Okay, Producer...

[jegs2]

You have been given a mission as a television producer by Lucas to plan a Star Wars television series, scheduled to begin in September of '06. Lucas has assured you that you will have sufficient startup funds to do the series justice and expects a very good pilot show. What are your plans?

[Nick Lancaster]

I'd like to hire Brannon Braga ... just so I can fire him.

====

I'd be tempted to set things in the KOTOR/KOTOR II era or shortly after the Battle of Rusaan. That would give the show the ability to play with the rise of the Sith, without any immediate conflict to canon. The show would be free to explore worlds and situations outside of the two film trilogies without stepping on the toes of existing properties/themes.

For the pilot, hire either Timothy Zahn or Michael Stackpole to write the story (not necessarily the teleplay). A good story is essential, and something that was sorely missing in the recent Trek iterations.

Scoring for the episode needs to be consistent with John Williams, but not just a chopped up suite of old music cues. Get someone like Michael Giacchino (Incredibles, Medal of Honor) to come up with some new stuff.

The overall series will have to be an 'arc' style story - something happening each week to advance the main arc, but smaller b-plot stories to advance characters and/or present important information that pays out later. While positive endings are good, I'd also like to see a few stalemate or 'bad guys win' stories to eliminate redshirtism.

[2000AD]

shouldn't this be in PSW?

[jegs2]

Yeah, probably ... can't move it though, myself.

[Knife]

A KOTOR era show has merit, especially with the end of KOTOR II.

[Enforcer Talen]

imp civil war might be interesting.

[Solauren]

If you could get good writers to fix up some of the bad-writing in the novels, start with Truce of Bakura and turn the EU post Endor into a TV series?

The Time of Exar Kun and co would be interesting to do

[18-Till-I-Die]

I've actually given this some thought...ok so here's my idea:

Star Wars: Rebel Frontline

The Setting--between TESB and ROTJ

The Plot--three unique groups of people are followed through the bloodshed and destruction of the Galactic Civil War. One is a group of Rebel soldiers fighting on the literal frontlines of the planet Deius (i made that up), living, fighting and dying in the blood stained trenches that run the surface of the planet. The other group is the command staff of a rebel blockade, including a General Akabar-type and an aspiring Jedi, who run supplies across the black market to keep the Rebel army in business while desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the ruthless Imperial Navy. Finally, we follow a group of so called 'terrorists', Rebel moles in the Imperial capital on Corascant, who fight any way they can to defeat the Empire, even if the means to their ends are as bloodthirsty as Palpatine's.

On the first episode we focus on the Rebel moles on Corascant, including a young girl named Shaia who believes her family is stuanchly behind the Empire until they're drug off by the Imperial police, and she is imprisoned along with her mother and father for possesses 'anti-Imperial' poroaganda (read: a poster). Her parents are executed, but thanks to the Rebels she escapes and find sherself thrown in with them and fighting along side them. She falls for a young Rebel named Dryan, a member of the catlike Nikti race (yeah i made that up too), who is involved in something the moles call 'Operation Daylight'. She sleeps with him, and the next day she wakes up and accidentally stumbles upon a holo-vid he made...his suicide video, saying goodbye to his family and Shaia, to be released after he blows himself up along with others to destroy an Imperial arms factory. She confronts him, and he admits to the truth about Operation Daylight, expalining it's a vital factory developing a new weapon for the Empire called a 'SunCrusher' and must be destroyed to hurt the Empire. She considers, for a moment, an Imperial policeman's offer to take the moles in and keep Dryan alive if she tells him where they're going to hit...but decides against it. In the end, she decides for the greater good to let Dryan and his fellows attack and detsroy the factory, and they are successful, putting back the Sun Crusher's development by many years. At the end, she joins the Rebel moles outright and becomes one of the characters the series focuses on.

Episode 2 preview--on the war torn planet Deius, a young Rebel soldier named Kya and her older brother Soka were litterally born on the front lines (their mother gave birth in the assualt trenches durring a siege) and have never known peace. Now they're given a misison, to assassinate the Imperial commander leading the invading Stormtrooper armies, and possibly brining peace to their world for teh first time in their lifetimes. But the question is...would they know what to do with the peace if they had it?

So...what do you think? Wonderful or just excellent?

[NecronLord]

Moved.

[SPOOFE]

Me? I'd set it fifty years after ROTJ. Maybe even a hundred. Things are nice and relatively peaceful in the galaxy, if not politically tense. I would model things on... now. Current foreign relations and such. I envision the New Republic and some other hegemony, what the Imperial Remnant eventually grew into, as well as a host of other, smaller conglomerates of star systems. Several hundred significant ones.

It would have to have more complex political interactions than the original trilogy - which was more fantasy, myth, and allegory anyway - incorporated. The Jedi will have had a fall from respect... the previous time period in the galaxy was caused by Force users, the end result being the Jedi have been disbanded as an official, state-run "temple", and instead individual Jedi have started their own various paths... their own "Jedi religions", mimicking the various sects that have emerged from Christianity (though I would probably make the similarities end there). This environment also sees Force users becoming less revered and spectacular... similarly, the average Force user has become less powerful, due to lack of structured training.

I imagine the series can follow some agent of the New Republic, an ambassador's guard, who happens to be a Force-sensitive dude. He can probably stumble across old Jedi stuff while making diplomatic rounds to the various "states", keeping ties and all that shit. Maybe even old Sith stuff. Maybe stuff that blends the two old traditions. Hell, maybe even start things on the path towards Jedi regaining their respect and honor.

Anyway. I'm just all high and pulling this out of my ass as I go.

