NPR’s Star Wars Radio Drama: The Original Trilogy From a New Perspective

A long time ago…1981 to be exact…in a NPR studio far far away…George Lucas sold the radio rights to all of Star Wars to NPR for $1. That’s right. All the characters, scripts, music and sound effects went to NPR for a price so low someone must have used the Jedi mind trick on Lucas. The catch was how to turn roughly 30 minutes of dialogue into 13 half hour episodes. What NPR created is some of the most exciting Star Wars content to this day. It is a slow time in new releases, so let’s look at some other great audio.

NPR got 50,000 letters in the first week and their subscriptions / listener base increased 400%. They would end up creating radio dramas for Star Wars: New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and eventually Return of the Jedi. John Madden, who would later direct Shakespeare in Love, directed the series with sci – fi novelist Brian Daley creating scenes in order to fill out the script. This master stroke gave fans extended scenes, episodes that took place before the movie began and added context to many of our beloved characters. Most importantly, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams would come on board to reprise their roles. This gave the series its authenticity and helped fans come on board. Last, but not least, Tom Voegeli would act as engineer and cut magnetic tape to splice in all the genunie sound effects from blaster fire to lightsabers and Darth Vader’s iconic breath. Incredible voice actors like Broch Peters (Darth Vader), Ann Sachs (General Leia Organa) and Perry King (Han Solo) brought the world to life.

I remember being a kid and recording each episode off the radio as my local WUWM NPR station played the series. I would listen to these recorded cassettes over and over. Later I bought each season on official NPR cassettes and eventually owning the series on CD. Now I have turned them all into MP3s and still listen to the series. I think you need to buy the hard media on Ebay, but you can still listen to this drama on You Tube. So, I will briefly go over each season to give you an idea of what they are like.

It all started with Star Wars: New Hope in 1981. Like all radio dramas, each episode had a narrator setting the scene in the beginning and giving you some flavour text at the end of each episode. This series is 13 episodes and the first two episode give us context that is not even in the movie. We hear Luke going to Tashi Station, talking to Biggs about how Biggs has left the Empire to join the rebellion and really sets up Luke as a character. Another stand out scene is a four minute interrogation scene with Vader and Leia, which is only briefly alluded to in the movie. Also, you get a ton more with Grand Moff Tarkin (played by Keene Curtis), which includes a scene about why he did not leave the Death Star before its destruction. This added scene is fantastic and gives Tarkin so much more to his character and his motivations. The voice acting is amazing and it brings the movie to life with added lore and all the music and sound effects you love. A must listen for all Star Wars fans.

With the success of the original series, NPR went on to release a shorter 10 episode series for Empire Strikes Back. This is my favourite of the three and sees the original voice cast returning with Billy Dee Williams and John Lithgow as Yoda. Lithgow is a standout as Yoda and does an amazing job with such an iconic character. You get more insight into Lando’s motivations and Billy Dee brings his best on this series. The scenes with Luke and Vader in Cloud City are electric and even better than in the movie. You really get the vibe of a rebellion on the run and the chemistry between Leia and Han really comes through as well. An excellent follow – up to the original radio drama.

Funding cuts and in-fighting at different recording studios stalled the Return of the Jedi series for years. Finally, in 1996 NPR released Return of the Jedi. Most of the cast was back, but Billy Dee Williams and Mark Hamill left due to conflicts and the series was cut to only 6 episodes. Also, Brian Daley, who wrote the expanded scripts, finished this series, but died shortly after its release. Having said that, Peters, Sachs, Daniels and King are all back and put in some excellent work. Even though this is a shorter series, it has one of the best scenes in the trilogy and one I wished was in the movie…Luke making his lightsaber on Tatooine. It is a quiet scene with Luke and R2D2, but fills in a gap the movie leaves hanging. This is not the best series in the trilogy, but necessary to cap off the entire adventure.

All and all, this is a must listen for all Star Wars fans and will give you a new perspective on the original trilogy. My daughter listened to this series multiple times in the car before she saw the movies and she actually likes the radio drama better…the force is strong with that one.