(RE)RELEASED - s01e01 - THE NEW PADAWAN (v2.0)

RELEASE VERSION, now brought up to my more polished 2.0 standard.
Our first ‘true’ episode.
Comprising the Ventress content from Hidden Enemy, and the Christophsis content from the movie.
Running 21 minutes.
DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

This is a radical recombination of all of the Christophsis content into something which basically serves to get us through Ahsoka’s introduction as quickly as possible. The movie was terrible, and its prequel episodes added little meat to them (beyond Ventress’ re-introduction, and the traitor clone plot I’ll use elsewhere), so this was really just case of making some necessary introductions as coherent and painless as I could.

Noteworthy changes:

The episode is titled ‘The New Padawan’ to highlight that this is Ahsoka’s introduction to kick off TCW. As a cute bonus, this is actually the original title of the Christophsis episode from the original TCW movie, before it was cut into a movie structure by adding the Hutt Baby content, so it works as a nice homage to what was.
I’ve trimmed the setup heavily, including the opening text, to streamline and clarify the plot.
Christophsis now has crystal factories which produce energy shields. This is the planet’s strategic importance, and goes some way to explaining the ugly crystal aesthetic. Now, when the Separatists deploy an energy shield later, it’s implicitly because they’ve managed to acquire that tech, making the reveal a bit more punchy.
Anakin and Obi-Wan are defending the planet with only a small force, but a large Separatist fleet has blockaded the system and forced the Republic fleet to flee to a nearby clone medical station (used as a staging area), which isolates them from their support and leads to fears of an invasion.
They’d be about to take preventative measures, but have just detected Ventress’ signal on the planet. She’s a priority target, so they rush to apprehend her - overland, since they have no air support. As they travel, and unbeknownst to them, the Separatists trigger a comms blackout.
Because this mission distracts and delays them, and because the comms blackout means they can’t scan the planet properly, the Separatists use this opportunity to land their ground forces unimpeded. Our guys think it’s a trap, but realise to their shock that it’s a distraction, and rush back.
Meanwhile, Yoda and Mace want to contact Obi-Wan about an emergency. The blackout impedes that, so they send Ahsoka (in a small ship which implicitly can bypass the blockade) to the surface, carrying the message. Obi-Wan doesn’t respond, since they have an emergency of their own, which is fine. Ahsoka has a method to contact Yoda (which is a bit flimsy, but again pretty much fine since the connection is spotty anyway), leaving us uncertain about whether or not our guys will get support.
(The emergency, we will reveal in the next episode, is the destruction of many clone medical stations by the Malevolence - a good thing to treat as an emergency. And having had the Republic fleet flee to one [which I also show onscreen], that’ll feel a bit more punchy next episode too.)
We continue on with the main Christophsis plotline, with slight trims to dialogue to remove some annoyances but maintaining the early tension between Ahsoka and Anakin/Rex (since that’s a foundation for their growth), until Ahsoka and Anakin’s plan saves the day, and they start to work together.
I removed the ground forces which are originally fought in the movie’s opening scenes. Now, the ONLY force is landed by the Separatists, then approaches under the shield they’ve captured (to defeat our long-range cannons). So there’s a lot less mindless action this episode, though we still get highlights of Obi-Wan and Rex, and of the ‘street fighting’ going south to add jeopardy to Anakin and Ahsoka’s attempts.
I’ve removed General Loathsom, who was a dud villain. As much as Obi-Wan’s war crimes were good fun, he was super goofy, and I wanted to keep the focus this season on our big three villains.
We end with Anakin leaving with Ahsoka, whilst Obi-Wan leaves alone. This fits nicely with their roles in the next episode, Malevolence.
Unlike prior versions of this episode, Bail Organa no longer appears. I like him a lot, and want to see him in his active role, but it didn’t quite work here nor add the jeopardy I’d have hoped for.
Unlike prior versions of this episode, I’ve removed the cold open, where Maul meets Mandalorians (and we see the Darksaber). The advantage of that scene was that it builds great anticipation for the series and shows you it’s going to be more than you know, and tie in with the wider Filoniverse. But the disadvantage was that it was a scene disconnected from this episode’s plot, and we only get our first hint of Maul later this season. I’d be very interested in how you guys think that lands now, with our first episode not setting that up. Does it feel weaker as a season premiere? Mauldalore IS our central plot.

I nearly renamed this to MASTER AND APPRENTICE, but I think at this point it’s important that we just tell the Audience ‘Anakin’s getting a new Padawan, get over it’ and nudge them into focusing on her character this episode.