Yes, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Star Wars, so here come three vaguely relevant posts, beginning with an epic 1981 extrapolation from National Public Radio first recommended to me by the great Peter Davis. You can read the whole story here of how NPR decided to reignite American interest in radio drama with a Star Wars adaptation, buying the rights off George Lucas, together with all the film's score and sound effects, for just one dollar. What I've heard so far is pleasingly solid stuff as radio sagas go, entirely convincing of a broader mythology from which the films themselves were adapted, and while much of the cast is different, Mark Hamill is still Luke Skywalker, making his way around the imagined geography of a Tatooine moisture farm with grunts and sighs worthy of The Archers. You can see why he'd become such a sought-after voice actor, and I still have John Lithgow as Yoda to look forward to. All the sites that hosted downloadable episodes of this seem to have taken them down now so I don't know how long they'll stay on youtube either, but while they're here, cosy up...
After all, how could you tell Luke was working if he didn't occasionally testily soothe a moisture vaporator?
ReplyDeleteIt's actually a droid called "Treadwell" he testily soothes. DROIDS CAN HAVE NAMES!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I'm still getting to grips with the fact that NPR did radio drama ...?!?
ReplyDeleteWhat I need to follow up is whether they made any after this? I mean, how do you follow Star Wars? There's some Biggs and Treadwell action here by the way.
ReplyDeleteAm listening now while I do the housework, and love bleepy Treadwell who sounds like he belongs in a rural Tatooine sitcom (Last of the Summer Moisture Harvest).
ReplyDeleteAlso, C3PO has just said "I do so miss the fragile nuances of human conversation." Don't we all, Threepio.