Star Wars: Skeleton Crew 1.04 and 1.05:

[selenak]

Continues to be excellent, might shape up to be my favourite SW series after The Clone Wars if it keeps this up. As with The Clone Wars, the fact its targeted primarily at children works to its benefit, not detriment, I suspect (i.e. it is a tv show with an overreaching story, sure, but it is also episodic, using the tv format, not a movie broken up in segments, and while there are nice little nods to overall SW, it is its own story, not a continuity headache). And the Treasure Island inspiration/tie in continues to make for fabulous characterisation.

1.04 had our heroes land on the wrong planet, with an initial creep out that it might be At Attin in the future (it wasn't, but it was a sister world, i.e. one of the initial Old Republic "jewels"), and while there was a clear "lesson of the day" structure that reminded me of early ST: Prodigy - i.e. in this case "kindness and negotiations save the day, not war; true bravery isn't recklessness but standing up despite your fears" , this was worked into the larger storytelling and character build up. 1.04. was Neel's episode to shine, and the fact he didn't have to change his basic nature to be deemed heroic, that his kindness did make a difference is something honestly I don't think we can hear enough of in this darkest and most stupid of timelines we're currently in. Also, Silvo/Jod saving our lot from chilid soldier existence via negotiations (or did he? I'm a bit suspicious since we never saw him actually do the deal with the supposed hostiles) was a necessarily element in terms of the next episode. Speaking of the overall story, the other thing introduced here is that Captain Flint, err, Rennick, the dead and dreaded pirate captain to whom the Walrus, err, the vessel our lot is on originally belonged, killed every one of his old crew familiar with the treasure planet's position except for Ben Gunn 33, the Droid. Now, in Treasure Island, of course some of Flint's old crew, including John Silver, were very much alive, but they were the ones who didn't know the treasure's hiding place at the start of the story. And of course the SW set up and the centuries (at the least) time gap between that ship crashing on At Attin and it being found by our heroes means other than a Droid, no one of the original crew can be alive anyway, which would include the human (or so he seems) Jod/Silvo/Dash/Alias of choice. More about this in a moment.

1.05. in which we get a showdown at Risa, err, the SW Spa Planet that used to be a pirates' lair. In Treasure Island terms, this is the SW equivalent of Jim Hawkins being hidden in the barrel full of apples as he listens, horrified, to his hitherto admired friend Silver planning a mutiny and cold bloodedly killing a boy not much older than him who refuses to go along with the ship takeover plans. And the episode works itself up to this climax really well, with the early comedy of 33's indignation about what Flint's, err, Rennick's old lair has been degraded to (i.e. a spa - btw, will this be the future of Mustafar, too, I wonder...), the chase sequences, and the bonding scene between Jod/Silvo and Wim which among other things also establishes Jod's using (and not for conning) a twisted version of the Jedi Code (no attachments, "your focus determines your reality" as a direct Qui-Gon to Anakin quote), thus lending credence to the "he was a youngling/padawan at the time of Code 66" theory), and then we get an off screen reminder that Jod was introduced killing a civilian Captain when he orders 33 to drown his erstwhile crew in acid to shake them off, just in time for the big sequence where he does betray the kids once he has the position of their home planet, and does it in a way that's extra devastating because it's a physical threat to Fern. What makes Jod/Silvo such a great avatar of Long John Silver is that his earlier attempt to comfort Wim was sincere, and he likes Fern as well (he'd simply have cut her throat otherwise without bothering with the "yield"); likely, he lilkes all the kids. But he's in this for the treasure, and if that means ruthlessly exploiting and threatening children, and changing loyalties a couple of times for survival, absolutely he will. And the children, despite not completely trusting him, have come to trust him enough to feel as devasteted as Jim in his barrel full of apples.

Comments

[greenwoodside]

I've been loving this show for all the reasons you mentioned above. Really hoping it manages to keep up the quality.

In the hologram of Star Wars Cap'n Flint, his face was wasn't shown. Wondering if that's because we either have seen the face already or will meet it in the future under another identity.

Also wondering if Rennick left behind more of himself in 33. Apart from apparently bequeathing him with a West Country pirate accent. (Meaning that the Star Wars galaxy has an equivalent of coastal Devon and Cornwall, supplying a disproportionate number of spacefarers?)

[selenak]

I noticed the deliberate not-showing of a face and agree, it's either someone the audience knows already or will shortly meet under a different name. The other obvious guess for Star Wars!Flint is that he's the Supervisor, in which case he either belongs to a long-lived species like Yoda's, or he's another Droid. (Which would be really interesting. General Grievous aside, we didn't yet get Droids in business for themselves; the occasional malfunctioning or reprogrammed Droid was usually someone else's tool. And Grieveous started out as an organic being before he became a cyber.)

Hey, if every planet has a North, clearly they must also have a Cornwall. :)

[avrelia]

I am loving this show, and I made my family to watch it with me - they, including the kids were pretty jaded about recent Star Wars content, but by the episode 5 everyone is hooked and cannot wait for more.

I love the kids, their characters and their relationship - they are so normal, and it is so difficult to achieve, I am seriously impressed with the writers, directors, and young actors. Jude Law is, of course, great in this role, as I had no doubt he would be. Delightful to watch, no wrong note.

[selenak]

Yes, the children feel like actual children (while also having that 80s kids movie vibe, admittedly), and I think picking a group of them instead of one single child character really is key part of why the series works so well!

[avrelia]

the 80s vibes are strong in these younglings ::nods::