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CLL #5 - Landry Walker Interview
107 Plays4 years ago
This week, we have a very special episode of CLL. Landry Walker was kind enough to give Chris and Jonathan an opportunity to chat about his work on various Star Wars writing projects, his own independent graphic novel with longtime friend and collaborator Eric Jones, dream projects, video games, VR, and more! Links to order his new and upcoming projects are below the chapter indicators.
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:45 A Very Kurtz Birthday Party
5:05 What's The Draw?
8:05 The Crimson Corsair/Sidon Ithano
10:45 First Contact
13:50 Star Trek Comic Pitch
15:50 Writing a Starship Crew
18:20 Looking to the Future (Disco Spoilers)
21:00 Virtual Reality & Star Trek
24:10 Bucket List & Upcoming Projects
28:45 Rewrite a Scene
32:30 It's On, Taika!
37:30 Comparing and Contrasting
40:00 Rogue One: A Chaotic Premiere Story
44:38 Starring & Creator Roles
49:45 Conflict in Both Franchises
52:00 Wrap-Up/Contact/Outro
Contact Landry
Twitter - @landryqwalker
Email - landrywalker@gmail.com
Pepper Page Saves the Universe - https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1250216923/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_GGFPM6FWV073MMPNWAE9
Star Wars Adventures Vol. 2 #7 - https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08R7ZHY9P/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_24ZTT81VRXHHMPBQF0XV
Star Wars Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens: Volume 1- https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01DZ3N03C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Z9RFR1E2YK1EDNRXA4TK
Contact the Show:
Twitter - @LogsAndLightPod
Facebook -www.facebook.com/LogsAndLightsabersPod
Instagram - @logsandlightsaberspod
Email - logslightsaberspod@gmail.com
Contact the Hosts
Jonathan - justadisneygeek on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube
Chris - @chrisstough1 or @PghTrekChat on Twitter
Pittsburgh's Trek Chat on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWsvhFaikileaMQ4yUc0S9Q
Email chistopherstoughlsw@gmail.com
Connect with Geek News Now
Twitter - @GNN_Home
Facebook - Geek News Now
Website - www.geeknewsnow.net
Theme Music composed by Chip Craymer. Find his other work at https://www.soundcloud.com/chipcraymer
www.metallicdicegames.com Promo Code - GNN
www.riptapparel.com Promo Code - GNN10 (Daily Tees excluded from promotion)
Recommended
Transcript
Star Wars & Star Trek Crossover Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Captain's logs. I'm Solo. I'm Captain and Millennium Falcon. This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation starship Enterprise. I already have one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel.
00:00:28
Speaker
You're listening to Captain's Logs and Lightsabers, part of the Geek News Now Podcast Network. Welcome to episode five of Captain's Logs and Lightsabers, part of the Geek News Now Podcast Network. I'm one of your hosts, Jonathan, and with me today is the other host of the show, Chris. How are you doing today, Chris? I'm doing great, Jonathan. How are you today? Oh, I'm fantastic. I'm really, really excited for what we have in store today. Oh, me too.
Special Guest Appearance Announcement
00:00:56
Speaker
Today's episode, we're going to break from our typical format, but it's for a very special reason. We have a guest joining us today on the show. He's going to be chatting with us about Star Wars, Star Trek, and a little bit of comics as well. Excellent. Star Wars fans may recognize who we have from his short story collection, Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Aliens Volume One.
Landry Walker's Star Wars Journey
00:01:20
Speaker
Joining us today is none other than Landry Walker. Thanks for accepting our invite to come on the show today.
00:01:26
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. This is the first interview that we've had the opportunity to conduct, but I'd like to start with a very basic question. Since we do cover Star Trek and Star Wars, I'd like to ask you what was your first experience with Star Wars?
00:01:46
Speaker
Well, my first experience of Star Wars was a kind of unique one where I ended up at a birthday party for Gary Kurtz's daughter when I was six years old at George Lucas's house. The Star Wars had just come out and it was a pretty fun and exciting introduction because I had no idea what was going on. There was a guy dressed as Chewbacca, a guy dressed as Darth Vader.
00:02:10
Speaker
Mark Hamill was there, and I didn't mean a lot to me, except somebody told me this guy's name was Luke Skywalker, and my last name was Walker, so I thought that was cool. That was the cool part, that was my cool takeaway. We both had the last name Walker, and I thought, is he family? I don't know. And then I saw the movie, and I instantly kind of pushed all my old amigo toys, my 1970s superhero amigo toys to the side. I'm like, okay, I need everything Star Wars,
00:02:39
Speaker
I wanted to be Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was the one I related to. I would go on later to, you know, a few years after that, become obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Gandalf. I have just aspired to being an old, long, gray-haired man. That's been my goal. I'm getting there. I'm almost where I want to be.
00:03:04
Speaker
So yeah, that was my introduction to Star Wars at age six. I got to age with the movies as I kind of came out that I was the right age. Six for New Hope, nine for Empire Strikes Back, 12 for Turn of the Jedi was kind of a perfect age for the original trilogy. That is such a cool story. And it's, yeah, like you said, it's a very unique introduction to the world of Star Wars. And I just, I can only, you know,
00:03:32
Speaker
I'm trying to picture what it would be for a six-year-old to come to that realization that you were on the ground floor of the biggest science fiction or space fantasy franchise.
00:03:49
Speaker
that we've ever seen. You could feel it changed everything. You really could. The way stories were being told was fundamentally, it pivoted in that moment. But I do think there are comparable moments that younger generations who weren't at that age to experience that one have had. But that was certainly a big one. That was a key one. And it was exciting. Of course, we didn't know how many there were going to be. There were rumors.
