Intro: 00:00:01

Hello there. We would be honored if you would join us.

Garry: 00:00:15

Hello there and welcome to Spark of Rebellion. This is your weekly Star wars podcast.

And who are these guys? Who are these guys? Back after a little mini break, A little hiatus if you will, over Christmas and New Year. I hope you had a good one.

Feels nuts that we're. We're catching up with people to say Happy Christmas and stuff. But yes, we hope you 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. I got a Star wars calendar, which was nice. My sister always does this.

What should we get Garry for Christmas? I don't know. What is he into? Doctor who, Star Wars. We'll get him something. It's normally Star wars socks or T shirt or something. So.

Mark: 00:00:59

Yes.

Garry: 00:00:59

But we are back anyway to talk about skeleton crew. Going to get onto that in a second. I'm gonna give you some. Some housekeeping. I'll bring on my co host in a second.

But yeah, this is a continuation if this. You are first time listener Spark Rebellion. It's great to have you here.

If you're kicking off the new year as we sometimes do with like new Star wars podcast, I want to listen to stuff not checked one out before then make sure you're following or subscribing whatever podcast you listen to this now, hit the old follow button.

Then you'll get a reminder when you get a new episode drop and as we go through the episode, if you like it, if you think these guys are cool, throw them some beer money, whatever. You can do that over on sparkrebellion.com support.

You can toss us a few quid for a round or you can become a member, even choose your dark side or your light side and you can join some other cool people who support Sor, Kev, Denise, Danny, Mark, Pascal, you guys, very cool. Thank you very much for your support and hope you had a good Christmas. A new year as well. My name's Garry. I'm one of the dudes here.

I'm going to bring on my co host. It's the guy that I think he's still a bit reeling, to be honest. He did have the part. He flew out there and everything.

But then I gave it to Jude Law in the end he was going to be in it. But Mark Asquith, we do have the.

Mark: 00:02:13

Same hairline and: 2007

Garry: 00:02:23

Yes, Mark's growing his hair out a little bit. At the moment. So he's disguising that. Maybe this is a thing now. Knocking on a bit. Yeah.

Mark: 00:02:33

Well, I'll tell you what it was. So I went to London for work. I was like. And I had like this board meeting to go to. I was like, I look a little bit scrappy.

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 know what I mean? And so I went in and I'd grow. I'd actually grown it a little bit anyway. So I went in and the guy, I remember his name, he's on my Instagram.

Like he forced me to follow him. So I 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 accompany those words. Please guide me. So I did. I end up sat down. I was like, what do you normally have done, mate?

And I was like, well, it's normally like, you know, like a short fade sort of thing. Like maybe a zero or a one fade. And he went, at your age, mate, are you sure about that? And I was like, right, grow it then. Shall I.

Shall I grow it then? Shall I grow it then? What do you want to do is like, give you a number four, mate. I was like, number four. Am I at school? So that's how it started.

And yeah, so it's been good, it's been good. But then I've not been very well either. I've had like a bit of pneumonia over Christmas, so I just put my hat on.

And then today, because I've got to go for this work conference tomorrow, thought I'll go and get it cut. And he literally, like my guy, the normal guy in the village, literally got the clippers out and just went like.

He said the words as he was moving to cut. It was like, skin fade. I was like, no.

Garry: 00:04:12

Oh yeah.

Mark: 00:04:15

It was properly freaked out. And then he went like, to top it off, he went, well, I suppose he could grow it. I'll have rock in a hard place.

Garry: 00:04:26

The adventures, eh, of styling as a 30 plus year old.

Mark: 00:04:32

Yeah, but, yeah, so that's, that's the story behind that, mate. But I do have some other interesting news. So Christmas Day, got some socks, Star wars socks.

I was sat with my brother, I've got a brother called Rick who lives in Rotherham. And he was like, oh, I've got a mate, you know. 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 day that he's really into Star wars and he listened to this podcast and 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 my brothers. And the guy was like, what? That's crazy.

So, Stephen, if you're listening. Hello. Yeah, I'll send you some gear and I'll send you some stickers and stuff. I'll send them.

I'll package them up with my brother and send them to you. But thanks for listening, man. It's. It's a. That's. That's. That's happened a few times with different podcasts that we've run, so. Really cool, Stephen.

Yeah, yeah, I was. I was flattered by that. I was going to text you on Christmas Day. I was like, jesus won't want that. So I didn't.

Garry: 00:05:33

Not when I'm making wine and. Nah, all the usual things, you know. But that's cool, though, dude. I love that.

Mark: 00:05:38

It's cool in it.

Garry: 00:05:39

Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah, I've had that a few times, really weirdly, in other parts of the world as well. Been on a thing in the US before.

Mark: 00:05:48

Yeah.

Garry: 00:05:48

And someone said, I recognize your voice. I listen.

