Star Wars Underground (Live Action Series)

[The Wormhole]

If done right this could make an awesome TV show. I recall that they asked Russell T. Davies to write for them but he turned it down as he was working on a new project himself. He did say he liked what he heard, though.

Actually, according to RTD's book The Writer's Tale, Lucas asked RTD to meet with him in London to discuss the Star Wars series, which RTD declined because "Lucas isn't making the time to meet me in Cardiff, so I won't make the time to meet him in London." It's on page 119 of the 2010 paperback edition (the one with RTD, David Tennant, and John Simm on the cover).

 

[sidious618]

If done right this could make an awesome TV show. I recall that they asked Russell T. Davies to write for them but he turned it down as he was working on a new project himself. He did say he liked what he heard, though.

Actually, according to RTD's book The Writer's Tale, Lucas asked RTD to meet with him in London to discuss the Star Wars series, which RTD declined because "Lucas isn't making the time to meet me in Cardiff, so I won't make the time to meet him in London." It's on page 119 of the 2010 paperback edition (the one with RTD, David Tennant, and John Simm on the cover).

I read what I posted in an interview but I'd trust what he said in The Writer's Tale over that so I'll go with what you said.

 

[Saul]

Why not bring back model ships and have effects resemble the original movies to tie closer to them.

Perhaps because shooting models is MORE expensive than cg? TV sci-fi only made the switch *after* 'Babylon 5' proved that the technology was ready (or rather they made it ready) to do twice what motion control could do at half the price.

But this wouldn't be TV cgi effects, this would be movie quality. Surely a lot more expensive.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Judging from what is on screen, the OT is, and always will be, the story of Luke Skywalker.

What OT have you been watching?

Here's a literature 101 lesson for you: protagonist =/= main character.

Here's a Literature 101 lesson for you: "Main Character" is the textbook definition of "Protagonist". In fact, it comes from the Greek word πρωταγωνιστής or "protagonistes", which means "The First (or Main) Actor".

Sorry.

 

[davejames]

Judging from what is on screen, the OT is, and always will be, the story of Luke Skywalker.

What OT have you been watching?

Here's a literature 101 lesson for you: protagonist =/= main character.

Here's a Literature 101 lesson for you: "Main Character" is the textbook definition of "Protagonist". In fact, it comes from the Greek word πρωταγωνιστής or "protagonistes", which means "The First (or Main) Actor".

Sorry.

I think he was probably trying to argue that, within the context of the entire saga, Anakin could still be seen as the main character-- even if he slides more into the background for the final 3 movies.

But even that I think is a stretch, since it's clearly Luke's journey to becoming a Jedi that is the focus of the OT. At the very most, you could say that it's the story of the "Skywalker family," but it's certainly not just all about Anakin.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Sure, the whole story could be seen as the saga of the Skywalker clan of Force users. And since restoring Anakin to his old self becomes Luke's true quest in the OT, that supports the importance of the whole family to the saga.

But with two members still alive and kicking at the end of ROTJ, the story is far from over. And if you wanna follow their kids' stories, it could go on even further.

So the first job of the New OT is to establish that, yes, Anakin is still present in Vader's consciousness, and to further clarify just how much of him is in there. The New OT will have to treat Vader as more than just this really cool cipher in black armor. It will have to stick with him in scenes that give us a solid understanding of who this new character - Vader/Anakin - really is.

Well that's the problem-- the whole point of Vader was that the Dark Side had turned him into this cold, heartless agent of evil, whose only purpose was to enforce the Emperor's will. There shouldn't be any "character" there to explore-- at least not until Luke starts to break through towards the end.

Maybe the dark side tried to do that, but given his Chosen One status and all, wasn't completely successful. This would be parallel to the way the dark side on Mortis totally took over Ahsoka, yet didn't seem to be able to do that with Anakin. What's the difference? Just because Ahsoka is younger? Would the dark side have been able to totally take over Obi-Wan, too? Anyway, there's some wiggle room there.

We didn't really get the idea that there was any Anakin left in Vader in the OT much at all (because that idea wasn't there to be gotten of course until ROTJ) but it's consistent with the story overall, or at least the parts of the story I choose to pay attention to because they don't suck.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Once again I highly recommend that people google and read "The Secret History of Star Wars".

tl;dr

Is it basically, "Lucas is full of shit?"

 

[Harvey]

Sort of. It's been published as a book, but most of it is there on the website, and quite interesting. Worth the read.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Judging from what is on screen, the OT is, and always will be, the story of Luke Skywalker.

What OT have you been watching?

Here's a literature 101 lesson for you: protagonist =/= main character.

Here's a Literature 101 lesson for you: "Main Character" is the textbook definition of "Protagonist". In fact, it comes from the Greek word πρωταγωνιστής or "protagonistes", which means "The First (or Main) Actor".

Sorry.

It's a semantic difference. And to be totally accurate protagonistes means "leading actor" which is the person who "leads" the story, or rather, the person who is the focal perspective for the audience, moves and steers the plot from point to point, is the center of all the conflict, etc. He is NOT however necessarily the person the story's theme, concept, and would-be tragedy is based on or ultimately about. For example, if the story were a train, the protagonist would be the locomotive, but we all know the lounge car is really where all the action is.

I typed all this out in a rather extensive response to Temis late last night and my browser timed out. Ain't typing that shit up again.