00:04:16
Speaker
you know, we didn't really know there'd be a second one at first, but once there was, you knew there'd be a third. At that point, Lucas was out there in the public saying, there's going to be 12, 12 movies. And so I waited for that. And, you know, what are we, how many are we at now, technically, even though it's not what he originally planned, with some of those not being part of the same series, we're still at, are we at 12 now? We've got to be, right?
00:04:47
Speaker
10 11 11 we're if we count man, maybe 11 I'm counting Mandalorian. Yes This is what I was promised My destiny has been fulfilled I can rest Yeah, I know so it was a good time to come into Star Wars that's awesome, that's incredible so
Creative Freedom in Star Wars Projects
00:05:08
Speaker
You've had the opportunity, of course, to write several projects for Star Wars so far, and all of them have been incredibly different. As far as the format, you've written a short story collection, you've written for comics, and then you've even written a reference book for DK Star Wars. What was it that drew you to each of these projects?
00:05:32
Speaker
Well, I mean, I, you get into something that moves us, one, I mean, working in fiction on Star Wars, getting to craft original new canon stories for what was a clean slate at the time, which was really interesting. You know, it's a lot easier to come in and say it would have been, say, the tail end of Dark Horse's run, or even now, because I'm still working on some, I'm working on Star Wars Adventures number seven, or I just, I did recently write that.
00:06:01
Speaker
Volume 2, which is Return of the Crimson Corsair. We'll get a little more of a connection with a classic character from the Clone Wars.
00:06:10
Speaker
writing that stuff now six years after the reboot of continuity is a lot harder than it was five, six years ago. So I got to come in and it was all a clean slate. So I could just kind of do whatever. I like that. And they let me create all these original characters all over the place for it, which was nice too. And, you know, just explore what that, what you could, the potential within that galaxy of stories.
00:06:38
Speaker
I also like writing different kinds of material. I just put to bed a little bit of work on a Clone Wars magazine that is about the production. I did that start. No, I don't think it was DK for one of them.
00:06:55
Speaker
Maybe it was DK. I did a book on ships, on special effects, on the special effects of ships and battles, which was a really interesting experience because you get to go in and really dig into, like,
00:07:10
Speaker
Then when they filmed the Java sale bar blowing up, they filmed it on a building just across the bay from me on the rooftop of that building. I didn't know that, you know, getting into that stuff and how the magic is made, how they, you know, how the special effects evolved. So whatever project comes my way, I usually take it, one, because, you know, work can be thin in this industry and it's hard to say no to work, but two, I like the different challenges each one of these jobs presents in comparison to the previous.
Writing Inspiration & Formats
00:07:42
Speaker
You know, I mean, I'm not I'm not a writer. I've never had any aspirations to be one because I know I know where my skill set lies and it's not in writing so Just hearing your stories and hearing you know, the your approach is is really kind of enlightening. So Thank you, it's fine So you had mentioned Well, you know you've written
00:08:09
Speaker
the Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku, and I know you're a big fan of his, and you said you're bringing him back for Star Wars Adventures, which is fantastic. So what is it about Siden Athano that intrigues you? What is it about his limited appearance in The Force Awakens that you just had to
00:08:31
Speaker
Right for him. Well, all I had initially when I picked him was a photo was a it was drawing of the character not even a photo just a drawing of the character and he was and they told me he was a pirate and I instantly I didn't think smuggler I didn't think scum and villainy I thought swashbuckler he spoke to me as
00:08:52
Speaker
you know, an Errol Flynn in space, Gregarious, but I mean, he's not, he's not like Gregarious. He's actually a really somber, quiet character in voice, but in spirit, this is a guy who calls himself the Blood Buccaneer, calls himself the Crimson Corsair. He puts his emblem on his own personal sail barge. He puts, you know,
00:09:16
Speaker
he he is a guy who probably has like he kind of brands everything around him the way batman does it's it's flamboyant um just high adventure which is something i really think um clicks well with star wars and and so the the the character is just one of immense bill also he's a clean slate no one
00:09:41
Speaker
I've written most of his material. He has a LEGO Star Wars appearance that's out of canon, which is great. He's got a brief appearance in Resistance, which as far as I can tell, ties in, whether intentionally or not, ties into my Crimson Corsair short story, because he's got the Clone Wars aerodroids. It's all just amazingly fun. So yeah, that's it. I'm on the swashbuckler in space.
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah. And the title of the story is very much, it feels like, you know, you were inspired by, you know, tales of Robin Hood or even, uh, even Indiana Jones. It sounds very much like an Indiana Jones quest. Very much. Yeah, exactly. It all ties into, it all ties into like 1920s, 1930s, serialized fiction, pulp fiction, which I'm a huge fan of. So, yeah. Which of course makes sense, you know, playing in the Star Wars universe that's,
00:10:34
Speaker
the major source of the inspiration for the stories that we got. So it fits right in, yeah. Chris, you wanna ask a couple
Star Trek Appreciation & Projects
00:10:47
Speaker
questions here? Yeah, I think we'll switch it over to Star Trek here for a little bit. So I guess we already asked it about Star Wars, but what was your first experience with Star Trek? My first, okay. Star Trek, the animated series in the 70s.
00:11:02
Speaker
Before I saw Star Wars, I did know Star Trek from the cartoon, not the live action. So with Emrys and Ajax as replacing a couple of characters there.
00:11:17
Speaker
Just I fell in love with the aesthetic of it. I loved the blocky color of the uniforms I like the idea of the exploration Then I would see then I started seeing the live-action a little bit when I visit my grandparents My grandfather would sit in this chair in the middle living room like and he just watch he'd watch whatever was on but Star Trek would Somehow was always a salt vampire episode always always always I'd see that salt vampire episode and I liked it I thought it was neat
00:11:47
Speaker
So I liked Star Trek fine, then Star Wars came out and that just blew me away and I didn't really think about Star Trek a lot until Wrath of Khan came out. And I saw a motion picture when it came out. And while I love that one now, I love how different it is from so much other science fiction.
