The best thing that can be said about the "Return of the Jedi" radio drama is "The circle is now complete"

Return of the Jedi: The Original Radio Drama ««½

Running Time: 180 Minutes in Six 30 Minute Episodes 

Year of Radio Broadcast: 1996

Featuring the voices of Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Edward Asner (Jabba the Hutt), Bernard Behrens (Ben “Obi-Wan” Kenobi), Joshua Fardon (Luke Skywalker), Ayre Gross (Lando Calrissian), Paul Hecht (The Emperor), Perry King (Han Solo), John Lithgow (Yoda), Brock Peters (Lord Darth Vader), Ann Sachs (Princess Leia Organa), Ed Begley, Jr. (Boba Fett). Directed by John Madden.



Back in 1983 when “Return of the Jedi” premiered on the big screen, aside from the fact children and teenagers loved it; me included, there were a lot of adults and film critics who were far from impressed. Whereas “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” were movies meant for people of all ages, many adults felt “Return of the Jedi” was meant only for kids.

True, the film was short on storytelling, but creator George Lucas and his technical wizards at Industrial Light and Magic made up for it by giving audiences three times the special effects and introducing us to more aliens than we ever saw in the original. “Return of the Jedi,” the movie, was a visual toy for the eyes.

When I heard the radio dramatization of the film was in the works, my excitement arose. The six- and five-and-a-half-hour radio adaptations of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” aired on National Public Radio in 1981 and 1983. Much to everyone’s surprise, the radio dramatizations were a success bringing in an estimated 750,000 listeners per episode.

Lucas always said he viewed the three films as one huge novel equivalent to the kinds of hardcover books authors Tom Clancy and Stephen King put out today. In the radio world, “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” weren’t just science fiction fare. They were epics.

In the first two adaptations, scriptwriter Brian Daley, who died in early 1997 just as the “Jedi” radio drama was being completed, put more focus on the characters and other events done in countless Marvel Comics’ issues but never seen on the big screen. The radio adaptations provided listeners with new insight into Luke’s desert homelike and friends, Leia’s involvement with the Rebel Alliance on Alderaan, and Han Solo’s legal troubles.

Daley was also able to make the villains a lot more sinister than on film. Darth Vader wasn’t just an agent of evil but a cold-blooded killer. The best character is Moff Tarkin whose rule over the Empire’s first Death Star was like a devious child just given a machine gun for his birthday. He was the galaxy’s Adolf Hitler.

It was that kind of fun, intriguing dialogue I was expecting to listen to here with Jedi. This is what happens when I set my expectations too high. The radio series that exploded like the Death Star goes out the way Jabba the Hutt did as he was strangled by Princess Leia with a final gasp.

Aside from the familiar howls of Chewbacca and the beeps and chirps from R2-D2, the only recognizable voice heard here is actor Anthony Daniels who reprises his role again as the garrulous “golden rod” droid, C-3P0.

Gone, however, are Billy Dee Williams who reprised his role in the Empire radio adaptation as Lando Calrissian, and so is Mark Hamill who lent his voice in both versions as Luke Skywalker.

Jedi’s central problem is in Hamill’s replacement, an unknown Joshua Fardon whose voice sounds too young for the role. In the films, audiences got to see Hamill’s Luke grow from an adolescent farm boy to being a mature adult who realizes his place in the galaxy. While Fardon doesn’t do a bad job, listening to his Luke, I got the impression he never left Tatooine.

The series is also weighed down by some embarrassing, unbelievable dialogue you just can’t imagine the characters saying on the big screen.

“Drop the lightsaber farm boy or I’ll flash fry you where you stand,” Boba Fett tells Luke during the battle on Jabba’s sail barge. “Try my capture cable on for size Skywalker.”

With dialogue like that, it is no wonder the bounty hunter didn’t say a word in the film version. On the other hand, I don’t picture Luke as he duels with Fett saying, “Don’t call me farm boy bounty hunter!!!”

Ironically, the radio drama much like the movie itself, drags at times. The sail barge battle, for example, takes too long and spans two episodes. Daley should have expanded the series climax from the rebels fighting the Empire on Endor and the Death Star as well as Luke’s battle with Vader and the Emperor instead of wrapping it all up in one half hour episode.

