This episode of The Clone Wars cartoon is an original story that fits perfectly within the Star Wars Universe. It just happens to resemble the third act of the first screenplay I wrote for my own sci-fi epic (first draft, 1998, most recent in 2013).
More proof good ideas will keep coming up - and that an idea on paper is only worth the cost of the paper it's written on.
FADE
IN:
EXT. THE VAST EMPTINESS OF SPACE
Stars shine like
a billion candles, flickering in the absolute darkness.
NARRATOR (VO)
(a haunting, female voice)
At the edge of
space lies a desolate galaxy,
only on the edge
of which can life be found.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPACE
We see a green
planet, a fragile sanctuary in the inky depths.
A shooting star falls towards its surface.
CUT
TO:
EXT. SURFACE OF PLANET – DAY
Gentle rain falls
on a limestone plain, broken by time and flora.
A river cuts through the terrain, carrying the drops of rain towards a
distant ocean.
We see primitive
mammalian bipeds hunt a creature akin to an ankylosaurus. The scene feels like our palaeolithic age, but
is definitely happening on an alien world.
NARRATOR (VO – cont’d)
On many planets
life thrived, adapted, and spread. In
turn,it gave birth to knowledge, civilization and the desire to control.
We overtake the
hunting scene and pass over a grassy knoll, crossing 15 millennia into the
future.
Before us lies a coastal metropolis, as New York may look centuries from now. Small craft buzz around the city’s spires. Beyond, a vast ocean stretches to the horizon. Waves crash gently against the shore.
One shuttle heads
towards the sky, and again into the future.
We continue upwards, past the shuttle and through gathering storm
cloud
NARRATOR
(VO – cont’d)
(over following scene)
Some
life forms would reach the stars, and there encounter others; great kingdoms
were formed. All were conquered by the
Grand Emperor Shushong’deh, and merged into one vast empire.
Beyond
the clouds, beyond the penumbra of the atmosphere’s rim, the sky fades to
indigo, then black. Stars wink in one by
one until the heavens are filled with the shimmer of distant light.
A long,
bulky spaceship rumbles into view.
NARRATOR
(VO – cont’d)
Upon
Shushon’deh’s passing, his sons battled each other for control; the empire
collapsed.
The
ship passes close by; it is a warship, heavily armoured, with weapons bristling
along its hull.
NARRATOR
(VO – cont’d)
Factions
were formed, alliances made and broken – the Era of the Warring States had
begun.
We
follow the war-craft into a terrible battle in the depths of space.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPACE – MONTAGE OF BATTLE
Stretching
into the distance, ships of widely different designs and sizes assault each
other.
Amidst
the chaos, one massive Capital Ship fires on another. Squadrons of small fighters swarm like bees,
taking shots at their rivals, at the hulls of other warships. Two massive battleships pass at close range, blast
holes in each other’s hulls. In this
conflict, there are no winners.
All
sound is muted by the vacuum of space.
NARRATOR
(VO – cont’d)
For
two thousand years, the battles raged.
An ARMAGEDDON
SHIP, more imposing and sinister than any we’ve seen, pierces frame. The bow of the ship is dominated by the
barrel of its terrible Weapon.
The
vessel fires a powerful beam which tears through a Capital Ship like a pen
through paper. The whole ship explodes
from the fissure outwards. The blast
dissipates quickly in the vacuum.
NARRATOR
(VO – cont’d)
Terrible
weapons of destruction were unleashed; whole worlds were laid to waste. The factions realized that if they could not
find peace, all they had fought for would be lost.
The
detritus of battle floats in space. In the
background, the battle rages on. The
images freezes, flattens as we
DISSOLVE TO:
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