Wookieepedia:April Fools' Day 2013/Star Wars Episode VII: Star Trek

"People had been wondering how we lured J.J. away from Star Trek. Well, cat's out of the bag now: We never did."

- George Lucas

Star Wars Episode VII: Star Trek is the planned seventh installment in the Star Wars film franchise. Following The Walt Disney Company's October 30, 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd. from George Lucas, Disney announced that "Star Wars Episode VII" is scheduled for a 2015 release, to be followed by Episodes VIII and IX. Lucas will remain involved as a creative consultant on new Star Wars feature films. Screenwriter Michael Arndt will write the screenplay for Star Wars Episode VII, while J.J. Abrams will direct.

The film's story will be completely original and not based on any prior source from the Expanded Universe. The film instead combines the "Abramsverse" of the Star Trek series of 2009 onward with the Star Wars continuity. Future installments in the Star Trek series will branch off the same continuity, and will not follow a preset schedule or episodic title system.

In Episode VII, set circa 25 ABY, an alien entity travels to the Galaxy Far, Far Away from the Milky Way, and it is up to Luke Skywalker to seek help from its home galaxy to stop it. Spock discovers his latent Force power and Skywalker must help him understand it, as the crews of the Millennium Falcon and the U.S.S. Enterprise work together to stop this threat.

Synopsis
''Note: This synopsis is based on an early script draft, and will be laced with excerpts. At this point, for reasons that have not been revealed, the portions involving the Star Trek crew are more developed.''

Arrival
After the opening crawl, which has yet to be written, we pan down in the usual style to where we would normally expect to see a Star Destroyer or other ship, but we instead see a black hole. It is the Endor Gate, in the Moddell sector. After a second of viewing the swirling maw, we see the ship we expect. It is massive, more massive than the Executor.

A Corellian Corvette on patrol nearby comes in for a closer look, challenges the intruder, and vanishes in the alien ship's scanning beam. It has been digitized, and it will not be the last. The intruder turns and jumps to hyperspace.

Unstoppable
The intruder arrives at the nearest inhabited planet with any notable amount of technology, Annaj. Using the image of the captain of the first ship it absorbed, it identifies itself as V'ger, and states that it wishes only to improve itself, and that the planet Annaj will assist in this endeavor.

A small fleet of ships attacks it, and none get within a kilometer before vanishing. It then does the same thing to the planet itself. An entire planet, gone. With even less trace left than the Death Star. It starts an inexorable path toward Coruscant.

Politics
A discussion in the New Republic Senate goes about as well as one would expect. Luke Skywalker walks out in disgust with R2-D2 and meets Han Solo and Lando Calrissian at a cafe nearby. They are soon joined by Leia Organa Solo and they discuss their options for going behind the Senate's back.

Luke explains that he has already had a vision. He must go to V'ger's home galaxy, and his friends cannot follow. With their technology, only a Force-user could survive the passage.

An X-wing and the Millennium Falcon travel to the Endor Gate, but only the X-wing enters.

Crossing over
Skywalker is buffeted by forces beyond his imagination, and spit out the other side of the wormhole. We pan upward from his tiny X-wing to see the giant U.S.S. Enterprise looming over it.

Cut to the bridge of the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock are having a discussion about why they needed to come to the black hole formed by the destruction of the Narada a few years before. Spock has been feeling the telepathic call of thoughts of a higher order, leading to this point, but they have suddenly ceased.

Spock believes there is some entity out here and feels compelled to contact it, but doesn't know why, and the illogic of this disturbs him. Kirk has learned to follow his first officer's instinct, and whether this is a threat or a benign first contact Starfleet needs to know as soon as possible.

Their discussion is interrupted by Chekov's report of a completely unfamiliar vessel on the scanner. Uhura patches the visitor through, but in between contacts she notes that the universal translator is barely doing anything but cleaning it up a little. The alien is almost speaking English.

As the X-wing is damaged, they beam Skywalker to the sickbay and tow the snubfighter into the shuttle hangar.

Revelation
Skywalker explains that he has come from another galaxy, that an alien entity called V'ger is absorbing planets and every ship that tries to stop it, that it's going to reach the galactic capital within a week, and that they traced it to the wormhole. He elaborates that he is something called a "Jedi Master," and that a universal energy field called "the Force" gave him a vision that told him to seek help here.

Kirk is intrigued by the fact that this visitor appears to be Human, and that his language is so close to English. Spock himself admits to being puzzled by the mystery, but wants to pursue the alien that has been calling him.



Spock's mind has been opened to his full power. After reviewing some files with Spock, Skywalker theorizes that the mental abilities of Vulcans, Betazoids, Human ESPers, and other telepaths and telekinetics are either very primitive manifestations of the Force, or deeply degenerated versions. By interfacing the Enterprise computer with a scanner from Skywalker's X-wing cargo compartment, McCoy is able to build a subspace filter into the tricorder that confirms the existence of midichlorians in everyone he scans. Spock demonstrates remarkable control over his power from the very beginning.

