'Star Wars: The Radio Drama' Episode Review: 'While Giants Mark Time'

(C) 1993 HighBridge Audio and Lucasfilm Ltd. 

George Lucas's original Star Wars (which was renamed Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981) has been adapted over the years in different media. In print, the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca the Wookiee, Ben (Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2-D2 and C-3PO are chronicled in novelizations, Marvel comic books, and Japanese manga.  More recently, Ian Doescher transformed A New Hope into an Elizabethan-era stage play in his 2013 book William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. 

There have also been a few audio-only versions of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. For instance, Twentieth Century Fox Records released an abridged retelling of the film in a 1978 album titled The Story of Star Wars. This single LP recording used dialogue, music, and sound effects taken from the movie soundtrack and narration performed by actor Roscoe Lee Browne to tell the tale of Luke Skywalker's involvement with the Rebellion and its conflict with Darth Vader and the evil Galactic Empire. 

The best - and most ambitious - audio adaptation is Star Wars: The Radio Drama, which premiered on National Public Radio in 1981. Produced by KUSC-FM Los Angeles with the cooperation of Lucasfilm Ltd., Star Wars was the most popular radio drama in NPR  history. Per HighBridge Audio's website:

When this series was first broadcast on National Public Radio in 1981, it generated the largest response in the network’s history: 50,000 letters and phone calls in a single week, an audience of 750,000 per episode, and a subsequent 40-percent jump in NPR listenership.

This landmark production, perhaps the most ambitious radio project ever attempted, began when Star Wars creator George Lucas donated the story rights to an NPR affiliate. Writer Brian Daley adapted the film's highly visual script to the special demands and unique possibilities of radio, creating a more richly textured tale with greater emphasis on character development. Director John Madden guided a splendid cast—including Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels, reprising their film roles as Luke Skywalker and the persnickety robot See Threepio—through an intense 10-day dialogue recording session. Then came months of painstaking work for virtuoso sound engineer Tom Voegeli, whose brilliant blending of the actors’ voices, the music, and hundreds of sound effects takes this intergalactic adventure into a realm of imagination that is beyond the reach of cinema.

Because the radio drama has a running time of 5 hours and 57 minutes, Daley had three times as much time as the original film (which was then 121 minutes long) in which to tell the story of Luke Skywalker and how he joins the Rebellion against the evil Galactic Empire. This allowed the author to expand the story to include a few deleted scenes from the film (including Biggs Darklighter's brief reunion with Luke at Tosche Station). It also showed how daring - and reckless - Luke could be at the controls of a skyhopper, as well as his loving but sometimes strained relationship with his Uncle Owen (Thomas Hill) and Aunt Beru (Anne Gerety). 

(C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

In the fourth part of the series, "While Giants Mark Time," Daley gives us a more detailed look at the misadventures of Artoo Detoo (R2-D2) and See-Threepio (C-3PO) on the desert wastes of Tatooine,  the Imperial efforts to find and recover the data tapes with the Death Star plans, and the tensions between a restless Luke Skywalker and his gruff (and overprotective) uncle at the Lars moisture farm.

While Giants Mark Time

Cast

• See Threepio (Anthony Daniels)
• Artoo Detoo (Ben Burtt - audio effects)
• Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
• Owen Lars (Thomas Hill)
• Aunt Beru (Anne Gerety)
• Commander
• Lieutenant 
• Trooper #2
• Trooper #3
• Trooper #4
• Trooper #5
• Trooper #6
• Narrator (Ken Hiller)

ANNOUNCER: OPENING CREDITS.

Music: Opening theme.

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. And there came a moment in that long struggle when the hope of freedom rested not with any great hero or leader but with the humblest of characters.

Sound: Winds of Tatooine up in background, hiss of sand.

