Star Wars 06 Return Of The Jedi (Paperback)

I miss those days because this art form gives you the greatest freedom of the imagination. I wish we could bring it back more often. Anyway, I remember hearing that Star Wars was coming to the radio and I listened to the episodes when I could. What a great experience.

However, I bought the cd edition of Return of the Jedi, which I didn't hear in broadcast. I could not have been more pleased. The performances of the actors and the sound technicians gave me the best listening thrill I've had in a long time. I've had the cds for only 5 days and have listened to them each day. I'm going to get the first two dramas soon so I can to enjoy them too.

Why do I feel this way? I don't know, except that I have always enjoyed listening and letting my imagination go. It allows one to be active in the story, rather than passive as with a film. It's even better than reading in one way. You don't get the writer's vivid details of the appearance of things. You get to produce it all yourself. And when you listen again, you can "see" it differently in your mind.

As for why I give it four stars, I want to hear the other two in comparison before I give it the highest mark. All things said, if you have a good imagination when a story is told, then get this drama. You'll enjoy it again and again.

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Return of the Jedi is divided into two halves, one almost independent of the other but predetermined by the events of The Empire Strikes Back. The first half begins with a short prologue in which Darth Vader arrives at Endor, a small sanctuary moon where the Empire is building a second Death Star. The Emperor, it seems, is not happy with Moff Jerjerrod's "current lack of progress" and has sent the Dark Lord to "find new ways to motivate" the Death Star commander and his men to complete the battle station as planned.

Then, using material later deleted from the final draft of the screenplay Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas, Luke is in Ben Kenobi's spartan hut, hard at work on his new lightsaber. Then Kahn takes up the film's plot threads and describes how Leia, Chewbacca, Lando and Luke rescue Han Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt.

The second half of Jedi starts with Luke returning to Dagobah to complete his Jedi training, only to find that Yoda, his 900-year-old Master, is dying. "No more training do you require," says Yoda on his deathbed, but warns Luke that the true final examination as a Jedi will be to confront Darth Vader.

"Luke knew this would be his test," Kahn writes, " it could not be otherwise. Every quest had its focus, and Vader was at the core of Luke's struggle. It was agonizing for him to put the question to words, but after a long silence, he again spoke to the old Jedi 'Master Yoda -- is Darth Vader my father?'

"Yoda's eyes filled with a weary compassion. This boy was not yet a man complete. A sad smile creased his face, he seemed to grow smaller in his bed....

"Luke stared at the dwindling teacher, trying to give the old one strength, just by the force of his love and will. 'Yoda, I must know,' he whispered.

" 'Your father he is,' Yoda said simply."

Kahn then follows the three separate threads of the Battle of Endor: a mission led by Han to destroy the shield generator that provides the unfinished Death Star's main protection; Lando Calrissian's starfighter attack on the battle station itself; and Luke's desperate personal struggle to reclaim his father from the thrall of the evil Emperor Palpatine. It is classic Star Wars action, with heroic deeds, huge space battles, and a final, decisive clash of lightsabers between father and son.

Kahn, who is also a recovering emergency room doctor and has published a science fiction trilogy of his own, has done several novelizations of movie scripts, including Poltergeist and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. His style is clear and snappy, although Foster and Glut seem to have a certain quality that Kahn can't replicate.

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However, the mid- to late 1980s were a "dark time" for public broadcasting as Congress (no doubt guided by the Sith) cut back on funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (partially because Republicans felt there was too much of a liberal slant in both NPR and its television counterpart, PBS). And even though George Lucas had generously donated the radio rights to KUSC-Los Angeles (his alma mater's radio station) for $1.00, producing even a short Star Wars radio series was expensive, so for over 12 years the Return of the Jedi adaptation lived only in the hopes and dreams of writer Brian Daley, sound engineer Tom Voegeli, and thousands of Star Wars fans.

Enter Highbridge Audio. This Minnesota-based company produced the audio cassette and CD releases of both Star Wars radio dramas, and possibly because of good sales they commissioned most of the team behind the Star Wars and Empire serials. Daley was again at the writing helm, even as he bravely fought a battle with cancer. John Madden, a veteran radio and film director, returned to direct. And while Mark Hamill was not available to reprise his role as Luke Skywalker, all of the other cast members from the previous Radio Dramas returned: Ken Hiller as the Narrator, Perry King as Han Solo, Ann Sachs as Leia, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Bernard Behrens as Ben Kenobi, John Lithgow as Yoda and Brock Peters as Lord Darth Vader. Rounding out the cast: Joshua Fardon as a passable Luke Skywalker, Ed Begley, Jr. as Boba Fett, Ed Asner (of Lou Grant fame) as Jabba the Hutt, Arye Gross as Lando Calrissian and Paul Hecht as Emperor Palpatine.

Of all the Radio Dramas, Return of the Jedi is the shortest: six episodes and a running time of almost three hours. Thus the focus is on the events depicted within the film and very few extra scenes. The opening is different: Jedi begins with Luke completing his lightsaber, followed by a meeting between Darth Vader and the Emperor on Coruscant (the feeling I got was that the two Dark Jedi Masters sensed Luke's Force growth just as he ignites his laser sword on Tatooine). The movie's opening scene (Vader's arrival on the unfinished second Death Star) is moved to mid-series, since most of Episodes 1 and 2 deal with Han's rescue from Jabba's palace.

Here, for the first time in Star Wars history, elements from the expanded universe novels are introduced into a "canon" (i.e., a "real" Star Wars Trilogy) story. Emperor's Hand Mara Jade makes a cameo disguised as Arica, a dancer newly hired by Jabba the Hutt. And a reference is made to events that took place in Steve Perry's novel Shadows of the Empire.

Return of the Jedi's strengths and weaknesses are the same as the ones in its predecessors. It adds depth and shading to characters and situations we are already familiar with, and the music by John Williams and sound effects by Ben Burtt give the project the right Star Wars "feel." Fans new to the actors playing roles originated by Hamill, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones, Harrison Ford, Frank Oz, and the other major actors may have to be patient with getting used to the substitutes. Also, the radio convention of characters describing what they are seeing and doing may prove annoying to some. However, this is not a common technique, and most of us who have listened to the Trilogy on Radio have enjoyed it.

Will there be Radio Dramas of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones? At present, Lucasfilm has not announced any plans to create any. And on a sad note, Brian Daley died in 1996 just as recording sessions were being finished, and Highbridge Audio and the production crew dedicated the show to his memory.

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