I'm sure it's you from this Doctor who podcast that I listen because I love British TV and I love old sort of British sci fi, and I check out a few podcasts. I'm sure that's you. Is your name Garry? I'm like, yeah, that'd be me.

Mark: 00:06:02

That's awesome.

Garry: 00:06:02

Yeah. Halfway around the world. I love that. Yeah, Stephen, welcome aboard, dude.

Mark: 00:06:07

Welcome, Stephen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we'll send you some gear. It might not be this week or next because I am away, but I'll. I'll send you some gear. But I.

It happened to me in the village. We moved into the village that we live in now. I'm sat in the pub.

This new pub opened, and the mayor of the village just came up to me and thrust my own Twitter 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 on Instagram, like, the village, like a story.

And then someone replied, like, what you're doing in my village? I was like, I live here, mate. I was like, you're joking. I listen to your podcast. I was like, so there's two people in this little village.

This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. They are now great friends.

Garry: 00:06:49

Awesome source. I love the word awesome. I know you love it.

Mark: 00:06:52

Ah, one of my top three. But yeah. Sorry. I digress then. No. Happy New Year.

Garry: 00:06:58

Yeah. All that aside, I've not done anything Star wars actually in the. In the hiatus.

What I did do though, was found out that I'd lent a bunch of books to somebody ages ago, years ago. I can't get hold of them now because I fancy catch up on some old books I read.

Mark: 00:07:14

Really?

Garry: 00:07:15

Yeah, yeah. Like a couple of months ago, I think, like end of October or something like that.

I'd finished up reading these old Han Solo adventure books, and I thought, you know what? Some of the older Star wars books are 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. Like, I'm sure I lent them to somebody like, many moons ago. Okay. Bloody remember?

And I thought I remembered and I couldn't get hold of them, so, dude, I had to order them again, didn't I?

Mark: 00:07:44

Oh, that's annoying because you'll find them then.

Garry: 00:07:46

I will. Yeah.

Mark: 00:07:47

But I hate that the.

Garry: 00:07:48

The thing that's got this is only a small thing. I think certain collectors will understand this mindset. But when I had the books before, it was the original covers. You know, the old covers.

Mark: 00:07:58

The cool ones.

Garry: 00:08:01

Yeah. You know, a lot of book illustrators back in the day took like, Drew Struzan for inspiration and whatnot.

Mark: 00:08:07

Yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:08:07

You know, so now I had to get the newer cover, so it's labeled up as like legends and. And all that jazz. We're not the end of the world. It's the book's the book. But irritated by that. Big time. Have you done anything?

Mark: 00:08:19

Yeah, it is frustrating. Frustrating that. What have I done? I've done the glass. I'm about just over halfway through this glass abyss.

This Mace Windu book, which is actually pretty good. It's actually pretty good.

Garry: 00:08:35

Who's that?

Mark: 00:08:35

It was in that one.

Garry: 00:08:36

No, who wrote the book?

Mark: 00:08:39

Who done that one? Stephen Barnes. Barnsley.

Garry: 00:08:43

Barnesi yeah.

Mark: 00:08:44

Yeah. So it's. It's about. It goes.

Garry: 00:08:46

It's.

Mark: 00:08:46

It's set between just after Phantom Menace and. And it's. He gets this mission from Qui Gon after his death. It's like, look, you know, go and saw this out. Shagger and.

But it's like Mace Windu Undercover, which is actually pretty cool. Playing two sides against each other. So it's. It is actually pretty good. But I was like.

When I first saw it, I was like, the glass abyss, Mace Windu, very good. It falls out of a window. Shut up your dick. But it's nothing to do with the window. So we're good. Yeah, it's actually pretty good.

Garry: 00:09:17

Nothing to do with Palpatine's double glazing bill.

Mark: 00:09:21

Well, that's the other thing with that in it. Because at that height, it's going to be proper reinforced gear, you know, that's going to be inch and a half thick. You know, proper stuff.

We should get into the logistics of that. But, like, I've got some glass balustrade, mate, and I'll tell you for nothing, you can't throw anyone through that. Not easily anyway.

Garry: 00:09:40

Not anymore.

Mark: 00:09:41

Anymore.

Garry: 00:09:43

We should do that.

We should do an episode where we proper geek out and just be a pair of twats about, like, the logistical real world impact of things to do with Star Wars. Like.

Mark: 00:09:53

Oh, yeah, like, you see those guys on Twitter, like, they're not quite trolls, but they're like science bros. It's like. But they're always like.

It's like that one that we saw with I met Carl the prop guy, and it's like, oh, it looks like they invented Phillips head screwdrivers. You're like, dude, there's like six armed creatures in hyperspace traveling. There's like, yeah, force telekinesis, man. Like.

And you're worried about Phillips screwdriver. Yeah, that's definitely the problem. You know what I mean? Like, shut up your peck.

Garry: 00:10:24

Yeah, that is going a bit far in it. Yeah. Fascinated by that. But people's view on that stuff. I think it all started with Kevin Smith, wasn't it? And his.

