Betrayed Federation: Official Discussion

[Steve Mollmann]

Nine hundred years before the Battle of Yavin, two Jedi Masters are reunited for a mission of galactic proportions. A Mandalorian supercommando has attempted to assassinate the Viceroy of the fledgling Trade Federation, whose death could destabilize economies across hundreds of sectors.

Old friends Ste-lom and Kennarigan are once again assigned together to stop the heinous plot from succeeding. But with the Mandalorians' long-standing hatred of Jedi, a second bounty hunter running amok, and a disgruntled group of miners from Telos, will they be able to find out who is behind the attack?

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Hello, all. I'm Steve Mollmann and this is the official discussion thread for "Betrayed Federation." Sigma Phi Kappa Productions (http://zorbos.0catch.com) has already done six other audios in the past two years but this is our first foray into the Star Wars universe.

Hope you enjoy it. The more-than-dramatic trailer can be found here (http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/betrayed/betrayedtrailer.zip), while the full story can be found (in five parts) on the official Star Wars Fanworks page (http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/betrayed.html). Many, many thanks to Nathan P. Butler for agreeing to host this -- 'tis the first time I've managed to get reliable hosting for one of our adventures.

Steve

[Nathan Butler]

Well worth the space and bandwidth, I'd say. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

You all should dig it.

[Keiran_Horn]

I just listened to the whole thing for the first time last night.

WOW! Great job by everyone involved. I'm downloading some of your Dr. Who audio dramas at the moment also, looks to be some good stuff.

[Nathan Butler]

Dude, you listened all in one night? This guy's a machine.

Actually, I had a question for Steve: This is meant as a tie-in to another SW story. Care to tell us what you can about that particular project?

[Keiran_Horn]

Well, when I listen to fan audio stuff I usually just put it on while I'm doing something else. I'm a natural noise-aholic, so I always have something going, and usually it's a fan audio something.

[Nathan Butler]

Sounds like me with TV noise in the background.

I may post a bit of a more extensive review of BF when I get back from Thanksgiving. I'm intending on listening to the last Left Behind audio drama on the way up to IN, then to listen to some fan audio dramas on the way back down to Atlanta.

[Steve Mollmann]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>Actually, I had a question for Steve: This is meant as a tie-in to another SW story. Care to tell us what you can about that particular project? [/b][/quote]

Oy... I haven't been here in a while. Just thought I'd check up on this place.

"Betrayed Federation" ties into a fanfilm done by a friend of mine, "Return of the Sith" by Stephen Poon. This movie was set 900 years pre-TPM, and fills in the gap in continuity about Jedi knowledge of the Sith mentioned in the most recent Insider. (Don't expect to see this on TFN LLC anytime soon, folks. It's high-schoolers with plastic lightsabers in a park and some backyards. Pretty cool choreography, though.) There were three Sith characters that went up against three Jedi characters.

I helped him with the storyline and continuity, since I'm much more of a writer and a SW guru than he is, and he agreed to produce "Return of the Sith" under the mantle of Sigma Phi Kappa Productions, my audio group. He asked me if I wanted to be one of the main guys, and I said no thanks, since I would be terrible with the fights. I did suggest, however, that he could add a Jedi who dies sometime before the final battle, so that I could appear in the movie. Thus the character of Ste-lom Tanaka was born.

One of the three main Jedi in the film was played by my good friend Adam Johnson, the character of Kenly Donaman (named after our mutual friend Josh, who appears in "Betrayed Federation"). We decided, for fun, to give our characters a back-story as a kick-ass duo of Jedi Masters who had been working together for fifteen years, and that this was our last hurrah. Both of us went out pretty poorly, though (I die off screen, and he gets Force-pushed into an overhanging branch, then stabbed while he's dazed), and we grumbled about it.

I'd been hankering to do a SW audio for a while now, since I'd already done Trek and Doctor Who, but I'd never found a story. A friend of mine, James Ficker, a bigger SW guru than myself, had always pestered me to do one so he could play a stormtrooper or clonetrooper. It struck me when talking to him that I ought to do an audio drama about Ste-lom and Kenly before "Return of the Sith." But I needed a plot, a story. My friend Chris Tracy loves doing Neimoidian voices, and asked if he could play one. I said sure. Still I had no story. I asked James. He wanted to play a Mandalorian (which he likes just as much as stormies/clones), and suggested maybe the Mandalorians were the Trade Federation army of the time, since they hadn't gone to droid armies yet. I also knew I wanted the sci-fi staple of the oppressed miners. I had an inkling of an idea...

