Saga How Would You Write And Make - The Phantom Menace

Greetings faithful Jedi Council Forum members, and welcome to the fourth edition of How I Would Write & Make, where I or any one of you takes a piece of popular culture (a film, television series, novel, video game or whatever) and imagine an alternate perfect universe in which the piece is still successful and or influential to the culture at large, but you list 26 total differences in which the new version would differ from the original and therefore appeal to you. Today, let us begin our reworking of the Prequel Trilogy by picking up from the previous film and continue with George Lucas' polarizing and controversial Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace - which is where I think the saga needed a little more workshopping before each film was released.

Where were you in 1999 when this film came out? What about the times you watched the original Star Wars films before the Special Editions in 1997 and onward while Star Trek took over in science fiction movie franchises? At first, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (20th Century Fox) distributed it, but with the sale of Lucasfilm and future Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (Walt Disney Pictures) in 2012, there was always the tiny feeling that Star Wars was sort of a Disney film waiting to become a Disney film. Lucas himself said Disney might have wanted to make it if Walt Disney himself were still alive, saying that Walt had vision and was not risk averse.

In this edition, we are going to take a look at an alternate universe in which Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace has a similar path in terms of development as well as certain author appeal elements that will make it enjoyable and hopefully others are eager to indulge in this and other concepts that would certainly change up the basic story a little drastically. Reflecting how Disney owns Star Wars now yet and how Fox distributed then, this universe would have Disney and Fox both distributing this film on a $125,000,000.00 budget while pushing the limits of PG and PG-13 ratings close to R ratings. Fox would at first retain the North American distribution rights while Disney would have international distribution rights.

1) First off, the film would open with the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures logo before fading to black and hearing the 1953 Fox Fanfare with the CinemaScope extension by Alfred Newman over the contemporary Fox logo to see the Lucasfilm logo over the final extension of the fanfare so that it blends almost seamlessly into John Williams' brilliant score. The beginning of the film would play similarly to the version in our universe with the blue on black words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." leading into the opening crawl with "Star Wars" and "Episode I - The Phantom Menace" anticipating the verbatim worded opening crawl from the original version that will lead off into the Naboo system blockade.

2) A massive fleet of warships orbits the planet of Naboo in blockading the planet. These ships are under the control of the Techno Union, the Commerce Guild, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Corporate Alliance, and the Trade Federation. The Trade Federation and its leader Viceroy Nute Gunray anticipate an envoy or two of the Republic's Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum (Charlton Heston) to negotiate the taxation conflict. The blockade is revealed by holonet communication to the fleet's faraway superior - the Dark Lord of the Sith named Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid) - to be the pretext to an invasion by the Trade Federation Droid Armies. The Republic cruiser lands aboard the lead battleship.

3) Like in the film, the two envoys sent by Valorum are Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) who fly towards the blockade aboard the Republic cruiser Radiant VII to land in the Trade Federation flagship Saak'ak (or Profiteer in Basic) and are greeted by the protocol droid TC-14. When Gunray and his cohorts report to Sidious that the envoys sent by the Chancellor are Jedi, the Sith Lord orders the Jedi killed and their transport destroyed. Their plans must be stepped up, as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan snoop around to try and escape to the surface of Naboo. The negotiations were short as Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) contacts Gunray suspicious of him.

4) Unlike the film, knowledge of the Jedi Knights and the ways of the Force is common knowledge to practically everybody in the galaxy - one only has to choose to be receptive to it, and those with high midi-chlorian counts are believed to be more in focus in using the Force than others and may potentially be the two Chosen Ones destined to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith Lords as well as the darkness. Here, Queen Padmé Amidala and her two Force-sensitive handmaidens Cordé and Sabé (Keira Knightley) wield their own white-bladed lightsabers with special ornamentation over generic chrome hilts. They discuss with the Naboo council the suspicious dealings in their system.

5) Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would make their way to the surface of Naboo, but are soon discovered in the swamp forests by the battle droid army - and it is only the sudden appearance of a powerful and agile Gungan wielding a lightsaber that the two Jedi are able to escape with their lives. The very articulate Gungan introduces himself as Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), a former Jedi Knight who in this version went into a self-imposed exile from the Order after having a brush with the Dark Side. Hoping to live out the rest of his days as a peaceful recluse, the Force is calling Jar Jar back to investigate, expose and destroy the Dark Side presence that is fueling the Trade Federation's very operations on Naboo.

6) The three Jedi arrive at Otoh Gunga and meet Boss Rutor Nass (Brian Blessed) and his majordomo Captain Roos Tarpals (Steven Spiers) to bargain for a Bongo submarine through the planet's core to the Naboo capital Theed in order to free the Queen. Amidala and her four best handmaidens join the three Jedi along with their captains Quarsh Panaka (Hugh Quarshi) and Gregar Typho (Jay Laga'aia) aboard their Royal Starship where one astromech droid named R2-D2 saves it from the blockade. Without a hyperdrive to get to Coruscant, they are forced to set down on Tatooine. Reporting to Sidious on the escape, Gunray and his allies must send Sidious' apprentice Darth Maul (Ray Park) to stop them.

7) On Tatooine; Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, R2 and Amidala would go into the spaceport of Mos Espa, home to the Grand Arena where the Boonta Eve Classic Podrace is held annually every galactic year. Like in the film; Looking for a good junk dealer, they find a very humble Toydarian named Watto who owns two slaves - a woman named Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August) and her son Anakin (Jake Lloyd). Padmé, Jar Jar and Qui-Gon place a bet that if Anakin wins the next podrace against reigning champion Sebulba with a podracer he built himself, he and his mother will go free and the Naboo Royal Starship will get its new hyperdrive to travel to Coruscant. Watto settles to keep Shmi but let Anakin go in peace.

8) Curious about Qui-Gon and Jar Jar's interests in Padmé and Anakin, Obi-Wan requests that the two be tested for midi-chlorian counts in them. Reviewing the blood tests in the week before the big race, Obi-Wan finds that Padmé and Anakin both have as high a count, if not even higher, than Master Yoda himself. During this time, R2 (Kenny Baker) meets a protocol droid made by Shmi and Anakin out of spare TC-unit and 3PO-unit parts named C-3PO (Anthony Daniels). Watto tells R2 that Shmi may need 3PO for now, but asks R2 to give him his holo number in case 3PO is ever in need of work to contact him. In this time, Padmé and Anakin bond over their working long on the podracer for the race.

9) Like in the film, the day of the race arrives and it soon turns into a battle of speed, power and wits between Anakin and current champion Sebulba as Anakin tries to avoid the wake of the carnage left by his rival's dirty tricks and killing other racers. Tapping into the Force for clarity and what to do, Anakin manages to evade another of Sebulba's attacks in the final lap and cause the champion to wreck his own podracer and for Anakin to claim victory. The crowds cheer as little nine-year-old Anakin becomes the youngest human to win the Boonta Eve Classic and is granted his freedom. Before he leaves, he tells the crowd he will come back someday to free his mother Shmi and all the slaves of Tatooine.

10) Once the new hyperdrive is fitted to the Royal Starship, Watto tells Anakin that he hopes the young boy does make it to being a Jedi and that he hopes that his mother does get freed someday as well. As Anakin, Jar Jar, Padmé and Qui-Gon return to the ship, they are soon found and attacked by Darth Maul who had followed them to Tatooine. Anakin and Padmé tell Obi-Wan and the crew to take off and fly low so to pick up Jar Jar and Qui-Gon who fight off Maul long enough to escape. It is here that Anakin first meets Obi-Wan Kenobi and the crew gets underway for Coruscant where Valorum and Senator Asmodeus Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) of Naboo are awaiting their safe arrival.

11) While Padmé, Cordé and Sabé meet with Palpatine, Valorum and other senators to discuss the moves made by the new Confederacy of Independent Systems on Naboo; Qui-Gon, Jar Jar and Obi-Wan report to the Jedi Council on their findings. The Sith are most assuredly back and manipulating events on Naboo, and that they have encountered a vergence in the Force. Qui-Gon believes that Queen Padmé and Anakin are the Chosen Ones - prophesied to be the ones to destroy the Sith forever and bring balance to the Force. Jedi Grand Masters Yoda (Frank Oz) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) are astonished that such chosen ones could be found in a nine-year-old boy and a teenage girl.

12) In between her time representing her people and giving voice to the Naboo system being invaded by the Droid Armies, Padmé joins her new friend Anakin in being tested by the Jedi Council for their aptitude with the Force. Indeed, the Force is strong with them and they have the potential to become great Jedi Knights - but Yoda senses a risk in training them at their age. Emotions are not to actively be shunned by the Jedi this time around, but as Jedi Master Adi Gallia (Gin Clarke) states to Padmé, there is the danger that "Fear being allowed to consume oneself leads to anger. Anger left to fester leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering for everyone." Padmé and Anakin must consider these words.

13) As the Senate debate on what to do about the Separatist invasion of Naboo descends into bickering among the bureaucrats and activist senators caught in the quagmire, it is with great reluctance that Padmé Naberrie Amidala - Queen of the Naboo moves for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum. With Valorum's permission and approval, election bids for a new chancellor begin immediately. Among the bids to replace him are Senators Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) of Chandrila, Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) of Alderaan, Gial Ackbar (Erik Bauersfeld), Garm Bel Iblis (Daniel Day Lewis) of Corellia, and Palpatine of Naboo. In secret, Sidious and Maul meet outside the Jedi Temple.

14) When Qui-Gon, Jar Jar and Obi-Wan return to collect Padmé and Anakin from a meeting with the Jedi Council, Yoda and Windu express their reservations about training the two young ones in the ways of the Jedi. But since a vote from all active Jedi members (Grand Masters, Masters, Knights and their Padawans) is needed to make an informed decision, they allow the two - Padmé and Anakin - to remain in the custody of Qui-Gon until a decision is reached. Their ages and built-in emotions not withstanding, the case for the two being trained in the ways of the Jedi with the proper guidance and masters is very strong. The five soon return to the Royal Starship to start back for the Naboo system.

15) Padmé and Sabé comfort Anakin who does not understand what all the hubbub is with the Jedi, and tell him he will understand with the time, patience and training that comes with being a Jedi. All the while, Governor Sio Bibble (Oliver Ford Davies) of the Naboo city of Theed keeps telling Padmé and her handmaidens the situation is getting worse with Theed and the outlying suburban areas overrun with battle droid armies. Deciding they need the Gungans' help in the fight, Padmé and Jar Jar steer the Royal Starship to the swamps and forests outside the waters of Otoh Gunga - the safe place to go if there is an invasion. They land and our band of heroes searches for the Gungans and Boss Nass.

16) Cordé, Padmé and Sabé are the first to kneel and lead the others in kneeling and beseeching the aid of the Gungans, not believing their own Naboo to be any better or worse than the Gungans. They both have a common enemy in the Separatist Droid Army, and Boss Nass is moved by the display of humbleness from the Naboo that he eagerly joins the Gungans in the upcoming battle without hesitation. It is also due to Jar Jar's own experience as a former Jedi Knight that Nass taps him to lead the Gungan Army into battle with the battle droids being sent to meet them at the swamp hills. In the meantime, only one Trade Federation Droid Control Ship controls the droids across the entire planet.

17) Sidious contacts his Separatist followers in the Neimodian Viceroy Nute Gunray (Silas Carson) of the Trade Federation, Geonosian Poggle the Lesser, Muun Chairman San Hill of the Banking Clan, Gossam Presidente Shu Mai of the Commerce Guild, Koorivar Magistrate Passel Argente (Burt Kwouk) of the Corporate Alliance, and Skakoan Foreman Wat Tambor of the Techno Union aboard Gunray's shuttle heading down for Theed. While keeping a small occupation force in Theed, the rest of the Droid Army will head for the swamp to confront the Gungan Army ready to defend their native lands. This, says Sidious, could work to their advantage as he orders them and Maul to wipe them and the Naboo out.

18) A strategy is laid out with the arrival of the surviving Royal Naboo Security Forces as heralded by the arrival of Captains Panaka and Typho on a speeder. Maul will undoubtedly be waiting for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in the city, so the Jedi will deal with him. Panaka and Sabé will lead Team Alpha in retaking Theed and Team Beta will be led by Cordé and Typho. Once the Royal Naboo Space Fighter pilots are freed, the mission will be to destroy the Droid Control Ship controlling the battle droid armies on the planet. Since Cordé and Sabé will both masquerade as the Queen, the real Queen - Padmé - will lead the Nubian N-1 starfighter squadrons in the assault on the Droid Control Ship in orbit.

19) Like with the film, the retaking of Theed gets underway as the droid army occupying Theed is overrun by our heroes. Once the pilots are freed and the starfighters can be launched, Padmé and Anakin with R2 in Anakin's fighter take off into the skies to lead Alpha, Bravo, Delta, Echo and Victor squadrons against the Vulture droid starfighters protecting the Droid Control Ship. Anakin and Padmé manage to take out the external defense turrets but the laser cannons and proton torpedoes of the Naboo Starfighters are not enough against the strong hull of the Control Ship. R2, Padmé and Anakin head inside to see if they cannot blow up the reactor from the inside before taking internal defensive fire.

20) Jar Jar and Captain Tarpals lead the Gungan Army to a point where the shields can be raised to defend against Separatist AAT-1 hover tanks, Multi-Troop Transport (MTT) hover tanks and OG-9 homing spider droid walkers encroaching on the swamp. The specially designed shield protects against both energy and particle-based projectile volleys sent off by the enemy. As Cordé and Sabé along with Panaka and Typho lead their teams against the remaining droid occupation forces in Theed, the Separatist Council leaders try to escape before they can be captured by who they think is Queen Amidala. They do not know the real Queen is leading the assault on the Droid Control Ship orbiting above.

21) In the space battle above, Padmé and Anakin are forced to land their starfighters in a hangar after taking laser flak from the Control Ship's inner defenses. They find they are outside an exposed power feed from the main reactor, but their engines and shields are overheated from the stress of the battle as they try to cool the engines. R2 alerts them that battle droids all across the inside of the battleship are being recalled to close in on their position. Back in the city, Maul fights off Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan with his red double-bladed lightsaber against Qui-Gon's green and Obi-Wan's blue lightsabers. It truly is a duel of the fates as Maul has plans for taking Padmé and Anakin as apprentices.

22) When it appears their barrages are doing no good, the battle droid commander OOM-9 (Matthew Wood) is ordered to deploy the battle droids from the tanks to march on the Gungans. Aboard the Droid Control Ship, the controls are manipulated to activate the armies of Trade Federation B-1 battle droids and move to take down the shields. Igniting his blue lightsaber, Jar Jar declares that he will fall before he lets the planet fall to the Separatists and leads a charge on the droids. Some Gungans fling electromagnetic pulse bombs at droid units and tanks while some take over a few AATs to destroy the others. As these things happen, Jar Jar covers for Tarpals as they move to hack and slash at droids.

23) Teams Alpha and Beta close on the Royal Palace where Governor Bibble and the Royal Advisory Council are being held hostage by the Separatist leaders as an AAT (armored assault tank) for the droid occupation army is hijacked by Panaka and taken up against the remaining droids and AAT tanks in the streets. After they are surrounded, Gunray bluffs that they have planted a bomb in the Theed power reactor. The Separatist Council hopes to take Theed and our heroes down with them if they do not surrender. As the battle droids aboard the Control Ship are about to come up to Padmé and Anakin's fighters, the overheating disappears and the shields and engines of the fighters roar into life.

24) Through the battle, the Force is strong as Jar Jar leads a valiant and spirited defense of the swamp against the encroaching droid units while Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan battle Maul in Theed's lower power generation reactor levels. Distraught when Maul kills his master, Obi-Wan fights on and manages to seemingly kill Maul before promising a dying Qui-Gon he will train Anakin in the ways of the Jedi. Just when the Droid Armies have the Naboo and Gungans at their mercy, Padmé and Anakin shoot out the reactor aboard the giant Droid Control Ship and escape in their fighters just in the nick of time as the Control Ship explodes. With the Droid Armies falling and shutting down, the tide begins to turn.

25) Padmé and Anakin return in triumph with the other fighter pilots and help provide air support for the Naboo and Gungan peoples to retake their planet. In the wake of the seeming death of Darth Maul, Yoda still holds his reservations but grants both Jar Jar and Obi-Wan the statuses of Jedi Knights and allows Padmé and Anakin to be trained by them in the ways of the Force and the Jedi. Watching Qui-Gon's body burning on the pyre, Jar Jar takes Queen Padmé as his padawan while Anakin is to be trained as a padawan under Obi-Wan. As morning breaks the next day, the leaders of the Naboo invasion forces depart Naboo to face the judgment and punishment in the Senate for their misdeeds.

