, because I'm sad,

(10:40):
I keep track of these things. So I think I've
done seven hundred and fifty Star Wars related interviews with
about four hundred and fifty different people, so some of
many of you know interviewed numerous times for various things.
So every now and again something will come up that, wow,
I didn't really, I didn't know that. But that Michael

(11:00):
Yacht thing has just always stayed in my head because
I know, I know I talk a lot. You say,
I'm very aware that I rab it on a lot.
An exposition kind of seems to be kind of a
man splitting so much might call it, but it just
seems relevant to me when I you know, this thing
starts going. So yeah, Michael Yort being Rick McCullum's stepdad,
that's so cool.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, that's you would have never thought that that. No,
they don't even feel like they're the same world at all.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Not remembering especially when Rick gets going.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
I mean what a yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. When you
mentioned interviewing four hundred and fifty plus people in the
time that you've been doing this, yeah, what was there?
Was there an I mean obviously talk about Anthony Daniels,
you talking about Rick McCallum or incursioner others. What was

(11:53):
the interview that you're like when you got it, you
were like, oh my gosh, this this is this really happened.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
There's a couple I mean, the first time with Anthony
was nerve wracking, because he does come with a reputation
of potentially being a little bit prickly, and I've interviewed
him I think it's six times now, and every time
has been a joy. And I don't want to jinx myself.
I'll risk I'll risk jinxing myself by saying we do

(12:22):
see it again on really well. And the last couple
of times he's requested me to interview him for various things,
which is nice. And every time we have fun. I've
been to his house a couple of times and so
it's a nice nice what a vanilla word, But it's
been a pleasurable, you know, been a pleasurable experience, and
we've I've learnt something new every time and it's just
been interesting and we just have a nice chat and

(12:44):
it's very very easy. I've jinxed in now this one's
going to be awful, but there you go, at the
risk of jinks in it. Ah, no doubt. Curshner was
just mind blowing just to Empires, my favorite film. So
I to think that I've spent half an hour talk
to the guy that directed that was amazing. I don't know,

(13:06):
there's there's been a there's been a couple. I mean,
Favreau was pretty cool. That was That was a couple
of years ago. It was a bit of a it
was a round table time thing. So it was at
some hotel in London where Mando Season three was out,
and it was myself and Phil Roberts from the Future

(13:27):
of the Force and James from jen On News. Well
I used to be with jen On News, so it
was the three of us sat around the table with
Favreau and not knowing. I didn't really know much about him.
You know, he's a good actor, so he can come
over as the most avuncular, friendly type guy in the world.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
And you don't know what he's going to be like
in the real world.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
Literally that you don't know. It could be an actor,
could be a front. Wow, it was not a front.
He was so nice. He apologized for only giving us
twenty minutes. He said he wanted to talk more. It
was such a nice atmosphere. And then we got to
the end of it and I don't know if you know,
as one of these Mando challenge coin things that he
carries around and hands out to various people, and so

(14:04):
at the end of the conversation, I slapped down a
Panther patch and James puts down the Jedi News patch
with Phil gave him something and he went one minute
and he went out of the room and came back
with three coins which is like what a cool thing
to do, so that one's always going to sort of
rank pretty highly, but quite often it's just it's the
not innocuous, that's not the right word. But you know,

(14:26):
we do a lot with very look at here in
the UK, a lot of the cast and crew are British, right.
So this past weekend I was at an event called
a More down in the New Forest where we go
quite regularly for a vintage show called Fire this one
and Dave Dave Tree who used to be in my
co host and making tracks back in the day. He
puts on these amazing events in a tiny, tiny village
hall and this time he had thirteen guests. There was

(14:48):
like three guys from ILM. He had Lou Hall, the
production designer, and all the guys from the Creature's shop.
Lee Twis if you know those kind of guys. Thirteen people,
Me and Mark st of interchange between the two of
us doing the panels and just moments like that when
you just sat with these incredible you know one they're

(15:09):
giving you their time to they're giving you their knowledge
in a way that we can digest because especially the
ILM guys, I mean I write for ilm now, but
so much of it is just straight over your head
because it's techie stuff. I'm the least technical person that
it's amazing. I've got my computer working for this, so
I'm not a techy person at all, so bark and
white about stuff. So they frame it in a way

