Every time an episode of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew lands, Fantha Tracks will be giving their responses, and here are our initial gut feelings, deep dives and thoughts on episode four of season one, ”Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin”. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Eric Onkenhout
Things got serious in the latest episode of Skeleton Crew. ‘Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin‘ found the kids and Jod arriving on a planet they thought was At Attin but soon after they exit the Onyx CInder they realize they’re not quite where they thought they were. At the halfway point in the series we see Fern, Wim, KB, and Neel start to work together as friends and a bond is forming between them and Jod Na Nawood. ‘Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin‘ had humor, tension, and touching moments. Skeleton Crew may be the most well-rounded Star Wars series to date.
Each one of the kids brings something to their role that sets them apart from each other. Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s Fern is head of her class back home and there’s pressure on her to maintain that status, which is a lot for a child. Because of her status at home, she feels responsible to lead the others and to keep them safe. But even her tough, rebellious persona cracks when SM-33 reveals he destroyed the map back to At Attin. Fern feels helpless. She doesn’t know what else to do. All good leaders second-guess themselves at times. But with Wim’s encouragement, Fern is able to move forward.
At the beginning of the series Wim and Fern both wanted to be the captain. But even Wim realizes that with him as captain they would not have gotten as far as Fern brought them. Good on Wim to notice Fern’s emotional state and to support her when she needed it. All it took was a few good words and Fern was able to come up with an idea to get the information she needed from SM-33.
Neel is such a good kid. He is so innocent and kind-hearted, how could anyone not love Neel? Neel and Hayna, the Troik girl fighting in the local war form a tight bond as neel shows Hayna there’s more to life than fighting. Fighting is all Hayna knows despite her young age. Neel shows everyone how not fighting is just as brave if not, more so, than fighting. And there is no lack of facial expressions in Neels head/mask. It’s absolutely brilliant.
KB’s character is the least developed so far which means it’s coming. KB is sort of like Tech in The Bad Batch. She’s obviously the brains of the group but her social skills seem under-developed. At one point Wim had to teach her how to do a high five. Also her visor was down for the entire episode. Could that be a safety mechanism?
Jod has developed into the dad of the group. He rescues the kids at the end of the episode as a reward for returning the eopies to the Troik despite being offered their best hides. He also saves Neel from getting pulled apart by SM-33 after 33’s old programming kicks in. SM-33’s old captain programmed him to terminate anyone who asks about At Attin or discovers the map to At Attin. So when Fern commands 33 to tell them about the map, 33 becomes a terrifying assassin-like droid. Of course, Neel faints when Jod shuts 33 down and 33 lands on top of Neel. Classic!
‘Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin‘ was such a fun episode. Admittedly I wasn’t as into this episode as the first three, but that changed upon subsequent viewings. If any series deserves a second season it’s Skeleton Crew.
Dan Lo
Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics states that a robot may not harm a human, must obey orders from a human, and is obligated to protect itself as long as the first two laws aren’t broken in the process. Given that Star Wars takes place a long time ago, it makes sense that SM-33 was apparently not programmed with these laws yet. His repetition of the phrase “can’t say I remember no At Attin” suggested that proper grammar wasn’t in his coding either.
Landing on what appeared to be a parallel planet to At Attin was a highly intriguing premise, but it quickly turned into what felt like a 20-minute side quest. To be fair, it for sure would have been way too easy for the whole gang to somehow find the Fallen Sanctum on their own. But for the kids to have been separated and forced into battle, only for the enemy to be Jod who had bought his way out of trouble and into the Troik’s good graces felt drawn out and rushed at the same time. Or maybe I’m just being grumpy again about watching a kids show.
Did we learn something about KB? When the kids first witnessed the warning shot to King No Head’s statue, they all ducked for cover except for her. What was that all about? Neel may have gone through a bit of character development through his interactions with Hayna, and perhaps gained a bit of confidence. Maybe without that, he may not have had the courage to distract a wayward SM-33 from hurting Fern, KB, and Wim.
The ramifications of At Achrann’s existence are vast, and go a long way to overshadowing any side quest complaints. Here we had what appeared to be a clone of At Attin in a very different state, or even a different time? The tree in not-Neel’s house was way bigger than the one inside his actual home. Is At Achrann in a different timeline? The latest episode also did not cut to any scenes on At Attin, which also leaves the possibility open that they had unknowingly travelled forward in time. I might be wrong about this but aside from the World Between Worlds, there isn’t really any precedence for time travel in Star Wars. We would also do well to remember that the Onyx Cinder was clearly a relic in the season opener.
Time-traveling theories aside, the Fallen Sanctum itself provided plenty of intrigue. Does that mean the same carvings are also inside the Supervisor’s Tower back on At Attin? At this point, we can safely assume that At Aytuu, At Arissia, and At Aravin are all identical planets to some degree. With coordinates to the other planets still intact, we can reasonably guess that one of them could serve as the next destination. The show has already surprised us before, though.
Ross Hollebon
There is sophomoric joy and excitement in the cockpit of the Onyx Cinder at the beginning of this episode. As episode 4 begins and the show transitions from Mick Giacchino’s “The Kids’ Suite” to the first ethereal track of this chapter, wonder continues to blossom. It isn’t naive emotion spilling out of the kid crew of Captain Fern, Neel, KB, or Wim. It’s Jod Na Nawood, momentarily innocent and pure as he gushes, “Rennod’s ghost, I can’t believe it,” while seeing what he believes to be the fairytale of At Attin coming to life.
