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Feature
Interview: Craig & Chris Jollow
Of all of the outposts in the
Galaxy, how did you come to be
in Narrabri?
I was born and bred here. My
parents Jim and Christine met
over in England, lived in Sydney
for a while and Dad ended up
being a pest control man for Flick
in Moree. They moved to Narrabri
just before I was born in the mid
seventies.
When you are not training your
young padawan, Marlin Vader
Ryman, what do you do for a
living?
At the start of the financial year
I took over as the proprietor of
our family business, Narrabri Pest
Control, at which I have worked
for twenty years.
How did you become interested
in the Star Wars series that has
now been going for 38 years?
I don’t remember the first one
coming out, I was only a baby, but
I do remember the second one
and definitely the third. We lived
out on a property at Gun Club
Road and I had a friend out there
that had just about every figurine.
As a kid, my only Star Wars toy
was a Gamorrean Guard (they’re
the green, pig guys) so I guess
I was deprived of it as a child
(laughing). I remember making
Ewok Villages in the trees at home
and now my son Marlin does the
same thing! I forgot about it dur-
ing my teen years - I didn’t really
get back into Star Wars until I was
about 18 when I went to Sydney
and was waiting for a plane and
picked up a Knights of the Old
Republic comic in a newsagents.
I was hooked from there! I've
chased up just about every one.
I’ve probably got about 400 com-
ics and 250 novels now. About a
year later, a lot of the Star Wars
figurines were re-released and I
started collected them as well.
I guess I find Star Wars interesting
because although it is based in
space and is pretty far-fetched, it
also has a lot of real world conno-
tations and themes. It was ground
breaking at the time. You can
hardly watch a show, comedies
especially, that do not have a
reference to Star Wars. I think it is
deep seated in everyone now, it is
just a part of pop culture. It’s got
to the point where even in Year
12 literature they are reading Star
Wars novels... (laughing). I hated
English at school but now I’d get
extra credits! Go figure.
I’m not sure exactly what it was
that spurred my interest but I
mean how cool was it?... Light sa-
bres, aliens... and it’s set in an old
used universe, nothing's new. It
looks like it’s been there forever, it
just seemed to fit. You look at the
movies at the time as well.
ET
was
a little bit after that... and
Close
Encounters
came out the same
year as Star Wars I think. The
difference between those movies
and Star Wars in the Sci Fi genre
is huge. I mean in Star Wars you
had a whole galaxy of aliens that
seemed much more real!
Director, George Lucas realised
when making the first film Star
Wars (aka “Star Wars Episode IV:
Anew Hope”) – that he couldn’t
tell the story in one movie but
it would evolve over 3 trilogies
from 1977 to 2019. How does a
Star Wars fan keep track?
Well the good thing about Star
Wars is that it is multimedia... it’s
not just the films, you have com-
ics, novels, animation and games!
There is a lot of Star Wars stories
out there with back stories of the
film's characters. There are even
novels that are set 5,000 years be-
fore the time of Darth Vader.
No-one really knows what is
coming up as Disney has bought
the rights to the next three films
and will make changes to George
Lucas’ original screenplays.
Who is your favourite character
and what sets them apart?
The good thing about Star Wars is
that there are so many. It is mainly
the story of Darth Vader, his rise,
his fall and his ultimate redemp-
tion, but my son and I like Boba
Fett and the Mandalorians.
When it comes to Boba Fett, he
operates in a universe where
there are all these super heroes
using the Force and doing amaz-
ing things, a bit like Superman
and those sort of guys, whereas
Boba Fett just has a tool for eve-
rything and is always prepared.
He’s a bit like Batman. He’s not
super, he’s just a man but he gets
super things done. And he’s a
bounty hunter!
The Mandalorians are an ancient
warlord race that seem to have
a biff with everyone. Jango Fett
was the last Mandalorian and was
cloned because of his abilities.
Boba Fett is an unaltered clone of
Jango and the "Clone Troopers"
featured in Episode II were also
cloned from Jango. I like them
because there they are an ancient
and mysterious race, they all have
masks and fly around on jetpacks.
What’s not to like!
The first trilogy (1977 - 1983) is
arguably a better trilogy than
the Prequel trilogy set from
1999 -2005. What are your
thoughts on this matter?
I don’t think there is any argument
there. I agree with that. The story
is told in the second trilogy and it
is a good story, but I think the ac-
tors were just told to act badly. It
would be hard to aim for a focus
group, you’ve got the diehard
old fans who want to be pleased
and then you have also have to
produce a movie that is liked by a
new younger audience. And you
have do this in a PG Rating .
It’s hard to pinpoint why it wasn’t
as good as the first trilogy. I mean
it’s still Star Wars, it’s still good!
You could get George Lucas up
there on screen in his dressing
gown and people would still go
and watch it! I think the downfall
was that it didn’t seem to bring
anything new, it just seemed to
repeat a lot of old themes. Plus
the universe didn’t look used,
everything was new and shiny. I
think that spoilt it a bit.
The 3rd trilogy starting with
‘The Force Awakens ‘ is to be re-
leased in December of this year.
What are you anticipating?
Well the old story continues with...
Hang on... do we need a spoiler
alert?
(Laughing) No, I don’t think so.
I really don’t know. I haven’t
researched it at all... But the way it
used to go was that Han Solo and
Princess Leia had twins, Jaina and
Jacen Solo, who were both Force
sensitive. Jacen decided that he
would take the Dark Side down
from the inside but he ends up
leon ryman - jedi master
In a backyard not so far, far away, local Jedi Master, Leon
Ryman, puts his young padawan through his paces. And when
the Sith Overlords set their sights upon Narrabri, no doubt they
will have a Force to be reckoned with...
photo: john burgess
12 | iNarrabri Magazine
O-Ry Man Kenobi with his young padawan, Marlin Vader
photo: john burgess