When you think Star Wars, what comes to mind?
… probably Jedi’s blasting the Empire, Darth Vader force choking his own men, centuries old lore, or maybe adult aged men (I can say this because I am one) who obsess over something they should have reasonably outgrown 20 years ago… but here we are. What we don’t think about are rag-tag groups of kids on a suburban, Earth-like planet going on an adventure that is one part Goonies, one part LOST, and two parts Pirates of the Caribbean.
The first episode starts right away with action, giving us a space version of a pirate raid. A group of space pirates led by new antagonist Captain Silvo boards a bulk freight carrier looking for credits (space money). The ship’s crew members take position and put up a fight, but they are no match for the pirates. Wolf-like alien pirate Brutus boards the ship, followed by Silvo with Jaleel White’s new character Gunter. For a show about a group of kids, the villains are no joke. It’s worth noting another recognizable face in Silvo’s crew is the space pirate Vane, who was first seen in The Mandalorian.
After the fight, the pirates make their way into the main hull of the ship where the vault is located. The captain tells Silvo that they are not permitted to carry credits as they are a bulk freighter, but Silvo doesn’t believe him, knocks him out of the way, and opens safe after giving his men an impromptu motivational speech telling them the only thing that matters are the, “cold, hard credits”. To his disappointment, there is only one credit in the safe. The rest of the pirates, showing an oddly timed ethical compass, question why they just killed all those men for one credit. A mutiny on Silvo ensues, teeing Brutus up to be the new main space pirate and actual antagonist. After the mutiny is over, the title screen appears and we are introduced to the rest of the show.
Counter-Earth
Okay, so if you’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy 3, you’ll know why I call this counter-earth. It’s earth, but not. It’s suburbia, but with Star Wars mixed in. Instead of a bus, there are hover busses; instead of bikes, mini speeders. Space Earth, if you will. It’s very similar to the conceptual suburbia that the High Evolutionary created in Guardians 3. It’s something we truly have never seen in a Star Wars show before and gives this first episode the feel of something like Stranger Things, where the chemistry between the kids carries the foundation of the story.
We first meet Wim and Neel, a seemingly average human kid that likes adventure and a little blue alien that seems way too wholesome to be going off on a space pirate adventure. The first half of the show sets up their home planet, At Attin, which we later find out has a lot more going on under the suburban surface than meets the eye. The school is futuristic but standard, with droid teachers, and the technology they use are all variants of normal tech. It’s almost like the planet is Earth in the future, but that would be too easy.
Anyway, Wim and Neel have exams and of course the day of the tests Wim oversleep and misses his bus. He hops a speeder and takes a ‘short cut’ through the woods, only to fall into a crevasse that he becomes stuck in. The crevasse is a small canyon, and he can’t climb up the walls. As he’s looking for an escape, he finds a hatch buried in some dirt (think LOST). He investigates it, but then gets caught by a droid who let’s him know he’s violating school attendance protocols and takes him back to the school for discipline. Here, we meet the rest of the kids, two girls named Fern and KB. Fern seems a lot like Wim, only even more adventurous. She basically wears the pants in the group. And then KB, who hasn’t done much so far in the first two episodes but comes off as the brain of the group.
While waiting to be disciplined, Wim meets Fern and then Wim’s dad comes to pick him up when Wim tells him about the hatch he found, calling it a “Jedi temple”. Wim’s dad, who is clearly very by the books, tells him he needs to focus on his test and he expects him to pass, ignoring everything about the hatch. Fern, however, overhears it and convinces Wim to take her to see it. So Wim, Neel, Fern, and KB all go back to the hatch together.
When they get to the hatch, they realize it’s buried in dirt and make a deal to come back at night to dig it out. They do, and low and behold the hatch ends up being a doorway to a buried space ship. In the ship, the kids follow the electrical conduit to the main control room and end up powering it on with a couple smacks of a stick in a display of true technological supremacy. Then, the ship starts up, engines roaring and the kids all try to run to the hatch. But by the time they get there, the ship is already in the air. And with that, we now have a space adventure.
Outside the Barrier
The ship controls itself as it flies up into space, going right by At Attin’s barrier that the planet’s ships are not allowed to pass. From there, the ship goes into classic Star Wars hyperspeed and the credits roll. Heck ya. The second episode picks up right where the first left off, with the kids on the ship right after the jump into hyperspeed. Now this is starting to feel more like the Star Wars we’re familiar with.
The ship stops, and the kids start questioning where in space they ended up. They are interrupted by a noise, which turns out to be the broken droid they saw when they first came on the ship, who tells the kids his name is SM-33. As it turns out, the droid has seen better days but it still works. Fern comically tells the droid that she killed their captain, making him believe that she is the new captain. It’s actually pretty clever.
Fern tells SM-33 to tell her how to fly the ship, but after thoroughly confusing the kids with the controls they tell him to fly it. He asks where they were, so they repeatedly tell him to go back to At Attin, but SM-33 can’t recall where they came from. It’s at this moment the kids realize just how lost they really are. SM-33 mentions a different star port in conversation, and Fern tells him to go there instead so they can ask for directions. Little do they know it’s a pirate port. Meanwhile, Wim’s father back on At Attin witnessed the ship as it went up into space and reports the disappearance to security droids.