(15:29):
that's like, I get that, that makes sense. I understand that.
So it's moments like that when they're kind of coming
down to my level. I was trying. I know, I'm
a knowledgeable stole was fand in certain ways, but in
that way, I'm really really not, And so I always
appreciate when they can just pass it down and frame
it in a way that's, well, I get it. If
I get it, other people will get it. So I

(15:51):
think sometimes it's moments like that that really, you know,
really cool. So but I can't I really can't think
of many outside of sometimes they've written interviews, correspondence email
correspondence type interviews and they're not particularly satisfied. They're good
to have, but they just get the job done. When
you're actually speaking to somebody and there's the interaction and

(16:13):
an answer comes back from a fairly straightforward question that
that sort of leads onto another question. Wow, you say that,
but what about this? That's what I like when you
really get into the out in the ways. That's that's
the fun part of it.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
You talk about Anthony Daniels and his sort of reputation
for being potentially prickly with with the interviewers and press
and and and that type of situation. It's funny how
it's become sort of a stick between him and specifically

(16:46):
Anthony Carboni and at celebration and how they play off
of each other. And you've been you've been involved with
celebrations since the very beginning, is that correct, like the
very started.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
First year paid one, the first year paid thousand and seven.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. And you've been on pretty much
every podcast stage since they started doing that.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah. Yeah, I've been very lucky, really they I think
from what I know from what I remember, they did
podcast panels on the fans stages, but they didn't start
the podcast. Yeah, so an actual specific podcast stage. So
luckily I've been to all the celebrations and through like
Jedi News and now Panther, I've been I've either done

(17:28):
Radio one and three eight or making tracks or or
one of the other shows that I do on all
of them, so yeah, And because it was running the
stage a few of them, I kept track of who'd
done what and how many shows have done how many
you know, slots on stages, and then sat back and
looked and thought, blimey, I'm the only one that's done
I'm the only one that's done every single one. And
I honestly didn't know that going in. I thought there

(17:50):
must be other people that have done every single one,
but but there wasn't. So yeah, So that's a nice
little that's a nice little again, are.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
There, you're you're one of the good guys in the
space man, You're now as long as you know you're
you're You're fine. It's it's fun celebration, is is it's
such a different experience from any other fan type convention
with it. But you're a Star Trek guy.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Too, Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah with it?

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Have you been to you know, have you been to
I mean, I'm assuming Star Trek conventions and and those
types of things. Are they similar for you as as
a fan?

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Do they? Did they feel that it is?

Speaker 1 (18:30):
The environment feel differently and what are the similarities and
the differences for you.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
It's weird. The first proper big comics guy. So all
the Shopper went to in the eighties was comic marks
and comic conventions and stuff like that. My first proper,
like the air quotes, proper convention was the thirty third
British Sci Fi Convention, Soul three in Birmingham. Should have
had Will Wheaton company broke his ankle skateboarding, which weird

(18:55):
the beginning share of the weekend because it's it's well, yeah,
it's it's Wesley. Should not Wesley, And so Barry Ingham came.
He was again. He was a guest actually in the
season two of The Next Gen. And it's very different.
It's it's a more it's an older crowd. It's a
more thoughtful crowd in you know, because Star Trek is
a kind of a deeper cut in a way that

(19:18):
the Star Wars. And I appreciate that more. It wasn't
I don't know how to say more people who feel
very at home with their own people. That's the way
of saying it. With Star Trek, there's people who you
can see in everyday life, a kind of loaners are

(19:38):
kind of a little bit isolated, and they're into their
thing and they love it dearly. But they come to
a show or an event like a Star Trek convention
and that's totally their tribe. That's totally their tribe. So
it's a bit like walking into a rock gig and
like nine out of ten people are wearing Metallica made
and blacks, all the big bands, but you're the guy

(19:59):
that turns up in Wolf's playing T shirt that no
one's ever heard of, you know', and it's it's all
those guys together. So that was the thing I felt
with Trek. It felt very much more of a finding
your tribe type of viber. Star Wars is so out there,
no no shock seeing somebody walking down the street and
the Star Wars T shirt, but a bit slightly different
with the Trek one. So it's very different there. Yeah,