But essentially I used TWOK as an example to show how, while Khan was the protagonist, the story was ultimately about Sock--the tertiary character. It was his tragedy.

I think piggybacked that to TDK which could also be seen as "The Tragedy of Harvey Dent" (Also the tertiary character).

Then used that in terms of Vader and Star Wars.

I went further on to show how methodically Lucas shot Vader in comparison to the other characters (Even used a few screen caps!) to show that Lucas intentionally showcased Vader as the center of everything.

 

[Set Harth]

Heh, that already sounds a lot more fun than the prequels.

Believe it or not, it really wasn't.

when Jedi and Sith fight, they're both wrong in a way. Both sides refuse to acknowledge that what the cosmos really wants is balance, not domination of one side over the other.

The Sith, by their very nature, always seek domination. They are incapable of doing anything else. That is what evil does. The Sith would have to be wiped out before they could stop dominating.

So therefore, I don't see how there could be true balance, since the Dark Side users - the Sith - must always fight, they must always attempt to wipe out their enemies. It's in their nature. The Jedi, being Light Side users, are of course capable of coexisting in balance, but the Dark Side is not.

Saying "the Jedi and the Sith are both wrong" is just an inability to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys. We may rest assured that Lucas is not similarly confused.

The balance of the Force is NOT a Jedi/Sith head count. It is the balance between the light and dark sides of the Force. It is not a balance of Force practitioner cults. Force users are not the Force. You can't take "the Force" out of the phrase balance of the Force, replace it with something else - Jedi and Sith membership - and assume you're still talking about the same quantity. Language doesn't work that way; changing the words in a phrase to different words is not presumed to retain the original meaning.

Thus, bringing balance to the Force means eradication of the Sith, not some stultifying gridlock where the Jedi order finds itself opposed by an equal number of Sith. The Jedi would not look forward to such an outcome. That's why the erroneous rewrite of the balance of the Force into "Jedi/Sith head count" is contradicted outright by the same film which introduced the balance of the Force, not to mention ROTJ. It's an invalid substitution, and it always has been.

 

[JD]

Sure, the whole story could be seen as the saga of the Skywalker clan of Force users. And since restoring Anakin to his old self becomes Luke's true quest in the OT, that supports the importance of the whole family to the saga.

But with two members still alive and kicking at the end of ROTJ, the story is far from over. And if you wanna follow their kids' stories, it could go on even further.

They already have. Beware, this does contain some spoilers for the Legacy comic book series. Temis have you read any of the SW books or comics? Because most of the stuff that you've talked about in this thread and the Clone Wars thread have already been addressed there in some form.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I think Lucas has no desire to continue the story of Luke and Leia in live action form at all. Which is why he's used other media to explore other various areas of the Star Wars timeline.

 

[JD]

Yeah, at this point I have a feeling the only way we might see canon versions of the OT characters again, is maybe in a cameo in a future series. I doubt we'll see any new TV or movie stories focused on them. Honestly, if that was going to happen, I think it probably would have by now.

 

[shivkala]

Say...WHAT?!

If that proposed Star Wars live-action TV series, Star Wars: Underworld, ever actually gets on the air, one of its first plotlines is rumored to be a real doozy.

Star Wars: Underworld is the long-in-development series that will allegedly take place in that roughly 20-year span between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope. It's supposed to focus on smaller or previously unknown characters in the Star Wars universe, but according to Ain't It Cool News, one early episode of the show will feature a plotline that could change the course of Star Wars history.

How so? Well, according to a source, one of the first episodes will follow a group of bandits who somehow acquire the ability to travel in time ... and promptly hatch a plan to journey back to the past and erase the existence of Darth Vader!

I just can't wrap my head around this. It just seems, wow. This is February 1st, not April 1st, right?

A quote on the site I linked made me think the opening scrawl could read like this:

Long ago in a distant galaxy, I, Vader, the Sith Lord of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish Jedi warrior wielding a magic lightsaber stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Vader!

Sorry, the only way my brain can cope with this rumor is to imagine it as a Samurai Jack type show. But that would never happen...

 

[PsychoPere]

I saw that mentioned on another board earlier today. I don't buy it. Time travel has been a very rare inclusion even in the EU, and it seems like that plot would be rather difficult to pull off for the characters. After all, no one knows who Darth Vader really is, so how could they expect to "erase his existence"? The author of the article also made a point of stressing how this alleged information came from an "untested" source.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah I saw this on Bleeding Cool earlier today as well and dismissed it...that's just too out there, even for Star Wars.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Leave the time travel stuff to Star Trek...anyway i don't buy it. It barely buy force walking into the past.

 

[The Wormhole]

Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on this too. To my knowledge, Star Wars has never done time travel in nearly 35 years since A New Hope first premiered. That's taking into account 6 live action movies, an animated movie, 4 animated TV shows, hundreds of novels and comic books and a decent amount of video games. Now would be a very odd time to start.

And besides, there's plenty of story material in the Star Wars universe to cover without resorting to this trope.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Time travel???

Bwahhaaa ha ha he!

 

[PsychoPere]

To my knowledge, Star Wars has never done time travel in nearly 35 years since A New Hope first premiered. That's taking into account 6 live action movies, an animated movie, 4 animated TV shows, hundreds of novels and comic books and a decent amount of video games.

There have actually been a few cases in novels and comic books, which is why I referred to time travel as "rare" in my previous post.