It was a look at Nathan's Timeline Gold that crystallized the whole thing. When looking to see if the Trade Federation existed 900 years pre-TPM, I learned it didn't, and the whole thing clicked. How and why the Trade Federation came into existence, and faded out again. Other bits tying it into the movie slid into place: Baphijmm was a bounty hunter in the movie, so we gave him a history with Adam's character by putting him in here. Fortunately, the movie hadn't finished filming yet, so we could drop references into my plotted-but-unwritten audio drama, including one very blatant plug.

The one problem was that I didn't like Adam's character name of "Kenly Donaman." "Kanly" is the name of his character in our Trek audios, and "Donaman" is a friend of ours. I didn't like this being in the audio range, but it was too late to reshoot the scene in the movie that established his name. Hence, the awful name of "Kennaaaaaarigan" was born, though it's one of its two mentions in the movie got it wrong and called him "Kennigan."

The audio drama wasn't actually written until a month after the movie was finished, and after postprod finally wrapped up, "Return of the Sith" director Stephen Poon had this to say about our audio drama:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>The ending just . . . I don't know . . . works really well. From Tanaka's closing line to the music, it felt like it had true closure. After listening to this I feel like I shouldn't have done what I did with Return of the Sith. I want these guys to live . . . dammit, they didn't deserve to go the way they did at the hands of Darth Artemis. Their deaths don't feel tragic enough within the context of the movie . . . argh, I can't go and remake it now.[/b][/quote]
So as you might imagine, we felt quite vindicated. I've got vague ideas for two more, but am bogged down in a Trek script right now that's going nowhere fast.

Bit of a long answer, isn't it? style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

[Steve Mollmann]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>I may post a bit of a more extensive review of BF when I get back from Thanksgiving.[/b][/quote]
Please do! (Though I'd imagine you've been back from Thanksgiving for a month now... style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif)

[Nathan Butler]

Bah. I was in a very non-audio drama mood on the way for Thanksgiving. I might try again over the Christmas drive. I've been loading up on Good Charlotte, Dennis Miller, and random music to keep me sane on the drive.

[KarvoZem]

Hey all, James Ficker, Karzo Zem, here. I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to listen to the audio drama and for hosting it on your website. It was a lot of fun to make. Although I would have rather played a 'Trooper, being in the Ohio Garrison of the 501st and all.

[Nathan Butler]

Great to see another of the BF cast here. Y'know, maybe I should start adding username information or links to personal profiles on GS on the Fanworks people pages. It'd be great if people could get in touch with the personalities they enjoyed hearing in the audio dramas.

[Steve Mollmann]

Just if anyone wants to know-- I'm starting to sketch out (very broad strokes right now, and all in my head) our next Star Wars audio. It's tentatively entitled "The Universe Key" (which I hope to change, though I always meant to replace "Betrayed Federation" as well, given how it's a terrible pun, but never did) and will once again feature Jedi Masters Ste-lom Tanaka and Kennarigan, this time in a space pirates story set five years prior to "Betrayed Federation."

[Nathan Butler]

Sweet. I'll get a news byte up about that when I get home tonight.

[Steve Mollmann]

Rescued this thread from the dregs of page 3...

Just dropping a line to tell everyone to read the "Betrayed Federation" annotated script, which is now available on BF's Fanworks page. Learn just how many gratuitous continuity references I snuck into one story!

[cinemafreak]

I haven't completely read anyone's annotated script yet, but I have scanned through Mo's, and I love them. Closest thing to a Commentary we can get. I do look forward to reading this one as soon as I can.

[Derek R.]

Yeah, it rocks!

[Nathan Butler]

I'm going to try to read it all in the near future. At least early Summer.

Gah, so much to catch up on reading.

[KarvoZem]

So, what's the chance of this getting reviewed in the near future? I'm working on our second Star Wars Audio Drama, and I guess I would just kinda like to get some people's impute on what we did the first time around, see if anything needs to be changed or what not.

[Nathan Butler]

Any reviewers out there takers? Sheridan? Galasso? Fig? Jay?