Neel’s hero moments of action, reluctant bravery, and kindness deservingly tend to steal the spotlight, and Fern has a massive leadership breakthrough during a rock-bottom moment born from previous programming of SM 33 but it’s the slow burn of Jod’s transformation that remains since he was introduced. He constantly hints at being an unredeemable scoundrel, but Star Wars fans have seen this turn out well before. And just maybe this is a subtle reminder to older Star Wars fans that it’s okay to be a kid again while getting lost in a galaxy far, far away—and it’s OK to like droids and cute things, my buddy, Brian Cameron. 😉
Greg McLaughlin
Just as I thought this adventure was moving along at a fast clip, we have certainly hit a rough patch that our young heroes will have to navigate in order to get back home. One of the strengths of the show for me is that the stories were fairly straightforward, not introducing too many side quests and subplots. For episode 4, they might have taken a little too much from the story buffet table by throwing out a number of elements which were resolved, in some cases, a bit too quickly and easily. That said, it was a winner for Star Wars lore, and I’m sure made #TeamNeel fans that much happier.
I absolutely loved seeing one of the other sister worlds, in this case At Achrann, shown in ruins presumably after being discovered and picked clean, leaving the remaining inhabitants fighting amongst themselves for who knows how long and for whatever was left. I was certainly getting vibes of Skaro from old Doctor Who, seeing a cloudy wasteland with stalk-like weapons. Heck, Hayna’s weapon looked straight up like a Dalek gun stalk. The clans did have Imperial helmets which lead me to believe that at some point the empire did visit and also had a go at picking over the remains.
Neel got a very nice focus in this, and I thought that the interactions between him and Hayna Strix were really well done. As I said, I could have probably lived without the rest of the enclave of residents and her father and just had her lead them to the Fallen Sanctum, bonding as they made their way through the creepy ruins of this former ‘Planet of Wonder’ – but that’s just me. On subsequent rewatches, I bothered me less.
The four, being put out as advance scouts, was probably the first time in the series I winced a bit at the simplicity of events unfolding, but Jude Law not only manages to come to the rescue, but remind us again that he just owns the space whenever he arrives, and in this case, with the stolen herd of eopies. I found myself scratching my head a bit that the Troik made it seem like their eventual destination was way further away, as it seemed like it was kind of a few blocks down the street, but I’ll let slide it slide as the payoff in the final scene was quite good.
Much like the Nightsister chamber that Ahsoka finds the Arcana Star Map, the tower has the markers for the other planets and handy coordinate markings for all, except At Attin, which we find was previously destroyed by SM33 and his late Captain. I am happy this story is continuing to be revealed. Maybe we can find out how the Onyx found itself crashed just short of their prize, and the crew skeletons at each other’s throats. Curious if our current crew will be visiting any other planets, while the story presumably shifts back home so the parents start to unravel things on their side of the barrier.
Lastly, I have a feeling much like SM33, Wim, and his father have a lot buried, and will need some memory overriding to really come out of whatever they have buried up to this point. Perhaps the loss of the mother and a once idyllic family life is what’s causing us to see both as distant, aloof, and seemingly clueless to others. I have a feeling something will trigger him and his father, and they will both finally start coming to terms with the past and future.
Jonathan Hipkiss
This week’s episode brought us more questions, and this element of Skeleton Crew continues to be the strongest. The fact that we have a mystery in Star Wars and we’re all guessing is some of the fun I’ve been missing, so well done to Watts and Ford for this story.
It was a strong week for bringing out the emotional aspect of our core characters, especially Neel. The fact we are seeing the galaxy through the eyes of the children is powerful and I imagine helping keep young fans entertained. This episode was heavy on exposition and I suspect we’ll look back on this week’s episode with different eyes when the series has finished.
The direction, production design and performances continue to shine and I can’t wait for Christmas Day for the next adventure.
Paul Naylor
On first viewing of the fourth instalment of Skeleton Crew, I was somewhat underwhelmed. ‘Here we go‘ I thought, ‘another filler episode in a different Star Wars show‘, yet, when I discussed the episode with a group of friends, I was struck with a massive realisation; This series is setting up something very special – and it isn’t about any of the characters – it’s about a planet, or more accurately planets.
At Atin is set to be as pivotal to future Star Wars projects as Tatooine has been over the decades. Why? Well, we are just learning of other planets with the prefix ‘At’ that have an eerie resemblance to our young heroes homeworld. I say resemblance – At Achrann, the planet at the centre of episode 4 is a near-perfect copy of At Attin, yet with a skewed reality.
For, as seemingly idyllic as At Attin appears, its sister At Achrann is a planet of warring factions, and there appear to be other worlds with the ‘At’ prefix (perhaps making up the nine mysterious ‘Jewels of the Old Republic’).
This sub-plot fascinates me. Are we looking at cloned worlds? A social experiment beyond comprehension? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure. If we do get to see The Old Republic in live action at any point in the future, this is all starting to set up a fascinating past.
Sander de Lange looks at all the reveals and easter eggs in Skeleton Crew: The Guide: Episode 4 ‘Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin’
Hear Mark Mulcaster and Mark Newbold discuss the fourth episode on Making Tracks Reaction Crew: Skeleton Crew S1 Ep4.
Watch Brian Cameron and Paul Naylor discuss the fourth episode of Skeleton Crew on ‘Bone Voyage:’ Reviewing Episode 4 Of Disney Plus’ ‘Skeleton Crew’, part of Good Morning Tatooine, live every Sunday at 9.00pm UK time on Fantha Tracks TV.
