Summer of Sonic 2016 [Events]

It's been just over a week since the event, and I can say it was great to be there. I arrived on the Friday in London, staying just round the corner at the Holiday Inn. I had my best friend Hayden with me, and we were looking forward to such an exciting event the next day. We still had the rest of Friday to get through first.

We took to an exploring of the immediate area, looping around the block opposite to where we were staying. We took in the numerous shops around, and popped into a CEX for a look at the things they had for sale. While we didn't buy anything, we saw Simpsons Hit and Run was on sale for PS2, and I'm pretty sure I spotted most of the seasons for Family Guy. There was also a Power Rangers Ninja Storm DVD, which I found very odd as I've never even seen Power Rangers sold anywhere before. Well, the DVD's at least. Around 17:15 we headed to Chelsea Peri Peri Grill, which was right next to the Holiday Inn. The food was nice, and after some spicy chicken and fries we returned to our room. There was still at least a quarter of the day left though, and our drinks supply was low. So we headed back out. First to Argos, where we picked up Cluedo. Then to Poundland where I picked up four drinks, as did my friend. Thank the stars there was a two for one pound offer going in all the shops along that road for cooled drinks, as I lost count of how many we picked up over the three days. Returning to our room, we start up an incredibly simple game of Cluedo - thanks to me reading the instructions wrong and thinking you had to announce all the cards you had that the other person was questioning about. Needless to say, we passed a bit of time before calling it a day. Thanks to the free Wi-Fi, we were able to get on our mobile devices to watch whatever we pleased while lying in our beds before going to sleep. Despite being a Power Rangers fan, I've never seen the original series, so that's what I was watching.

Saturday arrived, and we were up at 08:00. Fully ready an hour later - breakfast being included with our stay - we queued up for the event. The person who joined behind us had a phone hooked up to a radio-like loudspeaker, and was playing SEGA:Sonic Radio. There was a bit of a wait, but with the music and the cameras running up and down the line, it went quick enough. Once inside we headed straight for the merchandise stall. The main thing I wanted was a poster, so a poster I bought. I had planned on going back sometime, but the rest of the day came and went without another visit there from me. The event opened at just over 11:00 with the usual Boozerman animation, minute countdown video - this year featuring members of the Sonic community - and greetings from the founders Svend Joscelyne and Adam "T-Bird" Tuff. Once that was over, there was a small gap until Mike Pollock came on stage for his Q&A. We decided to stay for that, so while sat we looked over at everything else, the queue for Sonic Mania was already going strong. Once the Mike Pollock Q&A started it was getting interesting. Not least because he was asked about how he got the role of Ella from Sonic X.

Never Mind The Buzzbombers was next up, and as that's always an entertaining event, we stayed where we were. And it was an entertaining event. Johnny Gioeli was the guest star for one side, and Mike Pollock for the other. Both sides were backed up by a member from the audience. Team Svend and Team T-Bird battled it out over a very entertaining mask round and a fired up quick fire round, where Adam brought in Matt from Tails' Channel to secure another victory for the team. Which they did. There was a break before Jam With Jun! so we decided it was time to try Mania. The queue was quite long, though not as long as the signing queues got, and we passed the time with Hayden having The Logo Quiz on his phone and both of us trying to guess the logos. This is something we did during most of the downtime. During the queueing, the animation showcase started up. First up was Sonic the Hedgehog in Brief by Frobman. I enjoyed this one as it gave me a feeling of The Magic Roundabout in the way it was narrated. The next one up was from Sonic Paradox. The Vector's Knickers Collab is roughly the same as Knuckles' Briefs was, in that the jokes are formed on a singular main character other than Sonic. It was another great show by Sonic Paradox, and while not fully finished with all the content, it still provided plenty of laughs.

Now, no recording of footage was allowed to allow the line to run smoothly, and I didn't think to even snap a picture of the game from within the line. Needless to say, I enjoyed my time with it. I played the new stage Studiopolis, though couldn't properly enjoy it as there was a bit of an audio problem. That being I was hearing Green Hill Zone's theme over the top of everything else. I've heard many a tale of a demo station glitching out somehow, so I wasn't too concerned. The game itself ran smooth. I got the hang of all the controls very easily, and my limited knowledge of playing the classics transferred to this game as well. I can't fully compare physics and things like that, but the level felt large without actually being so, which is something I've always admired about the classics. Starting out went well, though my timing in certain areas was off and I soon ended up on the lowest path. It was a good time to test the drop dash then... Except I didn't.