00:12:07
Speaker
a beautifully written, ponderous, sci-fi novel turned into a film and I adore that. I think that is brilliant because it stands against so many other things. Star Trek, Wrath of Khan, but I was too young to appreciate at the time. I think I was like nine or something when that came out, maybe?
00:12:23
Speaker
Um, then Wrath of Khan came out and it's possibly the best pirate movie that has ever been made. Um, cause I mean, you could take that film and it could be an island, a guy who was stranded on an island from a long ship captain.
00:12:39
Speaker
and a tale of revenge, it doesn't, that was when I realized something about story. At a young age, I was 11 or whatever, 10 when that came out. So my timing on which movie came out when may be awful little, but I know that when I saw it, I realized that
00:12:56
Speaker
aesthetics like science fiction or fantasy or sword and sorcery or whatever is just a skin for this story that is about a human experience, about Kirk coming to terms with his own mortality.
00:13:10
Speaker
and facing the ghosts of his past, and dealing with that was, it didn't matter. It could be a story about a guy in an office, and it would still have that same power. So I loved Wrath of Khan, and that turned me into, it put Star Trek right there. 50% was Star Wars for me. If it started pushing it, maybe as we went on, a little up here, and then they'd go back and forth and fight. So yeah. Oh, excellent. That was my introduction. Excellent.
00:13:39
Speaker
I never thought of Star Trek II as some sort of Pirates movie. That's a very interesting way of kind of looking at it differently. That's fascinating. So I guess another question I have is, you and Eric Jones were teamed up to launch a Star Trek comic that unfortunately did not get off the ground. What can you tell us about that project?
00:14:02
Speaker
Well, it was based on the, so Eric and I had done, we've been working together for decades and we had just finished Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the 8th grade for DC and Batman Brave and the Bold. I was doing some work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics based on the Nickelodeon cartoon at the time working with IDW and we knew some of the editors over there and they had Star Trek and both of us have a love of the animated series. So we pitched
00:14:27
Speaker
a comic that would be done in the aesthetic of an all-ages bonkers space stories set in that all-ages universe of the animated series with that kind of aesthetic. We really want to capture the aesthetic of it. We put together a bunch of pitches. I can read you one real quick here that gives you a sense of
00:14:51
Speaker
one of the more absurd ones. So we pitched about seven stories and Eric produced a bunch of character designs. This one was called Night of a Thousand Checkoffs.
00:14:59
Speaker
And it's like, while on an urgent mission to deliver medical aid to a remote colony, a process that requires sustained radiation bursts to every colony member, the transporters malfunction and begin creating endless hard light, barely sentient copies of Chekhov. Hundreds of these always smiling Chekhov soon roam the halls, uttering the only word in their vocabulary, Chekhov. Unfortunately, the drain on the ship's power reserves makes the completion of the mission impossible until the Chekhovs somehow recognize the situation, decide to sacrifice their collective energy and repower the ship's batteries.
00:15:30
Speaker
Nine of a thousand checkoffs. Huh. That just sounds...
00:15:37
Speaker
Bonkers and I love it when you were talking about all the different checkoffs I kept having this mental image of check offs all of them screaming through the corridors of the enterprise He's just so well known for screaming and I just get this up to something that popped into my head Yeah, no, I I do want to ask you this question Star Trek has been around for almost 55 years It's hard to believe how long it's in board and there are so many different crews now that are involved with all the different franchises and
00:16:05
Speaker
So if you could write for any of the Star Trek crews right now, which one would it be and why? I was thinking about that and that is a difficult one. I have a certain love obviously for the original crew.
00:16:23
Speaker
that there's something about that setting, that tone that I love. I don't think there's a Star Trek I wouldn't want to write and a crew I wouldn't enjoy for one reason or the other. I really did enjoy a lot of the Enterprise show and the crew. I know it's not one of the more popular ones, but that one really clicked for me.
00:16:48
Speaker
And also, not that I wouldn't want to write this because it's somebody else's world, but if somehow there was a reason it made sense, I loved Peter David's Excalibur crew, if you know that book series at all. Yes. I just, I love that. I have the Captain Calhoun figure signed by him. So yeah, that's right here.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's amazing.
Star Trek: Enterprise & VR Games
00:17:25
Speaker
Probably, I'd probably go with the original. Gotcha. There he is. Perfect. So that's wonderful. Nice little keepsake for you. Excellent. Yes. You, you, you know, you had mentioned that.
00:17:44
Speaker
You had really enjoyed Enterprise, Landry. And that's the one thing that Chris and I have talked about a little bit on our show and how it really didn't get a very fair chance. And it's such a quality show. I mean, there's so many good episodes. And it wasn't afraid to be different. And I just don't think initially everybody was ready for that.
00:18:11
Speaker
I think that, like I said, I really liked it. But I think that, I was thinking about this the other day, that it kind of, I just finished the new season of Discovery. Has everyone caught up on the new season of Discovery? If so, I'll spoil some stuff. So if you're listening to this and you're not,
00:18:28
Speaker
maybe don't listen to this part. But I just watched the new season and it was possibly my favorite that I love that we went forward. And I think one of the things that I haven't been as happy about with Star Trek lately, as much as I actually really enjoy this material,
00:18:44
Speaker
We've been moving backwards instead of forwards. Like Enterprise, we looked backwards. And it was a wonderful look backwards, but still, that's not what Star Trek ever was. It was always us looking forward. With Next Generation we looked forward, and Deep Space Nine and Voyager, they were all in that same part of looking forward. But then we look backwards with Enterprise. Discovery, oh, and then we reboot. We do a reboot of the films. And again, we've looked backwards again.