(20:21):
I've been looking with Trek as well. I I wrote
for Star Trek dot com for a while, which I
really enjoyed, and the official mag which is now finished,
which was great fun. And actually got a cover article
with that one because I am to be Shatner, which
was very cool back in the day. But yeah, they're different.
I did some stage hosting at Destination Star Trek which

(20:43):
was the official European event in the UK and in Germany,
and that was a lot of fun. But they are
they are different. I mean, Star Wars is undoubtedly just
a bigger thing. So there's no real Star Trek equivalent
to Celebration other than the official Trek convention at the
Rio in Vegas, which I've never been to and it's

(21:03):
totally on my book at list to go to. That's
probably as close as you'll get. And they because it's
Trek and it's a different kind of game, they'll have
sort of whereas Celebration will have fifteen twenty guests. Of course,
Celebration could have one hundred guests if they wanted to.
It's a different model, whereas at Trek they'll quite happily
have fifty guests. It's a different thing. I love them dearly.

(21:25):
I love them both dearly. But because they're so different,
there's plenty of similarities. And outside you know what's on
the screen obviously ILM and you know he could go
on forever JJ Michael Giacchino, half the cast of Trek,
of being in Star Wars in voice rounds in different ways,
so there's loads of loads of overlap, but they're different
enough that they both keep me very invested. But yeah,

(21:47):
Star Wars is definitely the predominant thing. I've got to
a point where I was trying for a couple of years,
I was trying to do both and trying to have
a foot in both camps. And I realized pretty quickly
that I love Trek, but Star Wars is that's the
thing that takes the time that I'm really invested in,
and so I kind of stepped back from the Trek
thing a little bit, and I'm more of a fan
of Trek now than trying to be actively involved.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
What is it about track that you love so much?

Speaker 3 (22:13):
I think when there's a tangible reason that evolved into
a proper reason, if that makes sense. When Jedi finished in,
George says, that's it. We've done no more Style Wars.
I might make the prequels in the nineties, but for
now that's it. And seven out and ninety pretty much
wrote off for the longest time, so I kind of

(22:33):
got into I'd started connecting or subscribing to Bantha Tracks,
which is a nightmare to do from the UK postal
orders and sending it off. It was really a real pain,
and I got more and more into the excuse me,
more andmore into the behind the scenes stuff. So I
would start to read in Bantha tracks about you know,
Phil Tipping, Dennis Muran and Bill Nickleton and Bruce Nicholson

(22:56):
and another and all these different people and finding that
really interesting. Back in the day when you'd read a
magazine and then go back to the first page and
read it again, which we never have time to do
these days. And so knowing that I knew ILM were
moving on from from Jedi to Templa Doom, Indian Indian

(23:18):
to me, Indian Star Wars are the same thing. I
consider Indian Star Wars as it's all together, and then
Star Trek three, you know, and then back to the
future and just the whole run through the eighties of
the Spielberg, the Angolin stuff and all of that. So
I was really into that when Next Gen gets announced
in ninety six. In eighty six, rather, I was reading

(23:38):
a magazine called Starburst, which years later I ended up
writing for, which was cool, and they mentioned that, you know,
there's a new Star Trek series coming. It's set one
hundred years on from the original one. It stars a
captain called Julian Picard and there might be a klingon
on the bridge and blah blah blah, and they mention
all this stuff and absolutely fascinated. But one of the
things that it'd said was visual effects by or special

(24:00):
effects as they called it then by industry like magic.
Well that was that was the big hook, because by
then I'd sin startre At Three numerous times. I'd tin
startre At Four on VHS, never seen it in the victure,
and I still need to do that. Got it of it.
Love startre At Four, such a great film, so beautifully made,
and so witty and fun and warm. Got through startre
At Five, which has good moments, has good moments. I

(24:23):
gotta say, I actually, I actually think when I interview Shatner,
I had the chance to tell Shatner because I don't
think he gets much love for five, and I think
he knows why. And I said, I got to say,
I think you gove to Forest Kelly's greatest ever moment
in Star Trek.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
You know that the moment where he finds out that
he could have saved his father if he'd waited. You know,
the whole torture, the tortured soul moment, which he was
very grateful for. So that was a nice, nice moment
for me. And such at six is I think that's
one of the greatest sequels to anything ever. So so
I was completely I was all in by then. And
yet so once Next Gen came along, I loved I

