Podcasts in Review

April 10, 2014 at 12:00 am | Posted in Books, Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars, Star Wars Books, Star Wars Rebels, Television, The Clone Wars | Leave a comment

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.

Assembly of Geeks: Their “Superman Dies and Kermit is Framed” episode covers a little bit of Superman as they talk about the 1992 graphic novel The Death of Superman and whether DC should use that in their next movie. From there, they delve into the idea of television shows with movie endings before getting into some serious Muppets talk with special guest Ryan Dosier. It’s an entertaining episode and I really enjoyed the Muppets discussion.

The “Getting Inside Batman’s Head” episode changes gears as they dive into the Dark Knight. This is a really meaty episode as they cover some very cool insights into the character that is Batman with their special guest Dr. Travis Langley. If you’re a Batman fan, you will not want to miss this one.

Bombad Radio: Episode 135 continues their EU book series by covering some of the more prominent tie-in books for the Original Trilogy era. This includes a book-by-book breakdown of the Han Solo Trilogy written by A.C. Crispin, an overview of Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry and some discussion of the Bounty Hunter Wars and Tales of anthologies. The Han Solo Trilogy gets focused on the most, and for good reason: it’s a great series. There are a few minor audio problems in this episode, but it’s still a good one to check out for those interested in the EU books set around the original films.

Episode 136 is their free-for-all Star Wars show featuring a slew of guests (but no Jeremiah). They cover a lot of topics: Disney’s secrecy, familiar actors versus unknowns, the arcs from season 6 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and more. It’s a fun discussion and worth checking out for a variety of opinions on all things Star Wars.

Coffee with Kenobi: Episode #15 starts out with some coverage of “This is Madness” before jumping to The Bearded Trio segment which provides some very tantalizing news about Jurassic World. There’s an interview with John Coppinger from the Caldriff convention over in England which is pretty neat. However, the heart of this show is the discussion with Bryan Young as they talk about the prequel films. Bryan speaks passionately about the films, how they improve the Original Trilogy, add to the overall story and he defends against some of the common criticisms. He even talks about waiting in line to see The Phantom Menace and how he got his Twitter handle Swankmotron. It’s an superb discussion and I highly recommend this episode. You will not find a more passionate of discussion of the prequels anywhere else.

Dark Coffee chat with TNA’s Gunner is a very fun episode. Now I don’t watch TNA wrestling, so I’m unfamiliar with Gunner, but listening to him talk about Star Wars, this guy is pretty awesome. He earns major points from me for being a fan of the EU books and digging the Darth Bane trilogy. Joined by fellow guest Chad of the Cantina Cast, they talk a lot about the dark side and the Sith. Chad goes into a very interesting defense of why Darth Tyranus is a cool character, and Gunner talks about how his Star Wars fandom began. Again, a very fun episode and I hope they have Gunner on again sometime in the future to talk more Star Wars.

Full of Sith: Episode LIX includes discussion of Wookieepedia’s inappropriate breasts page, the latest movie news and the validity of May the 4th as a Star Wars holida. They also dig deep into “Late to the Party” as they talk season two of Star Wars: The Clone Wars with Bobby. “Landing at Point Rain”, “Senate Spy”, the Mandalore arc and Boba Fett arc all get covered. As a parting shot, they tease listeners with an impending Han Solo episode. Pretty good episode all around and I have to agree that Wookieepedia needs to remove that stupid breasts page.

Radio 1138: Episode #5 features some nice audio clips and short interviews as they do a little con coverage. They talk with Gary Hailes of the 501st UK Garrison, Dermot Crowley who played Crix Madine in Return of the Jedi and who talks about having to grow a beard for the movie because Hasbro already had an action figure for him that had a beard. There’s a clip of Mark on BBC talking about the latest Star Wars Episode VII news. James and Mark both talk a little about their Star Wars collections. James in particular talks about working on the television show Collectaholics and spreading out his collection in a massive warehouse for filming, whereas Mark reveals the new name for his collection: Echo Base. Then there’s a really cool interview with Simon Wilkie who is one of the world’s premiere C-3PO cosplayers. Simon talks about what it takes to wear the suit, meeting Anthony Daniels, and why he decided to cosplay as 3PO. Wrapping up the show is an excellent interview with Roger Christian who worked on A New Hope and the film Black Angel. Roger talks about working with George Lucas, how Black Angel came together, making the most of low budgets and some of the influences Black Angel has had on other films. Hearing Roger talk about Black Angel, I now really want to see the movie. It’s an intriguing interview. As a whole, this episode is well worth checking out with lots of cool interviews. I’m also looking forward to hearing more about James Star Wars collection and being on Collectaholics. Hopefully they’ll talk some more about that in future episodes.

RebelForce Radio: Clone Wars Declassified 610-613: The Yoda Arc is solo hosted by Jason who is joined by guests Paul, Kyle, Jamie King and Sam Witwer (who shows up later in the show). Jamie gives some excellent insight into the Force Priestesses and some of Dave’s direction for the characters. They also cover lots of aspects from the arc including whether Valorum was duped or duplicitous, the complexity of the politics, the Jedi’s suspicion of Palpatine, whether Dagobah was shoehorned in, what’s real and what isn’t, whether the Priestesses brought about Anakin, dark Yoda, the whale connection, R2 knowing everything and much more. Plenty of observations, connections, opinions and speculation on this climatic end of the television show.

Rebels Report: Episode #9 covers Sabine from Star Wars Rebels. Like their previous character focus episodes, this one provides extensive coverage of what we know about Sabine, what we can extrapolate, and just some fun speculation. Andy is absent in this one, so Johnamarie fills in. As a hardcore Mando fan, she brings an interesting side to the discussion. They also touch on a new book announced for Star Wars Rebels. As always, this is one of the best podcasts to check out for Star Wars Rebels discussion, so you’ll definitely want to give this one a listen.

Skywalking through Neverland: Episode 24 includes some news, a review of Muppets Most Wanted, and a very nice interview with Kevin Rubio who created the Star Wars fanfilm “Troops”. This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone interview Kevin Rubio and he had some very cool things to say. From how “Troops” came about to how the film landed him several official gigs with Lucasfilm, the interview reveals some things I never knew about Kevin. For instance, did you know he wrote “Bombad Jedi” for Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Or that George Lucas specifically wanted him for that episode? Lots of neat trivia and definitely a must listen to for Star Wars fans.

Episode 25 covers Billy Dee Williams withdrawal from Dancing with the Stars, Frozen setting new records, upcoming tv shows doing Star Wars specials, and a great interview with Simon Wilkie who talks about cosplaying as Threepio. Simon has done a couple interviews lately, but this one covers different ground so it’s worth listening too as he talks about filming in Tunisia and what it takes to get into the gold suit.

Star Wars Oxygen: Episode 5 covers some of the music of The Empire Strikes Back and one of the most famous Star Wars themes: The Imperial March. In addition to that, they have some audio clips of John Williams talking about composing the music while working on the film and some audio of Irvin Kershner talking about the music and scenes. Great stuff.