We’re diving into Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episodes 1 and 2. It’s a nostalgic voyage into the unknown, and I’m going to spoil the whole thing, so if you haven’t watched yet, go check it out and then come back.
Skeleton Crew has premiered on Disney+ with a fresh story set in the New Republic era. It follows four children from the suburban planet of At Attin who discover a hidden starship and find themselves lost in a vast and perilous galaxy. These opening episodes lay the groundwork for a coming-of-age adventure that blends the wonder of classic ’80s films with the expansive lore of Star Wars.
Pirates Right Out the Gate
There’s no crawl on this one. You get some text on screen, and it lets us know a few things. First up, I had no clue this was going to be during the New Republic era. Maybe it had been said somewhere. I don’t know why I didn’t know that.
The text tells us the outer edges of space have been dealing with pirates. That’s a thing now. And we’re introduced to pirates right out the gate, because we witness a brutal attack by Captain Silvo and his formidable enforcer, Brutus.
There’s an intensity about this opening scene that I appreciate, mainly because it looks very much like they want to establish a few things up front. They want you to know that what the text said was true, and they want you to see the literal brutality of it. It sets the stakes sky high from the start. So now you know what you’re dealing with. Boom, cut to their version of an intro, and then we’re introduced to Star Wars suburbia, which I thought was fun.
Overall, I really do appreciate what this show is doing, and I know I’m going to be talking about it more on Nerd Fights.
Star Wars Suburbia
When we get to At Attin, we meet Wim. He’s a dreamer, a young boy with dreams of adventure. His dad is stoic. His mom is no longer in the picture. He goes to school, he gets on the tram, and he’s got his friend Neel. Neel’s the alien kid who looks like a little elephant, with the trunk and the whole bit, but he’s very nice. Neel’s a super cool kid, and he’s got a little crush on a girl at school.
The kids are going back and forth, and their class gets a visit from the assistant to the head of the, okay, it’s funny, I’m doing a spoiler review and I still don’t want to spoil things before it’s time. This is a colony of some kind. You actually find that out a little bit later.
We also get to meet two more characters, Fern and her friend KB. Fern is the young lady you’ve seen in the trailers. Super tough, no nonsense, all business. Her mother is the head secretary lady who came to the class, and what she establishes right away is that the school is getting ready for, I guess, the equivalent of placement exams, which are going to set you on the path you’ll be on for good. “Today I’ve taken time out of my very busy schedule to come talk about something near and dear to my heart: tomorrow’s career assessment test.”
It’s funny. As Mrs. Know-It-All and I are watching this, she mentions that Salty has feelings and reservations about Andor and how Andor does some things. And she says, you know, the more I listen to Salty, the more I realize he might have a point. And he might have a point.
As for Fern, she doesn’t feel like anything other than a very clear archetype, and they’re going to make sure you know it. You can tell she’s trying to live up to her mother’s expectations and ideals. She’s very much a Leia-esque archetype, or at least an analog of that kind of character, and I’m here for it. I don’t have an issue with that.
The Door in the Ravine
The next day, the day of the placement exams, Wim sleeps in. His dad, who’s an accounting person or whatever, is working a lot. A major project has come up and he’s not going to be home much that week. So earlier, Dad gave him his lunch money for the week in these Republic credits, and Wim puts them in his pocket. Why not.
He rushes to get to the tram, Neel sees him coming, and the tram takes off. So Wim says he’s going to take a shortcut. He opens up the garage and grabs his bike, which is a hover bike. Everyone’s riding hover bikes. That’s how we saw Fern and KB earlier, right up until their bike broke down on the way home that first day and they needed a power converter. First thing I said to Mrs. Know-It-All was, I mean, head over to Tosche Station. Apparently that’s where all the power converters are. Just saying.
Wim gets on the bike, cuts through a back area, and crashes. He ends up going down this little gully, a ravine, and finding what looks like a door.
Wim is so adventure-struck, star-struck, Jedi everything, all of it, that he’s convinced he’s discovered a Jedi temple. He gets caught by a couple of droids, because he’s in what’s called a danger zone, an area the kids shouldn’t be going into. Then he sees his dad. His dad’s upset with him, but his dad clearly only has one thing on his mind, which is work. He tells him, hey, I talked to the headmaster, they’re going to give you the test tomorrow. You’re going to go home, you’re going to study. You’re already taking a 50 point loss, so you can’t miss a single answer.
Wim’s only worried about what he thinks is a Jedi temple.
When he gets back there, Fern and KB are already at it. They’ve discovered the thing too, but they don’t know how to open it or anything about it. So they convince the boys to work for them, and oh my gosh, Fern pisses me off so much. The character’s fine. It’s the way she is as a person.
