Star Wars and Beyond Premise Explained
(source: starwarsfanworks.com, 08-27-04)

As we've been trying to keep in people's minds, a new Star Wars radio show, Robbie Chastain's Star Wars and Beyond will be premiering on September 1. As we lead up to the premiere, Robbie has given us a better idea of what listeners should expect from the show. Here's the lowdown, straight from Robbie:

Well, as far as I can tell, being as that the show is still quite new and as far as I'm concerned, even though the concept is almost six months old, it's still developing.

Mainly the purpose of this show is for me to get my views on Star Wars out into the world and see if people agree, disagree, or what. Also, by adding the "and Beyond" tag to it, I am able to take this little show into areas that other SW online radio shows can't go, or can't go as easily because of format restrictions. I want to be able to talk about Star Trek if I want to, and I know for a fact now that my interview with Steve Mollmann coming up in the November episode will have a lot of Trek-related discussion in it.

Also, I want to be able to talk about other things in the world too. Fact of the matter is, there is more to life than just sci-fi shows and movies and I think that there is a rich harvest of material and topics for discussion than just restricting myself to one topic and its varied fields. If I did that, then this show would not last very long because my intimate knowledge of the Expanded Universe is somewhat limited, and I'd run out of Star Wars topics real fast if I concentrated completely on Star Wars.

And, in inviting other people to send in topic ideas or articles for reading and/or discussion, I'm opening up the field so that people can hopefully feel like they'll get an active role in determining what topics are talked about on the show. Many is the time that I wished ChronoRadio would go back and talk about Trek again after the show's review of Star Trek: Nemesis, but all that could be done in that case is a feedback letter. I want to be able to offer more. If someone sends in an article, I'll consider it for the "Newspapers and Us" segment, or it might get a segment of its own and, depending on the subject or what it is that the submitter wants to talk about on the show, he or she might find themselves with an interview opportunity and can actually be on the show.

In closing, I suppose the simplest way of explaining the purpose of Star Wars and Beyond would be to say that the slogan that was made up for it, "a show made by fans for the fans," may stick, depending on how well this idea of interactive participation goes. I want to make this a show that people can enjoy for not only Star Wars topics, but for whatever pleases them. I know that I'll be doing things I enjoy, but in giving others a chance to submit articles and topics for discussion, I think it'll give the listening audience a chance to do what up until now was reserved for radio station programmers and show producers, and that is, help work on the show that they listen to and actually be credited with the help and maybe even appear on it. Here's hoping that Episode I, released in just a few days, will be a success in the fan audio community and that we'll have a chance to talk to each other for some time to come. Thank you all for the chance to talk to you.