Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles - Look Back, Look Ahead Part 4 [Network]

This is the final part. The future. With Episode 13 having now been posted to WattPad, it's easy enough to recap here. Qiilura over, the mission to Forsaad can now take place. The idea was to put DarkRula on the spot, and force his hand in being cut off from the Jedi. It was also a way to introduce two sisters we'll be seeing more of later. Lei'sa and So'lei are Twi'lek bounty hunters who are able to use the Force. They aren't Jedi, so they've had to teach themselves to use those powers. These two have taken the Federation up on their bounty, and with their help storms the Jedi base on Forsaad. The intention is to get the location of the Jedi main base - Ilum. This is all part of the war between the Jedi and the Federation of which both sides have been avoiding discussing with DarkRula. While I can't say the details - they will come at the end of this series - I can say that it will cause DarkRula to do something he has been holding back on doing.

So, with DarkRula and The Doctor performing upgrades to all the equipment and droids on The Ark, they are out of the action for the time being. Which gives us time to catch up on what the Daleks have been doing. When we left them last, Dalek Rizon had forced Thalos into a lesser role with himself the new leader of Tatooine. Dalek Zane and Volk had stormed Cyrillia with the help of the Mandalorians to capture the human to droid technology. We will see the outcome of this, as the Daleks make plans to increase their strength by adding to their numbers. Once they can work out all the problems with it. All of the Daleks are therefore on Tatooine, along with the Mandalorians. Since the TARDIS malfunctions again, DarkRula never knows this. All he knows is that a third Dalek leader has been on the planet, and at the end of Hide and Seek has rejoined the others. Hide and Seek will also be going deeper into some of the events from the audio episode.

Before DarkRula and The Doctor part ways until Endor, The Doctor makes a request. He wants to know what happened before he arrived. Where the Daleks arrived and what they did during DarkRula's first encounter with them. A journey with the two in the Scimitar follows, with the exact same journey taken as Kronis and DarkRula had taken those many weeks ago. Coruscant, Fresia, Byss and Empress Teta are all visited, with DarkRula explaining the action that happened at each place. I'm not just going to stay in the past with this arc though, as current events will happen as well. I'm not going to say anything else on that.

The next major thing to happen would be the jump to audio episode four. As I explained, this would be split into it's original four and five episode names, essentially making up two episodes. In Dark Descents we have The Doctor returning to The Ark with the location of where the Daleks are hiding. Once they arrive at Endor, the start of the battle will be told from the other side. The Mandalorians boarding The Ark. It also gives a better chance to see Krayt Skirata's thoughts on the matter at hand. In the audio series, we don't really get to see much at all about why Skirata would change sides, other than the fact Kronis was friends with him. Within Dark Descents, we'll see the action from his side, his wondering at what the Daleks have caused him, and sudden realisation that he should help destroy them instead of helping them. That doesn't mean we won't have time for the battle between DarkRula and The Doctor.

With Final Throwdown, DarkRula and The Doctor head down to Endor in the Scimitar, hoping to find the TARDIS and stop the Daleks once and for all. Down on the surface, and again from Skirata's viewpoint, we see the Scimitar crash down on the surface near the entrance to the base. The talk between Skirata, DarkRula and The Doctor happens, with Skirata finally admitting to himself and to others that he wants nothing more to do with the Daleks. After giving the warning, he jets off. The viewpoint is now on The Doctor as a revelation is to come. Dalek Zane corners them in the generator room of the base, where preparations have now been finished. The Doctor and DarkRula find a turbolaser battery after Dalek Zane activates the start of the void creation sequence, and fires upon the cruiser of the Daleks. It gets pulled down to Endor, and is headed straight for the base. The void opens and claims the ship, defeat is in the air as a turbolaser gets fired, but that turbolaser fires into the void, restoring energy and closing up the void. The ending will be the same as what happens in the audio episode, though it will be from DarkRula's perspective. Some of the dialogue will be changed to reflect the new canonicity of events, and that is the end. DarkRula and The Doctor part ways.

