Podcasts in Review

October 31, 2018 at 6:00 pm | Posted in Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars | Leave a comment

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review, starting with the top five and honorable mentions, then moving on to the full reviews.

This Week’s Top Five

Radio Free Endor: The Ritual of Endor
The Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Extra 17
Children of the Force: Episode 114
Blast Points Podcast: Episode 146
Starships, Sabers, and Scoundrels: Episode 66

Honorable Mentions

Star Wars 7×7 Episode 1577 has a great science discussion of Star Wars.
The Soundtrack Show Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: the Music Part I
Toy Run: Episode 132 has some great travel stories from Tom Berges.

Now here is this week’s Podcasts in Review…

501stCast: Episode 112 they go over The 501st Legion and Star Wars news, and troop reports. Good episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 52 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Nicky, Joe, and Marcus
Rating: Good

Blast Points Podcast: Episode 146 goes over the news, George Lucas visiting the set of The Mandalorian, then they dive full into Snoketoberfest as they discuss the Supreme Leader. They talk about the first time we heard his voice, the early concept art rumors, who he is, whether there will be any Snoke in Episode IX, Snoke rumors, and listener imitations of Snoke, which are pretty darn good. Fun episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 54 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Jason, and Gabe
Rating: Fun

Brews and Blasters: Episode 181 they talk Vader’s castle, E.T., Star Wars Resistance “Triple Dark”, The Mandalorian, and they do a need’em got’em for Zuckuss. Fun episode.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 55 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Joe, and Chris
Rating: Fun

Bright Tree Radio: Episode 37 they talk about Solo and the idea of over saturation, then they discuss underrated things in Star Wars. From underrated music, couples, books, and characters, to scenes, fights, and actors. For “Jar Jar Jabberings” they talk about who they’d like to see in Episode IX and who they wouldn’t want to see. Great episode.

Podcast Network: Bright Tree Radio
Runtime: 1 hour 6 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Sophie, and Phil
Rating: Great

Children of the Force: Episode 114 is their Halloween episode as they share three spooky/scary stories they came up with, complete with music and sound effects. One is a cliff hanger about a Twi’lek, one is a Kylo Ren/Edgar Allan Poe story, and one is about the Knights of Ren. Fun episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 42 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Al, Anna, and Liam
Rating: Fun

Comic Book Noob: Typhoid Mary & Misty Knight they go over the characters’ first appearances, abilities, the comic characters vs the TV characters, Mary’s multiple personalities, and reading recommendations. Great episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 26 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Scott, Matt, and Regina
Rating: Great

Comics With Kenobi: Episode 86 they review Tales From Vader’s Castle #4 and Doctor Aphra #25, two outstanding comics. Plus there’s some listener feedback on Momin. Great episode.

Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 1 hour 3 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Production Quality: Great
Hosts: Matt, and Jeff
Rating: Great

DorkLair: Episode 62 goes over their Halloween plans, Bill shares his story of running into director Rian Johnson, and they cover toy news and review the Bandai Han Solo Stormtrooper disguise 1:12 plastic model kit.

Podcast Network: RetroZap
Runtime: 1 hour 4 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Bill, and Chris
Rating: Good

Fly Casual: Episode 202 they talk about their Halloween plans, tree reproduction, and Star Wars. They go over comics, Dodonna dying, the Darth Vader comic, and Vader’s Castle. Then they discuss Star Wars Resistance, kinda, only one of them watched it. Afterwards they talk about their favorite Star Wars books, and ones to avoid. Good episode.

Podcast Network: Betterkind Media
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Corey, Steve, Garrick, and Mike
Rating: Good

ForceCenter: Episode 139 they discuss what scares them, they touch on how the new Halloween movie is like The Force Awakens of horror, and they talk about other stuff they’ve been up to. They they move on to the improv comments about Episode IX, the barge update, George Lucas vising the set of The Mandalorian, Battlefront II news, and for their main discussion, they talk about General Grievious. They go over his cyborg element, his cough, 2D vs 3D shows, and more. Plus listener questions. Great episode.