00:19:11
Speaker
Then we do Discovery and let's, guess what? It's another new Star Trek. We're looking at every Star Trek between Voyager and the third season of Discovery has been looking backwards, not forwards. And so they go to the future. And at first I'm like, oh, I don't want to see the future. And then I was like, oh, right. Because that's what Star Trek is. It's always like, what's the newest advancement? Oh, now the nacelles just float. Now we just have personal teleports. At first I'm like, no, that's not how. And I'm like, wait a minute.
00:19:41
Speaker
It's a thousand years later. Yeah, that's cool. This is Star Trek is that it's our world only ahead of us. And so let's look forward and not backwards as much. So I, um, don't remember how I got to that answer, but that's my answer. No, and I agree. I think that that was, you know, after some.
00:20:09
Speaker
Interesting ideas in seasons one and two about season one more specifically season two I know Chris and I really liked it just because of the the introduction the introduction of the You know the the original enterprise crew with with pike and company Was so really really good. Yes. Yes, they definitely know Yeah, yeah, he just he embodies the character so well and it's it's great to see
00:20:39
Speaker
that Pike gets a little bit more time and he gets his due. And I know we've talked on the show about the upcoming Strange New Worlds and we're just, Chris and I are both excited to really get to see more of Pike's enterprise. Yeah, very much. Have either of you played the VR game, the Prince Crew VR game?
00:21:05
Speaker
No, I have I'm a big gamer and I have yet to really get into the VR side of things and Chris, I never got into any of the games, but I wasn't Star Trek Las Vegas in 2019.
00:21:22
Speaker
with my wife. And we actually got to go aboard a Star Trek VR simulator that was in the Kelvin timeline. And I remember we were battling crayons. That's about all I can really remember. And I was in first place.
00:21:37
Speaker
There's two things that okay, I don't know that the Vegas one I did back. Okay, so many years ago, I went to the when the the corks bar restaurant was still open, and I ate the flaming ribs of target. I do not kid you I ended up in a ditch outside of Vegas sick. So sick, I thought I was going to die I fell out of a moving car.
00:21:58
Speaker
Don't eat Klingon food. Serve to you by an Andorian. I mean, if you're gonna have Klingon food, don't get it from an Andorian. That was a big mistake. Seriously, I should have probably been hospitalized. It was bad. But the VR game, you are on the bridge of a crew. I can't do a lot of the VR, I get nauseous, but this one,
00:22:20
Speaker
It's a desk job in space, which is what a bridge crew is. So I usually run as an engineer and I'm allocating power for the warp engines and the shields and sending crew to the repair stations. And you have to work with your other, your teammates, four players, and really do it in sync together. And it's possibly, you, so I feel, I'm playing this and I look down, I feel something pulling at my hand. I'm like, what's pulling at my hand? There is, oh, that's not my hand. That's my digital hand. I pull up my helmet. My cat is pulling the string of the controller in my hand.
00:22:49
Speaker
These one controllers with triggers that replace and you just get so into it. That's your reality It's a little frightening a little holodeck ish, but you can pilot the bridge like a starship now
00:23:04
Speaker
that just sounds incredible and I think at some point I might have to invest in VR because that just sounds amazing and I know of course there's some pretty you know inventive and immersive Star Wars games that have been released for VR as well so it'll be nice to be able to play in both universes yeah the Battlefront the new Battlefront one has a VR mission X wing that and then they just released the squadrons game which I have but haven't played yet so mm-hmm
00:23:33
Speaker
Yeah, I know that Squadrons has a VR mode available. I believe it's the PlayStation VR that has that. The game reminds me so much of the old TIE Fighter and X-Wing games. It's just a little bit, well, I shouldn't say a little bit, a lot more accessible to the average gamer than those games were. So I can imagine what the VR experience has to be like.
00:24:03
Speaker
Wow, we got off on a bit of a tangent and I love it. Oh yeah, it's fantastic.
Dream Projects & Writing Challenges
00:24:11
Speaker
Coming back to your writing, are there any bucket list projects that you'd like to write?
00:24:20
Speaker
Well, I'd love to work on Doctor Who. I was a member of the Doctor Who fan club when I was 12. I have pretty much every action figure they came out with since they launched the new show. I'm a bit of a Doctor Who nerd. That said, I sometimes wonder if it would be a good idea because you work on some of these things.
00:24:39
Speaker
And it can pull a little of the joy and innocence from you for it you know when i work at batman i kinda had a distance myself from everything batman for a couple years when i first worked on star wars i ended up doing something similar a little bit like it.
00:24:54
Speaker
It kind of poisons the well sometimes a little bit, but I also really, I mean, I still want to do Star Trek deeply, even though the pitch didn't happen. We got really close with that one and I'm very disappointed that it didn't get off the ground. And I think they've done other projects since that would kind of prevent the exploration of that. The, what was it?
00:25:20
Speaker
or something I was going to say about that. Dr. Who, yeah, those are probably the top two. Dr. Who and Star Trek, since Star Trek didn't materialize, so to speak. Yeah. Very nice. All right. So I'm actually just very curious. You have any upcoming projects that we can look forward to in the future coming up?
00:25:48
Speaker
I do. Well, I did have a new graphic novel that just came out a few weeks ago called Pepper Page Saves the Universe. It's an original graphic novel featuring a teenage girl who discovers the truth about her favorite superhero and how she's connected to her. Then we have, I have a new Star Wars comic.