(24:57):
loved the Kirk stuff. I would watch those the video
box set, the first five films. We'll watch them regularly
next end is what really got me into it. And
so just connecting to the characters. I'm British, You've got
to British, and he's supposed to be French. He's British,
so you've got a British you know. So there's all
these other little elements going through that show that were
just so just so captivating and so brilliantly done. And

(25:22):
it's funny. I think Star Wars has almost become like
a soap opera in many ways because the nature of
needing more content, needing more and more and more. You've
got to invest in the characters and they're into personal relationships,
which is what Andor did so well. As much as
you've got to catch onto the action and the history
and the place placement of these stories. Trek's always been soaproper,

(25:43):
and I love soaproper. You know, we've got loads here
in the UK, you know, every night with me and
the wife are watching soap sort you know, every evening
because we are that easily pleased. But Star Trek is
one of those. It has got that soapy element. I
think that's sometimes used as a detrimental thing, but when
it's done right, it's actually very engaging, no print intended,
and so that's why I got into Trek. And then

(26:04):
DS nine did it brilliantly, and Void you did it
really well. Enterprise not so much, but I do enjoy Enterprise,
and now we're in a modern era that's still very
engaging and watchable. Lower decks is the best thing they've
done in the last ten years, I think in Trek.
But nevertheless, yeah, they're very different, but they both capture
me and grab me in different ways. Because Trek is
the future of us. So Star Trek can go. I

(26:26):
heard this song by the Beastie Boys.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, Star Wars is the galaxy far far away along
this Star Trek is our future.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Is the way that you view it.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
So I think Star Trek can handle and tackle quite
unashamedly like today issues in a way that Star Wars
it feels shoehorned in when they do it. It doesn't.
It's not an organic thing. Also, Star Trek is about
finding these different tribes, if you like, and making or hoping,
not say making, hoping that they work together, wanting the union,

(26:58):
making a federation, wanting these people to everyone to step
forward together into a better future. Star Wars isn't necessarily
about that. Star Wars is already first contacts every day,
you know, happening all the time, right generally they're all
space faring nations, and so you know, go back to
the Cantena or in the original film, you know there's

(27:19):
there's the giant cricket stood next to the wolfman, next
to the astronaut, the Wookie, of the Jedi, the walrus
faced guy, you know, everything in a row at that bar.
In one scene in Star Wars tells you that the
differences that we get really caught up on mean nothing
to them. So in the galaxy far far away, it's

(27:39):
not as important. It's of course it's important today, but
it's not as important to point out these differences because
those guys don't see it. They're not seeing the differences
the way we sort of micro in on these differences
in Star Trek completely. Let's dig into all of that.
Because Star Trek's are parable, it's kind of it's a
morality tale. It doesn't necessarily the best Trek anyway. Certainly,

(28:03):
the Trek of the nineties just lays it out for
you as a viewer and says, we're trusting you've got
the intelligence to go away and think about this. You know,
we're not banging any on the head with the with
the rights or the wrongs. We're laying out for you
to go you know what you know? And I love
that about Trek. It it's treated the audustry with respects
and as a thoughtful audience.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
That's amazing. When you look back at Star Star Wars
now in the Disney era since the acquisition, what is what?
And it can be TV, film, animation, comics, books, whatever, games, whatever.

(28:45):
What has most surprised you? Which which release has been
the one that's been the most surprising to you.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
That's a good question. Wow, I'll give you a straight,
straight answer off the top of my head. I think
the thing that surprised me the most is Solo. And
what surprised me the most speaking today in you know,
summer of twenty twenty five, is that we're not about
to get Solo. For I was convinced, thank you, that

(29:13):
that show, that film was so well done, so well observed,
so beautifully made, so well cast, that oh we're away,
now we're getting the hands. My favorite trilogy is the
Hand Solo trilogy, the Brian Daily books from seventy nine
and eighty. So that's that really, I mean, we talked
about cementing things. That was a monster hook for me

