Luke is torn between family and adventure in the original radio drama

Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope you’re doing okay. If not, hopefully this will cheer you up. In this next section of the radio drama the excitement really begins. I’d tell you everything I’m going to be talking about, but that would ruin the surprise. So let’s get into it.

Picking up where we last left off, Luke now knows of his friend’s plan to jump ship and join the Rebellion. Just like in the movie of course.

A new scene follows. Luke and Biggs argue over the former’s decision to put off going to the Imperial Academy another season, even though both know that there’s no place he’d rather be. In this debate, Biggs tells his friend that in the process of putting off his application it was cancelled, thus sending the point home that unless Luke applies again, he really is stuck on Tatooine.

During the course of this dispute, Biggs manages to really infuriate his friend by saying, “Your uncle uses that ‘I fed you and brought you up’ line to keep you here. Can’t you see that?” By doing this, he is implying that Luke’s uncle is simply manipulating him. While the young man may know this to be true, he is still tied between his duty to help his only remaining family — “My aunt and uncle are the only family I’ve got. They’re all I’ve got” — and his desire to follow his dreams off-planet into whatever adventure awaits him. Oh, if only he knew! This leads me to wonder what would have happened if Luke had left his family behind and gone to the academy. Well, that’s a topic for another day.

Luke eventually drops his friend off at his destination. Seconds pass before Biggs starts the conversation again, not yet ready to get out and leave. People in the Imperial Academy — and indeed the Rebellion — don’t know what will happen to them day to day. As such, he wants to leave things between himself and Luke as amicable as possible.

The first episode of the radio play thus comes to a close with the traditional end title score and a narrator giving the participants the credit they deserve.

So, what did I think of the first episode overall? It was…fun. Nothing too dramatic has happened yet, but it still managed to suck me in by giving more detail to one of the most well known characters in the saga: Biggs Darklighter. No, of course not, I’m talking about Luke Skywalker! Again, it was nice to see a more relaxed and playful side of him.

The first episode does an excellent job of giving more depth to Luke’s character by showing exactly how good a pilot he is along with establishing his relationship with Biggs. While obviously not as big a character, it’s still nice to see more of him and get more depth to his character as well. Things like this really bring a story to life.

Before I go I would like to give a big shout-out to Phil Roberts for liking my posts and passing them on to Future of the Force, with whom I am obviously now working. Thank you so much! Also to everyone who has liked and retweeted my articles both on here and Twitter such as Andrew in Belfast, MonkeesbloodCreative, Bryan Fontaine, Stephanie Hope, Ken $olo, Wesley van Wensen, Stewart Gardiner, Chris White and Zoe Roberts. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I hope to see you in my next post. May the Force be with you…always!