00:26:06
Speaker
coming out in March or April. I guess it's March now, so probably April. I don't know for sure. Star Wars Adventures, number seven, I think, volume two, number seven. And I did a backup story in there, but it does feature the return of the Crimson Corsair for the first time in by me since my original story. So it's probably his, you know, fifth appearance ever because he had two movie cameos, a shot in resistance for a brief bit.
00:26:32
Speaker
like a cameo in Resistance and then my now two stories. And LEGO, so six. Excellent. Yes, yeah. Can't forget LEGO. Because as much as it's, what do they say, canon adjacent, I adore the LEGO Star Wars projects. And I can't wait to get more.
00:26:56
Speaker
You know, what was it? Oh, the Freemaker Adventures. Lego Star Wars, the Freemaker Adventures was one of my absolute favorites. And it was a way, you know, they found a way to
00:27:09
Speaker
you know, to use Lego to tell a very intimate family story. And it's, it's, it's still one of my, you know, one of my favorites. And if you, I don't know if you've checked it out, Chris, it's definitely worth your while. I do believe they have both seasons of the show on Disney Plus, but Lego Star Wars, the free maker adventures is, is easily the best Lego Star Wars project I've ever seen.
00:27:34
Speaker
Excellent, I'll give it a shot. I know I've been wanting to check out the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special. Haven't seen that yet. So that's on my bucket to take care of and check out.
00:27:48
Speaker
I watched it recently. I liked it. Oh, excellent. Yeah, it was fun. There was a couple nuts, the original Star Wars Holiday Special, very tongue in cheek, but it also had its own heart. It had its own story. And it was a fun watch. I've been meaning to watch it again because I only caught it the very first time when it released in November. So I want to go back and really get into it and see if I can pick out more cool stuff. Excellent. But before to it. Yeah.
00:28:18
Speaker
Yeah, so as far as your upcoming projects, we'll make sure that we put links into the show notes to order Pepper page saves the universe and I'll try to find a pre-order link for Star Wars Adventures volume two number seven for you so we can put that in the show notes. Awesome, thank you. You're very welcome.
00:28:40
Speaker
so Kind of this is a kind of a fun question doesn't really relate at all to Star Wars of Star Trek But if you were given the opportunity to I don't rewrite any one scene from any movie What would you choose?
Rewriting Movie Scenes & Taika Waititi
00:29:01
Speaker
Hmm, you know, I was trying to I was I felt I know I had a better answer for that at one point in general terms I
00:29:11
Speaker
It's always a little weird as a writer, singer going, well, whose work would I change? So it's a little awkward in that term, but I also like the idea of the creative exercise because when I watch a movie, I've never seen a perfect movie. I've never read a perfect story, but I don't think that anyone can make that because I think that it's all individual. What's perfect for me may not be perfect for you sort of thing. So my perfect stories doesn't exist.
00:29:39
Speaker
it's always so subjective. So there are, everything I watch, I'm probably thinking of something I would change. Well, if they did this and you move this here and make that happen, like I was talking, okay, Thor Ragnarok, my favorite MCU movie, and I'm gonna put this caveat, because I'm gonna pick it as having a scene I would rewrite, even though, because it's absolutely my favorite MCU movie, it's one of my favorite movies,
00:30:07
Speaker
It's so absurd and fun and yet it has so much heart and the theme. It's this theme of power coming from within. Thor is just obsessive. I've lost my hammer. How can I be Thor anymore? That's my whole thing, dad. You said I wasn't able to be Thor if I wasn't able to pick up this hammer and I lost hammer. And everyone here, you guys seen Thor Ragnarok, right? Not ruining this one, okay.
00:30:36
Speaker
No, no, not at all. You know, what are you, the God of Hammers? And it's like, this is a big deal moment. This is the whole core of this being, you know, he, at the end of that film, at the climax of that battle, discovers that he is... Yeah, so I think that, and so it's beautiful. And he loses his eye, but it ends up being kind of a mark of his maturity. He loses his hammer, and that's how he comes into his own.
00:31:04
Speaker
And what happens in the aftermath with the MCU is let's give him a new eye and let's make his quest to go get a new weapon, which was phenomenal. But in terms of plot, it was phenomenal. I mean, I loved it. I enjoyed all of that of him. We had the guy who played, what's his name, played Tyrion as the help him forge his weapon. And all that was brilliant. And was that third game? No, Infinity War.
00:31:32
Speaker
Yes, he did get it in Infinity War. Yeah. Yeah. It's wonderfully done. However, doesn't it undermine the theme of Ragnarok? He had evolved past the weapon. He was this could have been Thor's last appearance. It would have worked. I didn't want it to be. I want eight more Thor movies. But from it, it was so well written that it kind of everything that happens with him afterwards kind of undermines that.
00:31:59
Speaker
that theme in service of having more plot so i wouldn't want to get rid of that but maybe i would i want to change something in the structural flow of the mcu so that that contradiction that undermining of his journey doesn't quite happen because his hero's journey is so particularly fantastic they just they made too good of a movie that's on them they made it too good i don't i mean that yeah
00:32:28
Speaker
Yeah, you had said about how Thor Ragnarok was so off the wall and so crazy. It is such a good example of what Taika Waititi is.
00:32:44
Speaker
You know capable of as a storyteller and I know you know He's got we've got Thor love and thunder coming out and he's writing and directing that and then I'm really excited to see what he brings to Star Wars because You know if it's anything like what he did for the character of Thor It's it's really gonna you know, shake up Star Wars in a good way. I
00:33:07
Speaker
I'm going to pivot here real quick. I'm going to say, actually, I don't like this guy. I don't like this director because he's really good. He makes the rest of us look really bad. I don't want to have to work so hard. It's a lot of effort when people come along and they do. Have you seen what we do in the shadows? I have seen the movie. I have not yet caught the show. It's on my list. It's definitely on my list of shows to catch up on.
