Ricky Church reviews the sixth episode of Star Wars Resistance…
Star Wars Resistance continues to impress as it finds its footing and dives more into the series’ main plot rather than focusing on side adventures. ‘The Children of Tehar’ told a focused story that advanced both the plot and character arcs along with deepening the mystery of what the First Order wants with Colossus and Captain Doza’s intentions. It is another step in the right direction for the new Star Wars series that elevates what we’ve seen so far.
‘The Children of Tehar’ followed Kaz’s search on the station for two runaway children with a very large bounty on their heads. Kaz’s first inclination was to earn the bounty, but there was of course much more to it as he discovered the children were running from the First Order after the regime destroyed their village and abducted several people. Much like last week’s episode, it dealt directly with Kaz’s main mission on Colossus as he tried to get more information on the First Order for the Resistance. The story was fast-paced and concise with very little room for filler material or humour. Even the new race of aliens, the Chelidae, had a significant part to play in the climax and the children’s rescue.
While the First Order didn’t fare much better this episode than they did last, they did appear both more competent and fearsome thanks to the reappearance of Captain Phasma (via hologram unfortunately) and the introduction of Commander Pyre, a new gold Stormtrooper revealed to be played by Spartacus‘ Liam McIntyre. In his brief appearance, McIntyre displayed a cold disposition and ruthlessness inherent in Stormtroopers, but also some cunning as he gave a bit of a white lie to Phasma. It will be interesting to see more of him in future episodes.
‘Children of Tehar’ also further built the world of the Colossus in more intriguing ways. Captain Doza played a part in the episode as he lightly interrogated Kaz on his interest in the children, but then gave the information to Phasma and the First Order. It helped place him even more of a question mark on him in a stark contrast to his meeting with Major Vonreg. Perhaps its because of Phasma’s standing and reputation or Doza is leaning a little more toward the First Order than initially thought, but he was very cordial to Phasma and gave her troops a fair bit of leeway on his station. The one interesting aspect was how he reminded her his law must be followed, which explains why Pyre and his troops used stun blasts against Kaz, Neeku and the kids (at least while they were in public). The world-building was also helped by a very specific name-drop of a Star Wars villain in charge of the village massacre in a pretty chilling scene that highlighted the emotions on the kid’s faces and the terror they felt in the voice acting.
This latest episode was another marked improvement for Star Wars Resistance. Though there are still elements that lean heavily on humour and slapstick, those aspects were only present in the first act and got more serious as the story went on. With an introduction to a cool new Stormtrooper, further world-building and a tight story, ‘The Children of Tehar’ is not only a great balance of everything Resistance has to offer, but the best episode yet.
Rating: 9/10