NARRATOR: High above the sandy wastes of the desert planet Tatooine, a pitched space battle between starships has been fought to its conclusion. The Rebel leader Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan has been captured by the Emperor's personal agent, Darth Vader. Entrusted to deliver secret information the Princess could no longer protect is the astrodroid Artoo Detoo. With his interpreter-counterpart See-Threepio, Artoo eluded capture by leaving Leia's disabled vessel in an escape pod.

Sound: Wind up slightly.

THREEPIO: Look where you've brought us with your mad ideas, Artoo.

ARTOO: WHIRS

THREEPIO: Sand...nothing but sand in every direction! Why I went along with this insane whim of yours, I still can't understand.

The fourth part of Star Wars: The Radio Drama begins shortly after the droids' arrival (via escape pod) on Tatooine. As in the film, See-Threepio is not terribly thrilled to be out in the Dune Sea with his eccentric astromech friend, and the two bicker about which way to go. Artoo (who has been programmed with the proper coordinates by Princess Leia) wants to go toward the Jundland Wastes, but the persnickety Threepio wants to go in the opposite direction because, as he points out, "it's much too rocky over there." 

(C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

ARTOO: OBJECTS.

THREEPIO: Oh, yes? And just what makes you so sure there are settlements over in that direction?

ARTOO: BLEEPS AN ANSWER.

THREEPIO: Don't get technical with me. You are nothing but a plumber.

ARTOO: AN EMPHATIC DECLARATION.

THREEPIO: "Mission"? What secret plans? I've had just enough of this! Go on, go that way! Here, I'll start you off!

Sound: Threepio kicking Artoo.

ARTOO: AN ELECTRONIC YELP

THREEPIO:  You'll be clogged with sand and malfunctioning within a day, you nearsighted scrap pile!

ARTOO: BEEPS A FINAL ENTREATY

THREEPIO: Absolutely not! And don't let me catch you following me begging for help, because you won't get any from me!

ARTOO: REITERATES THE ENTREATY

THREEPIO: No! No more adventures! I'm going this way. You're on your own from now on....

The droids go off in different directions, Soon,each robot encounters (and is captured by) the jawas, the small, smelly, and sometimes duplicitous scavengers that wander across the desert in search for scrap and abandoned droids to resell to the moisture farmers and settlers. Eventually, the bickering-but-steadfast friends are reunited aboard the jawas' massive sandcrawler,

The rest of the episode revolves around Uncle Owen's (reluctant) purchase of the droids, a scene which showcases Threepio's unlikely-yet-effective skills as a salesdroid, the stormtroopers' discovery of the abandoned escape pod in the desert, Luke's seemingly accidental discovery of Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a tense dinner during which Luke and his uncle argue about the droids' origins and the younger man's nebulous future. 

(C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

LUKE: Those droids should work out just fine. (DRAWING A DEEP BREATH) In fact, if they do, I want to send my application to the academy for this year.

OWEN: But that's before the harvest.

LUKE: Sure, but now you've got more than enough droids. 

OWEN: But a droid's no substitute for human help. Luke, the harvest is when I need you the most. It's only one more season. This year we'll make enough money so I'll be able to hire on some hands. You can go to the academy next year.

BERU: But Owen....

OWEN: Now, missus, this is between Luke and me.

Sound: Silence, while Luke scrapes his plate.

LUKE: But it's another whole year!

OWEN: It's only one more season!

Sound: Luke pushes his plate aside.

LUKE: That's what you said when Biggs left for the academy.

Sound: Luke scrapes his chair back.

BERU: Luke, you haven't touched your dinner. Where are you going?

LUKE: Nowhere, it looks like. (MOVING OFF) I have to finish cleaning those droids.

BERU: Owen, Luke can't stay here forever. Most of his friends have gone.

OWEN: I'll make it up to him next year. I promise.

BERU: Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He's got too much of his father in him. And you won't be able to put that subject off forever, either. Luke's going to want to know the truth.

OWEN: I'm going to protect him as long as I can. I've got to do what I think is best for the boy.