Podcast Network: ForceCenter
Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Ken, Joseph, and Jennifer
Rating: Great

Grand Moff Talkin’: Episode 72 Jazmine is AWOL on this one, but Riley and Jake solider on as they discuss The Young Jedi Knights novel Crisis at Crystal Reef. They go over the story, the characters, and the use of drugs in the story. Plus there’s some dramatic readings complete with music and sound effects. Afterwards they do some general Star Wars book discussion. Good episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Riley, and Jake
Rating: Good

Kanata’s Castle: Episode 43 is their Halloween episode as they talk about the Darth Vader comic series and the Vader’s castle arc. Then they cover news, Star Wars Resistance, they discuss the character of Asajj Ventress, and they wrap up with some Episode IX speculation.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 21 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Becca, and Devon
Rating: Good

Lattes With Leia: Episode 33 they talk about some stuff, then discuss fear in Star Wars. From things that instilled fear, like the cave on Dagobah, to how the characters in Star Wars handle fear, like the Jedi, Yoda, Anakin and Luke. I listened via iTunes and the audio for the episode cut off at the end, so I’m not sure how much more of the episode there was.

Podcast Network: Coffee With Kenobi
Runtime: 43 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Good
Hosts: Amy, and Andrea
Rating: Good

Less Than 12 Parsecs: Episode 253 Tim talks about what he’s been up to and touches on the news.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth,
Runtime: 8 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Tim
Rating: Good

Radio Free Endor: The Ritual of Endor kicks off with a 22 minute radio dramatization intro playing off the idea of a creepy Ewok ritual on Endor. Afterwards, they share some ghost stories, then Jamie talks with two paranormal investigators who share their own ghostly experiences. Some really good, creepy stories. Great one for Halloween. Of all the Halloween episodes I listened to, this one was the creepiest. I loved it.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Jamie
Rating: Excellent

Skytalkers: Monsters in Star Wars they talk about Halloween, then dive into their topic for this episode – monsters. They first talk about what they define as monsters, with a preference toward intelligent monsters. They talk about Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Guillermo Del Toro’s comments on monsters, monsters in Star Wars, and Kylo Ren.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Escape Pods Network
Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Caitlin, and Charlotte
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1562 goes over the history of bars in Star Wars.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 7 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1574 goes over the Cassian and K-2SO one shot comic.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 9 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1575 goes over the DJ one shot comic.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 8 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1577 Allen talks with guest Patrick Johnson about Star Wars and real world physics. They talk about hearing carbonbergs, sliding an X-wing in space, and surviving vaccuum. Fun conversation.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 22 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Fun

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1579 goes over prequel era connections to Star Wars Resistance.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 8 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Allen Voivod
Rating: Good

Starships, Sabers, and Scoundrels: Episode 66 is their Halloween episode complete with horror bits and guests. It starts with a Halloween Solo family bit, then Jay, Taxus and Dennis discuss The Mandalorian, news, books, comics, and games. There’s a Scooby Doo Thrawn bit, then they go over the book Maul: Lockdown, and wrap up with listener feedback. Fun episode.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Dennis, Taxus, and Jay
Rating: Fun

Talk Star Wars: Episode 141 Rob solos this one and it starts off with a lot of podcast/website stuff for the first 20 minutes. Basically Rob is shutting down the Talk Star Wars site and just moving the podcasts over to his other website to make it easier to manage everything. Afterwards he gets into some emails, talks about Aunt Z, Nien Nunb’s lunchbox, The Last Jedi and Luke’s death and what characters may or may not know. Plus some other TLJ stuff, some Episode IX speculation, and some discussion of The Mandalorian and George’s visit. Okay episode. Rob’s best when he has someone to bounce off of, but still not too bad of an episode.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth,
Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Production Quality: Good
Hosts: Rob
Rating: Okay

Talking Bay 94: Episode 22 features two interviews. The first one is with David Ankrum who talks about Rogue One. The second one is with Mark Dodson who talks about The Force Awakens and Return of the Jedi. Two quick, live interviews. Worth checking out.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 13 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Brandon Wainerdi
Rating: Good

TechnoRetro Dads: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice they share Halloween jokes, provide an update on the 6 Billion Dollar Man, talk cereal, Beetlejuice – the movie, the cartoon, and the toys, and wrap up with listener feedback. Fun show as always.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 77 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: JediShua, and Shazbazzar
Rating: Fun

The Deucecast Movie Show: Episode 351 is a movie tournament of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon movies with the top film role from each actor going up against each other for a final victor.

