The Bearded Trio

Friday's episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch , War-Mantle, is, at worst, my second-favorite of the season so far. Simply a thrilling, tense and engaging episode from the very first frame to the last frame. The stakes are considerably higher for Clone Force 99 throughout this action-packed episode, and all is not well with our favorite group of defective clones by the episode's end. We open with a wayward clone being pursued by uniformed troopers through a forest at night. The whole scene is strongly reminiscent of the opening of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) when government agents chase the aliens through a suburban California forest, only to leave E.T. behind when the ship escapes.  The clone is being chased by troops and Massifs, vicious dog-like creatures seen on Tatooine during Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002). He is eventually stunned and taken into custody, but not before leaving behind a distress call, eventually being answered by Captain Rex. Rex contacts th

Varèse Sarabande Records has re-released what kind only be described as a beautiful-looking L.P.  It's the epic The Empire Strikes Back - Symphonic Suite from the Original Motion Picture Score and this piece of treasure has been out of print since 1980.  Just look at that cover!  If that isn't enough you get special notes from Ray Bradbury, Christopher Palmer and of course the man himself, John Williams.  Below is the full press release with details on how you can order yours: Varèse Sarabande Records  is re-issuing the long out-of-print LP  The Empire Strikes Back  – Symphonic Suite from the Original Motion Picture Score  by Academy Award®-winning composer  John Williams . Out of print since 1980, the record is pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket featuring the original Star Wars paintings and notes. Available now from  VarèseSarabande.com  along with two limited exclusive versions: “ Imperial Grey Marble”  (Newbury Comics), and a Canadian exclusive

We are in the final quarter of the first season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch , and the 13th episode, Infested, opened that final quarter with a much smaller, more localized story. The group returns to Ord Mantell to find Cid's bar has been taken over by a Devaronian named Roland Durand. His guards seem belligerent and he appears to have a soft spot for his pet named Ruby, who can only be described as a cross between an armadillo and a parrot.  Cid awaits the Batch on their ship the Havoc Marauder, and she requests their help in retaking her establishment. She reveals Roland is in the spice smuggling business with the Pykes, and reasons that if they take his spice, he will be neutralized. The group reluctantly agrees to help, and it was nice to see Cid, to this point a detached deliverer of orders, get in the middle of the action and do some of her own work for a change. They use secret underground tunnels to access her back office to steal back six large containers of spice.  In a s

My Star Wars Collection Is Now Free When lockdown started I decided with the extra time in the house to focus attention on my collection of action figures I have accumulated over the decades and like a lot of collectors who never stop collecting, I have amassed a great deal of merchandise which overspills into drawers and plastic crates filed neatly away in a safe dry spot (or at least I thought it was but I will get to that later.) In our converted garage which is now joined to the house (lovingly called the "Geek Room") is where all my various toy collection resides with glass displays and fancy LED lights.  But in a corner there was a stack of crates for my, well lets just say my less loved toys (don't tell them that!)  In these crates you would have found loose and sealed Star Wars figures. Mainly Episode 1, Power of the Force, Power of the Jedi and Shadows of the Empire figures.  You see my focus was mainly retro and when I say retro I mean the 70's and early 80&

What if there was an episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch where the Bad Batch was on screen for...one minute? Such was the case in the 11th episode of this season, Devil's Deal, which premiered on Friday, July 9. Several of this season's episodes have fallen into a pattern of one member of the group needing rescue by another on a mission from Cid. Devil's Deal breaks up that pattern in a fascinating way, with 98 percent of the episode focused away from the members of the Bad Batch themselves. Similar to last week, we open on a planet featured in The Clone Wars, Ryloth, which unlike last week, was a planet that stayed loyal to the Republic throughout the three-year conflict. We see Cham Syndulla - father of Hera and considered a charismatic leader on the planet - addressing a restless crowd, assuring it that peace will be in the future with the conclusion of The Clone Wars. Ryloth senator Orn Free Taa is also prominently featured, and his assurances are met with much more sk

The latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch saw the crew return to the mission-of-the-week format, taking a break from the overall grander story involving Kamino, Crosshair and the like. We open with a sequence I was really happy to see. Imperial bureaucrat Captain Bragg is addressing a crowd gathered on the Separatist capital world of Raxus. She brings forward the world's senator, Avi Singh, to address the crowd and encourage loyalty to the new Empire. Singh is clearly conflicted and ultimately decides to encourage his people to reject the empire. He is then whisked away by the contingent of clonetroopers while AT-TE Walkers intimidate the crowd into complying. He instructs his droid to follow instructions. Those instructions bring us to the Bad Batch. A message is dispatched to Cid to start a rescue operation. She instructs the group to go to Raxus to extract Singh from Imperial custody. Hunter decides this mission is too dangerous to bring Omega along, and has Cid watch over