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Tripwire Reviews: Star Wars Skeleton Crew Episodes Three and Four
The Crew Begins To Find Its Feet
Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul Neal casts a critical eye over episodes three and four of the latest Star Wars series, Skeleton Crew, currently available on Disney Plus…
After the events of the first two episodes, Skeleton Crew finally find its footing with the next two episodes. A little bit at least.
The storyline evolves beyond the confines of At Attin the home planet of the fearless foursome of adventurous youngsters that the series centres around into new unexplored areas of a Galaxy Far Away and the universe they find themselves stranded within.
Robot pirates abound, there are new threats and fun animatronic creatures find their voice as do the main cast, most notably Jude Law’s roguish lead character. This time out, let’s take a look at our cast. So far, there are six key characters:
Jude Law as Jod Na Nawood: A Force user, maybe even a Jedi, or perhaps just an absolute scoundrel who allies with the young crew of the Onyx Cinder in episodes three and four. His motivations and intentions are arguably left up for a massive amount of interpretation. His background may be of more interest as the series progresses, as he is at least once referred to as Crimson Jack. Some fans have speculated that this nickname may be a reference to the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate familiar to many Star Wars fans.
Jude Law would appear to be just taking Disney’s paycheque. He plays an otherwise fascinating role as if he were in one of Guy Ritchie’s London gangster movies. There are no layers and no subtext to his acting: he just comes across as a cockney geezer that frankly wouldn’t be out of place in a number of direct to streaming movies or a number of poor soap operas. This would have been a dream part for a great deal of actors, and he is dropping the ball so far.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Wim: A human boy from the planet At Attin. This young actor excels at playing a reckless young adolescent with almost zero impulse control and limited developed social skills. It remains to be seen if Wim will mature over the full eight episodes of the series. Perhaps he has a hero’s story arc ahead of him.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Fern: An ever so slightly older human girl from At Attin, Fern is an older, more developed teenager. Her character has street smarts and bravery to go with it, or at least it seems that way at first. Here may be the most nuanced character in the show. With each episode, her veneer of strength cracks a little more to show more vulnerabilities. Her bold choice to become captain of this fledgling crew may prove to be a mistake. Armstrong’s previous roles are varied but perhaps of most significance would be her title role in 2022’s Firestarter remake. Here she shows more depth than in that. This is a young actor to watch out for in the future.
Kyriana Kratter as KB: A human girl who is a friend of Fern. She wears a cybernetic visor presumably connected to an implant somewhere inside her head. As yet beyond a few lines, her character comes across as little more as a way for the scriptwriter to write themselves out of the occasional dramatic dead end. One can only hope her role becomes more than simple sympathetic exposition.
Robert Timothy Smith as the voice of Neel: A small elephant-like alien boy who is Wim’s friend, Neel is by far the most compelling and sympathetic of the entire cast of characters here after four episodes. The character espouses peace rather than conflict and balance rather than chaos. One can only hope this very young alien boy finds a future in the franchise. If ever there was a Jedi Master in the making in a similar vein to Yoda, he could be it. The voice acting is sensitive and subtle and so Neel steals the show.
Nick Frost as the voice of SM-33: The decrepit droid first mate of the Onyx Cinder, SM33 is the only really confounding character here. Is this droid an ally or vicious enemy to be feared? Is it simply broken or programmed with an unseen agenda? It has been said in the past that ironically the Droids in Star Wars stories are the most human characters, and that pattern would appear to be repeating itself here.
Nick Frost is an experienced actor, and that show here. Even as a robot, his voice work celebrates what a skilled performer he truly can be with so little to with. Fans will pray his circuitry will keep his metallic shell away from the dark side that could exist within his many nuts and bolts.
Al in all, the cast and characters are a mixed bag of well-written individuals and avatars for storytelling purposes that are either very successful or less so. After four episodes surely, much more character development is needed in certain quarters. Skeleton Crew is on a knife’s edge of being worth the effort or just a well-intentioned mess.
Tripwire’s next spoiler free review of the series, which will be published each fortnight, will cover episodes 5 and 6. On this occasion, the topic under the microscope will be the direction of each episode and how much this series is really a part of the wider Star Wars universe.
A link to Paul Neal’s review of episodes one and two is provided here:
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