On one of his podcasts, I think he was talking about when Luke Skywalker took down the Death Star, there was like thousands or millions of employees of the Empire on the Death Star, which is no fault of their own. They're just earning a crust.

Mark: 00:10:47

Yeah.

Garry: 00:10:48

And he, like, takes down them all. Yeah. So the implications of things like that is pretty cool, but.

Mark: 00:10:52

And then you get like a load of the books, then explore it like Lost Stars. That's a mint book. But it's like, it's that, like, that's how Cobra Kai starts in it. 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, like, a bit of talk of it, but I don't think it'll happen.

But like a what if of Star Wars. Do you know what I mean? What if Luke hadn't used the Force or what if, you know, whatever else. So anyway, talk about that all day.

But, yeah, Skeleton crew. We should probably get to that, shouldn't we?

Garry: 00:11:22

We should get to that, shouldn't we? That's the crux of the episode.

So we took a mini break so we could take some time off because news was looking a bit thin, let's be honest, with Star wars at the time. And we thought, let's take a break. We can chill out, watch some skeleton crew come back, review that. So this is the.

This is the nuts and bolts of the episode. So quick, real quick, super recap, 20 seconds recap on Skeleton Crew. The kids are on a planet called.

I'll let you decide how you guys want to say this one. It's either at Aten or at Aten, depending if you want to get your T's in there, put your teeth in, whatever.

They think it's just an everyday normal planet, but they end up finding the ship. They blast off and they find out that they can't get home because their home planet doesn't appear on any star charts, any maps.

All a bit of a mystery. They bump into a pirate dude. He befriends them, tricks them into.

Into trying to get them home because 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 on this adventure of, like, bumping into other pirates, finding out the mystery behind At Aton. There's a little bit of mystery around Jude Law's character, Jod Nar Narwood. We find out towards the end, he's nothing but spoilers, by the way.

He's nothing but a. A pirate. Used to be involved with. With. With the Order in some ways. He was trained to a certain degree, but ended up doing the off ski.

And then we find out that @aten is actually a planet that produces all the Old Republic credits. Is a bit of a mint, mint planet. And yeah, so it's more like a sort of skullduggery pirate thing. Kids trying to get home.

So, yeah, straight off the bat, dude, I want to get your thoughts on this, but I want to ask your thoughts based on initial question, if I may. When we first saw the trailer for this, one of the things that you picked up on, I think A lot of people saw this was.

The trailer showed this kind of earth, like, suburban nature of Star wars, you know, with the kids in the street and the houses and going to school and stuff. I didn't really allude to much about what they would be doing on said adventure.

And it all looked a little bit civilian once we got episode one out the way or whatever. Did you still feel like that as you went through the story or did you feel like, yeah, this is still a bit. What's the word to use?

Pedestrian, civilian, whatever you want to call it. But yeah. What are your thoughts based on that?

Mark: 00:13:52

Yeah, I. It was sort of back to the Phillips screwdriver head. You know, it's. There's a phrase for it. I can't remember what it is, you know, this where.

Where civilizations come to the same discoveries because science and technology lead you in the same direction, you know, so the logical, you know, if I'm. If I'm going like, okay, let's be a nerd about it, then, yeah, it's totally cool like that that would happen.

I think, I think looking back on it, because it was such a small part of the series, it worked quite nicely for me because it was. I think it allowed you to relate to the kids and to the adventure a lot more. I think it was clearly intended as a bit of an homage to like E. T.

Stand by me, you know, small town Goonies sort of vibe, you know, the burbs and, you know, this idea that nothing really goes on and let's just make that feel quite familiar. But then it. We did. We never really then saw too much of 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 the end, 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 this little town and this is all we're going to see.

And it wasn't that. So that was cool, man. But what about you? Did you. I'm assuming you felt pretty similar on that.

Garry: 00:15:10

Yeah, pretty much the same. Yeah. That first episode, when you look back on it now, you're right.

Yeah, they did a good job of portraying the kind of everyday life that people who know, who don't know any different to what's been put upon them.

So it turns out that because it was kind of weird how the parents and all the droids and stuff were really sort of hammering home this idea of like, your education is like A non negotiable thing. And we find out later on that it's all part of this thing called the, the good work or something. Was it the good great work which.

Mark: 00:15:46

Is really like part of like the High Republic hangover. You know, it's. It's the great works which were the group of the projects that were like Starlight Beacon and it was like Lena.

So, so I quite liked that hangover from the High Republic and it was, it was quite, it was quite nice that they sort of had that in place. So that was, that was actually quite a pleasant little surprise, that.

Garry: 00:16:12

Yes. Yeah. So when you look back on it, it's like, okay, you can see exactly why they featured that in the trailer. That's.

That's pedestrian stuff because the actual adventures that they go on in each, all the episodes after episode one, they are, they're quite varied. You know, they go to some different planets and we get some different characters thrown in there, which is good.

