Star Wars: The Radio Drama

Somehow I’d never heard of this before: NPR produced and aired¹ radio dramatizations of the films in the original Star Wars trilogy. The first program was particularly popular, garnering NPR hundreds of thousands of new listeners. The original versions are available in full on The Internet Archive:

• Star Wars: A New Hope (1981)
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1983)
• Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi (1996)

Or get all three parts ripped from the CD.

All three programs contain elements of John Williams’ original soundtrack. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprised their movie roles for the first two radio programs² and some other bold-faced names made appearances throughout: Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, John Lithgow as Yoda (??), Ed Begley Jr. as Boba Fett (???), David Alan Grier as a nameless X-wing fighter pilot, and Nia Vardalos.

The radio programs were based on the original film scripts with some added scenes; from Open Culture:

With science-fiction novelist Brian Daley brought on to add or restore scenes to the script of the original dialogue-light feature film, the story stretches out to thirteen episodes for a total runtime of six hours. The series thus stands as an early example of the expansion of the Star Wars universe that, in all kinds of media, has continued apace ever since.

And from Wikipedia:

Daley adapted the script partly using material from earlier drafts of Lucas’s scripts, and restored several scenes cut from the final edit of the film, as well as adding original new scenes created specially for the audio version. The narrative of the first two episodes takes place entirely before the opening scene of the 1977 film, and expands the background to events leading up to the capture of the Tantive IV spacecraft above the planet Tatooine. Episode 1, largely based on cut scenes from the original, explores the life of Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. During the story, Luke’s skyhopper (a vehicle seen in the background in Luke’s garage during the film) is damaged during a desert race; Luke sees the distant Star Destroyer battle in the sky; and he is reunited with his childhood friend, Biggs Darklighter. Episode 2, made up of material written entirely by Daley, provides backstory to Princess Leia’s acquisition of the Death Star plans from agents of the Rebel Alliance on the planet Toprawa. In scenes set on the planet Alderaan, Leia discusses the plans with her father, Prestor Organa, and determines to go in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

There are recut fan versions of the three programs as well, including Nigel’s Edits (Hope, Empire, Jedi); he added some of Ben Burtt’s sound effects into the mix:

These versions, boldly called The Definitive Editions (Hope, Empire, Jedi), include opening scrolls and images taken from Star Wars comic books and trading cards:

Yes, that’s a script turned into a movie turned into an audio drama turned into a, uh, quasi-cinematic Powerpoint? (via open culture)

1. NPR produced the first two programs but not The Return of the Jedi…it was produced by someone else. ↩

2. Daniels also voiced C-3PO in the Jedi dramatization. ↩

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