Beyond the Saga Found this old file - "Star Wars: The Next Generation"

Awhile back in my intro thread, I indicated I would try to find some of my old writing from quite awhile ago.

Star Wars: The Next Generation was an idea I had a long time ago about a "starship adventure series in Star Wars." This is not a crossover of universes, but a "meshing of styles": thematically, things happen in the brief scriptment the way an episode of Star Trek might play out, with a modern socio-political lesson in the spirit of the original show.

The events take place about 50 ABY. Hence they are "The Next Generation".

Captain Arthur Valerian
Born of a noble family originally from Alderaan (before its destruction), Captain Arthur Valerian is classic swashbuckler in the spirit of Jack Aubrey from Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander series.
He is named for the Duke of Wellington, and possesses the Iron Duke's military prodigy. He serves as an example of the "cool guy who is a conservative": Captain Jack Aubrey of Master and Commander is the "conservative" dashing hero who is more than a match for Jack Sparrow when it comes to swashbuckling.

Commander Elizabeth Rockey
Second-in-command of the RSC Sentinel, Commander Rockey holds the dual role of Executive Officer and the Sentinel's assigned Jedi Knight (her class is Jedi Consular). Somewhat cold, and known to some of the male crew members as a "walking refrigerator unit", the Corellian-born Jedi possesses an exceptional intellect and spiritual strength.
Having been raised by the Jedi since she was a child (on Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy on Yavin IV), she serves as the "outsider's view" of humanity, in a way similar to Spock of Star Trek: TOS or Data in Star Trek: TNG. Common pop culture references often fly over her head, and I like the idea that it is a human who is the outsider's perspective on humanity.

Colonel Jonathan Spiers, Republic Marines
Colonel Jonathan Spiers commands the RSC Sentinel's Marine Regimental Combat Team. A family man (in the vein of LTC Harold Moore of the Ia Drang fame), Colonel Spiers holds the loyalty of his Marines by virtue of his leadership and willingness to lead from the front.
Hidden behind his "family man" life he currently leads is childhood of growing up "on the streets" of Nar Shadda. His humble upbringing contrasts with Captain Valerian's noble birth, and Colonel Spiers often advises Captain Valerian on how to deal with the "seedier" elements of society: the scholarly Captain Valerian often taps the "street smarts" of Colonel Spiers when conducting anti-piracy operations.
In regards to his street smarts, Colonel Spiers is similar to Richard Sharpe: Colonel Spiers and Sharpe both grew up in poverty, and both were "raised from the ranks" to become officers.

Commander Dal Antillies
The "everyman" of the ship, Commander Antillies is a competent leader and pilot. His role is similar to that of his ancestor, Wedge Antillies, of the Star Wars films.

The three main characters are Captain Valerian, Commander Rockey and Colonel Spiers, serving as a poetic parallel to Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. Their adventures are "Trek-ish" in that they are often encountering strange things described in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars. Unlike Star Trek, the Republic Navy is not suffering from an "identity crisis": the Republic Navy is, without a doubt, a military force. It's primary mission is defense and law enforcement in deep space, with a significant-but-secondary mission of exploration. Unlike Star Trek, humans have possessed faster-than-light travel for hundreds of thousands of years in Star Wars.

 

Sounds mostly alright. Good world building.

I really liked the subject matter. Slavery in the GFFA looks quite hard to interdict, and I find it quite daunting to write about.
I applaud that you have done so.

I agree that some science fiction tries to use Earth marine or naval material to help describe what is going on in space, however you seem to have found a rare instance where that wouldn't work.

Dumping a slave cargo in space is not going to result in any legal or tactical advantage that I can immediately detect - they'll just be floating outside your disabled vessel and add on murder charges; whilst with your West African source, with all the chains, the evidence would just sink out of sight beneath the waves.

Also ion cannon should do fine to knock out shields. Proton torpedoes sounds a bit much with a live cargo.