Except for one more thing. Upon cleaning through the base, DarkRula finds that it was once a sub base of the Jedi. While it might have been abandoned, it still had a live link to the Jedi main base. All of the information about the Jedi and Federation war from the archives of Master Tee Vol's journal is found by DarkRula. He shouldn't have been able to see that, so some Jedi Master had been there and left the link open. It never said why the base was abandoned, but the Jedi-Federation war was more important to DarkRula. The story of all of it is told here. And the final scene is of DarkRula vowing to give both the Jedi and Federation a war they will never forget.

Once this has been finished, there will come a time where I revisit this universe to follow DarkRula on his new quest. However, I would want to take a break from the universe to try my hand at other things. The Chameleon Chronicles does have another side of the story, after all. That being from Sonic's perspective. I'll give more details on that when I get to it. And with that, the Look Back, Look Ahead series of posts for Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles is finished. With how many episodes are left to write, this series should be finished during the first half of next year. Look forward to them.

Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles Look Back, Look Ahead Series

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles - Look Back, Look Ahead Part 3 [Network]

So here we are. The point where the written fiction joins up with the audio series. It's here I'm thinking - "This doesn't need to be a full retelling of the audio." Sure, the main plot points still need to be in place. I made sure they were. But the written fiction, as I've said before, was more about being a behind-the-scenes type story. What happened between the audio episodes. So, for the audio episodes themselves, it would be interesting to get more into events happening at the same time but not covered within the audio themselves. Yeah, the main points of the audio would still be there. That's the whole point of including them in the first place. More would be happening though.

Take, for example, the very start of Act 7. The Daleks are in the middle of taking over the cruiser the stormtroopers arrived in. With the audio, we only ever get a small peek at that scene, and without ever knowing the Daleks are the ones causing the mayhem. With the written fiction, we're following them throughout the cruiser as they tackle multiple squads and groups of stormtroopers. Next up was another episode exclusively following The Doctor. Since he doesn't have anything that needs his attention, he is just scouting around as usual and comes across something interesting. As per his curiosity, he explores. As per his exploring, he manages to get himself into trouble. I wanted to include this little bit about The Doctor as, despite being something new to him, it is still within his world of knowledge. And that was something I wanted to show before sending him into an unknown place. Things start to get moving as DarkRula is able to move on and The Doctor arrives in The Ark's main hangar, which the Daleks are not happy about. I also decided to add a bit of an extra part between audio episodes 1 and 2. Just a bit to show a bit of information transfer. Kronis recognising the Daleks by name, and him showing The Doctor a lightsaber.

The second audio episode starts in Act 7 and runs through the entire of Act 8. The Doctor looks up on the TARDIS, and again there is a new part added in the middle so it doesn't look as though the Daleks were right on top of the TARDIS's location when they found The Doctor. As for Kronis, he's in the middle of talking to DarkRula when the Daleks attack. So all three are in place for this event. DarkRula listening in on the comm, The Doctor watching from the overview of the Dalek command room, and Kronis on the bridge of The Ark ready to accept his fate. He knows there is no winning. Fortunately he told DarkRula of The Doctor and the Daleks. Then he gets killed by the Daleks. Since most of the second audio episode had been played out in Act 7, Act 8 needed a bit more to keep it going. So why not dive into more of DarkRula's past? A week after the event at the Thunder Strike Delta base, Kronis takes DarkRula to the main Jedi base of Ilum. The cruiser during that time had been repaired at a Jedi maintenance base, and Kronis had received instructions to return to the main base. It was also on this base that DarkRula had heard the fact that his old home of the Thunder Strike Delta base had been destroyed. Not that he knows who did it. The Mandalorians do. As mentioned in audio episode 4, Skirata had been friends with Kronis. Kronis had contacted Skirata and told him of DarkRula, and of the base who would rather remove a person who made a mistake than teach them how it was wrong. So Skirata had organised a lightning raid on the base. Kronis suspected who it might have been, but never found out the truth. I'm revealing this as I'm unsure it will ever get mentioned within the story. It also leads me to say that after audio episode three, we will be seeing more of the Mandalorian fear of the Daleks, and the doubt about serving them.