The move is very easy to pull off in the game, but I just kept letting go of the button too early. All except one time. It felt a good move, sort of like the bounce from Adventure 2 except hitting the ground propelled you forward and not back up in the air. I managed to pull off a few neat jump cuts with the spin dash, and managed to get through the level without losing a life. When it came to near the end of the level, I found a fire shield. Needless to say I didn't use it. Except as a shield. I know the fire shield comes with the ability of a forward charge, but I felt I didn't need to use it. The level design itself is great. Multiple routes within routes, though never complicated. A good number of ramps and loops and other set pieces to get through the levels, and I already knew about the references within the level so was looking out for them. This game is great from what I have experienced from that one level, and I'm hoping we see more levels in the future through more trailers. Which we more than likely will.

Now I was going to try Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, but Jam With Jun was so close and I wanted to be near the front. So when Hayden had finished with his gameplay [he played through Green Hill and said his experience was great as well] we got to the front and sat down. In fact, we stayed sat down throughout the entire Jam With Jun, even when nearly everyone else was stood up. It was great to listen to the guitar riffs of Jun, and Escape From The City at the end with everyone singing was just great. Before Jam With Jun was another animation showcase. First with another showing of Frobman's Sonic the Hedgehog in Brief. The new animation was Sonic CD in 4 Minutes by Roger van der Weide. It had some creative moments in it, with Sonic using the Past sign to get around various obstacles and stopping Eggman before he manages to build his machines during bosses.

Deciding on a spur of the moment to get in the line for the Crush 40 signings, it was a long queue before we got to it. It had already reached the end of the hall and curved around and headed straight back for the signing area. And even more people joined after us, which meant it had started making its way back to the other end of the hall. During the wait, the Q&A with Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka took place. There was a few interesting things said, though no hints of the future. Sonic Mania's trailer was shown before this, with the announcement of a CRT mode that makes the game appear as though it was on an old TV. Also during the wait in line was the Happy Birthday Sonic segment, where Naka and Iizuka were brought back on stage with the Sonic mascot to be presented a cake in honour of the 25th anniversary.

Straight after the Sonic Jump event started, where people had to play Jump Fever by actually jumping, and the people who contributed most to the total score won prizes. Once that had finished, despite only getting halfway through the line for the signings, we felt it would be much better to get a good space ready for the final event of Crush 40's live performance. To me, getting a signature is just a bonus. Seeing them perform live is the real experience. It was easy to duck out of the queue since we'd reached the top half of the hall, and after circling right the way around the venue we got to roughly the same place as we were when watching Jam With Jun.

The art contest winners were announced, then the finalists of the cosplay contest were brought on stage. There were some great costumes, and even a Star Wars-Sonic crossover cosplay. The Perfect Chaos cosplay won, which I felt was fair. It looked great, and had moving appendages as well. Last up was the Summer of Sonic Signoff before the finale event. The founders received some signed artwork for their hard work over the years after a video that had been put together of fans saying what Summer of Sonic meant to them. A big thank you went out to everyone, all the special guests - past and present - and everyone who attended with a credits-like video playing out. It also featured all the Kickstarter backers who made this year's event happen. Then was the finale.

Club Sonic gave various tunes to clap along to, and near the end Team Chaotix and Endless Possibility to sing. And those two songs got a lot of people ready for Crush 40. Upon each "Team Chaotix!" the crowd just pumped it out, and the same could be said for "Endless Possibility" every time that came up near the end. Club Sonic got a huge cheer to finish on, and Crush 40 got an even louder cheer when announced they'd be up next. And when they eventually came on after a pause in between, the atmosphere went into overload.

Opening with Open Your Heart, the crowd were just continually enjoying it - cheering and singing along. Jun even swapped guitars from his Sonic to his Shadow for those songs related to Shadow. Some of their non-Sonic related songs such as One Of Those Days even featured in the set list. On Live and Learn - the second to last song - the Sonic Twins, two females [think they were sisters] cosplaying Jet and Wave were allowed on stage to sing with Johnny. Any fans dream, I'm sure. The last song was What I'm Made Of. One of their best songs, and one they always seem to end on.

