Star Wars NPR radio drama

[torgospizza]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(radio)#Star_Wars:_A_New_Hope

I've recently just picked up the CD set and have been listening to it in my truck, and I'm honestly blown away by it. Have you guys heard this and if so, what did you think? The only issue I have with it is that Adam Arkin is way too Adam Arkin-ish as Fixer, Luke's friend from Anchorhead. Still, the attention to backstory is really illuminating.

I've also picked up the audiobook for Kull: Exile of Atlantis, and although it's extremely well-done, I much prefer the drama with a cast and sound effects over a narrator simply reading the text.

[Werewolf]

Wow, I haven't heard that since I was a kid. I do remember being disappointed more of the original cast wasn't doing the voices. But I think it was still pretty good.

[Bruce Banner]

Have all three of them, plus the script books. Liked the SW and Empire ones as a kid, and was pleased when they finally released the Jedi adaptation in '96.
Some of the voice casting is a little questionable, but the extra scenes Daley added (some of which are based on deleted scenes from the actual screenplays) are cool... (but some of the other added scenes are not such great ideas, especially a few of the ones in the later ROTJ adaptation which draw heavily from the mid 90's era Expanded Universe).

[drquest]

Oh yeah I remember listening to this on the radio when I was a kid as well.

[Hedji]

These are just fantastic! To anyone who's never heard them, GO NOW and seek them out. The sound is breathtaking, and the actors are full of an energy that Star Wars hasn't seen since. Now, keep in mind, it is radio drama, without narration, so the actors must sometimes "describe" the action. ("Han? Han, come in... I was attacked... by a Wampa! Do you read me? Han? I'm in it's cave, hanging by my feet!") But once you make those concessions, it is a really fun ride.

The extra material is fantastic. Nobody writes Star Wars better than Brian Daley. I think he got it more right than just about any other writer, and his early death was a massive loss to the franchise. I often wonder how the Expanded Universe would have been shaped differently had he lived.

Be advised, there is one stinker episode where Leia is tortured on the Death Star by Vader, and... well... it's not an episode you'd want your neighbors to hear. But it's a small blemish on an otherwise fantastic project.

Star Wars and Empire get it more right than Jedi, as posted above by Bruce Banner. Daley was sick with Cancer at the time of production, and the Jedi series feels quite different, with something like 15 years separating it from the Empire production.

I wish they'd do one for the Prequels. The prequel storyline is almost a better fit for this kind of storytelling, actually.

Highly recommended.