(29:34):
because you know, all all Brian Daily was given was
Han Chewy, the Falcon. That's pretty much it. Yeah, you
can mention Jable the Hope, you're never going to see him.
You can mention Darth Vader, You're never going to see him.
So they just had to go and make this amazing
new part of the galaxy, which is kind of what
we did with our fan fic. We did what Daily
did and we set it in our own little part

(29:54):
of the galaxy, and which is Cannon by the way.
I'll tell you about that in a minute. And so,
so you know, there was this amazing opportunity to tell
all these unique stories and Solo, Donald Glover ready to
play Lando and like nailing it completely and old and Aaronright,
who was I mean, he's not Harrison Ford, but he
is Han Solo and what I don't know what I

(30:16):
don't know what the disconnect was. I know people Historis
star Wars, his stories will look back and go when
it kind of got caught in the backwash of the
last Jedi controversy if you want to call it a
controversy and all of that, and it certainly should have
come out in December. It should have been it should
have been the counter programming too, Mary Poppins too. Not
what I did and keeping them apart. That was a
big mistake. But yeah, that's probably the most surprising. How

(30:38):
good that film was. I'll watch it regularly. And how
how on earth are we not at the very least
into a three seasons of a Disney plus spin off
or three or four films in I do not get that.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
I agree, I love chancel the solo film and the story.
I thought for sure they set up, you know, some
things with Kira and my that were going to be
happening in the future, and you can bring in some
Boba Fett stuff in there at Crimson Down all of that.
You know, you could you could have really had some
fun empty nests. There was a whole storyline there which
we've never seen with play out in anything really with it.

(31:16):
That's amazing when you you look back on again, kind
of going back to where we started with this decades
of taking something that was a twelve year old kid
that loved this galaxy and was writing his own stories

(31:37):
and that kind of thing about it. And now you've
spent years and years and years living in this space
doing this professionally, interviewing amazing people going all over the
world now to be a part of this, this crazy
fandom that has infiltrated every part of society with it.

(31:59):
When you look back on that, if you could, if
you could say anything to that twelve year old kid
that's looking at that sitting at you know, on the
couch with that magazine that his mind gave him to
occupy his time when he wasn't feeling good with it,
What would you tell that kid?

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Ah, I think I'd tell I'd tell myself just keep
doing what you're doing. And by that I mean when
I before I started fan fiction, I would read it,
read it, read it, read it, and then I would
try and do a little audio drama of it. And
then when I started writing fan fiction, I'd read it
and write about it, and that continued. So I think

(32:37):
one of the things I say to a lot of
other over the years, you know, other people who do
podcasts or websites or want to get into the writing
arena or whatever it is, and they say, you know,
I'll rock up an event. And they're like, oh, you're
here again. How are you here again? Because I've been
writing insideer for twenty years and doing for forty years,
and I've been running websites for thirty years, and you

(32:58):
only get to that point by doing it every day.
It sounds a bit arrogant, but you know, just doing
it every day. So so today, for example, as we're
talking right now, I was at work this morning. So
my day job part time, but day job is a stocktaker.
So when I did a job this morning, and I
come back and I chilled out for a bit and
a cup of tea, and I look at the wife,
and the wife looks at me and she goes go on.
Then so I turn the computer on and I sit

(33:19):
down and start writing. So I've probably done three or
four things on Fanther already, and I know for the
rest of the evening, I've got Fanther to do, and
I've got an ILM article to finish, and I've got
a podcast to win it. And I'll be up to
whatever time because I'm not working tomorrow, so and be
up with the up with the Yeah, up with the
chickens if if I need it, and so. But the
point is that it's just it sounds. It sounds very

(33:42):
workman like. Maybe it's just grinding it out because some
days you are excited to get type in, like with
season two and or for example, I just couldn't wait
to get on and start typing about that, even just
passing on the news of Tony Gilroy has done another interview,
good grief. Really, is there a why in the day
of the interview, I've got three to post to the
site as it is. Bless him, He's out there pushing

(34:04):
that show like crazy. So to me, I'm thinking, if
he's out there pushing the show like crazy, I'm gonna
make sure people know he's pushing the show like crazy.
So I'll get on and I'll post other days you
wake up like anything, any anything you love. Some days
it's like, you know, okay, come on, cup of coffee,
get going, and so some days it's it's tougher, but
that's life. I mean, you know, there's other things going on.