After the event closed with the last song, it was back to Holiday Inn. And there we stayed, except for the few minutes in the Co-op to pick up more drinks. While that picture above was taken back at home a week after the event, that is the shirt I had on throughout the day. The little time remaining of Saturday was spent planning an adventure for tomorrow.

Sunday opened with a walk to Hammersmith, where we hung around for a while before checking out GAME in King's Mall. After a while, we caught a bus over to Hyde Park, where we walked from the west to the east of it and into the main London city. Checking out Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, we called it a day and headed down into the underground. After a drink and a bit to eat in a pub, we headed back to Holiday Inn where we spent the rest of the day watching The Simpsons and the Patagonia Special of Top Gear on the TV. Getting back on the Monday went smoother than getting to London, not least because we managed to catch earlier trains than planned [except our pre-booked hour long journey between Watford Junction and Birmingham New Street].

The weekend as a whole was great, though the highlight was definitely Summer of Sonic. The event is great, and there's always a lot to do and see. While I didn't get talking to anyone while there, I could see that everyone around was enjoying themselves. If another Summer of Sonic was to happen, I would definitely go again. And despite the fact that I said getting signatures was just a bonus, I would definitely try to get some. Perhaps even just getting to meet them. That's one thing I really should have done this time. There were loads of other special guests, and while I'm not following any of the Sonic comics, it would have been good to meet some of them. And if the event does happen again next year, Mania will already be out and Project 2017 will more than likely have its full name revealed and demo pods out in the open for events. And it'd be good to hear more live performances.

Agent Ultimata Grant [Network]

I covered the Star Wars Celebration event last month, but despite also mentioning the Sonic 25th party, I didn't cover it. Of course I'm happy we're getting two new games - even if both won't be released until next year. Sonic Mania looks to be an evolution of the classic games, and Project 2017 seems to be channelling Generations while still going its own way. However, the bigger reason why I didn't cover it was because I'll be at Summer of Sonic. I'll be able to give impressions of Sonic Mania from my own experience playing. I can also cover Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, and give my experience on the event as a whole, but I'm sure the main focus will be on Mania.
The Past, Present and Future post for Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles was cut in half - and possibly might even go into three parts - owing to the massive amount of things to get through. So for part 1 I put the focus into the audio project to keep all of that in one section. The past and present of the written fiction will be in the second part, and the future will fit in if I feel like there isn't enough to get its own part. As for the the next part of the fiction itself, that will be next week after returning from Summer of Sonic.
As for how I'm presenting the Summer of Sonic stuff... I'll be sure to capture what I can from the event and compile it, but I'm still wondering whether I could or should narrate over it. See, I'm sure I've said it before but my voice isn't exactly presentable on an audio format. I'm sure if you watch Jaz's vlogs of TheJazNetwork you might have seen me on one or two of them. I've been working on improving that, so you'll just have to wait and see. It could also be that I'll proceed with a narration anyway and see what you all think.
As for anything else, I'll let you all know when it comes up. That's all for now, so bye for now.

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review [Gaming]

2011 was the last time we had a LEGO Star Wars game. That one was different. It featured a TV Series and not any of the films. It also expanded what LEGO Star Wars was about. It had larger hubs, bigger battles, and a neat concept that made it feel as though you were really in large scale battles, which many fans dubbed LEGO Battlefront. It also introduced a story switch mechanic, so multiple scenarios could play out at once with you able to switch between them on the fly. It is here then, that we get to this latest LEGO Star Wars game.

