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Happy New Year, 2019!! We’re back, and we’ve brought a treat!

Hey out there to everyone in this galaxy and those far, far away!  Happy New Year and Happy 2019 to you all!  We hope this new year will bring much success and happiness to you and yours, and much anticipation for our radio drama as we gear up and race headlong to our year-end release!

We’re excited for what this year will bring as we work towards our end-goal, currently planned for release this November; so in addition to this quick update and welcoming of 2019, we also have a teaser for you all as we move slowly ever-closer along.  Today we’d like ring in the new year by sharing with everyone another amazing demo track for your listening enjoyment that Tim has put together for our radio drama!

To set the stage but not give too much away, today’s clip “Moving Amongst Them” would be heard about 15-20 minutes into the radio drama during a stealthy scene with Rey aboard Kylo Ren’s Star Destroyer, The Finalizer.  Hmm, I feel like we’ve discussed a scene with Rey before…  I wonder if they’re related and go together.  😉

Please have a listen from our music library on the right side and leave your comments below to let us know how the piece makes you feel and what thoughts and images it may bring to your mind.  We’d love to hear your feedback!  🙂

Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by today and every day you visit us.  We truly appreciate your interest and support, it really means the world to us and we hope you enjoy what we can’t wait to deliver to you all later on this year.

Until next time!

Alt Episode IX, The Soundtrack

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Happy Holiday’s from all of us at /IX

Hey everybody!  With the holiday’s fast approaching, we know that like many of you pretty soon we’ll all be wrapped up in our vacation and family plans until the new year.  So, with that said I’ve decided to get ahead of it all and wanted to let folks know that we probably won’t be back with any updates until 2019 rolls around, but we want to wish you, yours, and your fellow Wookiee Life Day’ers a happy and safe holiday season.

But fret not!  We’ll be back next year with more to share, as today we leave you with this beautiful reminder that yes, no matter what we all want to believe, the Star Wars Holiday Special does exist, and it’s cannon.  A fact being contemplated for all time by Han Solo himself in this moment.  😉

The Star Wars universe's version of "It's the thought that counts..."

What looks like a bad Photoshop job is actually Chewbacca in his Life Day robe…

Happy Holiday’s everyone, and as always… until next time!  😀

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The first demo track of our soundtrack is available… RIGHT. NOW!

Hey out there all you Jedi ghosts and Sith spirits!

In honor of my friend, and the Radio Drama’s composer, Tim’s first post the other day, and today being Halloween, we have just released our first demo track for the Alt Episode IX Radio Drama soundtrack!

We’ve picked one of the slower, more sinister demos today in light of (or should I say in dark of?) Halloween, so please feel free to have a listen in the Soundtrack Box on the top right.  We hope you enjoy it and that it gives you a lovely sense of dread as you ponder just what that nefarious Kylo Ren could be up to…  😉

Stay tuned, we’ve got a lot more coming as 2019 draws near. We hope you’re as excited to learn more as we are to share it with you!

Until next time!

Alt Episode IX, The Soundtrack

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You read the words, now see the picture!

Hey, everybody!

Today I’m excited to share with you all another amazing visual from my good friend and our /IX Art Director, Pete Paquette!

Somewhere on our website is a snippet of a script page that reveals a moment of dialog between Rey and a Death Trooper.  Have you found it?  Be sure to seek it out if you haven’t, and then when you do, reflect back on the artwork below which encapsulates the moments of that scene!

So, without further ado, please enjoy another installment of our stylized storyboard visuals that contribute to our tale’s experience…

Rey and the Death Trooper. The moment when the ball starts to roll...

Rey and the Death Trooper. The moment when the ball starts to roll…

What do you think?  Does it give you a better feel for the tension of the scene?  Or does it create more questions then answers?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, thanks for coming along with us on our journey.

Until next time!

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First act sneak peek in-person presentation coming, and a shout-out for voice talent!

Hey, you!  Yes you, dear reader!  Do you happen to live in Northern Massachusetts or Southern New Hampshire?  Well, if so, you may be interested to know that we’ll be doing an evening demo presentation of the first act of our Radio Drama at some of the local libraries in the Massachusetts Middlesex County area, and you’re invited to join us!

I say demo because this is more of a test-shot type of a showing we’re planning.  The music is a mix of John William’s original scores and Tim’s incomplete original compositions, whereas the finished project will be solely Tim’s score.  The reading itself is planned to be solely by yours truly, which won’t be the case in the finished product.  And Pete is hurriedly working on trying to get a few images for us that he’s satisfied with to give a bit of a visual background to the whole thing as well.

Once we have the locations, dates, and times finalized, we’ll be sure to post them all up here on the website.  I’m putting the news out there a bit early (we’re still a few weeks out), because I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to remind folks again that if they themselves, or if they know of anyone, who does a great vocal impression of any of the Star Wars cast, past or present, to please be sure to reach out to us at our Contact Us page as we are actively seeking voice talent for the project!

We’ve been having a great time putting this together, and we look forward to sharing that fun with more fans such as yourself or someone you know who might be interested in lending their talents to an exciting project for a great cause.

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IX on IX?

There’s a question that’s arisen over the past week, and it’s one worth us taking a moment to cover as it will surely come up again.

As we’ve discussed other Star Wars properties on this site before that are outside of our project, such as in regards to the video game Star Wars: Battlefront II or the film Solo: A Star Wars Movie, it makes sense that folks might wonder what our thoughts are on the recent, past, or future news about Lucasfilm’s official Star Wars Episode IX due out in the winter of 2019.  Well, to clear up the curiosity, we will not be discussing the upcoming Disney film here on www.episodeix.org.

