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Star Wars Radio Drama - *update in 1st post* - completed review — Page 4

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Huge fan of the first radio drama. In the pre-VHS days I listened to my recordings of it nearly daily. It was broadcast between 18th April - 8th May 1981, on BBC Radio One here in the UK at 12pm each day. In some ways I associate the voice actors more with the roles than the actual film cast, I’m so familiar with it. Between the radio drama and the daily newspaper strips and Marvel annuals, the Star Wars universe felt huge back then, even though it was pre-internet.

Unfortunately to the best of my knowledge Radio One didn’t broadcast Empire. It wasn’t until the cassette and CD releases in 1993 (I think it was ‘93? Along with the Anthology soundtracks too - GREAT YEAR for Star Wars!) that I could hear that, and I didn’t find it as enjoyable, thinking some of the supporting voice actors were a little bland. It missed the pulpy feel of the Star Wars radio episodes. Perhaps the story just didn’t translate so well to a purely aural medium, unlike Star Wars.

My dream ‘Special Edition’ release would be for Mark Hamill to voice Luke for a re-edit of the 1996 Return of the Jefi radio drama. He can still do a near spot-on impression of his younger voice (witness the recent Disney Forces of Destiny episode he voiced), and with no disrespect meant towards Joshua Fardon who had an impossible job really, the show really missed Mark’s vocal talent in the role. He IS Luke. It affected the continuity too much for me to fully enjoy it.

Great to see so many others enjoy the radio drama too! Would be nice to have a Splinter of the Mind’s Eye release featuring Hamill, King and Sachs too. If I ever win the lottery… 😉

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screams in the void said:

Geekgarious said:

Why? Why wouldn’t people listen to it the way they listen to podcasts?

good question . I see nothing wrong with that . I have these radio dramas on cassette as well and they sound great

It was a statement on the people not the radio dramas. I’m not saying people too young for cds DON’T want to listen to star wars radio dramas but…

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I think any young fan who wants to legally listen to then badly enough would invest in a cheap portable CD player or a DVD player, which are also super cheap these days. Some models even rip audio files to MP3 now.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Yes. What I’m saying is the demographic of people who want to listen to star wars radio dramas and the demographic of people who don’t already have a cd player probably don’t have alot of overlap.

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darthrush said:

SilverWook said:

I think any young fan who wants to legally listen to then badly enough would invest in a cheap portable CD player or a DVD player, which are also super cheap these days. Some models even rip audio files to MP3 now.

We all know no one would do this.

Seconded.

Not enough people read the EU.

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I sometimes wonder about what younger people will get into , Vinyl has made a comeback and there is a collectors market for it , I see young people in antique and thrift shops near me buying used vinyl all the time and there is a comic shop in my town that sells new records as well. There is even a sub culture into collecting vhs .I myself started a vhs collection after finding a 13 inch tv/vcr combo at Goodwill five years ago and then finding a panasonic vcr with hi-fi and 4 heads in perfect working order for 2 bucks at a garage sale .I have also seen many young people on youtube showcasing vhs collections .I would think older and perfectly serviceable technology would be of great interest to SOME people who are on a tight budget and might not have easy access to more expensive stuff . There is even a trend I have seen where younger people are buying crt tv’s for retro gaming because the black levels on them are phenomenal.I don’t think generalizing and making a blanket statement about a whole group of people makes a good case .

https://screamsinthevoid.deviantart.com/

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Lol yeah but are these young people buying records buying star wars spoken word radio drama records? That’s arguably way more extreme than buying a vhs or a music record. Actually I’m not even sure it’s arguable.

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Possessed said:

Lol yeah but are these young people buying records buying star wars spoken word radio drama records? That’s arguably way more extreme than buying a vhs or a music record. Actually I’m not even sure it’s arguable.

I listened to the Radio Drama on YouTube a few years ago, which I’d say is what other kids would do if they wanted to hear it.

Not enough people read the EU.

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LuckyGungan2001 said:

Possessed said:

Lol yeah but are these young people buying records buying star wars spoken word radio drama records? That’s arguably way more extreme than buying a vhs or a music record. Actually I’m not even sure it’s arguable.

I listened to the Radio Drama on YouTube a few years ago, which I’d say is what other kids would do if they wanted to hear it.

Exactly. That’s why it should be made available on Spotify or a podcast site. It was free on air back in 1981.

I just got a hold of the limited edition trilogy set with the get well message for Brian Daley. Such a vintage 90s package that I always wanted as a kid. That’s the closest I’ll probably ever come to buying a vinyl record.