Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: The Real Good Guys

January 15, 2025 5:50 AM - Season 1, Episode 8

A journey filled with adventure comes to a surprising end.
posted by 1970s Antihero (24 comments total)

It wrapped things up pretty well, as far as the stories of the characters -- all the kids got their hero moments, the bad guys got punished (except Jude Law possibly? Time for a new alias!) -- so it feels like a one-off self-contained series, which is nice, not everything needs to be an epic tied to the core canon. Put a lot of creative energy into a small, contained space and good things often come of it.

Overall it really did take the "space epic family movie" core of Star Wars to heart -- it feels like the only real canon things you needed to know was "what's a Jedi" and "how do lightsabers work" and a vague understanding of the government structure of the galaxy -- and it did that well, in an entertaining, well-made way that kids can enjoy, casual fans can enjoy, and even gives enough for die-hard Star Wars nerds. I hope they do more series like this.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:42 AM on January 15 [5 favorites]

Not since Andor (2022) have I felt we've had a Star Wars show that was as reliably consistent from episode to episode clean through to the end. While it may not have been as sophisticated in its messaging as the aforementioned show, it was still pretty solid writing and supported by a cast that did an overall great job. Jude Law quietly slipped in and gave us one of the best Star Wars performances, too.

The finale, which Disney+ referred to as a "season" finale (here's hoping it doesn't transition to series later), was mostly what I expected in a broad sense. We knew the pirates weren't going to be successful in robbing At-Attin of its treasure and that Jod's villainous turn (okay, turn from unreliable guy with definite ulterior motives to a guy being very up front about his motives) ended with his own defeat. Then it came down to the details, the how and what.

Every kid got a chance to shine, building from things they picked up and learned on their adventure. KB got to fly the Onyx Cinder (and unsurprisingly, SM-33 returned, if in need of a neck brace - and that repair was somewhat foreshadowed by KB's initial impulse to "fix" him previously on the other At planet), Neel got to use the laser canon that his friend showed him was stored on top of the school, Wim figured out what end of a lightsaber to hold, and Fern emboldened by her leadership felt able to be straight forward with her mom.

Going back to Wim, the story began with a distance between him and his father, both in interests (too old for stories like that) and literal (gotta be at work), and here we see them brought together on the end of an adventure. His father revealed himself to perhaps be one source for Wim's own willingness to step forward into the unknown. It was wonderful to see the pair bond.

Neel got a bath, of course.

And Jod, Jod finally shared his past. A starving orphan, adopted by a Jedi and trained until the Empire found her and killed her, sending him back into a state of abandonment. I think they played Jod just right in terms of menace without going too far into villain territory. He repeatedly insists he doesn't want to hurt anyone, and it seems mostly true enough, but he's also willing to use intimidation and fear to get what he wants - which is to stop being hungry. The moment of Jod watching the pirate frigate cross the sky in flames, watching his own aspirations crash with it, was incredible. The way the frigate was shot, both arriving at At-Attin and it's crash, were beautiful.

I was genuinely surprised we didn't get a hint or clue as to what happened to Jod, i.e., got a way, captured, and so on. The ending wasn't less for this, though.

We got Kyyhm (sp?!) the owl cat back and she got the New Republic to At-Attin in "two flaps." Noice. Bonus points for us getting to see the B-wings use their big canon which was a first for live action (I believe Rebels was the first to show it off).

The Supervisor turned out to be a droid and then things did get a slightly bit messy by the Supervisor sharing it had received a last transmission from the Republic stating the Jedi were bad. Great twist for Jod's bluff, but raises a lot of questions.

Overall it really did take the "space epic family movie" core of Star Wars to heart -- it feels like the only real canon things you needed to know was "what's a Jedi" and "how do lightsabers work" and a vague understanding of the government structure of the galaxy -- and it did that well, in an entertaining, well-made way that kids can enjoy, casual fans can enjoy, and even gives enough for die-hard Star Wars nerds. I hope they do more series like this.

100% this.
posted by Atreides at 7:07 AM on January 15 [6 favorites]

(except Jude Law possibly? Time for a new alias!)

