Originally posted by: THX

Originally posted by: MTHaslett
We'd see Amidala escape from Naboo, see no response from the Trade Federation, but suddenly see a guy in black arrive on Tatooine and send out droids. The droids find Qui Gonn -- they fight, Qui Gonn escapes -- and... what just happened?

Precisely! So the movie is one step ahead of the audience, rather than the other way around. Then we see Maul report back to the Neimoidians, before going to Naboo, and it all starts to make sense.

Hmmm, I can see both side here and aren't sure which one to take. Having the Tatooine arrival scene first makes for a very strong enterance for Grievous, akin to Vader's on the Tantive. But plot wise it would make sense for Nute to dispatch him to retrieve the Queen. I just don't know for now.

Another thought I had to spin things in a completely different direction: Is Anakin going to have a dream in Episode I? Putting together various pieces I constructed this scenario in my head:
-Activating the Podracer scene
-Misc. Trade Federation scene/perhaps contacting Grievous
-Grievous arriving on Tatooin scene
-CUT TO BLACK at conclusion (Even though it was just because of the test nature of the clip, I loved it)
-Anakin has a vision/dream
-Fade into Padme waking up Anakin.

This works on several levels. It cuts the now unecessary Qui-Gon/Anakin blood test scene, and has you assume he spent the night outside finishing up his pod. Anakin has a dream in the novelization in that exact spot as well, so taking a cue from that we could put together something similar to Trooperman's in SotDS. Some Padme material in the dream would make it an easy transition to her waking him up. I think the idea we were having in the SotDS thread was that Palpatine was in fact causing Anakin's dreams, so this may or may not work for a variety of reasons, but it's worth some discussion regardless.