00:33:36
Speaker
I just haven't gotten around to it yet. A lot of that, it's Jermaine Clement too, and these people, and they're just brilliant. And of course, Jojo Rabbit, I don't know if you saw that one. I did, that was so brilliant. Yeah, powerful. Yes. Absurdist and yet depth and emotion, and that's, fusing those two is a really important part. When we talk about all ages material, which I know that wasn't, but it's kind of,
00:34:06
Speaker
It's an important part of it. All ages means you can give it to somebody of any age, not for kids specifically. And it just kind of, this is my spiral on this, just taking the goofy and the drama and letting them sit together. Thor Ragnarok brings that. So I wouldn't necessarily rewrite anything from it, but it wrote Thor's journey into a corner. He hits a kind of, continuing him after that is just kind of, why?
00:34:36
Speaker
He hit his apex. Yeah, and I'm interested to see where it goes from there just because it was such a complete story arc for him. I know that at least what I've seen, I believe they're bringing back Natalie Portman as Jane Foster to kind of wrap up her story a little bit more than what they were able to.
00:35:04
Speaker
in Thor the Dark World. For that reason alone, I think it's going to be exciting as well. I'm on board. Yeah, definitely. That's funny. If you're going to take an issue with somebody,
00:35:20
Speaker
like you do with Taiga Waititi. At least it's for a reason that he is too good at his job. That's a fantastic reason to not like somebody. He's hurting us all. It's not fair. Yeah.
00:35:39
Speaker
As a writer, I know when you had said initially about wanting to not make any changes, I see where you're coming from. That's something that I hadn't considered when coming up with a question, so I appreciate that you brought that to my attention.
00:35:59
Speaker
It's not a problem. In terms of question, it's something you think about, like, well, it's somebody's work because we all like, I would tell you, we're all our worst critics, too. So, you know, it's labor and labor and labor. And then you look back, oh, my God, I did 18 things wrong with this story. I wish I could redo. But that's just the nature of the beast. Sure.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's one one. Oh, sorry. I'm just I'm just agreeing and I'm sure it's like that with any kind of field whether it's writing or something in mental health or whatever it is, you know, everybody's always their own worst critics and there's always somebody there to kind of give the positive feedback, you know,
00:36:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of an unfortunate thing. You kind of never want to be in a position to be like, I'm brilliant at what I do and everything I am is fantastic because that's a dangerous place to be. But at some point you go, don't I get to just enjoy what I do? Don't I just get to at some point feel good? So you've got to find that balance that's hard, especially with directors of that caliber out there. Sure.
00:36:59
Speaker
that guy. Um, I think I'm going to start a few that he doesn't even know about with him. I think I'm going to turn him into my moral enemy because of, of my jealous nature and my fandoms. Yeah. I mean, if you need, if you need anybody to help fuel the fire, let us know. He's, he's too good. I don't want to work that hard. Please be, be worse at your job so that I can
00:37:25
Speaker
sit and play more video games and eat more donuts. That would be nice.
Comparing Star Trek & Star Wars
00:37:29
Speaker
Excellent. Excellent. All right. So I wanted to kind of bring things back to Star Trek and Star Wars. So my question for you right now is what comparisons and contrasts do you see between Star Trek and Star Wars? Well,
00:37:46
Speaker
Compare it contrast. I mean one is it I mean one is science fiction and the other is fantasy and I think that the rules from a storytelling perspective are fundamentally different between the two I want to know the why with Star Trek I want to know the how even if it's you know They're they're spewing a bunch of gobbledygook like the photon reactor has a quasi field that's been inverted to the seventh matrix Okay, good. I need to know that I mean
00:38:13
Speaker
But in Star Wars, Laser Sword goes zoom. That's what I want. I want character. I want plot. I want a good theme with both. I want story. I'm a story person. I want story, story, story. And I want it to be solid. I want it to be cohesive and coherent. And that's very important to me. But that said, I want to know, with Star Trek, I want exploration. I want science. I want discovery.
00:38:42
Speaker
wonder and and and mankind us it's a story about us expanding our horizons star wars isn't about us star wars we're voyeuristic star wars i want to watch this epic you know battle between the worlds unfold and more from i'm out here so for me that's the fundamental
00:39:05
Speaker
contrast and I think we spend a lot of time as a culture going I know people younger people like they don't they want to compare Star Wars and Star Trek because they both have star in name but they're so so different they're not even just because they're both in space doesn't mean they're the same genre you know right right yeah I think that there's always been there's been that
00:39:30
Speaker
question is I guess Star Wars is more just kind of like it talks about the fundamentals of good versus evil where Star Trek kind of makes you like expand your mind I guess a little bit more is the way people thought about it looking at the bigger picture almost like what you were saying about the motion picture how epic and big it was and making you think about evolution and the next phase of life you know those kind of things I think that's where Star Trek strength has always been you know so I think that you're right I think that's always been a big comparison slash contrast
00:40:00
Speaker
Let's see here. Do you have any special memories tied into either Star Trek or Star Wars that you would like to share? You know, I bet I do if I really if I there suddenly I'm drawing a blank but you know, okay Rogue One Rogue One I got invited to Lucasfilm to see Rogue One
00:40:23
Speaker
It was storming like crazy. I went up in the attic to see what was going on. I fell. I crashed through the attic. I dislocated my wrist.
00:40:33
Speaker
My stepfather, my wife called my stepfather who showed up next. I'm trying to deal with all this and all this stuff that dumped out and I'd fallen through the duct work, everything. And next thing I know, my 80 year old stepfather is on the roof saying, it's not your roof. You got the gutters clogged. I'm like, oh my God, please get off the roof. It's the middle of the most insane storm we've had in years.