From the off you can see new things are coming with the upgraded HUD and start screen. Rather than just the three options of 'New Game', 'Load Game', and 'Options' [and 'Exit Game' if on PC] there is now a 'Continue Game' option right at the top [though of course it won't be visible on first starting the game up] and an option to jump straight to the Download Content shop. For the HUD, the character icons are now contained within a circle, so the hearts you have are around the circle. It's only a slight change, but makes it look a little more refined.
Major new additions include Multi-Builds, which allow puzzles with just one set of buildable bricks. These are a neat way of adding new puzzles to the series in general. For instance, in the starting level on Jakku, you'll have a fire that needs to be put out with the water pump. Step one is fixing the wire. Build up on the left, jump on the switch to fill up, job done. Once the water is in the container, it needs to be dragged over to the pump itself. Destroy what was built and rebuild those bricks in front. After using BB-8 on the constructed pad to bring the container to the pump, the pump needs to be activated. Destroy the bricks and rebuild on the right. Other times these Multi-Builds might lead to collectibles.
The other major addition is Blaster Battles. These battles are also spread out over levels to shake things up a bit. Here, a cover fire type game plays out. Hidden behind walls, you need to aim and fire, killing a certain amount of enemies to progress or destroying a cannon stopping you from progressing. Other abilities come into play here as well, as you grapple plugs to pull things over, or use binoculars to find weaknesses in certain things. These are fun, and depending on whether you can avoid dying yourself, give stud rewards based on a medal system [0 deaths - gold, 1 death - silver, 2 deaths - bronze, 3+ - nothing].

The levels themselves are varied, even when based on the same planets. There are ten main levels, a prologue that takes place during the Battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi, an epilogue that sees Rey undertake the journey of climbing the passage to Luke, and six other levels. These other levels are the more interesting of the lot, since most of them tell completely new stories, and two of them allow us to play as the villains. The cutscenes in all of these still retain the humour and charm of previous LEGO games and portray the story of The Force Awakens well. It does feel at times though as if they were struggling to pad out the game with levels. Don't get me wrong, all the levels are fun, but with certain levels it feels like LEGO Harry Potter syndrome - where certain levels feel forced into the game just as padding. That doesn't affect overall enjoyment though, and once the main levels are complete the whole 100%ing the game comes into play as more characters are unlocked for Free Mode plays and a lot more things can be accessed from the hubs. In this game, there are five hubs. The smallest is the Millennium Falcon, with the largest being Starkiller Base, Jakku, and Takodana. D'Qar, the planet of the resistance base, is a middle ground. In these hubs, numerous puzzles are around to get gold bricks. NPC's offer up numerous challenges to get more gold bricks. Races also return, sometimes within levels themselves. Within levels they'll net you a minikit. In the hubs they give a gold brick. Another thing for collection around the hubs are Carbonite Bricks. These allow classic characters to be unlocked from across the Original and Prequel Trilogies, ranging from the popular [Episode IV Leia] to the obscure [A-Wing Pilot]. So even after all the levels are complete, there are still a large amount of things to collect. While all of this is available to collect, more experienced gamers will probably get them all within ten hours, depending on how many they'd collected during the main play.

The only thing I'd have to say is that it wouldn't be a LEGO game without the glitches. While none are game breaking, it can be a bit annoying when you have one minikit left to find in a level and the guide is telling you it's in a completely different place. Or characters getting stuck.
The music is great, as is the voice acting, with characters sounding exactly like they do in the film during the new dialogue that was recorded, even with those whose actors hadn't reprised their roles for the game. There isn't much to say with LEGO games at this point, as they are mostly the same. It's just a case of exploring the new things within them. And I can say all those new features are good fun, and the returning ones from other games like the aforementioned races are implemented well here.
The game can be recommended for LEGO fans and Star Wars fans. Even those who like action/adventure games or collectathons. The game itself doesn't get on the levels of Harry Potter in terms of bad parts, and is a definite great game for the LEGO series.

Star Wars Celebration Europe II Post-Talk [Events]

It was quite a three day event, is the first thing I'll say. As per last year - in terms of trailers - I did feel the Rebels Season 3 trailer overshadows the Rogue One behind-the-scenes trailer, and despite the fact we never saw it on the livestream, the actual trailer as well. The animation team has the ability to draw on more material without giving too much away, since just six 20 minute episodes will almost match an entire film. Double that six, and there's enough material to make a trailer for just half a season without giving anything important away. Sure, the Rebels team will give us some things like the appearance of Thrawn to get us speculating, and just glimpses at plot points, but we'll never get the full picture. That's not to discredit the Rogue One stuff of course. We still don't know too much about this standalone story, though Vader will make an appearance somewhere. The small action scenes we see are enough to know that this film will be more serious in tone. We'll have to see where both film and TV series go in terms of direction, but both seem to the channelling this era pretty well.

