Requiem of the Outcast: Episode VII
A Review by Jay Mustered

The opening banter has the crew discussing Janine's obsession with Star Trek, their losses at the Fan Audio Awards, age of songs, the death of Ginger the Dog, Star Wars news, cons, Janine's costume win, and, again, her love of Star Trek.

Next came reviews of two first-generation fan audio dramas. The first reviewed is Rise of Nobility.

Rise of Nobility begins with excerpts from The Phantom Menace on Tatooine, is 45 minutes long, and began in 1999. Changing venues and production, they enjoyed the music, for the most part. They thought that it was a very good mixing and blending of sound effects, dialogue and music. They did not enjoy Jar Jar at all, not even a little bit. Flashbacks are used to tell the main story, interspersed with The Phantom Menace. Then Jar Jar came, and they disliked it a lot, really. They also disliked the Force-sensitivity of Amidala, which doesn't fit into continuity well. Then there was the Gungan, Nordy, who is also not liked (or for that matter any Gungan), nor was her prophecy or the implications of the prophecy enjoyed. A riff then goes on for a bit about Hayden Christensen. They liked the voice work for Amidala, but none of the other characters sound like the characters. And did they mention their disdain for Jar Jar? They did like the Anakin voice actor better than Jake Lloyd. And then comes a long digression about John Lithgow and time. ROTO's overall assessment was that Rise of Nobility was an enjoyable experience and was one of the best technically produced audio dramas ever, and that next time they should try to avoid existing characters, use more experienced voice actors, and iron out continuity problems.

Second Strike, the Nathan Butler project and winner of 16 Fan Audio Awards, is next discussed, an almost two-hour-long audio drama, dealing with the grittier aspects of war. They enjoy the Star Wars and non-Star Wars music, even Nathan's singing; they also enjoy the ambient sound and special effects, but note that some of the sounds are repetitive and the voices are a mixed bag of quality. They complained about the excessive use of the word "ass," but they enjoyed the writing. They complained that some of the voice actors sounded as if they were reading from the page. They enjoyed the variety of characters and the lack of established characters "on screen." The lack of Jedi helped, in their opinion. They follow with some Deliverance references. They enjoyed the major characters. Second Strike has more technical problems, but less story problems, than Rise of Nobility.

This is followed by commercials for Star Wars: Betrayed Federation and Nexcess.Net.

Trivia and a tagline contest are followed by an interview with the Sins of the Jedi crew. They wanted to do a story that could fit into the continuity, between Episodes III and IV. They wanted to showcase the talents of Wilmington, North Carolina. Then discussion turns to how the film was made: armor; squibs; use of stunt men; etc. They had a good time at StellarCon and thanked everyone. They tell a Michael Stackpole story, then conclude with an audio clip from the 501st party from Stellarcon.

As always, the banter between the hosts is funny and often very off topic, full of pop culture references. The reviews are fair and balanced and all over the map. The interview with the Sins of the Jedi crew was interesting.

Of course, if you are not a fan of the show, the ROTO crew are still themselves, so don't bother with this episode. Also, the episode runs for over 2 hours 12 minutes, so get comfortable, or bring it to play while taking a long drive.

Overall a fine episode of Requiem of the Outcast.