I really enjoyed Jude Law’s performance here, but I’m not looking forward to his redemption story in some future project; Star Wars is gonna Star Wars.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:21 AM on January 15 [1 favorite]

Loved this series! So glad I gave it a shot after being so disappointed by both the Boba Fett series and the Asoka show - I didn't even bother with the Acolyte. It actually kind of got me a little bit misty at the end that there's finally some proof that someone somewhere in the upper echelons of the Disney/Star Wars abattoir content farm actually truly gets it. Actually understands how to take a good story, tell it well and competently, design and shoot it beautifully, and keep the focus on the characters. It's more than just middle aged dudes smashing action figures together.
posted by ssmith at 8:05 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]

That was very enjoyable, and because it's Star Wars I'm not going to bitch (too much) about the logistics. (Like, how did the X-Wings get there so fast, and how did the kids all meet up so quickly at the end when they were now on foot and there was a longass chase with them on speeders before this? And why were the pirates just randomly shooting people anyway?)

I do think the kids are likely to suffer both trauma and trouble because their fun adventure resulted in many of their fellow residents of At Attin being killed or injured. That is going to sting, once they start thinking about it.

Anyway, I liked it, and stuff paid off, but I did want about 60 seconds of aftermath: the kids back at school, At Attin figuring out how to function without the Supervisor, something.
posted by suelac at 8:44 AM on January 15 [1 favorite]

That is what fanfiction is for, right?

Y'all, we are not getting a second season anytime soon because the actors are aging up quickly. I think Harry Potter was the only franchise to pull that off well

Any follow up, if any is going to have a big diegetic time jump

Also I had heard there s not a lot of people watching this, and probably because they think it's "for kids", like the LEGO star wars 'search for the crystal' series. I Know I have had to recruit star wars nerds to watch, by saying "yeah, but it s well written. It just doesn't have so much violence as a Reva light saber fight, but it s well put together and Jude Law is great"

So, spread the word on this series
posted by eustatic at 9:25 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]

And Jude Law was so great. Did he even have dialogue in that final scene? And yet I went through a lot with the character at the end

I cannot wait for the Onyx Cinder Bandai model....ack, I am totally buying the mission fleet toy...if they did a LEGO they have to do the other models, right?

It was great when the ship vomited gold at the end

My nitpick was that the Supervisor went down so easy, when SM33 lost his whole head and came back. Wouldn't the all powerful supervisor have a backup processor not attached to his big ol camera 'eye'?

That one camera was like a video game villain's flashing weak point

But also this whole episode revolved around a big goofy disconnect lever on its own pedestal. It could have had a sign like "pull here to acknowledge your grief in releasing control over your child's future"

And we got a whole movie to explain why the death star was so poorly designed, so I'm sure we'll get a silly explanation about the lack of a backup processor for a planet-managing Droid. I have faith.
posted by eustatic at 9:41 AM on January 15 [9 favorites]

There used to be a second droid to perform the role of co-Supervisor (voiced by Hugh Laurie), but they had to shut it down because spent too much time engaging in witty dialog with the first Supervisor.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:50 AM on January 15 [13 favorites]

There was a moment when they went over the gorge Von the hoverbikes that I thought the dad was going to hang in the air then drop straight down, kind of like Homer qt Springfield Gorge.
posted by biffa at 10:24 AM on January 15 [6 favorites]

I appreciate the insights shared here, as always, but I have a question.

I enjoyed this show overall, but then during the end-credit sequence of this "finale," the imagery seemed to be referencing a totally different story. The visual style of the credits was really nice to look at, but it had me wondering why these particular images (e.g. of Jedi- & Sith-like characters crossing lightsabers). What was that about?
posted by abraxasaxarba at 12:59 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]

the imagery seemed to be referencing a totally different story

I believe these are the images Wim was looking at in the first episode, a children's story about the Jedi.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:01 PM on January 15 [9 favorites]

My son really liked the ending, and he was happy that there was plenty left open for him to imagine. The one thing he’d have liked to know, is what happened to Tak Rennod, and who he was. He had really bought into the idea, which he came up with on his own, that the supervisor was Tak Rennod.

Personally, I’m fine with not knowing who Rennod is. Jod is my Star Wars pirate of choice. I’m not surprised that Jude Law was excellent, but I didn’t expect to be so moved while watching him watch his frigate crash.

I also loved the interactions between the kids and their parents. I wish KB’s and Neel’s could’ve gotten more screen time, but Kerry Condon and Tunde Adebimpe both managed to convey being out of their depth, but also were believable when the pushed themselves to do what had to be done.