As mentioned, Thrawn is returning to canon, and as such is getting his own canon book. Written by none other than Timothy Zahn, the original creator of the character. He was also consulted for bringing the character into Rebels, so much of what we'll see of Thrawn will be true to the old expanded universe. In other publishing, a prequel novel to Rogue One was announced, with James Luceno at the helm. This author has done some great work within the Star Wars universe, and so with a prequel to Rogue One now added to his name, I'm expected another great story. The novel is named Rogue One: Catalyst. Other publishing for Rogue One include The Visual Guide, sticker books, and Make Your Own books. Of course, there is the Ahsoka novel which, after that panel with Dave Filoni, should be a good read. For guides throughout the other films, there will be a Complete Locations book, a Galactic Atlas book, and a Ralph McQuarrie two-volume concept art set. All three of these look set to be interesting, with the Complete Locations book giving in-depth cross section drawings of locations from the various films. While there wasn't any new comics announced at the Marvel panel, they did show off covers for the final Darth Vader comic, as well as preview pages for the main on-going comic.

I'm just going to give a brief mention of EA - as let's face it, they have just announced Rogue One content. For Battlefront, a tease of the Death Star content was shown off, and the fourth expansion got revealed - Rogue One: Scarif. For the Death Star DLC, the new heroes are Chewbacca and Bossk. The heroes for Rogue One: Scarif are Erso Jyn and Orson Krennic. We sort of have space battles, in that they are definitely in space. After all, it's the Death Star. How could you not have space battles in Death Star based DLC? But, as far as I'm aware, it will still be regular Fighter Squadron matches. Which is still good.
The mobile game Galaxy of Heroes has been teased to be getting Rogue One content, and also gets a new raid in Tank Takedown. For The Old Republic, a sequel of sorts to Knights of the Fallen Empire is in the works. Knights of the Eternal Throne should arrive by the end of the year. The untitled Star Wars game of Visceral only featured in words. But when those words come from someone who previously worked on Uncharted, you get the feeling that this game is in safe hands.

Of course, a Celebration isn't a Celebration without all the special guest panels. Mark Hamill is entertaining to watch, as he talks about his experiences and 'almost' let's slip Rey's last name. Anthony Daniels and Warwick Davis really work well together, and it was funny to see the two reacting well off each other as from the start they acted like two big ego's competing for dominance to showing respect for each other at the end. And Daniel's joke of  'probably not recognising me because I didn't have a red arm' as he walks out with a sparkling gold jacket got a good laugh. Ray Park is still a great guy, and hearing about him being Darth Maul is always something interesting to hear. It's also something to see him head down off the stage to a nervous young boy nearly in tears and greet him.
Warwick Davis during the Rebels panel was also a good laugh, with him playing off Dave Filoni and Sam Witwer very well indeed. It was also entertaining to hear Warwick do a Maul voice and Witwer do an Ewok voice, then agree to swap parts. Dave was also saying how he likes to bring back old voice actors, with Warwick getting 'offended' that he didn't want any new talent. By the end of the panel Dave had changed his answer saying he's always looking for new talent, and Warwick was confident he'd have a new character under his name.

There really is too much to talk about when it comes to these events, whether all the interesting interviews taking place, or the looks behind the scenes of the films. Even looks at merchandise coming out. The closing ceremony gave some interesting little bits of info, like Alden Ehrenreich giving his views on being cast as young Han Solo, and Carrie Fisher saying she wants her dog to have a part in Episode VIII. Then Warwick closes us off after meeting with the crews of the stages, the Star Wars Live team, and all the members of staff behind the scenes. Oh, and a little something about it being the 40th anniversary of something. Yes, the 40th anniversary of Star Wars. Celebration Orlando, which I'm sure many fans will be dubbing Celebration 40th, is sure to be a real big one, with Episode VIII, more hints at new films, and many more special guests. We'll get teases of EA games, such as Battlefront 2, but the big bulk of that will be at E3, just like with Celebration Anaheim.

And with that, this Celebration comes to a close. And a bit more celebrating of a franchise will be coming up in a few days with the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th anniversary party in San Diego. While I more than likely won't be able to watch it live [what with it being 02:00 BST] I'll still be reporting on anything that comes out of it.

