Star Wars Weekends Guests!

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On last week’s podcast, we reported on the Celebrity Hosts for this year’s upcoming Star Wars Weekends – James Arnold Taylor and Ashley Eckstein.  On Friday, Disney announced the nearly full roster of guests.  Hooray!

Weekend I (May 18 – 20)

  • Ray Park – (Darth Maul – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
  • Jerome Blake (Rune Haako/Mas Amedda – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
  • Dee Bradley Baker (voice of Clone Captain Rex and Clone Commander Cody – Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

Weekend II (May 25- 27)

  • Andy Secombe (Watto – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
  • Ray Park (Darth Maul – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
  • Tom Kane (voice of Yoda – Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

Weekend III (June 1 -3)

  • Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
  • Silas Carson (Nute Gunray/Ki-Adi-Mundi – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
  • (Star Wars: The Clone Wars voice talent – currently TBD)

Weekend IV (June 8- 10)

  • Michonne Bourriague (Aurra Sing – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
  • Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett – Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi)
  • Daniel Logan (Boba Fett – Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones)
  • Nika Futterman (voice of Asajj Ventress – Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

It’ll be interesting to see the two Bobas together during Weekend 4, and I’m really looking forward to Nika Futterman’s appearance.  Asajj Ventress is one of my favorite characters on The Clone Wars and I don’t think she’s done an event like this before.  And I’m looking forward to seeing what Jake Lloyd has been up to, especially with The Phantom Menace 3D release this past February.

Personally, I’m hoping that the additional guest for Week 3 is Matt Lanter, for obvious reasons.

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Star Wars Easter Eggs (Literally)

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No matter what your beliefs, Easter is here and we can all enjoy the one universal thing about it: Talking about how awesome these eggs are. Incredibly talented people from across the internet have put these pictures up online and I am shamefully reposting them for all of you to see.

Pictures below the cut.

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Director Ross’ Status Unclear for ‘Hunger Games’ Sequel

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Yesterday, it was reported that Hunger Games director Gary Ross would not be directing its sequel, Catching Fire. Speculation ran rampant as to why Ross would back away from the already-blockbuster franchise with some showbiz sites stating that a money dispute was part of the issue. Others theorized that he simply didn’t have the desire to attach himself to a single story for the next several years.

Now there are reports that the previous reports were erronious and Ross has not told Lionsgate that he’s leaving. Stepping away from an almost guaranteed hit sequel didn’t make a whole lot of sense and for the sake of the next three films, I’d hope he sticks around. He seemed to have worked well with author Suzanne Collins in creating the adapted screenplay and that chemistry could be invaluable moving forward.

As so many of these stories go, no one really has a clue as to what’s going on. Yesterday’s news sounded rather definitive and today’s followups are backpedaling quickly, leaving fans rather confused about the future of the franchise. Personally, I would be surprised if Ross and Lionsgate parted ways at this point.

H/T to Club Jade for the followup news

Friday Star Wars Roundup

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Welcome to the roundup!

At the end of every work week, we’re going to gather up the most interesting bits of Star Wars related news and discussion from around the web and hand them to you lucky readers in the handy link-dump format.

Two New Scoundrels Announced: We knew that Han, Chewie, and Lando would be comprising three of the characters in Timothy Zahn’s upcoming novel Star Wars: Scoundrels. Frank Parisi announced two additional characters via the Forcecast last weekend: Kell Tainer and Winter Celchu. The following animated gif accurately portrays the feelings of Tosche Station’s writing staff regarding this announcement:

Bless you, Bill Adama. More news below the cut.

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Tosche Station Radio #11: Author Appeal

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Podcast: Stream Here | Download

It’s a big, big week for Brian, Nanci, and Tosche Station Radio.

The show kicks off with an announcement: TSR has a new official blog! Brian, Nanci, and mutual friend Shane have launched Tosche-Station.net, a new site where the staff will write and snark about the news and issues in geek culture. With a heavy dose of Star Wars, of course. We’d like to thank Roqoo Depot for being our home for the first ten episodes and their help in promoting the podcast. As you’re listening to this episode, hop on over to the new site and check out Shane’s snarky look back at Children of the Jedi and Brian’s review of Essential Guide to Warfare.

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Children of the Jedi Part I: An Introduction to Snark

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Greetings, readers! For those of you just joining us here at the blog, this is part of an ongoing series in which I am reading ,or in some cases re-reading, Star Wars novels from yesteryear. I’m going to be starting rather early on in the Bantam-Spectra era and slowly working my way forward. Now, in some cases that will actually mean chronologically but in other it will mean that I’m just reading them as I get to them.