So we come to see that the Jedi now accept older students, but first they have to pass the test. This test is the same one the younglings face in The Clone Wars TV Series Season 5. To face yourself and learn to face that what you fear. If older students fail the test, they are unable to become Jedi. Hardly anyone had been accepted through that route, with most still being selected at a young age. The Jedi still fear that route, as history has shown that starting Jedi training at an older age can lead to a more darker path. Within this alternate continuity, there have been five attempts to reinstate the Jedi Order. The first with Luke Skywalker not soon after Return of the Jedi [even though information on that is nearly non-existent I'm still using it as one of the five]. Three other attempts failed, so the Jedi Order we see here is attempt number five. And considering it has lasted more than one hundred years, it is assumed to have worked. So we see DarkRula accept what happened to him at the Thunder Strike Delta base, and also a bit of his training at Ilum. Throughout these flashbacks DarkRula is having, he quietly makes his way to the bridge. Once he reaches the bridge, and sees Kronis again, after a bit of an emotional moment, one last image presents itself. DarkRula and Kronis on Tatooine, with that image changing to reflect the coming change of DarkRula and The Doctor visiting Tatooine in the future. That being audio episode 3. The meeting of DarkRula and The Doctor happens, and the Federation come to call. The Federation have moved into a new level of distrust for DarkRula now, and I wanted to show the strain of that relationship now that the only anchor that held it together has gone. With the Federation taking over The Ark, DarkRula manages to bluff them off it and hold it for himself - something the Jedi insist later might not have been the best idea.

The Mandalorians were aiding the Daleks behind the scenes, and so now they need to find them. They do so out of fear for what they are capable of, and the Daleks know it. A battle ensues between Tir LeRane with two other Mandalorians and the Daleks after a clash of words. LeRane figures the Daleks might as well be taken out, and his two comrades agree, once they accuse him of all their failings. The three try to gather as much information as possible on taking the Daleks out. However, once it comes to Skirata taking over, he does indeed agree to be under their command. He does so to protect DarkRula, just like he destroyed the Thunder Strike Delta base to protect him. Despite the two never meeting, Skirata feels a bond to DarkRula - as though it passed over when Kronis died. Of course, since the death of Kronis was dealt with in Act 7, Act 8 needed its new Dalek Fire. And so the fates of the Mandalorians became that Fire.

Act 9 deals with some of the plots from before the audio episodes. We start with Dalek Rizon on Tatooine, who strikes a deal with Thalos that allows the Dalek to work without interruptions on a new trap for the Doctor. This is again moving closer to setting up when I cover audio episode 3. A few more of these are planned, which will lead right in to audio episode 3's beginning. We get a bit of set up of tension between DarkRula and the Jedi Council, as even that relationship doesn't seem as though it can last. The Jedi order DarkRula to Naboo to continue the mission the Trade Federation had set him, though this time be a bit more peaceful in communicating with them. The Jedi also note The Doctor's appearance, and discuss who he is. Naboo isn't threatened in any way. It was purely to get trouble stirred up, the Federation yet again trying to get one over Naboo. This entire act is based on lies. From all sides. Dalek Rizon lied to get Thalos to trust him. The Jedi hide secrets from DarkRula.

Act 10 sees things get more interesting, with Cyrillia coming into play again. The Jedi order DarkRula to return to the temple - somewhere he hasn't actually been in quite a while. But when there, they give him a mission that could have easily been given over a transmission. The task is simple enough. Go to Cyrillia and get Jek Nori back. Well, it would be simple - had the Daleks not arrived as well. Since DarkRula had convinced The Doctor that he wouldn't be needed, it was easy for him to not reveal the true identities of the attackers to The Doctor. Of course, he had to think to come to that thought. He also had a revelation that Kronis already had. He had heard that the droids were once people, but realising that Jek Nori shared a friendship with one made him think about that The Doctor had said to him upon first meeting. "Surely you must know of the emotional contact between man and machine?" DarkRula has never given any machine any thought than using it as a tool. A ship, a droid, anything mechanical, he has saw them as just something to use. With what he now knows, it's possible he could start thinking a bit different. Upon reaching the Scimitar, he sees the Mandalorians examining it. He uses the Force to pull it out of their reach, and blasts back to The Ark. Meanwhile, the Mandalorians and Daleks have succeeded in what they came for. The technology of turning people into droids. This becomes something else the Daleks use, as they are starting to dwindle in number. We get a bit more on Jek Nori's condition, and a bit more distrust between DarkRula and the Jedi Council. And it seems as though a rift will soon happen as we get into Act 11 and DarkRula is left waiting for something to do.

The Doctor easily tired of waiting, curious was he about the Jedi Temple. So of course he sets to wondering. And gets caught by the Jedi. They question him about his activities. Zabaran gets a little too into the investigation, treating it more as a serious matter than just a conversation. It shows that the pulls of the dark are still around, even if this is the longest the order has survived for over a thousand years. Once Kanar Tee Vol gets involved, the investigation gets on a more calmer note, and after a bit of confusion is sorted out, the Jedi fears about The Doctor are gone. So they set him on a mission to try and find the person they confused him with. The thief that stole from the Jedi Temple. Which The Doctor does, with DarkRula's help. Once that is over, a new mission to Forsaad is to take place. The Doctor convinces DarkRula to let them take the TARDIS down to the surface once they reach the system Forsaad is in. Instead of getting to the surface of Forsaad, the two end up on Qiilura. This is what episode 3 of the audio series would have been had I wrote it. And so act 12 commences.

Thanks to what actually happened in audio episode 3, I was able to start the set up for the TARDIS going haywire in this act. Originally they would have just arrived to explore, trying to find likely places the Daleks might be, and stumble upon the plot to kill the gurlanins. Most of the episode stays the same, but the talking wouldn't have been quite so long in some places. The Doctor and DarkRula arrive on the planet, try to find someone, and run into the gurlanin Colsor. She explains about the war between them and the Trade Federation, and DarkRula agrees to put a bit of fear into them. After a scout of the Federation base, in which he was willingly allowed to enter by a lone administrator, DarkRula sees the bombs which changes the course of the plan. A controller for the bomb must be on the planet, and they reason the mansion on the hill is a good place to check out. The Doctor is chosen to go, and while the rest remove the bombs, he destroys the controller but also sets the timer on the bomb counting. After contact with The Doctor, DarkRula gets the administrator out - who wanted to remove the last bomb - just before the place explodes. Once everyone is back together, the gurlanins get to plant the bombs on a Federation-owned target, and the administrator no longer wants to be a part of the Federation. DarkRula offers for her to stay with them, but she refuses due to the Federation ties DarkRula has. If you're seeing a similarity with a certain series within the Star Wars universe, it's purposefully there. I've used quite a lot from the Republic Commando series over this series - mostly for its representation of the Mandalorians - and this was the largest mirroring so far of that series. I made sure there was enough different so it wasn't a blatant copy, but with enough references for those who would recognise them to enjoy the mirror.

We are getting close to the end of this now, and part four will be the last. All those future stories probably won't take up so much space as these last three posts have done. The future of the series is upon us, then. Fifty episodes, and the old episode system changes to a new one. The place of the uploads now moves, and a number of stories are yet to be told. Part four will reveal the secrets of the future. Not all of them of course, otherwise the series wouldn't continue. Or at least the suspense would no longer be there.

Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles Look Back, Look Ahead Series

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles - Look Back, Look Ahead Part 2 [Network]

The written fiction of the series, as said in the previous part, started at the beginning of February 2012 - the 7th to be exact. It started at the same time TV and Film Residential Camp did, though the two did split from the same posting dates after the first few uploads. Both stories do share similarities in production. For instance, the starting few parts had very little planning, and only after those few parts did any sense of a longer plan - in other words the main of the story - come from that.

The first two parts of the audio series did give me something to work on, and since Doctor Who is in the name, I knew I wanted to start this series with The Doctor. I started it out with the Daleks and Cybermen fighting on some planet with the intention that The Doctor stops the fight. Having him be the one to send the Daleks to the Star Wars universe came from the fact The Doctor has caused problems to be made - sometimes unintentionally - and then having to fix them. I wanted to try a twist of the leaders of a group of Daleks being more human-like in mind, so created the Dalez Corporation. This group could implant a living brain into the shell of a Dalek, as well as alter said brain to be more like the Daleks. When it came to the leaders doing the same process, they left their brains intact from any alteration. Naturally they still imitated the Dalek mindset from time to time so as to blend in with real Daleks. This process of implanting a brain into a machine would be mirrored later in the series in the Star Wars universe. Of course, I'll be mentioning that later on.

The second written episode introduced General Kronis and Max Golden - aka DarkRula - to the scene. With a battle against the Daleks, no less. It might not have been much, but I wanted to show straight away the threat the Daleks are within the Star Wars universe. So they blast through Coruscant and get into a transport only to meet the Mandalorian who owns it. This transport is the Scimitar - the ship Darth Maul owned. I had the idea of using this thing right from the start as Darth Maul being one of my favourite characters, I took an interest in that spaceship he used. Reading up on it, it did look as though it was a one-of-a-kind ship. So what if throughout the many years that separate The Phantom Menace with this timeline the Scimitar changed hands many times only for it to then end up in the hands of a Mandalorian? And then what if DarkRula took that ship after its previous owner had been defeated in battle?

The last episode of Act 1 would detail the third leader of Dalez awaking. This would end the period of no forward planning, though that only extended to the end of each act. It would also start to tie into the audio series more with The Ark making its way into the written series, though it wouldn't be in the hands of Kronis until Act 4.

Act 2 was continuing the battle at hand. The Mandalorian the Daleks had run into was now dead, and the Daleks themselves were thought to be as well. The planet Fresia was once a Mandalorian base, and still had its defences. Multiple turret emplacements were set up around the outside of what once had been a small camp, and with one of those destroyed, the Daleks simply moved to the next. So by the time the rest of the Mandalorians come along, that turret is already active and firing. The Daleks wouldn't know friend from foe yet, and are rejecting any calls coming in, so they fire upon the Mandalorians without knowing they are the rescue team. But get rescued they do. The first episode within Act 2 shows the Mandalorians create a warp from the Federation cruiser. The idea of creating the warp came from black holes in space. A black hole is created either through a loss of energy or the gain of unused energy. I simply put those two things together. Extra power is inserted into what is going to be the warp point. That energy then gets near instantly drained to create the warp. Unlike a natural black hole though, this warp can be stopped by returning power to the point it was drained from. This idea becomes much bigger come audio episode four, in which the technology is used on Endor to get rid of The Doctor. The Mandalorians show that they are the Star Wars equivalent to the Daleks by evading capture and destroying one of their own cruisers as a ploy. Tir LeRane also makes short work of both Kronis and DarkRula, though leaves their fate in the hands of the crumbling cruiser. The two are fine and ready to get back in the action though, with the next act allowing them to stop a Dalek trap. Act 2 also introduced the teleports that get used in the first two audio episodes.

Act 3 starts with the Daleks planning on setting traps, though they run into an old foe. The Cybermen had been deposited on Byss, and a battle takes place between both Cybermen and Daleks. The Daleks overcome the Cybermen and finish the task of setting the trap. Kronis and DarkRula arrive on Byss while the Daleks and Mandalorians are still there and set off the trap before escaping. This would be the point where the Mandalorians, along with the Daleks go silent until they re-emerge during the first two audio episodes. It needed to be done like that so Kronis and DarkRula are still pretty much in the dark about their capabilities. Of course, the Daleks want to destroy those who get in their way, so the hunt was behind the scenes. As we find out later, they decide to draw Kronis out by staging an assault, but making it look like only the Daleks are involved. Within Act 3, I decided that it would be interesting to explore unique ways of building droids. And of other creatures that had the Force. So the planet of Forsaad, and the Forsariun bird, were created with the idea of gaining an egg to extract the materials needed for use. The Polar-Axel 2-22 was also created for this specific reason. There is a chance for it to return, however. With a much more interesting use.