Star Wars Celebration Europe II Pre-Talk [Events]

It's the time of year again where Star Wars fans get a big celebration of all things relating to the franchise. Last year was huge, what with the start of new films and a reset to canon making everything new. And with that we got quite a few new stories, in both comic and novel form. Oh, and the glorious Rebels Season 2 trailer. We got a small peak at a scene from Season 3 on The Star Wars Show, and it is looking as good as ever. So let's take a look what we have this year.

The obvious big thing is Rogue One. The panel is sure to do for this film what the Force Awakens panel did last year. Cast and crew talk about the film, and near the end a new trailer gets revealed. That last one in April got people talking, so I'm sure this one will bring a lot of excitement. All this will be happening at the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story panel tomorrow [15th] at 16:00 BST.
That's on the first day, though films get a big focus throughout. In fact, the next biggest thing in terms of films would probably be the Future Filmmakers Discussion panel, which will be closing the Celebration off on the 17th, 15:00 BST. Future films being Episode VIII and the untitled Han Solo film. Since both films are far off, we can't be expecting any footage, though maybe a teaser of Episode VIII like what happened for Rogue One at the last Celebration. Perhaps that teaser might even reveal the full title. That would sure be a grand way of closing the event.
The Force Awakens will still be explored, with The Creatures, Droids, and Aliens of Star Wars: The Force Awakens giving a look at how the various elements like Maz Kanata, BB-8, and Unkar Plutt were designed and sculpted, then put through fabrication, animatronics, painting, and puppeteering to make them look real on screen. This takes place on the 16th 12:00 BST.

One of the bigger things on the 16th is the Rebels Season 3 panel at 16:00 BST. Here will be sneak peeks at Season 3 of the show, including the new trailer. This is sure to give us insights into what happens to Kanan, the design decision behind Ezra's new look [which we saw in the preview clip on The Star Wars Show], and how Sabine will factor into things considering she's meant to have a bigger focus this season. There's also the reveal of new characters. Nothing excited fans more than seeing the clones Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor on the AT-TE during the Season 2 trailer, and this season's trailer is sure to have some bigger surprises like that as well. There is sure to be a big focus on Thrawn, the chiss Grand Admiral of the old Expanded Universe, who reports say is being brought back to canon. There's bound to be other surprises as well, with new vehicles, familiar faces, and perhaps even seeing some familiar planets. What with the bigger focus on Sabine we're meant to be getting this season, many people are saying a return to Mandalore is certain. Considering what we know of the Mandalore situation, it will be interesting to see how the planet is faring, and who actually controls the planet. And the whole Mandalore situation brings me nicely onto another panel, in fact one of the first panels to be happening this Celebration.
The Ahsoka's Untold Tales panel kicks off tomorrow at 11:00 BST, and features Dave Filoni, Ashley Eckstein, and Pablo Hidalgo discussing the past and future of Ahsoka. Her younger years will be talked about, including discovery by the Jedi Order [something we saw very briefly on the opening narration of The Clone Wars episode The Gathering], and exploring the untold The Clone Wars episodes that she would have featured in - possibly including the Siege of Mandalore. There will also be talk about the novel that is set to be released that is focused on Ahsoka.

Elsewhere we have the Star Wars Publishing panel [16th 12:00 BST] that will focus on upcoming novels set to be released, and possibly even revealing one or two new ones, and the Marvel's Star Wars Comic Books panel [16th 15:00 BST] which will look at what has been happening and more than likely what is to come in the comic book side of extra content. For the video games side of things, Meet the Creators: The Minds Behind EA's Star Wars Games [16th 19:00 BST] looks at the creation and design of current games, and goes into some detail about those yet to be fully announced. It's possible something new will be released, though not a full trailer for any game. If they do though, it could be very interesting to pick apart - as many have done with those small teasers from E3.
As always, there are panels focused on merchandise. LEGO being the big one, as usual. Hot Wheels will also be discussing the making of the die-cast cars themed after various characters. Also around are various actors and crew members, with some - Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels among them - hosting their own panels.

To take a look at all the panels and events happening within Star Wars Celebration, the events page of the official website is the place to be. The Star Wars Show are hosting the live stream this year, with several events per day being livestreamed with interviews and other things happening between panels. Not all panels will be shown on the time listed on the events page due to conflicts, so the news of what happened will be out before the livestream picks those panels up. The full schedule of panel streaming can be found on the official Star Wars website. It's now just a case of waiting for tomorrow to come.
Enjoy watching, reading or keeping up with the event in your own way, and the post-talk should be up on Monday.

Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles - Look Back, Look Ahead Part 1 [Network]

Roleplay and crossovers. That was me and Jaz. That's pretty much been me my whole life, though now I had someone equally interested in both at my side. Upon trying to edit something on Wikipedia - Wiki Hunters: a site where Boba Fett will come after you if you mess up a wiki page. Better disguise ourselves as robots using the Teselecta. Want to spice up college life? School Invasion - where enemies of various franchises invade education buildings, with the various people within claiming powers from said various franchises to fight the invaders off. Homer Simpson appears in the same battle as Lord Voldemort? Not ending well. However we ended up working these roleplays, Star Wars and Doctor Who would always be at the forefront. Of course, Jaz was already involved with the Doctor Who fan fiction timeline, already working on audio dramas for his version of The Doctor. He had a few ideas down for a Doctor Who/Star Wars Crossover, though asked for my input. Thus the great partnership began for the series that became Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles.

The start of the ideas began at the end of October in 2011. Various sound effects were sourced from that point on, and a theme was made by Jaz - as well as the promotional picture - while I worked on the script and we both continued exchanging ideas. My original start lacked much in the way dialogue and a clear indication of sounds. My first audio, it took a bit to get used to. Communication was key in getting sounds right, and audio and written files were traded and discussed quite a lot. Thus the opening battle being devoid of Dalek voices, which added to the suspense of who was killing the Stormtroopers. And I guess, one thing I should get out of the way - we wanted to set the story in a period that wouldn't clash with either franchise, both canon and fanon timeline wise. No Obi-Wan, Luke, Leia, Yoda. No Maul, Dooku, Vader. And since it was set in the fanon timeline, Jaz already had access to his Doctor's time period, so that was easily sorted. And so within two weeks, the first episode was finished, development of the second began, and on the 11th November Universal Jump was uploaded to The Jaz Network - Jaz's Youtube channel. Since he already had a following and already had audio dramas of his Doctor on the channel, it was decided the series would be better there. Rather than my channel which at that time I think was still running under its old name of ninplaydo and had a grand total of one or two videos [which were removed].

Episode Two was slower to get started, even though the ideas were around. Details were finalised, and it introduced DarkRula into the story. Originally, I was set to record lines as DarkRula, who is essentially my character within the Star Wars universe. This idea continued and the script was finalised at the beginning of December. Ideas for Episode Three started as soon as Episode Two's script was finished. Recording started, and it became clear me doing the voice of DarkRula just wouldn't cut it. The recording equipment I had at the time [literally earphones used as a microphone] just wouldn't do anything good. So the decision was made to bring someone in. Les Ortega was contacted by Jaz and he accepted to do the voice. After some direction from me, he did a pretty good voice for DarkRula. Fun fact - the audio was originally set to be six episodes, and from the production of the second episode, we knew we wanted to set the end on Endor. The last episode.

2012 begins, as this is the year I get into the networking business. First with the two fan fiction stories - Pokémon: Shadow Boom and Star Wars: Darth Maul. Then followed the blog at the start of E3 in June. Though of course, the audio series of Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles was still in production. Episode Three was to separate the two arcs, and set up the finale. Episode Two was being worked on by Jaz, and Dalek Fire was finished and uploaded on the 23rd January. Heavily edited voices like Kronis and droids sounded different from Universal Jump as the configuration files for editing were lost. A female voice actor had contacted Jaz about wanting to join the crew, so a female character was included in the ideas we had circulating around. It was also Jaz's turn at writing an episode, as he had a great idea. It was here that my idea might have been lost, had it not been for what came later. But with Jaz came a trip to Tatooine, the TARDIS suffering a lot from travelling, and a fellow Doctor voice actor joined the crew as a one time bad guy. The female voice actor would take the role of someone who helps DarkRula and The Doctor to the base of the bad guy after he steals the TARDIS.