Still, Jedi does have its moments with most of the best lines belonging to Perry King’s Han Solo.

“Being taken captive by a bunch of ax wielding gremlins,” Han says of the Ewoks. “I’ll never be able to live this down.”

For anyone who will remember, these adaptations are like a return to the forties before the dawn of television where people would sit in front of their radios listening to weekly chapters of “The Shadow” and “The Lone Ranger.” People, back then, had to visualize what was happening while listening.

In listening to the dialogue said in “Return of the Jedi”, it is easy to visualize speeder bikes racing through the forests of Endor and the Millennium Falcon evading Tie Fighters as it zooms through the metallic trenches of the second Death Star while John Williams pulse pounding musical score plays in the background. I have always liked the way each episode opened with the narrator giving a brief synopsis of the series’ events so far.

It unfortunately adds up to little bit less than what I expected. Looking back upon the Star Wars films today on video, I can understand where those people were coming from in expressing their disappointment with the third installment. Aside from a couple of new scenes as when Luke builds himself a new lightsaber on Tatooine, “Return of the Jedi”, the radio drama doesn’t have much to offer and follows too closely with the film version. It is just as weak without the visual effects as the movie was with them.

The most I can say about this long-awaited adaptation are the words Darth Vader spoke to Ben Kenobi shortly before they dueled on the first Death Star in “Star Wars.”

“The circle is now complete.”

©12/4/96

Morbid Curiosity’ a sign of the times

There is nothing in the world that ticks me off more than being backed up in heavy traffic on the interstate.

Dealing with construction and rush hour traffic is one thing. It is another when every time some poor soul gets into an accident, the entire world has to stop and see what happened.

Does the nation slow down to watch someone fix their stalled car on the side of the road with its emergency lights on? Do any Good Samaritans out there get out and help? (I don’t, but we’re not talking about me right now!!!) I believe nine out of ten times the answer is no.

That was my thinking Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 10, at 5:30 p.m., as I made my way down Interstate 635 headed towards Mesquite. Approaching the Lake June Road underpass, I noticed a line of cars and trucks piled up in all four lanes.

No doubt someone down the road was in an accident. If only I had stayed at The Suburban Tribune, the newspaper I work for in Balch Springs, about ten minutes longer, I would have heard the dispatchers on their police scanner say a “bad accident” had occurred off Military Parkway and 635 and the police were on route.

Had I known that I wouldn’t have gotten so irritable at the thought of having to prod along at a snail’s pace for 15 minutes.

I felt I had every reason to be mad because from Lake June Road, there was nothing to see. My assumption was that a car or truck had stalled on the road. But then as I got closer to the scene, I noticed a group of people standing around talking. My consensus was this was a massive pileup, and people were waiting for tow trucks to arrive.

Within moments, four Mesquite police cars had converged upon the area. As I finally came up to the trouble-spot causing the problem, I saw no wrecked cars. Other than the three paramedics speaking with a citizen and an ambulance, no one was injured. Until I came across a sight seen only by fire and police departments and doctors. We see it every day in pictures displayed in magazines, on the news, movies and television shows but I have never seen it up close.

It was a body covered with a white blanket. A hand was sticking out from under it and a pool of blood had formed. Obviously, there was nothing anyone could do.

I was so caught off guard by the grim scene that the journalist in me did not stop, pull over, and start asking questions on what happened to do a last-minute story for the paper. The Mesquite News reported two days later the individual was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle while speeding.

The image only phased me that night, as I wasn’t in the mood to watch any violent movies of people dying. I wonder how many of those onlookers who saw the same thing I did felt the same way.

Death is an everyday occurrence. So why are people still entranced by it whenever there is a grisly accident? It is because society is intrigued by scenes of death and destruction.

We don’t just see it on the news but through Hollywood, we view death as entertainment. Of all the films released every year, how many of them DON’T have a body count? We pay four to seven dollars to see people get sucked up by tornadoes and aliens incinerate cities. People die every week on “ER” and “NYPD Blue” and they are in the top ten Nielsen ratings.

