Years before playing Data on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Brent Spiner briefly joined a Star Wars radio adaptation, only to be dismissed before his work aired. He revisited the embarrassing episode on “Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny,” the conversation show he co-hosts with Jonathan Frakes. Guest Terry Matalas prompted the disclosure by asking whether Spiner had ever been fired during his acting career.
Spiner’s assignment involved a line informing a captain that the Millennium Falcon had landed. His difficulty pronouncing the spacecraft’s name cost him the job, and he stumbled over it again while recounting the experience. Although he could no longer identify his character or the particular adaptation, he remembered the involvement of Mark Hamill and Brock Peters. In the radio productions, Hamill returned as Luke Skywalker, while Peters voiced Darth Vader.
The adaptations brought the original film trilogy to radio, beginning with “A New Hope,” which aired on National Public Radio in 13 episodes in 1981. “The Empire Strikes Back” followed with 10 episodes in 1983, while NPR’s financial troubles delayed “Return of the Jedi” until 1996. All three were written by Brian Daley and directed by John Madden. Spiner already had television and film credits when he took the unsuccessful radio job, though his recurring “Night Court” role and long association with Data were still ahead. He eventually entered the Star Wars universe again in the 2010s, voicing the exiled senator Gall Trayvis in “Star Wars Rebels.”