The end of January brings the suggestion of using the ideas of backstory that have been built up through the creation of the audio episodes and for me to work on a written version of the world, starting from when the Daleks first arrive in the Star Wars universe. The beginning of February and the initial planning for Episode Four starts. As well as the beginning of the written side of the series on my website. The first story followed The Doctor as he comes across a power struggle between Daleks and Cybermen, intending to stop it. Which he does, though unknowingly causing the destruction of a planet and causing the rift which sends everything from the world scattered across the Star Wars universe. In other words, the first story of a series called Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles is set in the universe of Doctor Who.

Back to the audio series, and discussion is set on getting me as a voice in the series. So planning starts once again for both Episode Four and Episode Five, this time with ideas for a new character that would be played by me. Script work for Episode Four gets finished bar a few changes before Episode Three gets recorded. At the beginning of May, production picks up again. Jaz also has the idea of recreating the first episode of the fiction as an audio. So Hop and Drop is made as an audio, and appears on both Youtube channels - making that audio the first official video on my rebranded channel. With everything now coming together on Episode Three, Hide and Seek gets uploaded on the 19th May. And so Kerian Twine joins as Thalos, with Elizabeth Stewart as Thalia. By this point, Episode Four's script was fully completed, and Episode Five's script was halfway completed. Again I had to pass on voicing one of my own characters. The Mandalorian Krayt Skirata was a character by me, but I still didn't have anything great to record with, even though I did have a microphone this time around [a cheap one though]. Script work was progressing, with extra stuff being added and some parts being changed. We were targeting a July release for Episode Four. However, college work got in the way, and was forgot about over the summer holiday.

Production picked up at the end of August, and the beginning of September gave an idea. Why not merge Episodes Four and Five together? They are both part of the same story, being the ending arc. So that is what happened. Production of both as one episode slowly gets moving across September and October. The full Episode Four gets uploaded on 3rd November. Final Descent uses a word from each of the two episode titles that it was planned to be. Episode Four was planned to be called Dark Descents, with Episode Five being called Final Throwdown, the midway point being when the TARDIS gets blown out into space. The only thing bad about this episode was that it was the final one. For me, the audio work was done. However, the fiction would continue. And I had been busy with the fiction, as when the audio came to an end, I had reached the beginning of it in the fiction. And The Doctor's story would continue within the audios, back in his own universe.

It was great to be working within the fanon works, and in a way I still am. The adventures of DarkRula and The Doctor continue within the fiction, and when one of the audio episodes come up in the fiction, it gets expanded on. While I will be going into further detail on this in the second part to this blog post, the general idea is that the episodes are greatly expanded with multiple viewpoints that never come up within the audios themselves. Even when audio episodes aren't being directly covered, there are some elements or plots that come up that relate to them. The takeover on Tatooine in Rizon Fire [F4.12], for example, is a prequel of sorts to Hide and Seek [A3]. Of course, all of this will be covered in Part 2 of Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles - Look Back, Look Ahead.

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

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Jumping Under Llamas [Network]

After not giving any focus to Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles last month, this is the month that focus will appear. The Past, Present, Future blog will be up sometime next week, as well as the next part of the story. I decided it might be better for no stories to be posted so a longer transition period could happen. Probably not the best idea, but this allows for new story parts to get back to beginning of the month posts.
Oh, for the events happening this month. For Star Wars fans, it's that time again. A Celebration. A Star Wars Celebration. More news across the entire franchise will be coming out of these three days, and I'm hoping for a lot of cool announcements like last year. Near to the event I'll give a round up of events, with what happened at the event following it. The other event? Something to do with another celebration. It is Sonic the Hedgehog's 25th anniversary, and you can't let the silver anniversary pass without a party, right? A day of fun filled events and the end of all the teases as the new game finally gets announced. It's been a long wait, but that will soon be over. So with Star Wars Celebration on the 15th to the 17th, and the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Party on the 22nd, that's a lot of celebrating franchises in just one week.
I haven't done any reviews for some time - and considering I've been wanting to talk about LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens for quite some time - it makes sense that my next would be the latest LEGO game. There has been a lot done to keep players busy, and I intend to cover it in my review.
If anything else happens, you can expect a post about it. I'm sure Nintendo will get to covering some NX news soon. Right? Well fans of Splatoon have something to look forward to, at least. Sort of. The last Splatfest is upon us, coming on 10:00 BST 22nd to 10:00 BST 24th of this month.
That's it for now, so stay tuned to new posts as they happen.