Podcasts in Review

October 16, 2014 at 12:00 am | Posted in 501st, Interview, Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Television | 1 Comment
Tags: andrea alvin, chris taylor, erin m. evans, john alvin, keiron gillen, mary franklin, sean mckeever

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.

501stCast: September Episode includes the latest troop reports, a short clip with Mary Franklin, discussion of Star Wars Celebration Anaheim (mostly anxious anticipation as there isn’t too much news yet), a cool story about one trooper saving a person’s life, and even tips on how to throw a baseball as Darth Vader (or how not to, at least). Fun episode and the only place you’ll find news and coverage of the 501st Legion.

Assembly of Geeks: “Reviewing Rebels & Remembering Henson” episode brings about a collection of Muppets topics as they cover their favorite Muppet songs and more. Tricia also talks about the Star Wars Rebels “Spark of Rebellion” screening, her feelings on the characters and the show overall. Good episode and worth a listen.

Bombad Radio: Episode 170 features their interview with Sean McKeever. Sean has worked on comics and videogames and is currently one of the writers for Star Wars: The Old Republic. He talks about what work he’s done on the game, how he ended up at Bioware, the differences between writing for comics and videogames, and his thoughts on all the different comic publishers he’s worked for. I hadn’t heard of Sean before but he turned out to be a really interesting guest. I liked his comments on comics and the comparisons to the video game industry, plus getting to hear what his contributions were (and are) for SWTOR.

Bombad Special Interview with Erin M. Evans discusses her new book Fire in the Blood, how it ties into The Sundering, and working with other authors. I didn’t realize her new book tied into Troy Denning’s The Sentinel, and it was fun to hear how Erin tackles the Forgotten Realms and utilizes other people as resources for her projects. With a very tight focus, this interview stays on track and focuses solely on the Forgotten Realms. If you’re a fan of the Realms, you’ll definitely want to check this one out.

Coffee with Kenobi: Book Chat with Chris Taylor covers his book How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, from the scope of the book to how Star Wars has affected society. Chris even shares his experience at the Navajo screening of Star Wars: A New Hope. He also talks about his favorite Star Wars character, movie, themes and how they have changed as he’s explored the films. Really nice interview with some fun Star Wars discussions.

ForceCast Special: A Conversation with Andrea Alvin features a very cool interview with Star Wars artist John Alvin’s wife, Andrea. For those who don’t know, John Alvin is a renown movie poster artist who did some Star Wars posters and even some book covers. Unfortunately John passed away some years ago, but Andrea was able to share some nice stories about John, his artwork, his career and a new book they’ve released showcasing John’s artwork. Spencer does a great job with the interview and they cover movies like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Star Wars, touching on both John’s methods, his work for Disney, and how his career got started. It’s an excellent interview and revealed a lot about John that I didn’t know.

Full of Sith: Episode LXXXV touches a little on rumors and they’re going to split off Bobby’s Rumor Control segment into it’s own episode so fans who wish to remain spoiler free can continue to do so, and those who want to dive in all the way can still indulge. They talk a little about the premier of Star Wars Rebels, then segue into a discussion of toys and childhood memories of their Star Wars action figures and crossover characters from other franchises. It’s a fun, nostalgic conversation that had me tripping down memory lane and my own Star Wars toy memories.

Radio 1138: Episode 16 suffers from some sound quality issues (kind of a staticky white noise laced into the audio), but otherwise is a very nice commentary on the Star Wars Rebels “Spark of Rebellion” premier. Their review if followed by a nice interview with Keiron Gillen, the writer for the upcoming Marvel Darth Vader series, who talks at length about the project and the character. They also have an interview with Millennium Falcon photo pilot Matthew Myatt (which is a little noisy). And they have a conversation with Steve Sansweet covering his recently hosted Rancho Obi-Wan gala.

Rebels Report: Season 1 Episode 0 covers the “Spark of the Rebellion” premier of Star Wars Rebels. First off, they cover some Rebels news, Greg Weisman being out, the Rebels dvd, and the look ahead featurette. They’re joined by guests Adam Bray and Kale Suilon as they discuss the Star Wars Rebels premier, the fate of the Mandalorians, Sabine’s family, female stormtroopers, Tarkin, holocrons, Kitwar and their hopes for the series. It’s an excellent discussion and one of the better ones I’ve listened to.

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 48 …has their coverage of the Rancho Obi-Wan gala, which is pretty cool and, so far, the best coverage I’ve heard of the event. Then they have guest Rob Dehlinger on to talk music, recording at Skywalker Ranch, and some of the projects he’s worked on. Afterwards they talk with Tracey and Scott Mor­ris about the Who Framed Roger Rabbit short films (which I was not even aware existed). I have to admit, that really piqued my interest. Sarah then talks about seeing the Star Wars Rebels screening, seeing Dave Filoni, and meeting Kevin Kiner and Steve Blum. Lot of interesting topics in this episode.

Star Wars Rebels Declassified: “Spark of Rebellion” episode covers the premier of the new show and features hosts Jimmy Mac, Jason Swank, Paul Bateman and Pete Nadel. They discuss the fate of Kanan, the designs of the characters, the aspects of Robin Hood with the Rebels, the commonality between the Imperials and the Romans, the focus on Ezra, the music, and where they see the series going from here. All around nice episode with lots of interesting discussion.

The Comlink: Episode 101 is technically not a podcast, it’s a short newscast. Hosted by David Collins, they quickly and entertainly bring you the news of the week. It’s a compact news segment, getting to the point, informative, but also with some humor. David does a great job and the quality of the newscast is on part with any network television station’s entertainment news features. Plus there’s a cool interview afterwards with James Arnold Taylor who talks some about his voice work in the premier of Star Wars Rebels. The whole thing is less than ten minutes, but they fit whole lot in. Overall I was very impressed and highly recommend checking it out.

One thing I realized this week is that I’m going to try and go the path of no spoilers in regards to Star Wars Episode VII. Thus I’m going to pass on Full of Sith’s Rumor Control episodes (which are going to be spoiler heavy) and episodes like Star Wars Reports Episode #147 which tease the possibility of major spoilers. It’ll be an uphill battle, and it’ll mean skipping some podcasts I normally love to listen to, but it’ll hopefully be worth it if it means preserving some of the surprises of Episode VII.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.