(34:26):
The most key thing to me is just keep grinding
it out because it's a long game. It's a long game.
And so I've been very fortunate that because weirdly, I
think that twelve year old me had the ethos off
I'm going to read this again, or I'm going to
write more about this, or I'm gonna I'm going to
compile all the characters I've written and put it into
a guide like Raymond Overlasco's book. I had my own

(34:48):
version of that when I was like thirteen, with all
my characters and planets and stuff, which I've still got
somewhere and so and that just moves on, moves on,
moves on all the way through. So maybe it's I
don't want to say work ethic because that makes it
sound like it's a sure but it kind of is,
you know, just every day, and I've said this. Two
of the people outside of me and Ruth went to Orlando.

(35:14):
A couple of years ago and Brian who I run
Panther with me, and Brian and Matt run Fanther. Brian says,
you are not taking your computer on holiday, which I
normally do. You're not posting anything to the site. You
need a break. I'm doing it. So outside of two
weeks where he took a complete control of the site
and ran it himself, we've been doing Fanta seven and
a half years. So outside of that two weeks, I've

(35:36):
posted something every single at least one thing every single day,
most days six or seven. But then, as I say,
there's the insider stuff and the Starburst and all the
other stuff. But I love it. I get Ruth will
tell you, I get antsy if I can't log on,
if the WiFi is down, or I can't log on,
or I can't check the site, I'd proper get a
bit twitchy. So it's become such a part of my

(35:58):
routine that I'm not happy when I'm not either looking
forward to doing it or sitting down and doing it
or whatever. So that maybe that's what I would say
to me, But I think I really, I think twelve
year old me wouldn't be that surprised that I kept
going with it. Maybe I'll be I hope. I would
like to think I'd be surprised that I've done what
I've done. I'd also be thrilled to know that there

(36:19):
was more Star Wars. You know that we did get one, two,
and three, and we did get seven, eight and nine
and all this sort of cool stuff that happened. So
but yeah, that's what I think I would say. So
just just still staying the course.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
What's the thing that you're most looking forward to right
now that that's that's on the docket in the future
of Star Wars.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Oh, that's a good question. I'm very curious about Starfighter.
I think if it depends on the tone, depends on
the tone of what they're going for. The thing I
went to yesterday be if I think the Star Wars
screen and Cathink Kennedy actually came out at the beginning
and did a little They're actually not on video. She
was actually there, which was very cool because a lot

(36:58):
of people were like, if Lucas from isn't given their
permission for this screening. Nobody had heard anything, and then
I think Kenydy came out and said, yes, we gave
for mission, don't Worry and it was the original Watson,
all original seventy seven print. And the guy that the
girl from the BFI was interviewing on stage said so,
what can you tell us about what's coming up? And
she just smirted him pretty much, Yeah, like I'm going

(37:20):
to tell you in front of a crowd of people.
But she said, I mean, I'm here because we're in
pre production for Starfighter, which starts filming in September at Pinewood.
And so that's exciting thing because we knew it was
we knew it was coming soon. But so I'm really
looking forward to that. I mean Gosling. I like Gosling.
I think he's a good actress, so I'm looking forward
to seeing what he does with it. And the cast

(37:42):
is starting to build. I don't know anything about me
and Goth. I need to do a bit of research.
I've heard of her, but I don't know where works.
Need to dig into that a little bit. But but
I ema excited about it. I know a couple of
guys on the crew who have all been yeah, this
looks really good. So so there's and they're pretty savvy people,
so there's a good little buzz there. I think to me.
It feels like that could be the thing that Rogue

(38:03):
Squadron might have been, and I think they desperately need
a Rogue Squadron type show. You know, don't worry about
it being about Star Galactica, don't worry about it being
like Top Gun Maverick, ignore that they're separate. This is
Star Wars and we need that kind of Squadrons type thing.
So I'm very excited for that. Clearly, the Daisy thing,
I don't know where they are quite with that, but

(38:23):
I thought that was I thought she was a great
character and she's a cracking address, so I'm really looking
forward to seeing her back in that role. And I'm curious.
The one I'm most nervous about is the Mangold Dawn
and the Jedi thing, because I've got horrible feeling that
could be like sort of Galactica eighty if they get
it wrong, you know, it could because it's so far back.