So yeah, my, I did, I was thinking about it at the start of that first episode thinking how long are we going to be on in, in this area and have this whole thing? But really it was only that first episode didn't really think about it too much. And the thing that I liked about.

Before we dive into a few details, the thing I liked about this overall was that we didn't need to have any one show up to save the day, you know?

Mark: 00:17:01

Yeah, I agree with that.

Garry: 00:17:02

Yeah, we didn't need Mando to show up. We didn't need Ahsoka. We didn't need, yeah, anybody to show up.

Mark: 00:17:08

And I was sort of worried about that. To interject. Sorry man. I was worried about that on the finale. I was like, it's all gonna go tits up. Like what's, what's gonna happen?

Are we gonna get someone show up and it's, you know, play the savior. And I was, I was, I was certainly glad 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 it means getting rid of the barrier.

But then it opens us up to the good guys still being around and like the complexity of Jude Law's character at the end, like the fate of him and was he reinforced by the idea that good guys still exist or not or was he just a bit of an all along or who knows. So they, they managed to really self contain it nicely whilst also giving you some X wings flying around and not. They didn't save the day.

They did the things that they couldn't do for themselves that they needed and do you know what I mean? But it was, it was, it was the kids that managed to.

And, and, and that, you know, that classic trope of the parent realizing that the kids, you know, it's all right to be a kid and we should all adventure a little bit more and be a little bit more ballsy. So it was, man, it was full of tropes like that. So yeah, I agree. I'm glad no one showed up. I don't think it needed it at all.

And it was, I'm sure you'll agree, but the entire series was better for not having any connection to anything else.

Garry: 00:18:30

Yeah, yeah. Defo as I was. I worried about that in the last episode because they mentioned that they were going.

Because I think Wim turns around to Jude and says like, you know, the real good guys are going to come and save the day sort of thing. Because the conversation between the kids before that was like, let's, let's get hold of the little owl character. Is it Kim?

So she can call the X wings in again and 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 to this. And I'm not sure how it.

I'm not sure if it tees up a second season enough. I've got a funny feeling, you know, that this could just be a one and done.

Mark: 00:19:21

Yeah.

Garry: 00:19:22

Kind of thing. Because with TV nowadays, you're always looking for the next season. Right. You're always looking to, to do that. With some rare exceptions.

But I don't know. I think. And if they didn't do a second season, I think I'd be cool with that.

Mark: 00:19:34

You know, I would.

I think that the things that, you know, if you were to play a devil's advocate a little bit, you could easily say, well, on that Corvette, you know the one that looks like the tantive.

There was, there was Harrison Duller or someone that was big enough, but wasn't Luke Skywalker or Ahsoka or a Jedi, you know, there would be opportunity to have someone militarily step in and lead into a season two. And I feel that there were enough, there were enough threads left open that it could be interesting. You know, what happened to Jude Law's character?

He was a bit on the fence. Like he was clearly certainly at the End of that episode, it was. It was very much, you know, let's add some moral ambiguity.

He's always had it a little bit rough. It's been really freaking hard for him. He doesn't really know any better.

He doesn't know any better than doing this because he's always had to fight for it and scrap for it and deal with everything and whatnot. So this is just his nature, you know, nature versus nurture sort of scenario. But then is he actually, you know, semi good guy? So there's like.

There's that little thread that could be pulled, but then there's the whole, like, why, genuinely, why were these planets protected? We can assume it's because they all had mints on them. And it's. But it was freaking dangerous to. Not to.

To leave them open because that's where all the credits are. But there are bigger mysteries that if they wanted to, they could go into. But it's almost.

It's almost one of those things that benefits from no answers. You know, you just leave it. And. But then I sort of then think to myself, and we spoke. I spoke to Kev on this one, like. Like, Jude Law is a big actor.

And do you cast Jude Law in Star wars? Not to use him again? And I just don't know whether you do.

Garry: 00:21:29

Yeah, that's a good point. I think out of. Out of anything that you would want to progress, it would probably be his character.

Because where it concerns the child actors and those characters, they could have done the obvious with that, right? One of them ends up accidentally using the Force to save one of them. That's what they could have done.

And then they progress to be a, you know, a Force user.

And they, you know, there's a second series that focuses on that character because they can now use the Force and, you know, all that stuff, but they didn't. So any of those kids have. However cool they were at certain moments throughout this first season, there's probably.

Now that they're back home and they're aware of what their home planet's purpose is, and they're aware of what's going on. I don't know. It'd be weird. And this is potentially the problem with why we haven't had a second Goonies film.

Because, you know, once you've gone off and you've done the adventure and you're back home and everything's cool, how do you then go into a second adventure? You can't do it just for the sake of it, you know, I mean, you have to have some kind of thing that propels them into doing a second thing.

You can't just. I know the Force Awakens was kind of a copy of A New Hope, but that was, you know, slightly just different enough to warrant it.