00:40:55
Speaker
and you're on the roof and you're slicker and you're like, what's going to happen? This is scary. So I'm running outside. Yes. Okay. Okay. I'll get your ladder. Just please get off the roof. So I grabbed the hose. He wants a hose to blast out.
00:41:07
Speaker
the gutters while he's up there. I grabbed the hose and it began because it turns out whoever installed in the house I live in, the original, the pipe, it broke the pipe for the outdoor water faucet. So now there's a 15 foot jet of water spewing out of the front of the house. And I'm like, okay, just all right, so we'll fix that. Just get off the roof. So he gets off the roof as he's getting off the ladder, he hits the bottom ladder because my house is on a hill. He slips. I tried to grab him. We both slip. We roll down the hill.
00:41:37
Speaker
He's fine, I'm fine, but I mean, I'm as fine as I'm going to be. I have a dislocated wrist and I'm like, not even feeling this. It's all adrenaline at this point. So this does connect to Star Wars. Then we're like trying to shut off the water. We're both laying on the ground with these two wrenches connected to each other. Giant wrenches trying to turn water off at the street because turning it off at the house
00:41:54
Speaker
won't do it for this particular thing. And so somehow we got, he was fine. We got the leak stopped. I got the attic cleaned up. I got the, I sealed off the broken pipe and reburied it. Everything was good. And my wife's like, well, we're not gonna catch Rogue One. I'm like, yeah, we are. We got in the car in the middle of the storm and raced across the bay. Because if you, with the Lucasome showing, if you show up,
00:42:24
Speaker
It's a theater in Lucasfilm that they have in their building.
00:42:27
Speaker
You if once a movie starts doors closed no one in or out at all. That's it. You're done We got in there with literally seconds to go. We had the worst seats In the room and it was and I loved every minute of that movie It was so powerful and if I had missed that experience, I'd be kicking myself still it didn't matter I didn't feel the pain I was just in it so deeply and I was so happy to see that movie and after I
00:42:55
Speaker
after just pushing myself to be there after this horrible evening and making it was what felt good, felt like an accomplishment. Yeah, Rogue Man Rogue One is such a fantastic ride. It had such lofty expectations being the first non Skywalker saga movie, you know, and telling a story that, you know, as I'm sure, you know, from
00:43:24
Speaker
Being a writer and being into video games, you know, it's it's been told and retold so many times about how the Death Star plans were, you know, were obtained by the Rebel Alliance. And the fact that that was what they chose to tell the first non Skywalker saga movie was is it was it was kind of ballsy. And, you know, I thought it overall, I thought the execution was phenomenal. Agreed. Agreed. I love that movie.
00:43:57
Speaker
Wow That's that I mean, I I don't even know what to say to the story to everything that led up to that that is amazing Yeah being a homeowner myself I've never had anything like that happen, but I've had my fair share of interesting mishaps, you know that
00:44:22
Speaker
You just don't get if you're not a homeowner. Oh, man. Wow, it's hard to believe we've gone 45 minutes already, isn't it? Time flies. Well, I have a question.
Star Trek's Appeal & Utopian Vision
00:44:40
Speaker
I'm very fascinated about this one. I've been itching to ask you. So if you were given the opportunity to star in either a Star Trek or Star Wars project, but you could only pick one, which would you select and why? To star in one? You could enter that field, that world. I would probably pick Star Trek because the aesthetic of it really speaks to me. I would love the
00:45:10
Speaker
the opportunity to walk around the set of a starship, as opposed to, like there's some, again, we get into that, but one looks more future and is more relatable. And I just think I'd feel a little more comfortable. And yeah, I would go with Star Trek, I'd go with Star Trek Star Wars. I love it. But I want to experience that one again, more from the outside.
00:45:36
Speaker
unless from the inside in that regard, which is funny because I've written Star Wars and I haven't written Star Trek, but this is a fine line. We're going with a 49% to 51% here, but I'm gonna go to Star Trek just to sit on it. There's something so iconic about the Star Trek bridge. No matter what ship it is, you know the bridge. And so it's, yeah, Star Trek.
00:46:02
Speaker
Kind of along the same lines, rather than starring in Star Trek or Star Wars, if you had the ability or if you were given the opportunity rather to create a Star Trek or Star Wars TV show or series or movie, which one of those would you choose? Well, I mean, in terms of, I mean, I've pitched both. And of course, I've made Star Wars. I haven't made Star Trek.
00:46:27
Speaker
Just the simple part of it, the easy answer would be, well, I do Star Trek because I've already done Star Wars. The more complex answer would be, I would pick whichever one allowed me the most creative freedom, because that's the most important thing, is just not working with less constraints. So if all those things are equal, though,
00:46:54
Speaker
You know what at this point I would probably go I don't think I can separate myself and be object well if I had never done either and Everything was equal. I probably would go Star Wars Because it has a little bit more powerful childhood connection for me but if we're talking about now I
00:47:15
Speaker
I would probably go Star Trek because, again, I like the idea. I mean, it's a utopia in that universe, right? They are, they, yeah, they've got the Borg, they've got like clashes with people, but at the same time, they also, food is plentiful, it's magically, you know, whipped together by a holo, whatever technology they have. They have everything. Like, they have, people work together, they're eradicating famine, they're eradicating
00:47:45
Speaker
And they're on a mission of peace. They're out there bringing help to the worlds. And all the conflict comes from their attempts to help everyone. There's something just inherently positive about that. And when I work on something, I've kind of found it's nice to live in a place of positivity more than a place of conflict. And while I love Star Wars, Star Wars
00:48:10
Speaker
There's always this underlying desperation to the stories. There should be. That's what you want. You need. You need to have it. But when you're working creatively, sometimes you need to step away from that and have something that's a little more about, like in Star Trek, they're doing it because it matters, because someone has to. In Star Wars, that element exists, but someone has to or everyone dies.
