A droid dreams of adventure…

The sixth episode of Visions is called TO-B1 (pronounced Toby) and is the first of two episodes created by Science SARU.

You may be forgiven for reading TO-B1 as T-Obi Wan and that is surely not accidental.

TO-B1 is a droid working for a scientist on a planet in need of terraforming. The scientist is alone and, we suspect, in hiding. He has secrets but on the whole, TO-B1’s existence is idyllic if filled with dreams of leaving and having adventures elsewhere.

Through an accident, a dark force is drawn to the planet and TO-B1 discovers there’s more to being an adult than having adventures and not all of growing up is fun.

The episode shies away from exploring innocence lost and focuses instead on hope and in this it feels like Star Wars right where it counts. It is fun and the animation reminded me of the animé I got to watch as a teenager (which was rare as hen’s teeth back then) – all pulsing and open style with a feel of hand drawn care and speed.

One point to make is that I understood it was canon that droids couldn’t sense the Force. Yet here we have a droid Jedi and I wonder just what this means – is it a shift in canon or something Science SARU was permitted because of the nature of the anthology but to be forgotten in the central Star Wars universe?

Rating? 7 kyber crystals out of 10.

Stewart Hotston