But yeah, so if they were to do a second season, I think it would probably be around Jude Laws and like you said, his ambiguity and you know, does he want to pick up. Does he want to carry on being a pirate and bit of an asshole, go off to do another scam, whatever it might be? Or does he want to be.

Actually, yeah, quite like this 4 stuff again that I've rediscovered. So, yeah, not sure about a second season, but overall the self containedness of it.

And I'm also quite surprised that we didn't get any more name dropping or any more things.

Normally within Star wars, even if you don't want to leverage the other characters or leverage a main storyline, you still get like a bajillion Easter eggs, you know, and you still get references to all the other things.

But I was quite surprised that this was really fresh in terms of that it focused mainly on the pirate culture and the pirate adventures and all that stuff and completely steered clear of like. I don't think we heard the word Sith mentioned at all.

I don't think we heard the word the Emperor, Palpatine, Leia, you know, anything like that at all. It was completely bare bones to a degree. So do you think they went too far with that?

Do you think we needed, needed some kind of reference to make it feel more like it was. There was sort of interconnectivity there or again, just happy it was completely fresh.

Mark: 00:24:12

Yeah, I think it was better for it because I think it, it, it, it. You know, every story is realistically on screen about Jedi and Sith at some point.

So I think it was really good that you know, because you got to think that most of the galaxy didn't know that Palpatine was a Sith or that Vader was a Sith. You know, we just see the stories where people find out, but generally speaking, the galaxy didn't know.

And I think it was, I think it was, it was good good how they used the Jedi notion, this idea that they'd, you know, the pre fall of the Jedi, not propaganda, but the, the education that people received around the Jedi was still in place on our, on our Tatum because you, you had. They didn't really know about the galactic civil war at a suburban level.

You know, the last communication that Stephen Fry got was the Jedi are All traitors. But he didn't pass that down. That's not the education that he gave the kids and so on and so forth. So it was still.

And I think it was reflected a little bit in the, the, the lightsaber that Jod found it. I'm not. There was no guarantee, but it certainly 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 sort of, it was all, all looking through the lens of a kid, you know. And what, what would you believe the Jedi to be?

These amazing peacekeepers that can do anything. And they didn't realize, even at the end when's trying to black it, they didn't realize the Jedi had gone, you know, so it was.

I think they used, used the law of the Force well enough and, and, and, and again, through the lens of a kid, through the lens of this protected planet, through the lens of the Jedi being the peacekeepers that we've always told, always been told that they were. And I don't think it needed anything else.

I don't think it needed like other Jedi always battle the Sith and the Sith of the bad guys and whatever else, because it's. I, I feel like that would then invite like the trolls, you know. You know, they said something. Oh, actually that's not strictly true. Like, piss off.

You don't need it to be strictly true. So just stay away from it, you know, it's cool.

Garry: 00:26:35

So.

Mark: 00:26:35

Yeah, no, I thought it was great, man. I thought it was perfectly, perfectly pitched.

Garry: 00:26:40

Cool. Yeah.

And that looking at it through the lens of a killer, it was cool that the, our view of the Jedi because we've been exposed to so many stories in either films or video games, whatever, it was cool to see that amazement again through the eyes of Whim.

You know, at the beginning when he's just looking at videos on his little handheld switch or whatever 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 many stories for a while now.

It's always been, you know, just the Skywalker stuff or whatever it might be. So, yeah, it was cool to see the story through his eyes, at least at the beginning.

And just it was almost like when you were watching Star wars for the first time, like many moons ago, and you were like, ah, the Jedi. 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 of characters in detail.

Mainly the. The. The. The kid actors. A lot of people describe this as like Goonies in space before it went out, which it totally was to a large degree.

But did you also get some indie vibes in this as well? There was a scene in about Halfway through when they go into the planet. You know, it's like a sort of luxury spa planet now.

Mark: 00:28:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:28:03

La Nopa, I think it's called. And the old pirate who. Who used to own the ship that they've got, he had one of his.

His sort of base of operations down there, the vault sort of thing.

That whole scene when they go through the booby traps, through the corridors, and then, you know, the light in as the big skull comes up at the throne skull at the end and stuff. To me, that was straight out of like, Temple of Doom and stuff like that.

Mark: 00:28:27

100%. Yeah.

Garry: 00:28:29

So, yeah, so the whole. And there was another couple of scenes as well, where it's like evade and capture and. And that sort of thing. It just felt very indie.

So Christopher Ford and John Watts, the writers on it. I think there was another.

Another person that did some writing, but just props to those guys, man, 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 really cool that they just branched out and looked at other films and stuff for inspiration. So that was very cool.

Mark: 00:29:00

Yeah, it was. I think the. I think the idea of.

Of them almost doing what the mando had done and having different directors, like the Bryce Dallas Howard episode and so on, and I. I think there were.

