HOLIDAY SPECIALS

What good is a gift guide without the images?

Not only is this episode a visual feast, it's also  Stuart's first crack at a visual edit and it's transition-tastic!

Buying  Christmas gifts for the Star Wars fan in your life gets harder each  year, so here's the team to help make the task easier this festive  season.

Breaking  the guide down into four age ranges – Pre-School (up to 5), Primary (6-11), Teenage/Secondary (11-17) and Adult (17+) we are offering up give  three main gift ideas (over £25), three stocking fillers (under £25) and a left field item, whilst also revealing the best places to purchase things and the current price you'd expect to pay.

Although the team do get a litte distracted with a nostalgia trip over video rental shops and the Kays and Argos catalogues.

From  the hottest gifts on the market to creative fun items – there is something for everyone in this fun filled festive Star Wars guide.

This YouTube video really is the format we'd recommend to watch this particular episode.

Go on... watch it along with us. You know you want to.

Following  on from our Holiday Special 'Special', Dan, Craig, Stuart and Jez get  together to watch the Holiday Special in it's entirety. 

What new insights and observations will they offer up?  

At  the time of recording, none of them have watched it for many years   (apart from Jez who made his wife watch it just 24 hours before!) and  we're inviting you to listen along to their reactions as they happen.  

There's  even a little bit of post show analysis as they each give it a  rating  out of ten. Will there be high scores all round? Or will there be   detractors?  

The perfect companion to SHOW 030.

Experiencing  The Star Wars Holiday Special with your ears is one thing – actually  witnessing it with your own eyes is another thing entirely.

This  enhanced version fuses clips from the much maligned 1978 TV special  with stills and other material to bring our indepth overview to life.

"It makes us smile, but only because we are laughing at the utter  horror. We laugh to avoid the pain." – Mark Beall  

"Words have not been invented to describe how bad it is." – Alex Carter  

We  could go on, but is The Star  Wars Holiday Special really as bad as its  reputation? Jez, Craig and Stuart to try to answer that question as  they look into variety shows of the time, the plot, the music, the cast,  crew and much more.

The  boys also draw up their own Holiday Specials for a post-Force Awakens  Disney release – Will Poe and BB-8 deliver salt from Crait to the  Resistance to save Christmas Dinner? Will the 60 minute makeover team be  able to rebuild Maz's castle? Will Han Solo's send off be as  crazy as  Ackmena using a conga to clear a Cantina? Listen in and decide  for  yourselves.

Go deeper into our Christmas gift guide with this bumper production, filled with images, videos and on-screen links and prices.

We can't help you 'try before you buy', but this is the next best thing.

Need  help with what to buy the Star Wars fan in your life? Generation  Skywalker kicks off its festive schedule with this helpful guide for  parents and partners.

Breaking  things down into to five age ranges - Pre-school (up to 5), Primary  (6-10), Teenage/Secondary (11-16) and Adult (17+) – Stuart, Craig, Dan  and Mark give you suggestions of items that are readily available this  Christmas, plus where you can purchase them and what you can expect to  pay.
 

From this year's hottest toys, to creative gifts sourced from small,  independent businesses – there really is something for everyone in this  fun and inspiring guide.  

The enhanced visual version of our Island of Dr Modesto Halloween Special.

If  you are not fully up to speed with the physical differences between the  Cantrosians and the Catumans, or the Nazzar and the Sivreni, then this  is the version to check out.

Though it's worth it for a look at Mark's sketch of 'Gibbonfella' alone.

Our  2020 Halloween Special takes a break from the usual format, with a look  at an element of Star Wars that always puts Craig in mind of the famous  HG Wells book (and subsequent movies adaptations) ‘The Island of Doctor  Moreau’.

Written  in 1896, it's very early science fiction horror story telling the tale  of a man trapped on the island home of a mad scientist who creates  human-like hybrid beings by experimenting on humans and animals.

But  how does all that relate to Star Wars?  We are thinking, of course, of  George Lucas’s fascination in creating alien races by taking earth-bound  animals and turning them into human-like beasts.

So  looking at things in that (rather grim) context we explore some of the  creatures of Star Wars, while reimagining Lucas as a mad scientist  surrounded by his creations.

‘The Island of Dr Modesto’, if you will...