Canberra -Australian Capital Territory 22/5/26
On the evening of 22 May 2026, Captain Ross Manuel, Lieutenant Commander Terry Scott, Lieutenant David Slaney and the newly promoted Brevet Ensign Aysha Queale trekked out to Dendy Cinemas inside the Canberra Centre to observe recent historical developments originating from a long time ago, and a galaxy far, far away…
Prior to entering the cinema complex, the away team made First Contact with a large scale representation of Grogu, reportedly measuring five-metres in height. The encounter was peaceful, though extensive photographic documentation was made, after which we proceeded to the cinema.
The screening of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, directed by Jon Favreau, commenced shortly thereafter following its Australian release (technically it started while we were still in line).
From an observational standpoint, the film was enjoyable, though it often felt like it had been assembled from multiple episodic stories rather than a single continuous narrative. You could almost see the individual “episodes” underneath it all, each with its own tone and objective, stitched together into a feature-length mission, though the consensus was that Grogu was and always is, adorable.
Following completion of the screening, the away team proceeded to a post-mission debrief over Italian at Via Dulce. The consensus was that, while the structure of the mission occasionally felt segmented, it was nonetheless an enjoyable deployment overall, particularly when experienced as part of a shared crew outing.