There were certainly, certainly elements and like, homages to those things, like Templar, Doom, clearly Stand By Me Goonies, you know, all that sort of stuff. The what, you know, when they split up on. On the following episode after that one, like, pure Stand By Me stuff. Do you know what I mean?

And it was, you know, follow me on my road. You follow, you know, you follow them on their road sort of thing. Like wizard of Oz at the end. Lots of homage to that with the droid.

Like, you know, it's. It's not a supervisor, it's a droid. Holy crap. Are you kidding? And just. Just a lot of. A lot of little homages, which I thought were really good.

But in particular, I think that was really bolstered by the use of practical costumes, practical effects and stop motion. Like for the big giant spider, like, that was stop motion and just, you could tell. You could tell.

And it just, it felt like, it, it felt like Star wars like you said. It felt ambling, it felt Goonies Stand by Me. You know, it felt all that stuff, but it felt Star wars because of all that.

And, and it's like you said the sort of. They've tried to give a little bit of that magic back to something that you saw as a kid through, through the way things look and feel.

So yeah, I was, I was really impressed by that. But then it was cool that you could then jump up to the production value of the space scenes and you know, the battles and the X wings.

And so it was a really, it's like the best sort of balance I think I've seen in a Star wars production recently where it's not, it's sort of not forgotten about the 70s and that's how we did things then. So yeah, I thought it was really nice mix, man.

Garry: 00:31:06

Yeah, agreed. Yeah, it was cool. Some characters then, dude, Nick Frost really hamming it up with his. Is his pirate voice is SM33.

Mark: 00:31:20

Yeah.

Garry: 00:31:21

Do you know what?

This must have been like a dream come true for Nick Frost because I think him and Simon Pegg, you know, they've tag team a lot over the years on things and I think because they were such massive Star wars fans and probably still are from when they used to knock around together when they were younger. I think Nick Frost probably felt a bit left out when Simon Pegg not had a starring role, but he was involved in some capacity with Star Wars.

Mark: 00:31:47

He played, he played the character that trades rare for a food.

Garry: 00:31:52

That's it. Yeah. In the Force Awakens. Yeah.

So he wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like Star wars starring Simon Pegg, but he was involved in it and I think he had a, I think Simon Pegg had like breakfast with George Lucas or lunch or something and stuff like that.

So for Nick Frost to help have a Star wars and arguably, you know, he's had a bigger involvement than Simon Pegg does, but I bet he was over the moon to get the call to say, yeah, you've got, you've got the role of SM33, but an interesting droid that one dude. Because more so than anything else, really, really was programmed to be a pirate in all sense of, you know, every sense of the word.

It wasn't just a droid that was hired by pirates, you know, to do whatever, to make the tea. The way he talks and even got a peg leg and, and all that stuff is like, I don't know, it's just a proper pirate, but a droid.

Mark: 00:32:44

Mmm.

Garry: 00:32:45

Yeah.

Mark: 00:32:47

And it was like, it's funny with 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 that you see in like Pirates of the Caribbean and all that stuff.

And it was, yeah, it was just quite interesting to see that it can flip and flop and his loyalty is to like the pirate code and like I said, to being a pirate and to the ship. So yeah, it was like you said, very, very hammed up but like sort of fit because nothing else was hammed up. You know, it wasn't ott.

It was like that sort of not even the comic relief, more just the, you know, again, not probably not light hearted, but probably the, like a bit of levity at times. You know, it was just enough.

So again, it's all about the balance with that one because it could, it could just have been a caricature of everything that you expect from a pirate, but it again just, just the balance was, was just about there.

Garry: 00:33:46

Yeah, no, it was kind of cool. Yeah. I don't remember no Aton.

Mark: 00:33:52

Yeah, until he does.

Garry: 00:33:54

Yeah. Oh yeah, that one, remember that one?

Mark: 00:33:57

I forgot about that. Of course it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, Shaggers.

Garry: 00:34:00

Yeah, A couple of standouts for the, the kids on the, in the team. So it focused on whim to begin with for the reasons mentioned earlier.

But it actually moved over more to the character of Fearne, I thought, because she was, I think she had the biggest sort of character progression throughout the series because whim was just whim. Right. He just wanted adventure, didn't want to sit behind a desk.

And then when he got out to have adventure, he had flip flopping between sort of being upset and wanting to be back home, but at the same time kind of loving the fact that they're out, you know, breaking the rules, having an adventure. And that was him from start to finish pretty much. Whereas Fearne, she started off as a bit of a rebel, bit of a badass, not really giving a shit.

And then by the end of it she's like, you know, she wants to save the planet, save her mum, all the rest of it. So I think the, the focus shifted a little bit to her as we went through. But I thought those two were a standout.

Apart from one episode where kb, you know, the girl who's had the implant. Yeah, for an accident.

That scene on the beach when they followed all the little trash crab things and her Capacitor blew out and went out to save her. She was really good in that. And then Neil, bless him, the little elephant looking dude, he was just more sort of cute than anything else.

