The Return of the Geeks
This week the Ancient Geeks discuss The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
The Empire strikes back, and so do we! In this episode, we discuss the rest of the original Star Wars trilogy. What was it like to await another Star Wars movie after the original smash hit? How did The Empire Strikes Back exceed expectations? Why were we less impressed with Return of the Jedi?
It’s all here. Characters with actual arcs. High-paced excitement. Fantastic practical effects. The biggest plot twist ever. An expanding universe. Everything that made the original trilogy iconic, seen from the point of view of the 70s and 80s, when it was all new.
Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!
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I managed to catch it on the way out to work (thank Iris and Hermes for WiFi in the building’s common areas). But I was already playing Duncan’s latest on the Martian Revolution. So it will be heard on the way home.
Offhand I can’t recall when I learned there would be a sequel to the original movie. At the time we visited Houston about once a year (something about an allergy clinic), so it’s possible it was in one of these trips. Likely by seeing the Boba Fet doll on sale months or weeks before the second movie came out.
I do recall a lot of speculation about it in the playground during recess at school. A salient point was how Vader even survived the explosion of the Death Star, though his fighter clearly is seen spinning away from the battle station after Han does the smallest plot twist ever.
At this time, and for many years later, movies in Mexico were shown months after their premiere in the US. One thing I do remember was seeing a TV show about the making of Return of the Jedi weeks before the movie was shown here. The popular speculation at the time was that Luke would betray the Rebel Alliance and join his dad in the Empire.
I recall noticing that, despite appearing in the canonical (ahem) Star Wars Holiday Special, Bea Arthur was NOT in either Empire or Return . . . couldn’t imagine why! 🙂
I listened to the first Star Wars episode over the weekend and thought it was great! The only potential disagreement I might have is that I think Hamill making Luke a whiny little shit, whether intentional or not, works for character development purposes as he matures through the three films.
On a related matter, I heard all about the Lucas “Special Editions” long before they came out. Ditto the development of the prequels. But when the Rey trilogy came up, it took me by surprise. I first heard of it mere weeks before it came out in theaters.
I had heard Disney had bought LucasFilm, and later Fox. So more movies were expected, eventually. But I missed any talk of development and even rumors about them.
I had a chance to hear the first few minutes of today’s podcast on an errand. as to music, we had an the LP record of the theme music and soundtrack of the original movie, but done with a disco beat. It was as terrible as the description would lead you to believe*. Not too dissimilar from another recording industry product of that era: hooked on classics.
But I still played it a fair bit, because it also had some of the movie’s sound effects mixed in amid the music.
I don’t think we got any other LPs of the sequels. By the time Return of the Jedi came out, we had VCR tapes of the movies.
*As I recall, the record was printed on multicolored, semi-translucent vinyl, rather than the usual black.