We certainly have our thoughts on it, and constantly evolving opinions, but to give substance to our project, we need to present it in a world where Star Wars: The Last Jedi was the last episodic film that was produced.  Our unrelated, unofficial Episode IX Radio Drama is the direct sequel to that film and the other seven before it, and is the only Episode IX that exists in the universe of this website and project.

At some point, we may revisit discussing the upcoming theatrical Episode IX with our own review or editorials about it, but don’t expect us to reference or discuss it until 2020 at the very earliest, if ever at all.  To quote another franchise, “There can be only one.” 😉

Now Teen Titans GO! To The Movies on the other hand, that was a master class in hilarious animated hi-jinx for the young and middle-aged-but-still-young-at-heart to enjoy, so I would just say “GO! see it!” if I were to comment on it; but that’s another topic entirely…

Until next time!

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Summa-summa-summatime!

Hey-ho, everyone!  A few days ago we officially passed into summertime!  Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Yeah, we know, it happens on June 21 every year.”  But for myself, Pete, and Tim, that’s not what I mean by “summertime.”  I’m referring to summertime as “our kids all got out of school last week, which squirrels away the little free time we often have tucked into sub-space pockets for us to access later on.”  😉

If this past week has proven anything to us, it’s that time is even more of a precious commodity and will most likely continue to be for the next two months or so than it was before.  So please bear with us as you may find that updates to the site may come a little more infrequently than you’re used too, but know that we are using our limited free time right now to put it into our Episode IX project even if we might not get a chance to talk it up on here right away.

We’re still here and we’re still working!  Just a little quieter until the summer heat breaks and the kids start filing back onto the buses.  🙂

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Welcome “Extra Lifers”!

I noticed a bit of an uptick in traffic from Vermont and Massachusetts recently and then discovered that Shelby McGarry, Events Specialist for University of Vermont Medical Center Children’s Hospital (who we are supporting through Extra Life with the release of our Episode IX project), was kind enough to say a few words about us and our project that we’re using to help raise donations for their wonderful organization.  Thanks, Shelby!

We are indeed looking for more artistic volunteers to join our Star Wars radio drama to benefit UVM Children’s Hospital!  So if you are an Extra Lifer or not, feel free to Contact Us to find out more about how you can help out and become a part of our team!

I’ve been working with Extra Life in support of Vermont Children’s Hospital for six years now, and when you support Extra Life, you are making a direct difference in the lives of patients and their families at a time when they need help the most.  It’s a great cause, and we truly hope you’ll join us helping them with a charitable donation that goes directly to the hospital.  To find out more, click the link below; and thanks!

https://www.extra-life.org/participant/support-vch

Community Events

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Happy 41st Birthday, Star Wars!

“The Star Wars” was released on this date, May 25, 41 years ago in 1977.  A movie made on a shoe-string budget went on to make a billionaire out of its creator and billions of dollars each year in merchandise from its millions of devoted fans worldwide.  If the movie bombed in theaters those 41 years ago, you wouldn’t be reading this right now as this website wouldn’t even exist.  “Whoa.  That’s heavy.”  Wait a tic, that’s the wrong franchise….

Today, we have something we’d like to share with you, but I wanted to make sure we were all signed off on it, so check back to this post soon as I will edit it once the “green light” is given.

You won’t want to miss out.  😉

Alt Episode IX

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Battlefront II’s campaign is the best official Star Wars story in years.

Ok, I have to come clean and make a couple of admissions.  First, I was one of those folks who were greatly disappointed that Star Wars: Battlefront (2015) shipped without a campaign mode.  I mean, seriously?  How do you make a gorgeous Star Wars game and then ship it without a playable story to experience?!  It seemed like a ludicrous situation; a grand oversight.  Partially because of that, even though I bought SW:BF on Day One, I never played it that much.  I enjoyed the offline missions from time to time, (the Speeder Bike sequence on Endor in first person mode is still amazing), but overall it remained primarily on the shelf to keep my bookcase company.

I was (most likely) going to buy Star Wars: Battlefront II (2017) no matter what, I’ll admit it.  Once I heard it had a campaign mode, though, I was sold.  Which leads to my painful second admission.  I bought this game also on Day One, November 17, 2017, and although I did the first Mission (the prologue “The Cleaner”) when I originally got the game, I didn’t actually, really play the campaign until April 26, 2018.

OK!  Hold on, I have an excuse!  This was partially because everyone in my house wanted to watch as I played through it to experience the story as well and I was under orders from my kids and my wife to “wait for them”.  You know, like an Imperial Decree.  Well, as anyone with a TiVo or DVR can attest, often times waiting for that other person or persons who want to “watch it with you” can lead to that show never actually getting watched.  So, I finally decided “If we actually all gather around the screen at some point to watch this together, I’ll just play it all over again.”

So after deciding to finally just play the darn thing two weeks ago, this past weekend I completed the whole campaign (the main story as well as the three-chapter “Resurrection” DLC epilogue).  As I was going about my day today, the wonderful story that developer Dice created for Battlefront II continues to float around in my head, and for very good reason.  The campaign’s story line in the Battlefront II video game is far superior to the script for the movie The Last Jedi, and really even The Force Awakens.  But what is it that this game got right that Hollywood keeps getting wrong?  Let’s take a (spoiler free) look.

Iden Versio's nobody's fool. She's Star Wars' best written female since Leia, and character to wear black since Vader.

Iden Versio’s nobody’s fool. She’s Star Wars’ best written female since Leia, and character to wear black since Vader.

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Gaming, Off-Topic

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