Every year on Nov. 22, people go to Dealey Plaza to visit the site where JFK was assassinated. I have even heard about celebrity death tours on tabloid shows like “A Current Affair” and “Hard Copy.” For ten dollars, you can take a ride in a hearse as the tour guide points out various places where movie stars breathed their last.

A couple weeks ago, a coworker told me on the day after two employees he knew were murdered in a robbery two years ago, he went to the store to see what was going on. Why? He said he went out of “morbid curiosity.”

I don’t know the answer on why death fascinates people.

Seeing a dead body on the road does nothing for me except leave a sick, twisted knot in my stomach that lasts a short while. Perhaps it is just a warning to say this is what happens when you go racing down the highway.

I do know this. Because I had to cover a meeting for the newspaper an hour and a half later on Sept. 10th, I ended up passing by the accident again on my way home. The police were still there and only two lanes were open.

Had I had a map on hand, I would have taken a different route home, as I did not want to contend with the traffic again. I didn’t pass by the accident twice because I needed to satisfy my “morbid curiosity.”

©9/25/96

“Timeliness important to professors” - Teachers should keep schedule as students do

A virus is running rampant on campus. And not just among students.

In the journalism profession, they call it “failure to meet deadline.”

The issue is lateness. Why do people show up late? At the retail job I worked at for eight years, the reason was burnout.

Maybe this is why so many professors here at University of Texas at Arlington show up 5-15 minutes late every day.

Having come from a community college and another four-year university, whenever an instructor failed to show up within ten minutes of class, one of three things happened.

The students left. Or someone from the head office would tell us the teacher was not coming. Or a note would be on the blackboard saying, “No class today.”

The UTA tradition seems to be just the opposite. When professors do not show up within the first five minutes, students do not leave.

“Don’t worry, he’ll show up,” someone told me.

How many students have the patience to tolerate that?

In Spring ‘95, I knew a student was a little peeved.

“Oh, god,” said the woman next to me as our professor strolled in 15 minutes late.

“Problem?” I asked.

“I had this guy last semester, and he was late every day,” she said. I cringed!

The same thing happened on the first day of summer II this year. I showed up for class at 8 a.m. and all three of us waited for the instructor to show up.

At 8:15 a.m., he did show up, only to tell us what I already assumed. The class may not make its enrollment, and we may have to drop for a refund in the next couple of days.

Why is it mandatory to be on time for your job?

Until recently, I always knew it was a job requirement. It enhances responsibility. It proves to your employers that you want to work, even though deep down, you would rather be elsewhere.

As my boss once said, timeliness is going to play a key role in our evaluations this month.

Showing up on time, however, means something else.

“It’s a courtesy to your co-workers,” said my weekend IT support manager. “Remember, when you’re scheduled to be here, someone else is waiting to leave or go to lunch.”

I do not have a cure to make instructors show up to class on time. All I care about is passing the class so I can be closer to graduating.

The next time, however, I show up late for class and get counted as absent, and the instructor drops my grade five points, I am not going to waste my time contesting the matter. I will tell he or she they were late to class almost every day this semester. I was late twice and had good reasons for it.

“What’s your excuse,” I will ask.

©8/30/96

Oklahoma City: one year later

Baylee Almon - 1994-1995

This week marks the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. On April 19, at 9:02 a.m. last year, a Ryder truck carrying 4,000 pounds of oil and fertilizer exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing 149 men, women and 19 children. The first reports were sketchy.

Around 9:10 a.m., channel 4 news broke into regularly scheduled programming as I made my bed. The first image, taken from far away, showed black smoke billowing from a central area in Oklahoma City. The newscaster said there were reports of a possible gas explosion at a school. I expected this to be an unfortunate freak occurrence and had hoped no one died in the explosion.

I went through the usual morning routine getting ready for school. It would be another twenty minutes before I turned the TV on again to see if live coverage continued. The images to me and to everyone else across the nation were devastating. Hundreds of victims were covered in blood caused by the falling concrete and debris. Some were dazed. Others were crying as firefighters and ambulance crews rushed to tend the injured.

Of all the pictures taken, only one would come to symbolize the tragedy. A picture captured by an amateur photographer moments after the blast of fireman Chris Fields cradling the body of one year old Baylee Almon, whose birthday was the day before. Today, whenever I think about her smiling face plastered across newspapers and magazines, it still puts a lump in my throat.