Podcast Network: Retrozap
Runtime: 1 hour 1 minute
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Dave, Mikey, and Dr. Earl
Rating: Fun

The Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Extra 17 goes over all of the Halloween movies, including the new one. They discuss each one starting with original and ending with the newest one that recently hit theaters. They even go over Season of the Witch and the Rob Zombie remakes. Plus they playing a Halloween dialog game. Fun discussion. There is some adult language, so fair warning.

Podcast Network: Geek Dad
Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Jamie, Shiri, and Preston
Rating: Fun

The Resistance Broadcast: Why Does Everyone Want to Go Back to Jakku they talk about the stolen equipment on the set of The Mandalorian, they discussion whether they’ll go back to Jakku in Episode IX, and they go over listener emails. Good episode.

Podcast Network: N/A,
Runtime: 51 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: John, Lacey, and James
Rating: Good

The Sandcrawler: Episode 63 is their Halloween special as they talk about Halloween, share stories, and discuss the scariest and ugliest Star Wars action figures.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Dan, and Mac
Rating: Fun

The Skyhoppers Podcast: Episode CXVIII they talk about Iden Version, Battlefront II, there’s a doggy crash, some tangents, and they talk about pilots, such as Wedge. One comment on the doggy crashes, or any kind of issue where the audio had to be cut and then picked up later. It’s probably best to just edited back together and not draw any attention to it. The Millennium Falcon engine sound is perfect for the transition. There’s no real need to fill the listeners in on what happened, unless it’s really amusing. Best to just play it off and roll with it, thus making for a more seamless episode overall. Otherwise it’s more jarring.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 59 minutes
Audio Quality: Great
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Ben, and Ash
Rating: Good

The Soundtrack Show: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: the Music Part I Dave talks about John Williams approach to the film, doing the trailer music, reading the book, the theme, Hedwig’s theme, romantic era music, Harry’s theme, and more. Great episode.

Podcast Network: HowStuffWorks
Runtime: 44 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: David Collins
Rating: Great

Toy Run: Episode 132 is their Halloween episode as they go over toy news, they talk about scary moments in Star Wars films, battle damaged figures, listener feedback, and they talk with Tom Berges. Tom shares his trip out in California visiting Don Bies and checking out trauma dummies, visiting Skywalker Ranch, meeting Lorne Peterson, seeing George Lucas, overhearing George mention that he hates kale and that he doesn’t like the Star Wars sequel movie, almost getting to visit the archives and how they’re prepping to send some stuff to the George Lucas museum, visiting the Presidio, wine tour and more. Fun conversation and definitely worth a listen. Loved hearing Tom’s stories. Great episode.

Podcast Network: N/A
Runtime: 2 hours 1 minute
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Hosts: Criz, and Jake
Rating: Great

TSW Comics: Issue #14 features a special guest, Marc, who joins Tim and Rob as they talk about his movie show, then they talk Star Wars comics. They talk about what they’ve been reading, sticking to general thoughts, no spoilers. Then they talk about Chuck Wendig being fired, thoughts on the Han Solo: Imperial Cadet comic series, the Age of maxi series, and other comics. Great discussion.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 1 hour 15 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Rob, and Tim
Rating: Great

TumblingSaber: Episode 149 they talk about John Williams, Star Wars Resistance “The High Tower”, the Boba Fett movie being dead, and Star Wars movies in general, as well as want people want. A little long, but not too bad.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth
Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes
Audio Quality: Excellent
Production Quality: Excellent
Host: Kyle, Cory, and Carlos
Rating: Good