Podcasts in Review

February 18, 2016 at 12:00 am | Posted in Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars | 1 Comment

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.

501stCast: January 5 Minicast features a great conversation with Verona Blue who talks about being a 501st member and her role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Verona is a 16 year veteran of the legion, one of the original members of Canadian Garrison, and has a great story to tell about working TFA. She covers her stint at theater school in England, moving to LA to get into movies, some of the acting she’s done, and what her experience doing voice over work for TFA was like considering she’s now the voice of the first female stormtrooper (aside from Phasma). Great audio and a great guest make this a great episode. Be sure to give it a listen.

501stCast: Know A Legion Episode 1 Minicast features a fun conversation with the commander of the Outer Rim Garrison. Terry talks about how his unit was formed, events they’ve done, memorable moments, and upcoming events. Again, great audio quality, and an interesting interview. Worth a listen.

Aggressive Negotiations: Issue 000 covers their favorite small moments from Star Wars, what moments in Star Wars: The Clone Wars that sold them on the show, what moments sold them on Star Wars Rebels, and they set the expectations for their podcast. A light but fun discussion and a short episode at just 25 minutes.

Fly Casual: Episode 75 starts with comic reviews for Star Wars #15 and Kanan #10. They review Star Wars Rebels “A Princess on Lothal” and “The Protector of Concord Dawn.” Afterwards they dig into rumors for Episode VIII, Rogue One, Forest Whitaker, ex-Imperial droid scene stealer and more. Good episode.

Full of Sith: Episode CLIII is their long awaited Ewoks episode. Alas, it was a bit of a let down. Bryan, Mike and Amy were joined by Holly Frey to talk about the Ewoks, their role in Return of the Jedi, and the two Ewok movies. While Bryan was all pumped to talk Ewoks, there wasn’t a lot of support to back him up, and the discussions never really went anywhere except everyone else not liking the Ewok movies and the Ewok movies killing Mike’s opinions of them in ROTJ. I think some more pro-Ewok guests were needed for this one (the Fangirls Going Rogue hosts would have been perfect). Afterwards Bryan interviews Eric Walker, one of the stars of the Ewoks movies, which would have almost been a saving grace for the episode. Unfortunately the interview is plagued by some rough sounding audio. It’s good content, though, if you want to stick through it.

Rogue Podron: Mission 2-1 does something kind of interesting – they compare Poe Dameron to Corran Horn. Then they go through Poe’s story in Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening in detail with commentary. Lots of spoilers for the story if you haven’t read it yet. Overall, a bit of a different podcast. There’s some familiar hosts from the Far Far Away Radio crew, but the audio quality isn’t quite as good.

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 110 is a bit of a Valentine’s Day episode. First up, they talk with Dave Tavers, the creator of MouseMingle. Dave talks about how his Disney dating site got started and what they’re trying to accomplish with it. Then they talk with Michael and Michelle about their Star Wars Day at Sea cruise. They share what the experience was like and what things they might want to change for next time. Great convo to listen to if you’re thinking about a Disney cruise. However, it was also enlightening as they reveal the whole story with Chick­aphant. And here I thought Chickaphant was a person :)

Star Wars Bookworms: Episode #52 starts with listener emails, then they review Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary. Fun episode as always and cool to hear they’ll be doing an interview with Pablo Hidalgo in a future episode.

Star Wars Report: Episode #206 features Riley, Bethany and Mark as they talk about the awakenings in The Force Awakens, as well as the importance of who you choose to see the film with.

Star Wars Report: Episode #207 features guest Brian Brushwood. Riley asks Brian the all important question – why do they like Star Wars? They talk about the Star Wars Rebels midseason trailer and some other stuff. After the end credit music, Riley tackles some listener emails. I have to admit, I wasn’t on board with Riley in this episode, in fact I found myself arguing out loud a couple times. Eh, hit and miss.

Take Cover: *New Podcast* Episode 1 is hosted by Brian Cameron, Matt Booker and Mark Newbold. They cover new releases in the world of Star Wars literature, from books to comics and magazines, upcoming releases, and they talk with Star Wars Insider editor Jonathan Wilkins. In a way, it’s kind of like the UK version of Jedi Journals. It’s certainly a plus for UK fans, but it may be a small hiccup for US fans as little details like prices and release dates are UK based. Not a big deal, but one thing that was an issue is there was some odd mic noise throughout most of the episode. Nothing to give up on yet, but hopefully something they’ll improve upon in future episodes.

The Wookiee Gunner’s Rebels Chat: Episode 31 covers Star Wars Rebels “Legends of the Lasat.” Now this is the first time I’ve tuned in for this podcast which is hosted by Johnamarie and her mom. First off, excellent audio quality, which is always the first step toward a great podcast. But secondly this one has some great hosts. They talk about the episode, the visuals of space, Hondo, the design of the new Lasat characters, their thoughts on who the fool, the warrior and the child were, the use of the bo-rifle, and they get into some listener emails. Overall very positive discussion and a fun episode. I’ll certainly be checking out more of these.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.