For the rest of the week, the nation mourned. President Clinton declared that Sunday a National Day of Mourning. Church bells across the country rang at 3 p.m. And we wanted answers. What sick minded individual could commit such a horrendous act? Why did it have to happen in Oklahoma City? Is someone out there capable of this much hate?

As law enforcement officials issued an all-points bulletin describing the two suspects at a live press conference the next morning, agents scoured airports under the assumption it was a terrorist attack from abroad.

No one knew, however, that the perpetrator was already in jail in Perry, Oklahoma on the charge of carrying a concealed weapon. He was arrested an hour and twenty minutes after the bombing. For two days, law enforcement officials didn’t even give the prisoner a second thought until Friday afternoon as he was about to post bail. Took only moments for officials to realize the young man fit one of the FBI’s descriptions.

His name was Timothy McVeigh, who according to Time, served in the army during the Gulf War and failed to qualify for the Armed Special Forces. He had reportedly been agitated over the way law enforcement officials handled the Branch Davidian Siege in Waco, Texas in 1993 and actually visited the site. He was also known to hold right wing politics and claimed the army had implanted a computer chip in his buttocks.

News quickly spread that the atrocious act was committed by one of our own. As the emotionless, stone-faced uncooperative suspect clad in an orange jumpsuit and leg and wrist irons was led outside by officials for a prison transfer, McVeigh was greeted by an angry mob.

“Baby killer,” they shouted. “Kill the creep.” But no one took a shot that day at Timothy McVeigh. Justice would have its day in court.

Two other individuals, Terry and James Nichols, were held in the case as well but only as material witnesses. James Nichols was later released while Terry, along with McVeigh, will stand trial this year in Denver, Colorado.

Whenever a tragedy of this magnitude occurs, it is one so shocking people don’t want to believe one person or persons could commit such an act. Instead, they point to possible conspiracy theories as people have often suggested with the JFK Assassination, Watergate, the O.J. Simpson murder trial and even the fiery end of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas.

Conspiracy theories will no doubt play a major role as the trial of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols nears. Who and where is John Doe number 2, the supposed individual witnesses say they saw at the federal building minutes before the blast? Did he die in the explosion? If not, whose leg was it that was buried with the body of a woman victim as reported in The Dallas Morning News last month. The defense will argue that McVeigh and Nichols were pawns in a much more sinister game. Was it the Michigan Militia, a military force that shares the same anti-sentiments towards law enforcement and the government as McVeigh does?

Last May, the charred skeleton that once was the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was demolished. The pictures seen in a feature article in the March 31 edition of The Dallas Morning News this year speak for themselves. All that remains is an open field blocked off by a chain link fence lined up with wooden crosses. Over dozens of buildings that surrounded the bombsite have yet to be repaired or are vacated.

On April 5 in Oklahoma City, the Clintons dedicated a site across the street from the disaster area that will be the new daycare center. Much has been discussed on what to put in place of where the Murrah Federal Building once stood.

Perhaps it will be a memorial park dedicated to the 168 men, women, and children who lost their lives in a matter of seconds that spring morning. A place for people to come and reflect on a senseless and unprecedented tragedy that happened a long time ago.

©4/17/96

Days of DC Comics’ “Star Trek” hit end of the road

"...and that concludes the final installment of DC's STAR TREK. Having had the knowledge of closing out these final issues' lettercols. I can't help feeling a twinge upon reading your mail, noting your enthusiasm, humor, and interest. "Amazing Grace" would be pretty appropriate now. I am heartened, though by the knowledge that Star Trek, now more than a force of nature than a saga, will continue in its various incarnations from generation to the next...and to the next...

The final words, as always, are best left to you readers and fans..."

- The editors of DC Comics' Star Trek

Feb. 1984 - Feb. 1996

Vol. 1 - 56 Issues - 3 Annuals

An era has ended.

Earlier this month, I stopped by the local comic bookstore to pick up the latest issue of “Star Trek” that features the original cast. I will always be a fan of the original series, but for the past year, I have not had time to read the monthly comics because of school and work.