The kids were great. They felt like actual children. Fern and Wim seemed terrified, even as they showed resolve. Wim’s call to Jod at the end was heartbreaking. Even after all this, he was willing to give him a chance. Neel… oh Neel, my sweet little boy. Seeing him figure out where the turbolaser was, and how to use it, was such a gloriously unexpected, yet perfect, end of his arc. And KB, damn… I knew she’d be fine, but I still found myself telling myself “there was no explosion” over and over again.

My favorite scene, though, in this episode, and possibly the whole series, was the moment when the inhabitants of At Attin saw the stars for the first time. It was such a perfect encapsulation of the whole show. The kids got to know the wider galaxy outside their home planet, and then when they got back they showed everyone back home that too.

Good show. Good fucking show. I’ve been telling everyone I know who’s got Disney Plus and a kid of appropriate age to watch Skeletoj Crew. It’s been an absolute delight to watch it and share the experience with my son.
posted by Kattullus at 2:25 PM on January 15 [6 favorites]

I was really drawn to them because I felt like some of the images were not shown to us during the show. It could be they were just simply created as part of Wim's book and weren't shown for whatever reason, but I was sort of wondering if it wasn't also some reference to Jod's journey.
posted by Atreides at 2:25 PM on January 15 [2 favorites]

Thanks, Azrael & Atreides. Yes, I thought there might be some thematic link between the end credits and Jod's backstory (or his future?). That probably speaks more to my need for closure, even though I found this to be a satisfying finale. Still, while watching the end credits roll, I had this unexpected expectation that there was going to be a cut-scene, even though I know SW doesn't use them.
posted by abraxasaxarba at 6:36 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]

Great ending, good ambiguity re: Jod--yeah, they're setting him up for a redemption arc (although we were left wondering if he'd actually go through with any of his threats), all the kids got hero moments.

There were two things that didn't get mentioned that I was wondering about. One, even if they hadn't shut the Barrier down, how would the pirates get their loot off-planet? The word was out, and even though they had the At Attinites as hostages, it would have been a long stand-off with probably a lot of people on the outside trying to find their way in and free them hostages. (Like, say, maybe some of the surviving Bad Batch...) The other is, if they've been churning out money since the fall of the Old Republic, what would happen if it (or even a substantial portion of it) was dumped on the galactic economy all at once? Eh, that's grown-up stuff to worry about. Big fun, would love to see more along this vein.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:09 PM on January 15 [5 favorites]

As for a second season, I saw an interview with Jon Watts in which he said that if Disney does want one they have a plan. And it accounts for the kids aging.
posted by billsaysthis at 10:19 PM on January 15 [2 favorites]

There were two things that didn't get mentioned that I was wondering about. One, even if they hadn't shut the Barrier down, how would the pirates get their loot off-planet? The word was out, and even though they had the At Attinites as hostages, it would have been a long stand-off with probably a lot of people on the outside trying to find their way in and free them hostages. (Like, say, maybe some of the surviving Bad Batch...) The other is, if they've been churning out money since the fall of the Old Republic, what would happen if it (or even a substantial portion of it) was dumped on the galactic economy all at once? Eh, that's grown-up stuff to worry about. Big fun, would love to see more along this vein.

1) It would definitely be a mad dash for the pirates fleeing with the treasure and hoping to get around whomever and whatever was on the other side of the barrier. KB and SM-33 threw a ton of cold water on that hot idea of making that big strike and retiring with ease. Really, part of this you got to blame on the pirates, if they hadn't come in blasting and threatening everyone they might have been able to at least convince the kids not to take such drastic action. And it was the kids who were the element of their failure. Their parents and everyone else on At-Attin clearly would have just sat and watched as the pirates loaded up the treasure and left. Jod could have simply said, "Look kids, my life has been misery. My pirates' lives have been misery. We're going to take just what we can load into our ship and leave. No one gets hurt other than your Supervisor in need of a fix." That might have been enough, you know?

2) Definitely inflation. Some people were theorizing that somehow the treasure of At-Attin would end up funding the construction of the First Order's military. I never agreed with that because it was already established there were basically planets/systems that were loyal to the idea of the Empire and were secretly supporting the First Order's rise with monetary support and all.