I also want to tell you that I will be reading most of these for the first time while in other cases they’ll be books I haven’t read in fifteen or so years. It’s needless to say that I may miss some things or note things that will eventually be resolved. If that’s the case, I’ll generally try to note it. In most cases, I’ll end up being right. Expect lots of exasperation and rage.

This brings us to the first of many posts in the series, the name of the series might be a bit fluid for a while until I come up with something that I’m happier with, but we’ll just have to see. For now, you pick, either “EU Growing Pains” or simply “Some books have it coming.”

Brian recently posted his roadmap to the EU, suggesting his own recommendations to get started on the path.  You will also notice that many of these really aren’t on that list.  There’s a good reason.

The first thing on the docket from this humble author will be Children of the Jedi.

Part I

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Denning Talks Fate of the Jedi with Fans

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Over at Star Wars Books, Troy Denning conducted a Q&A session with fans via Facebook. Just what do fans want to know from the author that seems to have become the face of the Post-New Jedi Order EU? Why, what his dream project would be, of course.

I’ve been blessed with so many dream SW projects already that I feel guilty talking about another one . . . but I WOULD like to write the story of Yoda coming of age

Denning also dished on the creative process involved with writing Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse, his latest entry in the Expanded Universe and the conclusion of the nine-book megaseries.

One of our goals for Apocalypse was to open up a whole new boatload of story telling possibilities for the EU. I feel like we accomplished that, and there are about a hundred different SW stories I’d love to tell that are hinted at the end of Apocalypse.

While I understand the goal and what they were trying to accomplish, I couldn’t help but feel that this approach made Apocalypse too open-ended for it’s own good.

For more answers to fan questions, head on over to Club Jade for a transcript with some commentary.

Review – Star Wars: Essential Guide to Warfare

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I’m a fleet junkie.

Sure, the lightsaber duels, the Jedi versus Sith battles, and political games were neat, but that wasn’t my favorite part of the Star Wars mythos growing up. It was the blaster fights. The showdowns between X-Wings and TIE Fighters. The sight of the Death Star looming in the distance. Military warfare in this universe has always held a special place in my heart, which is why Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart’s Essential Guide to Warfare was one of my most anticipated Expanded Universe titles of 2012*.

*Which isn’t to say that there’s nothing about the Jedi and Sith in this book. There are a great many words were written about them.

It’s worth pointing out that the creative staff could have simply compiled abridged Wookieepedia-type articles,  slapped some new artwork on it and I would have been moderately happy. What we lucky readers got instead was a product that cleared that bar by a staggering margin. While I was mostly looking forward to the new artwork in the book (and that is more than enough to justify a purchase), it was the written content that pushed EG to Warfare over the top and elevated it to must-buy territory for casual to hardcore Star Wars fans alike.

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The Obligatory Introduction Post

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Welcome to Tosche Station!

Just what are we? Apart from being the subject of one of the greatest whines in cinema history, we’re a hub for geek culture news, discussion, and snark. As the name implies, the staff here are pretty fond of Star Wars. Be it the films, the games, the novels, or the comics, there’s a good chance we’re eager to talk about it. That isn’t to say we’re all about the Galaxy Far, Far Away all the time. We’re all nerds with diverse interests. You can expect tidbits about everything from movies to comics, television to books.

It’s only our first day, but we already have content up for you to check out, such as reviews of Fate of the Jedi: Conviction, Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse,  and the Star Wars: Essential Guide to Warfare. We’re also home to op-ed columns and articles. I’ve got an Introductory Guide to the Post-RotJ EU and Shane has a snarky look back at Children of the Jedi.

If you take a look up at the tabs atop the site, you’ll notice that we’ve also got something we like to call Tosche Station Radio, our official podcast brought to you by Solo Sound. Every week you can listen in to Nanci and I as we discuss the latest news in Star Wars, geek culture, and fandom in general. There’s even a brand new episode posted today, so give it a listen while you poke around the blog.

Should our fandom ramblings on the blog and podcast prove to be insufficient to your needs, you can also get us in bite-sized doses on both Twitter and Facebook. Give us a follow and a Like for up-to-the minute updates on new content.

Shane, Nanci, and myself thank you for visiting and hope we’ll become a regular stop on your Internet commutes. As we like to say on the podcast, grab some power converters and enjoy the show.

Brief staff bios below the cut!

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