Your character creation sounds alright. Valerian has a nice Old School SF sound to it. Is it French?
There was a Valerian-titled film from one of my favourite directors in the last couple years - Captain Valerian and the City of a 1000...(the trailer would suggest 'spaceships' or 'space stations', but I don't think that was the word they used.)

Have you ever thought of converting this script to a fic?

This was a good read. Cheers for posting it.

 

I enjoyed this very much. It would indeed make a great fanfiction or role play.

 

Nice. I think you successfully achieved your stated goal of "Star Trek in the GFFA, but it's not a crossover." And I would thoroughly enjoy reading the further adventures of the RSC (Republic Star Cruiser?) Sentinel.

 

On your point regarding the "spacing" of the cargo:

Its valid. However, thematically the captain essentially panics. Plus, there would be a line about how if all the "slaves" are dead, they can't claim they weren't just passengers or that the depressurization of the hull wasn't an "accident due to the New Republic/GFFA's unprovoked attack." Unabashedly, the scene is there to show Captain Valerian on the bridge ordering "fire proton torpedoes" strictly for thematic purposes. I also wanted to accomplish two things: a way for Elizabeth Rockey to put her Force skills to use in order to save lives, and to show the ruthlessness/evil of the slave trade in Star Wars. I would genuinely love to hear an alternative way for the scene to play out.

Regarding the ion cannons, that's valid as well. However, I imagine the R.S.C. Sentinel firing only one or two proton torpedoes (as we see the Enterprise do in the Original Series). Using the mechanics from TIE Fighter: Collector's CD-ROM, one or two conventional torpedoes would shatter the shields on a "corellian transport."

As to part of his name being "Valerian", I have actually read some of the comics and seen the film (great effects, fairly weak "Avatar-like" story, but stronger than Avatar). However, "Arthur Valerian" is a mix of "Arthur Wellesley" and "Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington", one of the successor dukes to the original guy who beat Napoleon at Waterloo.

I have thought about converting it to a script! I would love to flesh out the existing three characters further, and refine the story (perhaps incorporating some of the points you brought up). I'd really like to collaborate on such a work, as I think that lack of "people telling George he was wrong/crazy" was one of the failures of the unspoken films between 1999-2005.

 

You are absolutely correct on the nomenclature for "R.S.C." I should have added that the R.S.C. Sentinel is an MC90B (or something similar such as an Imperial Star Destroyer, the Battlestar Pegasus, or the Enterprise-E, maybe some people more familiar with ~50 ABY could recommend a more plausible ship class). In any case, its capabilities are about that of an MC90B, for dramatic purposes. I'd love to develop the script, if folks here are interested. I always welcome feedback, regardless of the nature.

I'll have to do some research on the GFFA. When I came up with the idea, the "New Republic" was still the "current" galactic power, and I pre-supposed the regime would somehow survive the Yuzzhan Vong invasion (the recovery of which I intend to be a recurring theme in the series). If the GFFA is the surviving regime, I have some reading to do: I never finished the New Jedi Order series to see how exactly the Yuzzhan Vong were overcome.

 

I haven't read all the Vong War stuff, but I do know that the Vong lose.

 

Another major story arc I considered was titled "The Krath Holy Crusade".

Essentially, some archaeology students on a dig in the Empress Teta system uncover some mysterious artifacts which emanate unknown radiation. In fact, they are relics from the Krath Holy Crusade over 4,000 years ago. The artifact(s) are things that relate to both Aleema and Satal Keto. The artifacts wind up corrupting the students on the dig team, and they reform the Krath Holy Crusade. They take over their research university, and steal some classified weapons research that was being done for the New Republic.

Using their new found Dark Side powers, and using the stolen research to raise funds, they begin terrorizing the Outer Rim by using it as their own playground. Think Uday and Qusay Hussein-level evil, or at least comparable to the original Krath Holy Crusade.

The R.S.C. Sentinel responds to a distress call by a colony attacked by the Krath...

 

I decided to work on the script. This is what I have so far, will post the entire script in a new thread when I finish it!

Scenes I will add somewhere: