On Google Plus, Dan D. asked what my "solar system only" version of Star Wars would be. My initial impulse was to but Star Wars all on one fantastic planet like Mongo or on a planet system with a number of moons like Pandarve in Storm or Mongo of the 1980 film. On further consideration, I thought a more Buck Rogers or post-Raymond Flash Gordon thing would also be cool....
Planet Earth has once again been plunged into a World War. An oppressive Empire has gained control of five continents, and the Americas are under siege. Brave freedom fighter rocketeers striking from hidden bases, have managed to keep the military might of the Empire at bay.
To crush the resistance once and for all, the Empire has constructed a giant battle station within an asteroid. The power of the Death Star will spell certain doom for the Union of Pan-America, and for the other free worlds of the Solar System.
Princess Leia, a refugee of conquered Europe and Resistance agent, is charged with spiriting stolen plans to the Death Star off Earth and to the secret base on Ceres. Unfortunately, her ship is captured by a squadron of Imperial rockets commanded by Darth Vader.
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| The Death Star's commander, Grand Moff Tarkin, will interrogate the Princess personally |
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| Obiwan saves Luke from the savage Tuskens |
Spurred by the urgency of the message Obi Wan, Luke, the monkey, and the robot go to spaceport Mos Eisley to find a ship to carry them to Earth. They hire a hotshot pilot named Han Solo with a Venusian Wookie co-pilot, Chewbacca.
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| "She's fast enough for you, old man." |
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| "Bring me Solo!" |
You get the idea!
I like this quite a bit...much better than that steampunk SW I saw in comics a couple years back (it was clever but kind of meh...).
ReplyDeleteMy main quibble would be confining it to the solar system and still getting the million weird sentient life forms. I suppose it’s not a huge issue if you limit yourself to the mythology of the first (original) film...basically limit the aliens to a handful of five or six (Wookie, Rodian, Aqualish, Tuskens, and Jawas). Hell, you could even do the Tatooine natives as the same species (Tuskens just being a wilder, savage Jawa grown bigger in the deep desert).
Make Luke a “next gen” terraformer (terrafarmer) with sand folk being remnants of earlier genetic engineered humans of first wave colonists. The same could hold true for other species. Wookies would be uplifted apes from planet Earth originally engineered for space work (thus their aptitudes and inability to verbalize).
I’d think the Rebellion would be more likely to come from 3rd world developing nations (on Earth or other planets) than from the Americans. I don’t think the self-styled Emperor of the Solar System gets power without first subjugating North America (save, perhaps, certain parts of Appalachia country).
Yeah, I think I may have seen that Steampunk Star Wars. Steampunk is sort of over done.
ReplyDeleteThis is written from a late twenties to early 40s lens. Captain Future and similar pulp and comic stories had a solar system teeming with different species (sometimes multiple ones on worlds) and I imagine this would as well.
Likewise, America is the focus of much of the pulp fiction but not the super-power it is today from a 30s lens, so in keeping with that feel it is Europe where the war began and America that is the last hope. The original Buck Rogers (before he was named Buck) stories and ERB's Beyond Thiry.
Also, the Union of Pan-America would contain a far number of modern "developing world" nations.
ReplyDeleteRegular Star Wars makes more sense as a single solar system already.
ReplyDeleteI like this quite a bit...much better than that steampunk SW I saw in comics a couple years back (it was clever but kind of meh...).
ReplyDeletein Dark Empire?
I can see that, but not so much our Solar System.
ReplyDeleteI thought about this a while ago. It lines up pretty well since Lucas mined serials like Flash Gordon, and golden age SF for Star Wars anyway. I thought Venus could hold several locales: the jungle temple base of Yavin, Cloud City, the swamps of Dagobah, as well as the Gungan dwellings. Theed could be in the highlands near one of the poles, Kamino the wild ocean. Have you read the short story collections "Old Mars" and "Old Venus," edited by George R.R. Martin? A lot of great ideas there!
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