'Star Wars: The Radio Drama' Episode Review: 'Points of Origin'
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| (C) 1994 Del Rey/Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Older fans of George Lucas's space-fantasy series set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," including Your Humble Correspondent, enjoy Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It is a gritty and exciting war story with a The Guns of Navarone-meets-A New Hope vibe and makes a great first half of a double feature billing that includes the original 1977 Star Wars.
Yet, Rogue One was not the first Star Wars media project to tell the story of how Princess Leia became the "custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy"
That honor goes to Star Wars: The Radio Drama, a 13-part radio adaptation of A New Hope which originally aired on National Public Radio in the spring of 1981. Written by novelist Brian Daley and based on characters and situations created by George Lucas, Star Wars: The Radio Drama is an expanded version of Lucas's groundbreaking film, based mostly on the movie's fourth revised screenplay - including scenes that were shot but deleted from the final cut - and with additional material that delved into Star Wars' back story.
Daley's second script for the radio dramatization, Points of Origin, is part of that additional material. An original creation by Daley, Points of Origin introduces Leia Organa (played here by Ann Sachs) and her involvement with the Rebel Alliance shortly before the events depicted in A New Hope.
Points of Origin
- Princess Leia Organa (Ann Sachs)
- Lord Tion (John Considine)
- Prestor, aka Bail Organa (Stephen Elliott)
- Captain Antilles (David Ackroyd)
- Lord Darth Vader (Brock Peters)
- Tarrik
- Stormtrooper
- Commander
- Comlink
- Rebel (John Dukakis)
- Narrator (Ken Hiller)
Narrator: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there came a time of revolution, when Rebels united to challenge a tyrannical Empire. The Rebellion had its origins on many worlds, at many levels of society.
Sound: Spacefield warning claxons, Imperial troopers calling to one another.
Narrator: The Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan is a leader of the Rebellion, but neither her high birth nor her status as an Imperial Senator will protect her should her Rebel affiliations be discovered.
Narrator: The Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan is a leader of the Rebellion, but neither her high birth nor her status as an Imperial Senator will protect her should her Rebel affiliations be discovered.
Points of Origin begins as Leia's Corellian corvette, the Tantive IV, lands at the spaceport on Ralltiir, a Rebel-friendly world now under Imperial occupation. The Imperial task force commander, Lord Tion, allows the ship to dock due to its status as a consular ship on a diplomatic mission. The young and ambitious Tion has another agenda, as well.
Leia: (OVER COMLINK) This is the Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. Who's responsible for this?
Tion: A delight to hear your voice again, Your Highness. Lord Tion here.
Leia; I demand an explanation for this outrage.
Tion: I would be honored to explain. I'll send my personal landspeeder for you.
Leia: My own is being lowered now, thank you.
Tion: Then I await you with great anticipation.
Sound: The comlink crackles
Commander: Lord Tion, she has no grounds for objection. Our mission on Ralltiir has been sanctioned by the Emperor himself.
Tion: Oh, I'm not worried about legalities! I shall now have the privilege of placating a most attractive and influential young woman.
Leia and Tion then spar over the legality of the Imperial mission on the planet. Tion tells the Princess that the Emperor has invoked emergency powers "until certain troublemakers have been sifted from the general populace." He then asks Leia why she is on Ralltiir.
Leia: The Tantive was to deliver medical supplies and spare parts to the High Council of Ralltiir.
Tion: Pity to say, the High Council no longer exists either as individuals or as a political entity. Your misguided charity would have gone to traitors.
Leia: Surely you don't think the entire population....
Tion: Enough of them were sympathetic to the Rebel Alliance to require a purification here. The Empire will exert close guidance over them for their own safety.
Leia: With a Starfleet blockade? With impressment gangs and interrogation centers?
Tion: I recommend great care in choosing your words, Princess. I have high regard for your family and, if I may say so, for you yourself. But there are certain things that even an Organa may not say with impunity.
Tion has no intention of allowing Leia to complete her mercy mission, and for a time he even threatens to search her ship - which carries medical equipment and military-grade power packs. He also hints that he might let the Tantive IV leave if Leia accepts his romantic advances. She is in the middle of fending off the arrogant Imperial when word that Rebel troops have ambushed a detachment of Imperials at the spaceport's southern perimeter.
As Tion leaves, Leia makes contact with a wounded Rebel soldier who reveals that the ambush was a diversion so that he could get through to her. Leia asks the badly injured spy why he risked his life, but Captain Antilles warns her that the Empire may be monitoring the spaceport and suggests smuggling the Rebel aboard the Tantive. They manage to hide the man in Leia's landspeeder, but they are intercepted by the Emperor's sinister right-hand man, Lord Vader.
