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In a series of recordings culled from his series of one-man lectures in the 1980s, Monty Python star Graham Chapman talks about life before, during, and after his years with the seminal British TV comedy troupe, including a painful stint with the Dangerous Sports Club, an extreme sports outfit (before that term was even invented) that brought bungee-jumping into the public eye (and certainly right into Chapman’s). Chapman also discusses his battles with alcoholism, his close friendship with The Who drummer Keith Moon, and the inevitable censorship battles that have followed his brand of outrageously silly humor.

I was surprised to see this CD appear so long after Chapman’s death (in 1989, just one day short of Monty Python’s 20th anniversary) - one would have thought that interest had long since waned, and it almost begs one to ask “Why now?” The answer is simply because the man’s humor is still relevant - and still quite silly, thank you. For those of us who didn’t get to take in Chapman’s college lecture tour in the ’80s, this is the next best thing. (There’s also a DVD available, of which more in a moment.) Those accustomed to Chapman’s outrageously iconic Python characters may be surprised to find that the man himself, while still quite silly, can be surprisingly circumspect. (more…)

In the latest installment of the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Luke and his fellow Rebels are on the run from the Empire following the destruction of the Death Star. With Ben Kenobi gone, Luke has nowhere to turn for more Jedi training, until he sees an apparition of Ben on the ice planet Hoth, instructing him to seek out Dagobah and Yoda, the last of the Jedi Masters. Leia and Han, in the meantime, escape an Imperial attack on Hoth and, after a near-suicidal dash through an asteroid belt in the Millennium Falcon, seek help from Han’s old friend (and fellow scoundrel) Lando Calrissian. Luke goes to Dagobah, meets Yoda and begins his training, finding that the path to becoming a Jedi Knight is anything but easy. When Luke uses the Force and sees a vision of Leia and Han in trouble, he leaves Yoda to help his friends, unaware that Darth Vader is waiting for all of them.

Review: In the same tradition of The Story Of Star Wars, this story LP retells The Empire Strikes Back in audio form with copious clips from the movie, and somewhat more minimal narration, this time from Malachi Throne (a veteran of roles on the original Star Trek). Adapted by the same writers as the Star Wars story record, Empire winds up letting the movie clips tell the story, only adding the narrator when a purely visual setup is needed. (more…)

In the space of about 54 minutes, with a generous helping of the original dialogue recordings, sound effects and music from the movie itself, Star Wars is retold with narrator Roscoe Lee Browne narrating the more visual parts of the action.

Review: As odd as it may seem, The Story Of Star Wars was actually a best-seller for its time - a time when laserdisc and even home video were exceedingly rare in homes, and in any case, the home video market that would bring Star Wars home a few years later simply didn’t exist. It was yet another part of that masterstroke of merchandising genius that George Lucas pioneered; I listened to this thing ceaselessly when I first got the LP, and along with those pesky action figures, storybooks and whatnot, it helped to ensure that, like so many other kids my age, we had the story and even much of the dialogue of Star Wars virtually committed to memory, long before it was shown on TV by CBS, or released on home video. Or before we knew what home video was. (more…)

Passage To Moauv - Stardate 5440: Assigned to transport the pet of a neutral ambassador to his homeworld of Moauv, the Enterprise crew is barely even underway before the creature escapes. Worse yet, their passenger - which Kirk describes as something “between a bobcat and a lizard” - is telepathically projecting its bursts of fight-or-flight instinct into the minds of anyone looking for it. Before long, Kirk, Spock and the crew can’t seem to decide whether to claw each other’s eyes out or avert a diplomatic incident by looking for the pet.

The Crier In Emptiness - Stardate 5444.9: A routine, even boring, survey mission is disrupted by an unusual first contact with something that communicates through sound and musical tones. Before long, the ensuing cacophony has expanded until it blocks the Enterprise’s communications frequencies - and cutting off any way for the crew to call for help.

In Vino Veritas - Stardate 5442.8: Kirk and Spock are assigned to mediate a mining dispute - a dispute to which the Klingons are also sending mediators. A third representative from the Federation also seems to be present when they arrive, even though the Enterprise wasn’t notified of a third representative. Strangely enough, as the peace process begins, each of the negotiators - even Spock - begin to insult each other at every opportunity, making the prospects for a peaceful resolution very dim indeed.

Review: Endlessly released in different combination by Peter Pan Records and their parent company, Power Records, these are just three out of a great many Star Trek audio stories released on vinyl during the early 1970s. (The record cover shown here hails from 1979, at which time every licensee who still had a product to sell was repackaging it to tie in with Star Trek: The Motion Picture.) These three stories, however, are interesting in that they were written by the author who penned that first movie’s premise - Alan Dean Foster. (more…)