THE CLONE WARS: POLITICAL INFLUENCES...

Striving hard to bring peace to the galaxy, and to especially sooth the escalating troubles with the Hutt clan and its vitally needed space routes, Senator Padme Amidala confers with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine on Coruscant, in a scene from The Clone Wars animated movie.

The late Ian Abercrombie did a fine job continuing the work of Ian McDiarmid in the role of Palpatine and Darth Sidious, and the same too for Catherine Taber, bringing her own interpretation to Natalie Portman's morally courageous Padme. Attending the film's London multimedia screening back in 2008, AFICIONADO noted that the cinema audience was clearly pleased to see these two politically important characters make their way into the film's later stages.

CELEBRATING HAN SOLO's 'SMUGGLER'S BOUNTY'

Catherine Taber and David Collins at the forefront of SMUGGLER'S BOUNTY.

The second THE FORCE AWAKENS teaser, STAR WARS REBELS Season Two, ROGUE ONE, BATTLEFRONT- just some of the big memories and events to savour from the recently finished CELEBRATION ANAHEIM. But let's not forget some of the other highlights that, if you didn't catch them at the time live or via the Verizon live stream, are equally worthy of tracking down. The prime standout for me had to be SMUGGLER'S BOUNTY, the second instalment of the well produced and directed Han Solo audio drama trilogy created and written by Kyle Newman and F.J. DeSanto for the US CELEBRATION events, featuring David Collins doing a very worthy job recreating the role of everyone's favourite space smuggler, alongside many of the excellent voice cast from THE CLONE WARS animated series, playing old and new heroes and villains whose destinies are quickly interlinked with Han and Chewbacca...

Meet the Cast of Smuggler's Bounty | StarWars.com
Star Wars: Smuggler's Bounty - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

As someone who adored the Brian Daley audio drama adaptations for the Classic Trilogy (still available on Highbridge Audio CD) with their brilliant fusion of drama and sound design, listening to SMUGGLER'S BOUNTY instantly recaptured the fun of that unique time, in a format for the franchise that 's genuinely worthy of resurrection. Newman has stated that he has a 300 page audio drama script adaptation of THE PHANTOM MENACE ready to go- which I think everyone should support and ask LUCASFILM to produce. Imagine a Prequel Trilogy on audio that's truly depthful in exploring events and character actions that could only be briefly explored in each two hour plus movie. Remember how good that 13 episode STAR WARS was back in 1981? That could be done with THE PHANTOM MENACE, ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH, especially if it utilises the talents of Newman, an enthused Prequel devotee, and that CLONE WARS series animated cast.

Enjoy SMUGGLER'S BOUNTY on the Youtube/Verizon link, around the 3 hour, 15 minutes mark:  ▶ Star Wars Celebration Anaheim Live Stream, Powered by Verizon - Day 3 - YouTube

And look out for a refined version of the story on STARWARS.COM in the not too distant future- make your presence known to the powers-that-be that you like it, and want more!

'THE CLONE WARS': LOVE AND BETRAYAL

On the lush world of Cato Neimoidia, Padme discovers the truth about her once love, Rush Clovis, and his allegiances with the Separatists, in the episode Senate Spy, a tale with clear influences from the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie NOTORIOUS, starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.

As well as being on DVD and Blu-ray, Season Two is also available in reruns on the UK VIRGIN TV ON-DEMAND service.