The Jedi Council Speaks #2 Revised and Relaunched Again Amid Quick Controversy
(source: The Jedi Council Speaks, 12-04-05)

Amid the flurry of new releases from December 1, 2005, came the second episode of Bob Crissman's relatively new The Jedi Council Speaks podcast. Just a few days later, the episode has been revised and made available in a new version, which website visitors and podcast downloaders discovered yesterday.

So, what's the story? Well, the good news is that the episode has gone through a few upgrades and is all the better for the changes. The bad news is that the change had to come through some short-lived controversy.

Thursday's initial release of TJCS #2 featured a new show intro, extremely (and we do mean extremely) similar to that of the 2005 series intro for Nathan P. Butler's ChronoRadio, which, admittedly, was one of Crissman's inspirations for creating TJCS. Unclear whether this was an homage to CR, an unlikely coincidence, or a thinly-veiled rip-off, the question was raised several times with Crissman and Butler during the release day.

This prompted Butler, who usually tries to offer critiques and advice to new radio show and podcast hosts when appropriate, to again listen to the first two episodes of TJCS and send a recorded critique/advice message to Crissman. (The file ran just over twenty minutes.) This "brutally honest" message addressed various thoughts on TJCS, both positive and negative.

The primary positives: originality of music segment concept; dedication to a specific audience; and direct interactivity via the show's website/blog.

The primary negatives included: the similarity of the 2005 CR and TJCS #2 introductions; the necessity of "credit where due" when using direct quotes (such as TJCS #2's John Williams bio from JW-Music.Net) and audio clips (the entirety of the Star Wars Christmas Album parody by Jason "Bentframe" Brannon played in TJCS #2); general factual errors (mostly minor); editing (music and redundancy suggestions); and so on.

While no direct response was sent back to Butler (and none was necessarily to be expected), a post then went up (along with a brief recorded message to listeners) on the website for TJCS. The message stated that after receiving feedback from Butler, Crissman was unsure as to whether the fan audio community would be receiving TJCS with open arms (per se) and that he was considering cancelling the podcast entirely. Butler responded on the website/blog in response, as did a few other TJCS listeners. All agreed that the community was supportive, but there are, as Butler pointed out, hurdles and obstacles that all new shows end up facing, which get ironed out over time. Advice from others isn't meant to demean or attack, but to educate and help make those hurdles easier to bound, using other podcaster's previous mistakes to avoid mistakes of one's own.

As of late last night, the decision had finally been made. The series will continue, but the original version of TJCS #2 was removed from circulation and replaced by a revised ("Version 2") edition, which was then released via the website and podcast feed. The original announcement of possible cancellation on the show's website (and subsequent supportive responses from Butler and others) was subsequently deleted from the website/blog in favor of the announcement of the new, revised edition.

So, no, you're not seeing things. There were two versions of TJCS #2. Your podcatching software is not fouling up by delivering another TJCS #2 file to your hard drive. And yes, thank goodness, this new podcast is going to continue. Keep an eye out February 1 for the third episode of The Jedi Council Speaks. If you're a listener to TJCS, you might consider dropping by the show's website via the link on their Fanworks page (linked below) to drop a note of support for this fledgling production.