I'm part of the generation that literally grew up with STAR WARS, ten years old when it was first released. Like so many young fans I was enthralled by the then limited official adaptations of the work expanding on the STAR WARS universe. I collected the original Marvel Comics, wrote fan fiction and fanatically collected all things published in connection with it like SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE and the Han Solo novels.
I grew up in Canada where the radio series was not to my knowledge broadcast and a friend in the USA kindly alerted me to and taped episodes of the series for me which I listened to for years, practically memorizing them. But I only ever had about three quarters of the STAR WARS episodes and never even knew about the adaptations of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK or the long delayed RETURN OF THE JEDI.
So when I found them all released in a single boxed set many years after I had to get them and no one buying it will be disappointed. Given that Brian Daley (also the author of the Han Solo trilogy) has his own take on the story he does a fascinating job of expanding on the original stories. He captures, I think, the sense of fun of STAR WARS. It's full of quirky humour and fun asides, like the casual abuse suffered by working robots or the hovering-on-farce confrontations between Han Solo and the creepy minions of Jabba the Hutt.
I think that STAR WARS as a whole released a lot of pent-up creativity in my generation and helped to give it a mythological template that owed a lot to many different sources, not least the story of PARSIFAL and the Grail Knights on which STAR WARS is clearly based in part. The radio series expanded on fascinating elements of the story that had to be left out of the features like the friendship between Biggs and Luke, the story of Leia and her idealism leading to the destruction of Alderaan and the bickering antics of R2D2 and Threepio.
Before the sequels and the long wait for the prequels, these things had an intense hold on the imagination of fans like me and the radio series idea was a clever way of doing this. The use of the original audio effects and music from the features make them a satisfying experience on radio. I think anyone with a strong interest in STAR WARS before all the endless poor quality novelisations and Dark Horse comicbooks and tedious controversy over what's 'canonical' and not will find in them a gem which retains all the original spirit of STAR WARS.
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The Best Version of Star Wars Ever Produced -
" An adaptation for Radio in 13 parts""Expanded" is an understatement - it's quite a bit longer than the source movies—as this version of Star Wars is nearly Six hours long!!!!!!Consequently, they include several scenes that were either cut from the films or entirely new.For example - in Episode Two - "Points of Origin", Leia uses the Tantive IV to smuggle medical supplies to Rebel forces on Ralltiir ,and learns about the Death Star plans - acquiring them from Rebels on Toprawa,( as originally conceived - NOT like the Disney revised Rogue One ) andwe get Luke's home life as he interacting with Biggs and his friends on Tatooine -then witnesses him watching the battle between Tantive IV and the ISD Devastator.( Which is basically the original missing 1st reel from the film )And so much much more .....The voice talent is some of the best and each actor brings a sense of excitement their role,making it easy to get swept up in the show.Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprised their roles as Luke and C-3PO respectively -and the rest of replacement actors are all top rate - even though it takes a minute to get used to someone else playing Vader -as Jones's shoes are hard to fill ( Brock Peters take was slightly different )- as some of the replacement voice actors didn't watch the film version ( This was recorded in 1980).John William's expert score is also woven into the collection ( along w/ all of Ben Burtt’s original & irreplaceable sound effects ) both of which serve to brace and perfectly enhance the already well-written dialog.The Narration is kept to a minimum - used only at the opening and closing credits of each episode.STAR WARS never sounded richer or better.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2011
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Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2011
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2013
Top reviews from other countries
BlackDisposal
Postmodernismus frisst Boxoffice
Reviewed in Germany on November 4, 2013kewal ragbir
Amazing audio radio versions of the OT
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2013Carl Daniel Prohaska
Great stuff and childhood memories!!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2013