Star Wars Week: Return of the Jedi - The Radio Drama

After the success of the first two radio dramas, you’d have thought that George Lucas would have followed up with a radio dramatization of Return of the Jedi. He did, just thirteen years after the source film opened. Why? It might have been Star Wars fatigue. I know I hit it in the mid 1980s. The comic book from Marvel was cancelled and there wasn’t anything new coming out. That is, until Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars trilogy revived interest in Star Wars in the early 1990s. One of the results of the newfound enthusiasm for Star Wars was the Return of the Jedi radio drama.

Where Star Wars was a 13-episode extravaganza and Empire was a 10-episode expansion, Jedi was a mere six episodes. Frankly it barely cleared the threshold for needing to even produce the thing. I didn’t even know it aired in 1996 and it wasn’t until this spring that I gave it a whirl.

Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams do not return. Only Anthony Daniels does. All the other regular cast returns, including the excellent Brock Peters as Darth Vader. I had to get used to the new guys and, a couple of times, I forgot who was speaking. Probably my bad, but still.

The Jedi radio drama does what neither of the other two did: incorporate Expanded Universe things into the story. The Expanded Universe is the global term used to describe any Star Wars story/character/ship/whatever that is not in the films. Thus, in Radio Jedi, we get the scene in which Luke goes to Tatooine, lives in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s house, and constructs his new, green lightsaber. This sequence originally was featured at the end of Shadow of the Empire. Plus, Coruscant is mentioned by name. It’s a nice thing to include, these extras, as it gives a broader scope to the entire story.

Whereas Star Wars and Empire’s radio presentations were chock full of fun, new scenes, there isn’t a lot with Jedi. Among the more interesting ones are these:

• a scene in Jabba’s palace where Boba Fett taunts the recently-thawed Han Solo and Chewbacca. I always had the impression that Fett was just a good bounty hunter with little hatred for Solo. Not so anymore.
• the scene when Leia, disguised as the bounty hunter, Boushh, defrosts Han, Bib Fortuna is with her. It’s almost as if Fortuna is helping Boushh. Irritatingly, this thread is dropped.
• Lando and Leia talking after she’s been captured by Jabba.
• Lando and Han talking before they all escape. We learn that Chewie filled Han in on Lando’s good deeds.
• the scene where the heroes escape Tatooine but also have to evade the Imperials who have set up a sort of blockade knowing that they’d try to rescue Han.

As you can tell, all the good, new scenes are at the beginning. Nothing much extra happens for the rest of the movie. However, there is one meta-detail thrown in. From 1983 until 1996 when this drama aired, all the ire at Jedi had formed. One huge problem many fans had was how the heck did a bunch of Ewoks defeat an elite squadron of stormtroopers. During that battle sequence, Leia (I think) voiced that question. Han answered it with something along the lines of “It’s their turf so they have the upper hand.” Yeah, I didn’t buy it either.

Make it a point to listen to the first two radio dramas. You won’t be disappointed. As far as the Jedi radio drama, listen to it once, just to say you did.