While on the ship, the kids find some skeletons that they assume died in a duel. After, the ship makes its way to Port Borgo, a pirate port that is a deep cut location for the middle aged fans out there keeping tabs (once again, only saying that because I’m one of them). SM-33 tells them not to trust anyone, and for good reason. Little do the kids know they have stumbled upon the home of Brutus, Gunter, Vane, and the rest of the crew from the opening of the pilot.
Port Borgo
The kids take time exploring the space port, with Win and Neel splitting up from Fern and KB in an effort to find directions home. One thing I found very funny was that when a group of alien pirates passes the kids, Neel, the little blue alien, looks at them and exclaims, “aliens! They’re so weird looking!”, showing Neel is very unaware of the fact he is also an alien. It gives us some indirect insight into At Attin as a society. Anyway, Neel and Wim end up going into a bar and order some food that makes me very happy I do not live in space. The girls wander around the port, when a female pirate comes up to them and warns them they are in a dangerous location. When she asks the girls where they are from, they tell her At Attin, and we get our first hint that there might be more to their home planet than originally believed. The pirate’s response was simply, “okay seriously, where are you from?”. Okay, so there’s some real mystery there.
Some conflict ensues in the bar as the pirates realize the kids have credits, but not just any credits. When Wim takes his money out his pocket, the rest of the bar patrons (including the pirate Vale) are taken back because they have Old Republic credits that are worth a considerable amount. When the kids tell the pirates in the bar they’re from At Attin, everyone just laughs. Wim and Neel know they’re about to be robbed, so they run from the bar. At the same time, Fern and KB are still talking to the pirate who questioned At Attin, to where she says, “you need a much better story than At Attin”. When they reaffirm it’s true, she responds with, “you’re a couple yinderlings from the lost planet of eternal treasure?”
… hold up… what?
We just casually find out, right along with the kids, that their home planet is considered a lost planet and apparently has a lost treasure. In Star Wars lore, Port Borgo is somewhere in the same proximity as Mandalore, which makes sense considering Vale is in both this and The Mandalorian. So this implies that they really do come from a corner of the galaxy that is very far removed from the rest of the established Star Wars universe. Niiice.
Vale ends up cornering the kids and telling them they just want Wims Old Republic credits. Right as the pirates were about the overrun the kids, SM-33 appears out of nowhere to save them. He makes easy work of the pirates and escapes back to the ship with the kids. As they’re attempting to escape, Fern asks SM-33 why he brought them to a pirate space port and SM-33 says, “well, because you’re pirates!”. Fern tells the droid they’re not pirates, and he is extremely confused. This makes it clear the ship they found was a pirate ship, most likely looking for the lost treasure on At Attin, and SM-33 is programmed to be serving space pirates. He just assumes the kids are pirates since they reactivated them. Right after, SM-33 gets shot by Brutus and collapses. He send the kids to the brig, where the coolest scene from the first two episodes happens.
Yo-ho, yo-ho, a (Space) Pirates Life For Me
The last portion of the second episode is very reminiscent to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and it’s done exquisitely. The kids are trapped in a cell mirroring a classic scene from the Pirate dark ride. In the ride, there is a scene that shows three pirates in a cell trying to coax a dog to bring them the key that is hanging just out of arms reach. They recreate that scene and it’s pretty awesome. Neil takes a little creature (I think it’s a little bug that pops out on SM-33 earlier in the episode) and tells him to go get the key. The creature crawls over to the key as the kids watch on in a recreation of the ride scene, and then the bug gets to the key and just runs away leaving the kids locked up.
But not all hope is lost. Right as that happens, a hooded figure come out of the shadows. He tells them that, “the distance between us and the key is an illusion”, in a very mysterious, Jedi like tone. Then, it happens. The Jedi theme from the original trilogy plays and the hooded figure makes the key float over to him, to which Wim replies, “you’re a Jedi?”. The character steps forward, take his hood down to reveal Jude Law’s character Jod Na Nawood, and asks the kids, “can you keep a secret?”. Chills.
Nothing is known about Jod yet, but he’s a Jedi locked up a pirate infested space port so there’s definitely something nefarious going on there that I’m assuming will be one of the major plot threads throughout the rest of the first season.
The Verdict
This show just does it for me. I loved The Mandalorian, and this show has many of the same vibes while being something totally new. Between the introduction of At Attin in the first episode and Port Borgo in the second, we’re getting new locations we’ve never seen in-universe before, from the point of view of kids in a way that’s easy for audiences to consume and actually understand. Star Wars has so, so, so much lore that trying to get into the franchise is sometimes more of a task than a form of entertainment. This show flips that script giving us an easy entry point into the vast universe.
Episode 1: 7/10 – Strong foundation, but some of the dialogue between the kids borderlines cheesy. Good start for the series.
Episode 2: 8/10 – Introduced new mysteries, new characters, and new locations. Decent amount of action. Improvement over the pilot with room for more.