But in terms of child acting, like, you know, pretty good actually. Mate, sometimes with child actors you got to be really. Sometimes they're just awful, like really bad. But I thought these ones are pretty good, dude.

But yeah, so Ravi Cabo Conyers as Wim, I thought he was really good. And then Rhian Kira Armstrong as Fern. So those two man, for me were good. Yeah.

Mark: 00:35:44

Well, I think the entire thing was like when you compare that to the Acolyte.

Garry: 00:35:48

Oh, mate.

Mark: 00:35:50

Like the kid actors were better than anyone in the Acolyte, apart from managers into.

Garry: 00:35:55

Because crazy that you say that. It is in it.

Mark: 00:35:58

It's true though.

Garry: 00:36:00

It's true.

Mark: 00:36:00

And like, I think a lot of that came down to the actor that plays Sungyoon in. In Squid Game, you know, that language barrier and all of that. I just, I mean, I'm no expert.

I don't want to slight him in any way because he's a great actor. And certainly in Squid Game you can see he delivers a range of emotions. But it was like in Acolyte, it just never fit. It was almost like he was.

He had to deal with the language barrier first learned that did really well, but then couldn't quite. It's like me learning Spanish. I wouldn't necessarily know quickly enough where the emotions should be in relation to the words. And I just.

Yeah, I don't. I'm not an actor. I'm not anything to do with dramatic performance whatsoever. But I just wonder if that's a factor.

Garry: 00:36:45

You mean the nuance around the delivery of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark: 00:36:49

The enunciation of things, the delivery of certain impactful moments and it just, yeah, it felt like that was a little bit off in the Acolyte. But then it also felt like many of the sets on the Acolyte, you could tell they were in a studio. Even though it's supposed to be outside.

You could just tell they were in a studio, like never ending story quality level stuff, you know. And I think like when you add that and then the acting, it's like, well, that's a bit much. And I just feel like the.

Sorry, the skeleton crew, entire combination just was a lot better. And the script was better. The script was tighter. The dialogue wasn't Star wars dialogue. It wasn't, you know, 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 sort of was getting into that realm a little bit.

So I feel there were just a few layers. I mean, John. John Watts, you know, I know he's a director, but, you know, way that he had to get the performances, it clearly worked.

So, yeah, I thought it was good. I thought it was really good from that perspective. I thought the parents were good as well. They could have hammed it up.

I think Whim's dad was like an interesting tiny little arc, you know, the difference between him at the beginning and the end. And it's that, again, it's that cliche of rediscovering your child as.

And taking the risks and moving for the adventure and not worrying about your little safe space and trying to find that balance. And it was. It had every cliche that you'd have expected from it, but it pulled it off with enough charm that you didn't really give a.

It was a cliche, which I think sometimes Star wars 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 were great, and I think everyone. I can't think of one.

I honestly can't think of one bad actor or not bad actor, but anyone that pulled me out of it maybe a little bit on that spa planet. That lady was. She was like the. The hostess. She was from Better Call Saul. She's always a little. Hi. Hi. And again, this is like.

This is really picking nitpicking stuff. But it was. I don't even. I don't even think. I don'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 was quite interesting because no one stood out, which I think is a good thing as well.

Very often, like in the Acolyte, Manager Sinto was so good and his character was so good and his delivery of the character was so good that you sort of pissed off that we don't get more of it. And he stole every scene and he was that charming, and it was so good to see that. But it made the rest of it.

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 a Stand By Me in that you. I couldn't name a standout actor out of Stand By Me.

Like, you'd Instantly go, corey Feldman. And then you go, yeah, but what about. What about Will Wheaton? Like, he was good. And what about River Phoenix? And so you. You talk yourself into this.

Oh, everything's an 8 out of 10. Everything's a 9 out of 10.

And it's just this steady progress throughout a film, and you don't notice anyone because they're genuinely acting and they're genuinely playing the part. And I feel like that's what Skeleton Crew did really well, man.

Garry: 00:40:29

Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Just goes to show, doesn't it, when you have a decent story and you're not trying to. You're not trying to pull at the big threads of everything.

Because I think with. With the big players. I say the big players. You know, I mean, by like Mandalorian and these other.

And the acolyte especially, it's almost like the writers are scared to. To try something too new because it'll pull you away from, quote, unquote, what Star wars should be.

So you end up with this sort of writing yourself into a corner a little bit because you've got this, you know, well, we can't do that because, you know, in this comic book, they didn't end up on that planet, so they would never have got to there. So you can't. All that stuff, you know, it's like spaghetti junction.

So with this, it was really nice just to have the writers just have a solid idea and just be out here on the periphery, can just do their own thing, you know, and introduce.

Mark: 00:41:24

New things that can be explored. Like I said, why are these. Why are these not in the database? You know, And. And why are they protected?

Is it because they're mints or is it something else? Is every planet a mint? Is everything. Is it. Or are the other.