Vader: (APPROACHING) Welcome, Princess Leia, to Ralltiir.
Leia: Lord Vader...
Vader: Once again you appear where Rebel activity is rampant. You should be more prudent...you might come to harm some day.
Leia: If you're looking for Lord Tion, he's out on the spacefield's southern perimeter. I believe he's awaiting your arrival.
Vader: It occurred to me to wonder why those traitors would throw away their lives on a useless gesture.
Leia: Perhaps they hoped to steal a ship.
Vader: Or to divert us.
As she did earlier with Tion, Leia bluffs her way through the confrontation with the fearsome Dark Lord. The Princess and Antilles, with their Rebel "guest" aboard the landspeeder, make their way to the Tantive. Using the Imperial surveillance network (and Tion's vanity) against the Empire, the Rebel blockade runner/consular ship lifts off and heads off to Leia's home planet of Alderaan.
Some time later on Alderaan, Prestor (aka Bail Organa) tells his daughter that the wounded man rescued on Ralltiir has revealed the existence of a new threat to the Rebellion:
Prestor: The wounded Rebel you brought home gave us his information. The Empire has a secret project under way, supervised by the Grand Moff Tarkin himself; Lord Tion and a number of others are working under him.
Leia: Tion? What is it?
Prestor: An ultimate weapon...some sort of enormous battle station they've code-named Death Star.
My Take:
Some time later on Alderaan, Prestor (aka Bail Organa) tells his daughter that the wounded man rescued on Ralltiir has revealed the existence of a new threat to the Rebellion:
Prestor: The wounded Rebel you brought home gave us his information. The Empire has a secret project under way, supervised by the Grand Moff Tarkin himself; Lord Tion and a number of others are working under him.
Leia: Tion? What is it?
Prestor: An ultimate weapon...some sort of enormous battle station they've code-named Death Star.
My Take:
Points of Origin is the second of two "setting of the scenes" episodes that tell the story of what Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa were doing shortly before the events of 1977's Star Wars. The first episode, A Wind to Shake the Stars, was essentially landlocked; it was set on Luke's home planet of Tatooine and didn't go too much into what was going on in other star systems.
In comparison, Points of Origin takes us to Ralltiir just after an Imperial "pacification" mission begins, then later takes listeners to Alderaan, a peaceful planet that has rejected armies, space fleets, and the waging of war to solve political disputes as a result of the Clone Wars. In this episode - written 18 years before George Lucas revealed his vision of Star Wars' backstory in Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Brian Daley depicts Prestor (his version of Bail Organa's name) as a pacifist viceroy who is only now realizing that the only way to defeat the Empire is through force of arms.
To play Leia Organa, casting director Mel Sahr found a New York stage and film actor named Ann Sachs to replace Carrie Fisher - she was unavailable, as was Harrison Ford - in the role of everyone's favorite Rebel Princess. As Brian Daley describes the recasting of several roles in his introduction to the book Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization:
Perry (King), a handsome and dashing actor notable for movies like The Lords of Flatbush and A Different Kind of Romance, as well as TV work including "Riptide" and "Tales from the Crypt," assumed the role of Han Solo - Harrison Ford was occupied elsewhere, creating a new character named Indiana Jones. Ann, a dark-haired, winsome stage actress whose previous work included Dracula, took over the part of Princess Leia Organa. These and other changes from the original cast were less noticeable to listeners than one might have predicted. The majority of the audience tuned in, realized "Oh, that's not Carrie Fisher," then got involved with the action.
Points of Origin has more suspense and action than A Wind to Shake the Stars. There are several confrontations between Leia and the two Imperial heavies (Tion and Vader) on Ralltiir; a dinner scene on Alderaan in which Prestor and Leia play a dangerous game of wits against Lord Tion in order to get more information about the Death Star; and finally, Leia's decision to go on a secret two-part mission to retrieve the plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon and to contact an old friend of her father's - Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Interestingly, because Lucasfilm was directly involved in the production of Star Wars: The Radio Drama (George Lucas sold the adaptation rights to his alma mater's radio station, KUSC-Los Angeles for $1, and the project was supervised by Lucasfilm vice president Carol Titleman), Points of Origin was considered canonical for many years. Some of the old Expanded Universe novels, including some in the X-Wing series of books, refer to Ralltiir and Toprawa (another planet mentioned in this episode) and what happened after the events of A New Hope.
Obviously, what is and what is not canon according to George Lucas (who created Star Wars) and his creative heirs has always been in motion. Lucas always said that canon was limited to the Skywalker Saga movies, the Lucasfilm Animation-produced TV series, and "direct tie-ins" such as the novelizations, comic book adaptations, and everything in the radio dramas.