26) The people of Naboo and former chancellor Valorum congratulate Palpatine on his surprise electoral victory to the chancellorship of the Republic, as he says that Anakin and Padmé's careers will both be watched with great interest. A big parade of Gungans descends upon Theed with aerial escort to the palace. Obi-Wan and Jar Jar watch with pride and yet reticence as the Chosen Ones - their padawans Anakin and young Queen Padmé raise their lightsabers to the skies above Theed as Boss Nass holds up the Globe of Peace signifying the humanoid Naboo and amphibious Gungan peoples will now and forever fight together in the name of peace, freedom, justice, truth and harmony for their planet.

And that's another edition of How I Would Write & Make for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). It strays a good deal from the original version, and yet gives just enough to make it feel fresher and maybe a little more innovative in my opinion. It is rumored that Jar Jar Binks is an evolved version of the original first draft plan for Han Solo - a green-skinned monster with gills who was a friend of the sixty-year-old general Luke Skywalker who has been reincarnated for the Prequel Trilogy as Qui-Gon Jinn. I took it a step further to have Jar Jar be a Jedi. The potential for this version to pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test (with the Anita Sarkeesian addendum) might make this version a bigger success with more people over the many decade Star Wars would be popular.

I have also tried to work in the Separatists a little earlier than Attack of the Clones as a Bill Clinton-era form of a Nixonian capitalist Illuminati-like cabal run amok to control planets and working to squelch the democratic forces of the Naboo and Gungan peoples since Lucas wrote Star Wars in the 70s during Watergate and the Vietnam War. This is just an Alternate Universe that I have proposed which is fun to imagine if things turned out differently. But as TV Tropes gleefully points out, Your Mileage May Vary on this - so fellow Jedi Councilors, let me know what your opinions on this idea would be and feel free to offer your ideas on how you would change this film if you wanted to or politely point out what you don't like about my ideas for the saga starting with this film.

 

Phantom Menace is my favorite SW film, even if it's not what I would have done with a Darth Vader origin story, like at all.

But just to change up what George already made a bit, perhaps have Obi-Wan as more of the main character from the start. To compare to ANH, Obi-Wan is Luke, Qui-Gon is Ben, and Anakin is Han, the wildcard who enters the picture near act 2 (played by Hayden, not Llyod, or Heath Ledger, if we're dreaming here).

On Tatooine, instead of Obi-Wan being left on the ship, he goes along with them, and he, not Padme, is the one to vent frustrations (maybe really feeling that big brother syndrome when a new baby enters the picture, and the parents' attention shifts away).

Maybe Obi-Wan is the first one to sense the presence of Maul (which Qui-Gon seems blind to, pre-occupied with his fixation on this 'chosen one'), and during the race, Obi-wan tracks him down, alone, feeling he has something to prove, with a battle intercutting with the race. As Anakin wins the race, Obi-wan is defeated and captured by Maul, who tortures him for information on the wherabouts of the queen or whatever. Qui-Gon has to come to the rescue, and is killed by Maul, making his dying wish a bit more impactful as Obi-wan feels the guilt of his death or something.

In act 3, Anakin wants to jump in a starfighter and help out, and Obi-wan has to grow up and let him.

In the final scene, Obi-wan gifts Anakin Qui-Gon's lightsaber.

In AOTC, we see Jedi's training in the temple, with Anakin taking the trials somewhere in act 2.

 

Wow! Well, I won't go into that much detail, as I'm at work-and even at home, I don't think I'd have time for all that.

For TPM, I would basically start at a time between where TPM and AOTC took place. The Galaxy would already have been in turmoil, the Separatists would already have been a thing. The whole plot about Naboo could stay the same but I would have a 12 year old Anakin, and he'd be discovered a little differently-perhaps Qui-Gon meets him AT the Boonta race, and sees that Anakin won. Some sort of shenanigans would happen and Anakin would've helped Qui-Gon and Padme out of trouble, and he's then asked to help fix their ship. This is when Darth Maul (who speaks) attacks the first time, and Anakin again assists them, proving he's strong with the Force. Qui-Gon then arranges for Anakin to come with him and the rest of the story would more or less go the same, only Anakin would take place in the space battle intentionally (like Luke did), rather than by accident. Ultimately the film finishes the same way. Anakin and Padme would be only a couple years apart, and their attraction to each other would be hinted at already in this one. Jar-Jar and Gungans would still be involved, but without all the slapstick.

 

I would add more talk about midichlorians