(38:44):
I'm just worried it won't feel like Star Wars at all.
But then you could look at any of the modern project.
You could look at Acolyte, and I mean I really
enjoyed Acolyte because it's a totally new era and I
don't know that you know the top and the bottom
of it. You know, I don't know what's quite before,
I don't know quite what's coming next. I know what's
down the line, but I was kind of engaged enough

(39:06):
to want to see come on season two or Okay,
if you're not making a live action season two, do
an animated season two. Sure do flip what they did
with rebels in the story hit the story going. So
that really got me invested enough that I want to
see more without having to read a book or I
know we've got a book coming out in a couple
of weeks, but you know, that got me hooked. So

(39:27):
I'm curious to see what they do with the Mangold
thing because I really liked The Destiny, so I think.
And he's done some great films, obviously the Wolf Wine,
you know, the Logan film and all that, so he's
a good director. Yeah, and also slightly off track of
the movies. I'm really curious to see how they celebrate
the fiftieth because I think that's that's such a big

(39:49):
deal and it's only, you know, less than two years
away now, so I think that could be that could
be very special.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait for a celebration
La to see what that's going to be. Like. You
mentioned that some fanfic that you wrote became canon. Yeah,
you have to tell that story. I mean, this is
a big deal to us here at Tadoween's Sons. You know,
when you have a poorg named after your dog, you
can do that.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
So that's true, that's true. Yeah. I used to write
for Build Millennium Falcon, which was part work, so each
week but get a little bit of the falcon. You
ended up building like a mass of Replica's sort of
studio scale falcon. And I was lucky enough to be
part of the writing team on that. So this is

(40:35):
when was this about ten years ago, so they were
a little bit more relaxed on slipping in the odds.
I guess easter Egg if you want, or if there's
kind of a gap that they hadn't defined the name
of something or whatever, they would give you a little
bit more latitude. That's changed now. But I did two issues,

(40:56):
and the one that I sneaked my bit into was
it was about the Imperialist, which was the Emperor's yacht
from the Lando miniseries. The comic and I worked in
that the the engines of the Imperialists were built by
Dissando Dynamics in the Cedar Park cluster. So the Cedar
Park Cluster was the region of space where all of

(41:17):
our stories were set. There's seven sectors within it, cet
Park Cluster. So we got that name in. And then
Dissando Dynamics was the shipbuilding company. And so I mentioned
i'd write Buffers fiction in eighty two. The sort of
the lead the main planet of my own creation in
that was Adassander, and so Desando Dynamics was the shipbuilding

(41:39):
So that was cool because I mean, Adissando Dissandro Dynamics
has essentially been around for you know, forty odd years now,
so I may just sneak those in. So I'll keep
them into drop Leland cheer line and say, is anybody
else I have used them? Because you know they're there
to be used. Feel free to use them. That's right.
It in a film, you know, that's right?

Speaker 1 (41:56):
And didn't this sharp and season two of Ander or
somewhere don't get it?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
I mean it was. It's free. It's not like a
one anything for it.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
That's so funny. It's so funny when we were back
before in the in the period between when we had
we had that encounter with Ryan Johnson when when he said,
yeah that that poor's name is now Turbis and the
Star Wars Adventures twenty seven through twenty nine came out
when it actually was put into Canada. In that period

(42:23):
in between, we got to visit Lucasfilm once and we
met up. We were there with Matt Martin and we
were walking through and Leland was walking through and he
and Matt introduced us to Leland and and it was
sort of I made this. I acted like I'd known
Leland for years. I'm like, hey, Leland, and he, you know,
he meets so many people. He asked to pretend like
he knows who you are, right, because like, oh yeah,

(42:45):
he has to going here, you know, and a this
other stuff. And then Matt was like, these are the
guys with the Turbus the pork thing. And then you
see him go, oh, the Turbis thing because like that
with it. And I was like, I literally send him
a letter afterward that said listen, we don't want money,
we don't want royalties, we don't want credit, we don't