[Darth Fanboy]

A force user in the ST galaxy who escaped a great purge, of course we are all meant to believe it is a Jedi but in the end it is truly a Sith.

or a better idea, Sort of like Starfighters of Adumar, a Rebel Capital Ship and Imperial Capital ship cross into the ST galaxy (pre-Endor) and each shack up with opposing factions. The Imperial side is on the verge from winning when New Republic Reinforcements figure out what happen to their lost ship.

[Imperial Overlord]

Death before Stackpole. I am quite capable of wanking the main character and inserting cheesy deus ex machina rescues without his assistance. No, you want Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who can not only write, but as an extra "fuck you" to those people who screwed up Andromeda.

Mathew Stover would also be good, for his ability to write a great desperate climax and kill off characters. No "reset button" with him on board, but I want him writting the next Caine novel.

[Stofsk]

What did Wolfe do? He sounds familiar...

[Imperial Overlord]

He was a writer for DS9 and the brain behind Andromeda before he got axed in the power struggle midway through season two.

[Gandalf]

I'd have something set during the Galactic Civil War, about an Imperial clerk who is actually a Rebel sympathiser. Potential for comedy and goodness.

Failing that, GCW adaptions of Hogan's Heroes, or M*A*S*H.

[vakundok]

What about a hutt porno series?

Just kidding.

[Gorefiend]

What about a hutt porno series?

Just kidding.

As long as their are twileks in it ^.^"

tales of the jedi era sounds nice for a series (the one i least care about so far and with a lot of potential)

[Lord Revan]

One possibility which I think could be KOTOR era, but before KOTOR the Mandalorian war and fall of Revan (it could end at the battle where Darth Malak fire on Revan's ship).

[Slartibartfast]

I wouldn't make a big epic series, I would keep it small, maybe a whole show about one guy (not Mary Sue), also he isn't some kind of big hero, doesn't have his own freighter so it's not "the adventures of spaceship x" like most other shows. Different things could happen to him, from leaving his house to joining a small trader group for a couple eps, enrolling the army or whatever. Sort of a vagrant, but he wanders into big important events, more as a witness but maybe also as a pawn of sorts.

Maybe this guy goes to pilot academy, then gets to fly in a few battles, then goes AWOL, I dunno. Or maybe it's two or three guys, but their stories aren't always together.

I'm not very good at writing.

[jegs2]

I like your idea. Keep the initial story about one or two key folks, with an overarching story tying it together -- perhaps following a freighter pilot servicing all sides of the fight with the starting shots of the galactic civil war as a backdrop.

[Nick Lancaster]

1. We have to care about the characters. I mean, really care. We have to feel their anguish at loss or betrayal; if they've lost loved ones, we have to believe in the emotional burden. Accordingly, if it's a team or group, we also have to have a valid reason for this group coming together and staying together.

2. Danger has to be believeable, even if we know the ultimate fate of a character (i.e., Obi-Wan Kenobi).

3. Villains have to be a match for our heroes. That is, we have to believe that the villains are capable of capturing and/or harming the heroes. It's fine to have a bumbling prefect drop the ball, or an ambitious commander be reluctant to call in assistance to garner the lion's share of glory - but there must be a fate (death, imprisonment, conversion) that the heroes truly fear.

I'm sure there are more considerations of this sort. Chime in.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I'd have something that was Post-RotS Pre-ANH and was more down to earth than what most people would want.

But not some faggy teen drama bullshit, either. Just an ordinary series.

[Psycho Smiley]

I'd like to see a show set sometime before ANH, where there is no 'good guy/bad guy' theme. Say, centering on the leader of a band of Rebels trying to drive the Imperials out of an area, and the local head Imperial officer trying to root them out.

Imagine a group of rebels, who believe they are doing the right thing by attacking Imperial officials, bureaucrats, misc. important people, etc. Now cut to the Imperials, who honestly believe that these people are terrorists and murderers, and just want to bring order to the area.

We could have likeable characters on both sides. Important ones could actually die. Maybe the rebels are on the run. Maybe the head officer is up on charges for failing to protect a VIP or important shipment. Both sides could cause collateral damage, and have to deal with the fallout.

Oh, and no one-shot episodes. It doesn't have to be one solid arc, where if you miss any show, you're screwed, but I want things from each episode to matter in the next one. If the rebels crack Imperial encryption, or the Imperials find a double agent, I want it exploited and dealt with.

It would certainly be more interesting than a lot of the crap on tv. Of course, it would probably be axed for showing terrorists and dictatorships in a positive light.

[Elfdart]

I'd bring back one of the ideas Lucas gave up on in the original ANH. Luke Skywalker is now a very old Jedi Master. The other heroes from the OT are long since dead except R2 and 3PO. A new evil has risen and threatens the Republic. Master Skywalker and a class of young padawans are all that stand between this new evil and the rest of the galaxy. Luke is a bit of a has-been and his students aren't really ready for the challenge, but they're the only hope...

This setup would be The Cowboys, Robin and Marian, The Adventures of Don Juan and True Grit rolled into one. It would follow the OT, but require most if not all the cast to be new. It would also render 90+% of the EU null and void, like Bobby Ewing in the shower.

[Thanas]

Yes, Wolfe would be a great choice to hire.


My idea?
Time: Before Thrawn's rise to power.

Do something about rebels and imperial defectors sent to conquer a small, seemingly unimportant sector of the empire... THis way you could have all the interesting characters like Karrde, Guri, Rendar etc, and avoid showing Luke, Leia etc... and maybe show Thrawn planning his rise to power.

(This would probably only work if you could hire Jeremy Irons).


Though I'd admit that a show like this probably won't fly.