The Agility droids do well on their first test, and get sent to the Reverb-class cruisers. A battle is taking place above another Federation base, and Valon gets called to action. DarkRula has visions of something happening, though only after he refuses and gets stunned twice do they resolve to any meaning. Valon will die in this battle. Since Kronis was the commander of The Ark during audio episodes one and two, the current commander of the written fiction needed to be offed. He could simply have been offered a place elsewhere, but this thread was building up to something. It needed to look as though DarkRula could have been the one to kill Valon. And so in the space battle, DarkRula heads out with Valon with a squad of his own. Their adversaries are strong, and all three Reverb cruisers get taken out. DarkRula senses Valon in trouble during the retreat and helps, thus setting up the Neimoidian's distrust of him. Well, less setting it up and more giving them even more reasons to distrust him. Even so, upon the meeting on Neimoidia with the Federation High Council in Act 4, DarkRula is at least able to keep his squad, while Kronis gets command of The Ark.

Episode three of the audio series had been published by the time Act 4 started, and so now was the time for a bit of set up. The third member of Dalez - Dalek Rizon - had found his way to Tatooine. Upon taking command of Tosche Station to get a message out to his fellows, Rizon starts with all-out conquest of the planet. Meanwhile, Thalos is using his command of Stormtroopers to try and keep the situation under control. Rizon's conquest looks as though it ends at the Mos Eisley cantina. This starts the plot thread of Rizon taking command of Thalos for his own ends. Which of course ends with the death of Thalos in audio episode three.

The middle of Act 4 delves into DarkRula's past. Focusing on the battle where he acquired his name of DarkRula. His real name was Max Golden, but since the event of the battle at the Thunder Strike Delta base, he hated the name - and in a way hated himself. Since the event he lived on self-doubt, preferring action to thought lest it stop him from acting. This sets up what happens on Naboo during the battle with the padawan of Jek Nori, and later the guilt at losing yet another team through actions he feels are his own. It would also set up things to happen later on.

The end of Act 4 starts up a small side plot on Naboo, with Act 5 being the start of the Cyrillian arc. In Legends canon, Cyrillia is the world where the DUM Pit Droids are made, so it already had a hand in building droids. Introducing an enterprise to the planet where massive amounts of various droids get made paved the way for the Star Wars equivalent of how Dalez Daleks are made. Implanting the brain of a flesh being into a machine so they keep all their own characteristics. There was also allowance for me to get a few parts of history inserted into this timeline. So the Crime Wars became a thing. It doesn't get expanded on when mentioned within the arc, but the idea behind it was many of the crime syndicates start to catch on to the fact the Republic was crushing them from the galaxy. With the first few entirely wiped out, it pushed them over the edge and they started to retaliate. It took a few months to break out fully, and even less time to be finished. The crime syndicates realised they couldn't match the power of the Republic and even the Jedi, and after two major battles and a few small skirmishes, they retreated to the shadows. Most thought them wiped out. Until a group sporting the name of the New Alliances Rebellion took over a stormtrooper barracks. That name was mentioned in Act 3 by the pirates who were scouting Hoth. As shown, they were captured and let free, and the reason being is hardly anyone knows of the New Alliances Rebellion. The Republic have been trying to cover them up. Neither Federation nor Jedi know of their roots.

So with the tour of Cyrillia over and Nori's padawan taken care of, that was about all I had until The Doctor gets brought to the universe. There was still a few things that needed taking care of. Yes, Kronis and DarkRula were split currently, but there was no way twelve days would pass without the two having contact. And it needed to be twelve days, as I'd planned for the Daleks to have been in the Star Wars universe for a month before The Doctor arrives. Between audio episodes one and three there is a month, then between audio episodes three and four there is a month as well. This was done to keep things simple, but since that was one of the first things ever planned - and three audio episodes already out - there was no way it could be retconned. And so Act 6 was nothing but set up for the start of the audio episodes. DarkRula is kept away from Kronis after escaping Naboo by extensive damage to the Scimitar. Kronis is on patrol duty in a sector far from DarkRula. Almost two weeks pass before DarkRula can get underway again, and Kronis is called as reinforcements for a supply transport that is getting attacked. Though this is the second wave of reinforcements after the Stormtroopers fail in acting their reinforcement request for the transport.

That's the end of part two, and this is starting to get a bit bigger than I had planned. We'll see when it comes to part three of this series, but there might be a part four. In any case, part three will be looking at how I adapted audio episodes one and two into the written fiction, what happened after that point, and at least up to audio episode three, if not four.

Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles Look Back, Look Ahead Series

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4