(43:05):
want anything.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
We just wanted to happen right exactly, don't you think though?
It's funny that that there's so there would there would
potentially be I mean, there's always one bad apple, but
there would potentially be so many people like us who
would be the buzz and the thrill of seeing Turbus
in an animated show right called to voice by Deeve

(43:27):
Rudney Baker, or you know or or or you know
they set something in the Center Park, or it even
gets a mention or a panel in a comic. I
want nothing more than the endorphin rush. That's literally I
don't want any money for it. I wrote it out
of love. I'm I'm doing fine with all my other stuff. Thanks.
It's that's the sort that that's the little nod that

(43:47):
I want. I mean, I did get a ship named
after me in one of the DK guys. Adam Brave
very kindly named.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
It was.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
It was the oh what was it now? It was
the m N seventy one Changeling. It was one of
the ships ound of Stoll's resistance, and it was I
forget the name of the character. This is terrible. It
should know this. It was the character that Dave Philone
voiced and so the ship Flu was named after me,
which is not a peripheral kind of If I ever
met Dave again, I'll go, do you know only I've

(44:19):
got no idea I have? Or dragon aroound exactly.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
I absolutely loved talking with Mark. He's one of my
favorite people in all of Star Wars fandom. It's always
a treat to hear from him because he's someone who's
not only lived through the evolution of Star Wars, but
he's also contributed to it. And so here are three
really interesting takeaways from our conversation today that really stood

(44:45):
out to me. First, there is extreme power in nostalgia.
Mark shared a heartfelt story about how a simple magazine
really reignited his passion for Star Wars when he was
going through a really tough time in his childhood. So dads,
I know we can relate to wanting to share these

(45:06):
nostalgic moments with our kids. It really is a reminder
that the magic of Star Wars can be a bridge
between generations as sparks conversations and creates shared experiences that
we can really cherish together. Second, he's seen fandom evolve.
We discussed how Star Wars fandom has transformed over the years,

(45:28):
especially with the rise of the Internet. Mark highlighted how
today's fans have access to a global community and it's
easier than ever to connect with others and share this passion.
So as we introduce our kids to Star Wars, I
think it's fascinating to see how they engage with the
franchise in ways that we never could from obviously online discussions,

(45:54):
but there's fan art and beyond that we can experience
in ways we've never been able to before this. And then, finally,
there really is something special about the power of storytelling.
Mark's journey from writing fan fiction as a twelve year
old to becoming a respected voice in the Star Wars

(46:15):
community underscores this power. He emphasized in this conversation that
writing and sharing stories is a way to keep the
spirit of Star Wars alive. So, dads, we need to
encourage our kids to create their own stories like we
did in the backyard as kids. Whether that's through writing
or drawing, or role playing games or just playing Star Wars,

(46:39):
it's a fantastic way to really foster their creativity and
deepen their connection to this galaxy that we all love
so much. Listen I hope you'll keep up with Mark
and all of his insights. Be sure to follow him
on social media if you want to follow him directly.
It's perfect underscore timing on pretty much all of the

(47:00):
the channels, and of course check out pant the Tracks
for all of your latest Star Wars news and discussions.
And then, of course, as always, if you enjoyed this episode,
please follow us at Tattooine Suns. Share this podcast with
your fellow Star Wars fans. Let's keep this conversation going
and celebrate the galaxy far far away together until the

(47:21):
next time. May the Force be with you.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Thank you for listening to Tattooine Suns, a Star Wars podcast.
Please subscribe and follow Tattooine Suns on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube,
or your favorite podcast app. Tattooine Suns regularly publishes thoughtful
articles intended to provoke conversation about the larger themes in
Star Wars. Go to Tattooinsuns dot com to explore further

(47:47):
and May the Force be with you always.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
This podcast, website, and social media accounts are not endorsed
by the Walt Disney Company or Lucasfilm Limited, and it's
intended for entertainment purposes only. Star Wars, all names and sounds,
and any other Star Wars related items and properties our
trademarks of Lucasfilm and its affiliates. All original contents of
this podcast and website is the intellectual property of tattooin Suns,
unless otherwise indicated.