Lost in Space, Literally
Wim and them happen to accidentally open the thing up, and when they go in, they find what looks like the body of a robot. Right about then they hear his dad searching for him. Wim had told his dad about the place, and when Dad came home and Wim wasn’t there studying, he figured that’s where his son went. He’s not happy.
The kids are looking for a power converter on the ship, and they want us to believe that Wim accidentally launched it. I don’t know how true that is. Either way, the ship rises up out of the ground and takes off into the sky. At one point, with all the shenanigans inside, Wim almost falls out of an airlock. They pull him back in, but his dad sees all of it. So his dad knows the kids are on that ship, and that they’re about to go past the barrier. That’s the second time we hear that phrase, the barrier, and the droids keep insisting it’s not possible.
Then the hyperdrive activates. Boom, gone.
They manage to stop the ship and it falls out of hyperspace, and that’s when the droid wakes up. SM-33. He’s looking for the captain, and Fern claims she killed the captain, which makes her the captain.
The droid is basically Mr. Smee from Hook. It’s got very Hook type vibes. This whole thing is just giant nostalgia fun. I had a very good time with the first two episodes, and I do think you will too.
They’re literally lost in space. Fern convinces the robot and tells him, you’ve got to take us back where we came from. He says okay, turns the ship around, and then asks which one of those is At Attin, because he’s got no clue what At Attin is. She doesn’t know either. So he says, well, I know a place we can go, a starport. And she says, okay, yeah, take us there.
The Credits Gave It Away
Should they go to the starport? It’s full of pirates. It’s a pirate starport. This is literally pirates in space.
They get off the ship trying to find directions, and they’re witnessing all kinds of stuff. The kids all go in different directions, even though Fern’s trying to take charge and telling them not to wander off. KB goes one way, the boys go another, and the boys find themselves in a bar. A cantina, if you will. They order food, and Wim pays with his credits.
You find out he’s paying with Old Republic credits. Pre-Empire Republic credits.
I immediately look at Mrs. Know-It-All and say, oh my God, At Attin is a hidden Old Republic planet. When everything went off, they probably put up a barrier to disguise themselves, camouflage themselves, whatever, and now they’re going to be exposed. Because every time the kids mention At Attin, the pirates are like, what are you talking about, that’s a fictitious place. It’s supposedly like Shangri-La to these people. It’s a myth, a mythological planet of treasure. So okay, this is interesting.
Sure enough, they get confronted by pirates who chase them, and eventually SM-33 shows up and helps rescue them, only for them to finally get attacked by Captain Silvo’s crew and thrown in the brig.
That’s where they meet Jude Law. The kids need to get that key, and Jude Law makes the key come to him. The kids say, “You’re a Jedi.” And he says, “Can you keep a secret?”
The kids think he’s a Jedi. I don’t. He might be, he totally might be, but as of right now, this moment, I think he’s somebody who just happens to know how to use the Force. That’s assuming it isn’t something more practical, like a magnet or something stupid like that. But I do think it’s actual Force manipulation he’s using.
Where I Think It Goes
Lucasfilm and Star Wars do an amazing job with the first two episodes of almost every series they’ve done, so I really have to wait until next week. And next week, by the way, the episodes shift to their normal time frame, which is going to be Wednesday nights.
I like what they’re doing. I really, really do. I know we had to set the stage, and both episodes, while abrupt, worked together. I’m wondering how well the future episodes will do. They’re telling what seems like a thought-out story. Jon Watts directed the very first one and it feels every bit like that. Each director has their own talent or skill when it comes to this type of material, and I look forward to diving deep into some of that as we move forward. I know Bryce Dallas Howard’s going to do some, and there are all kinds of people involved.
I think they’re going on a good old-fashioned adventure, and it feels wonderful. It has mixed vibes for me, though. Yes, all the nostalgia stuff. But when it comes to Star Wars proper, I’m getting weirdly Ewok Adventure vibes. Those two Ewok movies were very kid-centric, and I honestly believe they were actual ’80s versions of kids’ movies. They just didn’t quite hit that mark, and I feel like this is doing a much, much better job of it.
My prediction is that Jude Law is going to help them in the hopes of winning his crew back, and he’s going to end up liking the kids. He’s going to betray the kids first, and then eventually he’s going to reverse that and come back. We’ll see where all of that ends up going.
The Verdict
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’s two-episode premiere is a 7.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index. A very solid and respectable seven and a half.
I need someplace to go, bottom line, and I feel like they’re going to do it. I’m hopeful. I’m optimistic. So far the storytelling works. Nothing felt clunky or odd or awkward, other than maybe the endings. They take you right to the edge of a thing and then stop. It’s doing a good job being episodic, so we’ll see where the next one goes.
Your turn. Where do you think this show is going, and is Jude Law a Jedi or just a guy who knows a trick? Man, I can’t wait to get into all of this with you. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