I'm guessing the cost of Skeleton Crew is going to play a big role in whether we get a second season or not.
posted by Atreides at 7:08 AM on January 16 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I half hope some of the practical effects work maybe shows a way forward for lower cost "premium" productions. Like I don't need everything to be film quality, $20 million an episode extravaganzas. As long as it's not Manos? I'm trying to think of the sci-fi show I watched in the past few years that was maybe a little more ambitious than their budget allowed for, but there has to be a way to pull back from the point where everything is too expensive to produce, so only the least risky things get made that we seem to be condemned to.
posted by Kyol at 11:04 AM on January 16 [4 favorites]

I was thinking about Neel and how it's pretty hard to figure out what he's feeling, and it reminded me of the Babar cartoons, and how you could tell what the elephants were feeling because their trunks would move. So I think what would have helped would have been an animatronic trunk, like the Andorian's antennae in Star Trek: Enterprise; maybe they planned to use one, but it didn't come together.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 1:29 PM on January 16 [2 favorites]

Jod could have simply said, "Look kids, my life has been misery. My pirates' lives have been misery. We're going to take just what we can load into our ship and leave. No one gets hurt other than your Supervisor in need of a fix." That might have been enough, you know?

Jod may have already blown it with the kids with his threats, but the basic idea is sound. The vast piles of money in the vault make the Imperial payroll stash in Andor look like couch cushion change, and that's just one vault of over a hundred. The planet seems entirely economically self-sufficient; they're giving the credits to the kids for lunch money. But the sheer amount of cash lying around seems to have blown the pirates' minds; contra Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, greed is bad, as witness the events of that movie.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:56 PM on January 17 [2 favorites]

I liked this show a lot. The kids were all adorable and it was a really fun space adventure. Jude Law was great. I'd already clocked Jod as having a desperate, miserable childhood before he told his story here. The way he'd snarled at the kids for being "spoiled" spoke volumes. He envied them for having parents and happy homes.

I'm not 100% sure what Jod's plan was. He talked about wanting the "great work" to continue, and it seemed like he thought he could just take over the planet and become king. Did he really think that would last? Even if he thought the X-wings would never come, he only had one ship of pirates and this was an entire planet of people, with those droid guns all over the place, just waiting to be grabbed. Even if the At-Attinites weren't warrior types, they could take Jod's crew down just by sheer numbers!

The Supervisor turned out to be a droid and then things did get a slightly bit messy by the Supervisor sharing it had received a last transmission from the Republic stating the Jedi were bad. Great twist for Jod's bluff, but raises a lot of questions.

I'm guessing this story takes place around the time that Luke Skywalker's Jedi school went bad, Kylo Ren burned everything down and Luke inexplicably went off to pout for a few decades on some island and drink blue milk from the teats of a weird, sad space monster. (I am really not a fan of The Last Jedi, if you couldn't tell.) I don't think there were supposed to be any good Jedi left at that point, so maybe the rebellion sent out an APB to be on the lookout for anybody with a lightsaber.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:38 AM on January 18

Oh, see, I figured they went into hiding around the time of Order 66, but I don't know how open the Republic / Palpatine were about that to the rest of the worlds. I mean, that was 32BBY, having them go into lockdown sometime between Order 66 and well, the Battle of Yavin would be around the right era for the end of the Galactic Republic as a whole, right? And the turmoil of a rebel uprising and whatnot would be a good time for some planets to get lost.
posted by Kyol at 6:34 PM on January 18 [4 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that the message referred to was around the time of Order 66. The nascent Empire's whole rationale for being was that the Jedi had tried to stage a coup, ergo Palpatine's having to take control. The absolute isolation of At Attin, to the point of it being a legendary planet, would make sense if the fall of the Old Republic meant that anyone who knew its location and how to get in--in other words, the last real Emissary or Emissaries--had perished. So, this takes place sometime after the fall of the Empire. In fact, Jod may have been a very newly minted padawan at the time of Order 66, along the lines of Caleb Dume, although their paths following the deaths of their masters took very different directions.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:34 PM on January 19 [4 favorites]

That's my thought and I like the idea of the emissary line ending and taking At-Attin's location with it. My guess is that At-Attin went "lost" a long time ago, but because it was under orders (a droid in charge, so under programming) not to reveal its own location, it never did, but could still receive broadcasts under the Republic channel. So the last broadcast it had before the creation of a "new galactic empire" was Order 66.
posted by Atreides at 7:37 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]