A Long Time Ago... with Mark Newbold
Hello there.
Welcome to A Long Time Ago… the fortnightly series where I ask a different guest to share with us a favourite Star Wars story and historical site. This started as a tie-in to my first piece of published writing, the article ART WARS for Star Wars Insider #226. The whole archive of my exploration of fourteen ancient art sites and every Star Wars story on my shelves can be found here.
Today I hand over to Mark Newbold!
A fan of the saga since 1978, Mark began in fan fiction in 1981 and since then has written for Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine, StarTrek.com and Starburst as well as being a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host. He is the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
I met Mark and got to see his interviewing prowess (almost 600 interviews under his belt!) at London Film and Comic Con in July. As an Insider newbie, it was great to chat with someone whose contributed nearly two-hundred articles to the magazine! (I only have a bit of catching up to do!)
In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…
It's tough to look much beyond The Empire Strikes Back as my favourite Star Wars story, but that being said the story that got me - and everyone else - hooked into the GFFA [Editor’s note: Galaxy Far, Far Away] was the story of a boy, a girl and a galaxy, later to be better known as A New Hope. Whatever alchemy George Lucas concocted to make that seemingly simple hero's journey work SO well it would capture an entire generation (and plenty that followed) is still being examined to this day. The craft, the score, the cast, the feeling that anything was possible, and all done with technology that was being created at speed in order to bring those timeless visuals to the screen.
However, I'm going to swing left and pick another late 70's Star Wars tale, not one that made it to the big screen but rather the third novel released after the movie adaptation and Splinter of the Mind's Eye, April 1979's Han Solo at Stars’ End. As a kid eager to consume every single Star Wars morsel he could, this was Christmas come early. While Luke Skywalker was the focus of the 1977 film, he was a kid stepping into this incredible world, learning and seeing things just as we were. Han Solo - while clearly overselling all of his assets and skills - had obviously seen much of the galaxy, and with his partner Chewbacca at his side it was Han who caught this kid’s attention.
Star's End gave us the opportunity to see some of those pre-Star Wars adventures, and meet the underworld that he worked in. Due to not wanting to compromise any future storytelling, author Brian Daley was given very little to work with. No Luke or Leia, no Darth Vader, no Empire, just Han, Chewie, the Millennium Falcon and an entire galaxy to hustle, and within the covers of that first novel - and indeed, the entire Han Solo Adventures trilogy - that works out just fine.
Few writers outside of Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan get Solo as well as Daley. Han is undoubtedly talented, quick-witted and sharp-tongued, with a skill for projecting confidence even when he's quite literally making it up as he goes along, but it's this book that shows just how much he relies upon and needs Chewbacca, something that's brilliantly expanded upon in 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story. Sure, Han's the 'face' of the team, the mouthpiece and dealmaker, but Chewie is the heft and heart, the steady hand that keeps the conveyex on the tracks.
The story certainly takes us on a trip, from Han's dealing with loan shark Ploovoo-Two-For-One to the agricultural world of Orron III, all the while avoiding the attentions of the Corporate Sector Authority. There's a stately droid named after a British slang word for testicles that the British print of the novel changed to Zollux (a name I will always refer to him as) with his small companion Blue Max (think PIP, but sassier). There's politics (anyone who is vocal in their distaste for the Authority go missing), action (IRD starfighters vs Z-95 Headhunters), new alien species (the Trianii mother and son Atuarre and Pakka, Tiss'shar bodyguard Uul-Rha-Shan) and a whole new region of space (the Corporate Sector, which decades later would be the location of Canto Bight in The Last Jedi).
The book has it all, and if there's a better introduction to the action, heart and adventure of Star Wars then I can't recall it. Early adopters were spoiled, with so little 'canon' and the galaxy barely sketched out (there wouldn't be a galaxy map for almost two decades, not until the digital encyclopedia Behind The Magic was released in 1998) the stars held the promise of adventure and new horizons. Brian Daley would go on to adapt the original trilogy radio dramas but sadly never returned to Solo in his pre-A New Hope adventures, something this fan wishes had happened as he gave Han Solo his greatest adventures.
In Lichfield, Staffordshire, United Kingdom…
Having grown up in the area and lived in the city for over 25 years, my choice is Lichfield Cathedral. One of only 3 three-spired cathedrals in the UK, and the only one built during the medieval era, it's the third cathedral to be built on the site, the current one having stood since the early 1300's. The history of the cathedral is long and storied, at various times coming under the umbrella of the catholic church to its current Church of England denomination. Much of it was destroyed during the English Civil War between 1643–1646, when Cathedral Close was surrounded by a moat, and it took over 100 years to rebuild the shattered spires. It's a fascinating place to visit, peaceful and inspiring (and a great venue for music concerts, which the cathedral often hosts). Highly recommended to anyone in the Staffordshire area.
Thank you so much Mark!
These posts come out every other Sunday so subscribe today to discover the next guest and their picks!
Cheers,
Harvey