The crew believe they have reached At Attin…

Jedi train their padawan from childhood. The Clone Wars was, among other things, about child soldiers and how they are relied upon in so many wars and how they have to fight whether they like it or not.

So much conflict involved children because it’s indiscriminate, there’s no design in their involvement, just the need to survive, to live another day.

Skeleton Crew is a show with a young cast shepherding/shepherded by Jude Law’s character. In that it follows the relationship established in Treasure Island between Long John Silver and Jim. So far they’ve largely avoided any kind of fighting, the rough stuff confined to adults and robots hitting each other over the head.

This episode turns that around and puts the young cast right up against the challenges of war. Neel gets some wonderful material here – to show that they understand what makes their life special. That they’re being asked to not just fight but to very obviously become cannon fodder so adults can survive sits powerfully against what the four of them are hoping for when they arrive on the world expecting it to be home.

The show dodges the hardest part here because Jude Law’s character solves their dilemma (and worse does it off screen). However perhaps the most meaningful message here is about hope. Setting aside the episode’s resolution, the show doesn’t pretend there are easy answers to the problems faced by the heroes but it does suggest that imagination and hope can change our world for the better when it seems there’s no way out. That’s a message I can get behind.

8/10 child soldiers

Stewart Hotston