00:48:45
Speaker
The way that you brought up the fundamental differences and even though both franchises can tell similar stories, the stakes and the why behind why the story has to happen
00:49:03
Speaker
in Star Trek and Star Wars is vastly different. It's just a completely different way to think about it, and I love it. Yes, and I agree with you as well about the eotopia of the Star Trek world about how people have overcome their pettiness. Actually, they explore space and do what they do because they love it, not because of monetary need or material possessions. It's something that they really want to do passionately to help
00:49:33
Speaker
Mankind to help with the expanding Federation. I agree with you I think that makes for very interesting kind of world to kind of delve into Yeah, it makes it's very fun. It's a lot. It's a good place. Yes, I agree
00:49:49
Speaker
And the way that, you know, the way that Star Trek, you know, yes, you know, like you said, it's a utopia and but there is still, you know, there are still threats to that utopia. I know that Gene Roddenberry was a big fan of
00:50:06
Speaker
of poetry from the romantic era. And I know one of his personal favorites was William Blake. And I know one of Blake's most quoted lines is, is without contrary, is no progression. And that seems to embody the conflict that occurs in Star Trek. You know, they, these, you know, these, you know, these conflicts occur, but it's, it always, you know, the, the crew and Starfleet always comes out ahead and then they're better for it because
00:50:34
Speaker
of the threat that they faced. Yeah. And while you can say there's some of that with Star Wars and Star Trek have a fundamental similarity in some ways that the baseline is different. The baseline is Star Wars, everything is always on the edge. Everything is always on the edge of collapse. Star Trek, they have to go look for problems.
00:50:58
Speaker
They have to go, okay, let's go look for problems to solve because everything's fine. Everything is A-okay, let's go find a problem. Star Wars, again, if we ignore it, we all die. So, yeah. I mean, it's called Star Wars because it's not a time of peace and it never seems like it will be. That's very true.
00:51:32
Speaker
Whether it's yeah, whether it's the fall of the Republic the rise of the Empire or I guess the rise of the First Order, you know, you've got your three eras and well now four because with the High Republic era, of course So, yeah I think I think that might be what we got in the prequels
Reflecting on the Discussion
00:51:57
Speaker
Yeah, so man this was such a fantastic conversation and I I Am so gracious that you agreed to come on you've given us So many different ways of thinking about You know the both franchises that we just Chris and I adore so much I'm gonna remember this conversation for quite a while. Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time and for your input
00:52:27
Speaker
Thank you. I really enjoy it. Give me a chance to talk about both of these and I never get to talk about Star Trek. I'm always happy to. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Well, if you'd ever like to come back on, we'd be more than happy to have you. You got it. Absolutely. Just let us know. In the meantime, where can people reach out to you if they want to continue the conversation, Landry? The easiest place to find me is on Twitter. I'm pretty active on Twitter. LandryQWalker is my handle.
00:52:57
Speaker
Um, and I, uh, I can also be emailed, um, Landry Q Walker at gmail.com. Um, both are totally good ways to reach me. Um, yeah. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much again for your time and for your, you know, for coming on, uh, Chris, um, do you have any final thoughts? Not just boy. I just want to thank you again for everything. It was nice to have somebody else to talk Star Trek with.
00:53:24
Speaker
Um, cause Jonathan and I talk about it quite a lot, but to bring it yet another person in and see their experience with it. Um, I was actually, I was really enjoying your story. What you're saying about when you got into Star Wars at age six, it made me think about when I got into Star Trek, because that was six at the time when next generation premiered and that was the same age. So it was a good time and a good, a good time for, for Star Wars. It was just growing.
00:53:50
Speaker
when you were watching it and then Star Trek was starting to enter its first golden era for me. So good memories on my end, good memories on your end. It was nice to hear your experience with that. I'm happy to talk about it.
00:54:02
Speaker
Try to get a chance to watch Wrath of Khan and keep in mind to think of it as just a pirate's revenge story with an aging captain and imagine you could do the whole story on long ships and a desert island and Fundamentally with a few changes you get the same basic thing Absolutely, check it out and let me know what you think. Yes, sir. I will make sure that definitely
00:54:26
Speaker
All right, so that's gonna wrap up our fifth episode of the show. Check the show notes, of course, for all the contact information for the order and pre-order links for Landtree's work that he has available. And we hope to see you next time for episode six.
00:54:47
Speaker
If you'd like to reach out to the show on Twitter, you can find us at logsandlightsaberspod, all spelled out. If you go on Facebook, search for logsandlightsaberspod, or if you want to email the show, you can reach us at logslightsaberspodatgmail.com.
00:55:05
Speaker
If you'd like to reach out to me personally, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook by searching at Just A Disney Geek. How about you, Chris? You can find me on Twitter. Just go to Twitter, type in at Chris Stau, S-T-O-U-G-H-1. You can also find me on Twitter and YouTube. I have a YouTube channel called Pittsburgh's Trek Chat.
00:55:30
Speaker
On Twitter, you can go to at PGH Trek Chat. You'll find me there. On YouTube, just type in Pittsburgh's Trek Chat. That'll take you directly to my channel. My email that you can use also to get in touch with me is Christopherstyle, S-T-O-U-G-H, L-S-W at gmail.com.
00:55:49
Speaker
Great. And then also if you'd like to connect with Geek News Now, the network on which you found this podcast, you can reach out to them on Twitter at GNN underscore home Facebook. Just search for Geek News Now, or if you'd like to connect with GNN on their website, it's www.geeknewsnow.com.
00:56:13
Speaker
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00:56:28
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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