I always knew at the beginning of every month there would be a new issue of Star Trek waiting for me at the store. The series would never end. It could not.

My usual routine was to first read the back page entitled “Hailing Frequencies Open” of each issue to see what the writers at DC Comics had in store next month for Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy. Even after reading the editorial note on the back page twice of Issue 80, it still did not register I was reading the final issue of the Star Trek series.

The note said “... and that concludes the final installment of DC’s “Star Trek.”

“What?!!” I exclaimed. “Great!! This is what I get for paying more attention to such important things like studying and working for a living.”

The news was as sudden as learning a relative or friend just died.

Vol. 2 - 80 Issues - 6 Annuals

The only question I could produce was why? My question was answered when I got home.

Rummaging through a pile of still un-filed comics I accumulated, I came across issue 79 which offered an explanation, however, vague.

The reason for the cancellation was not due to low revenues as I suspected; a major factor that contributed to Marvel Comics’ cancellation of “Star Wars” in 1986 after a nine-year run. The reason was because Margaret Clark, DC editor for both “Star Trek” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” comics, was leaving to edit the franchise’s paperbacks and calendars at Pocket Books.

Along with that was the news The Next Generation comic would also be suspended.

Issue 80 of that series arrived in stores last week.

And so, it is officially over. Captains Kirk, Picard, and their respective crews are boldly going to an area they have explored once before in their television series. Cancellation.

I shed no tears, however, for The Next Generation. Their adventures will continue in motion pictures. As far as the original cast was concerned, I knew it was over for them in movies with “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” in 1991.

At least I still had the monthly comic book to look forward to. Until now.

In the Beginning

1995 Miniseries
6 Issues

It was a lengthy and enjoyable run while it lasted.

“The human adventure is only beginning,” was the sentence at the end of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” when it premiered in 1979. Since the original TV series ended its run in 1969, there was always talk of bringing the cast back in a new television series. The comic book adventures began in 1980 when Marvel Comics adapted the original series. There was, however, some uncertainty about it. The publication had no idea where they wanted to go with the characters and as a result, the series lasted only 18 issues. It was not until “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982) was released that the popularity of the franchise exploded. All Trekkies ever talked about was how Spock would be brought back to life in the third film.

DC Comics was not going to wait for the answer and began publishing a comic book series of their own in February 1984; three months before the premiere of “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” DC’s writers not only produced several new creative storylines, but they retained all the action, drama and humor of the original series and brought a few guest characters back. Spock and McCoy never failed to have their philosophical arguments.

Oct. 1989 - Feb. 1996
Vol. 2 - 80 Issues - 6 Annuals

I am astounded at how Trekkies are today by The Next Generation. I remember a friend of mine could not believe it when he saw the new Enterprise’s saucer section in Generation’s 1987 pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint”, separate from the stardrive. DC first pulled that stunt off three years before “The Next Generation” came to TV with the Mirror Universe storyline from the original series.

It did not take long, however, for the series’ studio, Paramount Pictures, to realize it had a hit on its hands. The first series went on a brief hiatus in 1988 while DC’s writers and Paramount’s executives negotiated their future.

Just as “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” was released in theaters in the summer of 1989, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” comic was born.

The idea “Star Trek” has explored is unity. That was creator Gene Roddenberry’s reasoning for having an African American (Uhura), a Russian (Chekov), an Asian American (Sulu), an Englishman (Scotty), a Vulcan (Spock), and two Americans (Kirk and McCoy) serving on the Enterprise.

And now

Today, Paramount Pictures is interested more in making money marketing the Star Trek franchise than producing better storylines.

Perhaps it was best DC Comics quit while they were ahead. Better to go out knowing you had high sales than to go out knowing you had none.

I just wish the publication could have given the original cast a first-class sendoff. I would rather remember them seeking out “new life and new civilizations” than to be retired.

Although their adventures will continue in a variety of hard and soft cover books, this is the end for the comics.

However, with 79 original episodes (80 if you consider “The Menagerie” was a two part episode), six feature films, 150 plus comic books, annuals, specials, movie adaptations, and 50 plus hard and soft cover novels and counting, there’s more than enough adventures for me to look back upon.

Farewell Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A.

Live long and prosper.

©2/7/96