BERU: But you can't live his life for him, Owen.

OWEN: I only wish I could, Beru. I only wish I could. 

My Take

Like Episode One: A Wind to Shake the Stars, this chapter of the Radio Drama is a "calm before the storm" interlude. Aptly titled, While Giants Mark Time takes its cues from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress and tells most of its story from the point of view of the humblest of characters - the droids. 

Though much of the episode's running time centers on the Laurel and Hardy elements of Artoo and Threepio's encounters with the jawas and their eventual crossing of paths with the Star Wars saga's hero-in-the-making, there are reminders that the Empire is searching for the missing Death Star plans. Brian Daley includes the scene when the Imperial stormtroopers find the Tantive IV's escape pod and a bit of droid plating in the sand. We are also privy to the moment when a crafty Artoo deliberately shows Luke a fragment of Leia's holographic message intended for the mysterious Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

For the most part, Daley sticks to the plot of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope and uses many of the film's original dialogue. Of course, the radio script expands quite a few of the now-famous lines, partly to allow for the narrative conventions of radio dramas, but mostly to add details that the film version could only infer. 

As a result, some of the scenes in While Giants Mark Time are longer and a bit more weighty than their cinematic counterpart. In the film version of Star Wars, Phil Brown's Uncle Owen conveys his need to protect Luke as best he can mostly through body language and facial expressions He acts gruff in front of Luke (played in both versions by Mark Hamill), but viewers can tell that he means well only by seeing his wistful look when he says "That's what I'm afraid of" when Beru says that Luke is too much like his father. 

Here, Thomas Hill's last lines reveal that Owen's bark is really worse than his bite, especially in the scene I quoted above. Where Lucas shows us Owen Lars' gentler side visually, Daley fleshes it out:

BERU: Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He's got too much of his father in him. And you won't be able to put that subject off forever, either. Luke's going to want to know the truth.

OWEN: I'm going to protect him as long as I can. I've got to do what I think is best for the boy.

BERU: But you can't live his life for him, Owen.

OWEN: I only wish I could, Beru. I only wish I could. 

I really enjoyed this series (which I happened to catch on NPR in media res when I came across NPR Playhouse on the radio in the spring of 1981) when I first heard it as a high school student. Writer Daley, along with series director John Madden, sound mixer/designer Tom Voegeli, and story editor Lindsay Smith did a marvelous job of adapting the film into an enjoyable listening experience. 

Much of the credit for the radio drama's success, of course, must go to the cast of actors who performed under Madden's guidance. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprise their iconic roles of Luke Skywalker and See-Threepio. Hamill - who is now well-known for his voice acting in Batman: The Animated Series and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, plays the restless farm boy who seeks excitement and adventure among the stars with the same earnestness and youthful yearning that he endows the movie version of Luke. 

Daniels had a much tougher job in recreating the persnickety protocol droid that can speak six million forms of communication, including Bocce. Not only did he not have an Artoo unit to play off against in the recording studio (Ben Burtt's Oscar-winning effects were added later in post-production), but acting as Threepio in an isolated recording booth had its set of unique challenges.

As Brian Daley wrote in the 1994 book Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization:

 One problem I hadn't anticipated with Tony was an obvious one: he couldn't deliver huge chunks of dialogue all at once because Threepio doesn't breathe, while a mere mortal actor must inhale and exhale every so often; some of his lines had to be changed, condensed, or broken down into smaller segments.

And as I said earlier, Thomas Hill and Anne Gerety do an outstanding job in standing in for Phil Brown and Sheelagh Fraser as Luke's loving foster parents, Owen and Beru Lars. 

Clearly, judging from the series' longevity and continuing popularity 36 years after its original broadcast, the Force is truly with Star Wars: The Radio Drama. 

Sources:

https://highbridgeaudio.com/starwars.html

Daley, Brian, Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization; Del Rey Books, New York, 1994