Are there other things on these planets or are they protected by the Republic or are they aware of the Republic? Are the Republic aware of them? Are what.

Did they themselves, as a council, decide to close themselves down and all these eight or ten planets, whatever it is, so there's a lot of really fresh stuff in there that you could get to because, you know, even if you go even further with that, like, if you get a Jedi on one of those protected planets after order 66, they're pretty much safe because this planet survived the Emperor, like, unscathed. Unscathed, you know, so there's lots of little things that you could do with that. All right, we'll send 50 Jedi there, like 25 men, 25 women.

Go and start a new order.

There's Loads of little bits like that, that, that, that if they ever wanted to, they could tell pretty interesting stories about and I think there'd be an appetite for it.

Garry: 00:42:36

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

And just lastly for me, I really liked the fact that the designers on it and everybody really resisted the urge to not put Star Warsy stuff on at Aton because you know, the, the design of the droids, you know the droids that were overseeing everything and even like the big computer at the end, the big AI thing that's controlling the planet, you know the administrator, all of that stuff looks some like just old school generic sci fi. Like.

Mark: 00:43:04

Yeah, that's a great shout. Didn't look Empire, didn't look Republic, did it?

Garry: 00:43:08

Exactly, yeah. So it would have been really tempting to have the droids and just put like astromech droids, like R2D2s wheeling around and all that stuff.

But none of it was like any other droid or computer or anything like that.

Mark: 00:43:20

So even the blasters and stuff, you're right on that, on that planet.

Like the blasters on Atatom were just, they were like sleek blasters that could have been out of Battlestar Galactica or any like you said, they could have been from like Irobot or from the creator or any of these more modern sci fi, you know, AI taking over sort of movies. It looked very similar to that, which was quite interesting. I noticed 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 that we've seen in Star Wars. It's pretty cool.

Garry: 00:44:10

Yeah.

Mark: 00:44:11

And it was.

Yeah, I thought it was really good because then when you went off to that, you know that, that, that the planet that I went to in the second episode, the one where there was like the original Millennium Falcon design parked up, then where they had that little Easter egg, suddenly then you're back in Star Wars. It's like all the species are there, all the ships are there and it looks normal. And then the X wings turn up later on. You like, okay.

Actually it'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 him now. Like how, how much more of this sort of stuff do you do?

Because you could tell amazing stories in the Star wars universe, but do. How much of a tolerance to the trolls have for it and the fans have for it.

You know, if it's like, we'll give you more Skeleton 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.

Garry: 00:45:07

Yeah. Interesting problem to have. Okay, what's. What's next? Is it andor for Disney plus? Is it and or season two?

Mark: 00:45:16

About three months in April. Yeah. And or season two, which I think is gonna be freaking excellent.

Garry: 00:45:23

Yes, agreed. Alrighty then, for. Let's stick a pin in it for this moment in Disney. Star wars and the latest release, Skeleton Crew.

If you have to put a score on it, dude, out of 10, I.

Mark: 00:45:38

Would go a straightforward eight out of 10. Eight out of 10.

Garry: 00:45:43

Solid eight. Yeah. I think I'll be up there with that as well, dude. For me, it's hovering around a sort of seven and a half eight we should look at.

Mark: 00:45:52

While we're doing that, we should look at like Rotten tomatoes. Okay. Yeah, 91. So we're there. There about 77.2 out of 10 on IMDb. Yeah, about right. Pretty. I mean, for Rotten Tomatoes to give a 91.

Like, so we've got the tomato meter and the popcorn meter. The Tomato meter is 91. The popcorn meat is 80. So that's pretty solid all around.

That means critics and fans, which is rare for Star wars these days, both really liked it. So that's a success.

Garry: 00:46:34

Nice one, John Watts. Christopher Ford, good job. Thumbs up.

and joining us as we kick off: 2025

A solid eight all around for that one. We'll be back to our regular schedule, I believe from this week onwards. Mark is away next week.

He's at a work conference, but I'll do an episode next week as there's a bunch of stories that have just sort of trickled in over the last couple of weeks. So we'll keep you up to speed on what's going on with Star wars next week. And we should be back together week after that. So stick around.

Make sure you're following on the old podcast apps and whatnot so you get a notification when new SOR shiz drops. You can also listen online. Just go to sparkrepelling.com all the apps are on there. And if you head over to Slash Support.

You can also ding us some beer monies. And thank you to all of you that have done that thus far. Until next time. Dude, it's been. I've missed you. I've missed you, genuinely.

Mark: 00:47:57

Oh, it's good to be back in it. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. You sort of like, there was no news, was there? And then now here we are and there's piles of news.

So, yeah, no, it's nice to be about that. Enjoyed it. But see your bad selves next week.

Garry: 00:48:10

Indeed. Until then, as always, you know the drill by now. Take care of yourselves and may the Force be with you always.

Mark: 00:48:32

Sa.