Since 2014, though, the canonicity of the Radio Dramas (there are three, one for each film in the Original Trilogy) has changed somewhat. According to the Lucasfilm Story Group, only the material that was derived from the original movies is canonical. Everything else, including this episode, is considered to be in Star Wars Legends, the Story Group's rebranded version of the old Expanded Universe.
So if you're new to Star Wars: The Radio Drama and wonder why the adventures of Jyn Erso and the rest of the Rogue One crew aren't here, the explanation is simple. The radio adaptation of Star Wars aired originally in 1981; John Knoll, Industrial Light & Magic's chief creative officer, came up with the idea for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2008. He probably was unaware that there was already a how the Rebels stole the Death Star plans story out there. Or, if he knew, he probably decided that the Rogue One idea was more exciting and cinematic.
In any case, this is still a fun and revealing character piece, ably directed by John Madden. I still listen to it from time to time, even if I have to remind myself that it tells the story of Star Wars from a certain point of view.
In comparison, Points of Origin takes us to Ralltiir just after an Imperial "pacification" mission begins, then later takes listeners to Alderaan, a peaceful planet that has rejected armies, space fleets, and the waging of war to solve political disputes as a result of the Clone Wars. In this episode - written 18 years before George Lucas revealed his vision of Star Wars' backstory in Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Brian Daley depicts Prestor (his version of Bail Organa's name) as a pacifist viceroy who is only now realizing that the only way to defeat the Empire is through force of arms.
To play Leia Organa, casting director Mel Sahr found a New York stage and film actor named Ann Sachs to replace Carrie Fisher - she was unavailable, as was Harrison Ford - in the role of everyone's favorite Rebel Princess. As Brian Daley describes the recasting of several roles in his introduction to the book Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization:
Perry (King), a handsome and dashing actor notable for movies like The Lords of Flatbush and A Different Kind of Romance, as well as TV work including "Riptide" and "Tales from the Crypt," assumed the role of Han Solo - Harrison Ford was occupied elsewhere, creating a new character named Indiana Jones. Ann, a dark-haired, winsome stage actress whose previous work included Dracula, took over the part of Princess Leia Organa. These and other changes from the original cast were less noticeable to listeners than one might have predicted. The majority of the audience tuned in, realized "Oh, that's not Carrie Fisher," then got involved with the action.
Points of Origin has more suspense and action than A Wind to Shake the Stars. There are several confrontations between Leia and the two Imperial heavies (Tion and Vader) on Ralltiir; a dinner scene on Alderaan in which Prestor and Leia play a dangerous game of wits against Lord Tion in order to get more information about the Death Star; and finally, Leia's decision to go on a secret two-part mission to retrieve the plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon and to contact an old friend of her father's - Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Interestingly, because Lucasfilm was directly involved in the production of Star Wars: The Radio Drama (George Lucas sold the adaptation rights to his alma mater's radio station, KUSC-Los Angeles for $1, and the project was supervised by Lucasfilm vice president Carol Titleman), Points of Origin was considered canonical for many years. Some of the old Expanded Universe novels, including some in the X-Wing series of books, refer to Ralltiir and Toprawa (another planet mentioned in this episode) and what happened after the events of A New Hope.
Obviously, what is and what is not canon according to George Lucas (who created Star Wars) and his creative heirs has always been in motion. Lucas always said that canon was limited to the Skywalker Saga movies, the Lucasfilm Animation-produced TV series, and "direct tie-ins" such as the novelizations, comic book adaptations, and everything in the radio dramas.
Since 2014, though, the canonicity of the Radio Dramas (there are three, one for each film in the Original Trilogy) has changed somewhat. According to the Lucasfilm Story Group, only the material that was derived from the original movies is canonical. Everything else, including this episode, is considered to be in Star Wars Legends, the Story Group's rebranded version of the old Expanded Universe.
So if you're new to Star Wars: The Radio Drama and wonder why the adventures of Jyn Erso and the rest of the Rogue One crew aren't here, the explanation is simple. The radio adaptation of Star Wars aired originally in 1981; John Knoll, Industrial Light & Magic's chief creative officer, came up with the idea for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2008. He probably was unaware that there was already a how the Rebels stole the Death Star plans story out there. Or, if he knew, he probably decided that the Rogue One idea was more exciting and cinematic.
In any case, this is still a fun and revealing character piece, ably directed by John Madden. I still listen to it from time to time, even if I have to remind myself that it tells the story of Star Wars from a certain point of view.
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