Crossing back
"Granted, I've done some fascinating things with this... Force... so far, but I still don't see how we can get the Enterprise back through, even if we can work in concert. Holding a ship together through a wormhole is different from holding a coffee cup.''" "''No. Only different in your mind."

- Spock and Skywalker, on returning to the GFFA

With Spock's intellect, combined with Skywalker's natural Force ability and Spock's own new powers, they are able to navigate the Enterprise back through the wormhole. They discover on the other side that astronomical readings put them over three million light years away from Earth, but also 500,000 years in the past. The fossil record proves humans evolved on Earth, and that's not far enough back for this galaxy to have seeded them, making the existence of identical humans a paradox.

The Millennium Falcon lands in the shuttle bay of the Enterprise and the two crews confer on how to stop V'ger. Skywalker notes that no ship has gotten within a kilometer of V'ger, but no ship in their galaxy has the teleporter the Enterprise used on him. Scotty points out that V'ger is already too far away for the Enterprise to catch up even in months, let alone a week, and that while computers and transporters are ahead in the Milky Way, shields and weapons from the GFFA are almost as far ahead as propulsion, and V'ger absorbed that knowledge as well.

And Kirk, ever the tactician, points out that two ships will have a better chance of assaulting V'ger than one. So the crews agree on a trade. the Enterprise will analyze the technology of the X-wing and the Falcon and the Enterprise crew will put a transporter pad on the Falcon.

Contamination
"This ship is an engineer's dream.''" "Why, thank you." "Aye, a real fixer-upper!" "''HEY!"

- Mr. Scott and Han Solo, on the Millennium Falcon

While the crews work together to exchange technology, Skywalker tries to give Spock a crash course in Force use.

Having reviewed the Enterprise database, Skywalker chooses to trust, at least for the time being, in Vulcan control and logic to protect Spock from the passion that is the essence of the dark side. He fails to realize that excess dedication to logic is a passion in itself, and Vulcan logic has led to atrocities in the past. Spock has already lost his way.

Kirk is forced to agree. Spock sabotages the transporter design so it will not only self-destruct, but would be useless even as a starting point for the GFFA to research even before it is destroyed.

Assault
The two ships pursue V'ger, and close to maximum transporter range. Skywalker has decided to transport from the Enterprise, feeling a need to stay close to his new pupil.

As the Enterprise approaches, Uhura cracks the radio signal V'ger has been constantly emitting. It's the binary datastream of an Earth space probe. The mystery deepens.

The teams prepare to transport to V'ger, with Han, Leia, 3PO and R2 transporting from the Falcon as Calrissian pilots her, and Skywalker, Spock, and Kirk transporting from the Enterprise. The Falcon's transporter fails as planned, and an avatar of V'ger greets the three who arrive.

A Happy(?) Ending
"As far as we can tell, this wormhole is completely stable. It'll be bumpy, but with the data we collected last time we can make it through without any telekinetic structural integrity or extrasensory navigation, and come back any time we want.''" "So that means&hellip;" "''That means this galaxy may have to get used to us, because there are still mysteries here we need to solve."

- Kirk and Han Solo

On the Falcon, Skywalker is comforted by his friends as he laments his inability to solve the situation peacefully. On the Enterprise, Kirk doesn't seem to have a problem with Spock's response.

The two crews meet one last time to make their farewells, when the Federation crew explains that they may be back. They didn't have nearly enough time to figure out all the mysteries: the relationship between identical human species in two different galaxies, how the Force could have existed for so long without us knowing, and so on.

As the Enterprise transits the wormhole, there is unexpected turbulence. After having a vision of a tendril of electricity killing Uhura, Spock releases a great growl of vexation and taps into the dark side to shield her. As they exit the wormhole and things return to normal, this time his eyes stay yellow as everyone on the bridge stares, and we cut to credits.

Credits
(In alphabetical order)
 * Hikaru Sulu .... John Cho
 * C-3PO .... Anthony Daniels
 * Leia Organa Solo .... Carrie Fisher
 * Han Solo .... Harrison Ford
 * Luke Skywalker .... Mark Hamill
 * Montgomery Scott .... Simon Pegg
 * James Tiberius Kirk .... Chris Pine
 * Spock .... Zachary Quinto
 * Nyota Uhura .... Zoë Saldana
 * Leonard H. McCoy .... Karl Urban
 * Lando Calrissian .... Billy Dee Williams
 * Pavel Andreievich Chekov .... Anton Yelchin

Disney purchases Lucasfilm
On October 30, 2012, The Walt Disney Company announced that it had purchased Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company behind the creation of the Star Wars franchise, from its owner, Star Wars creator George Lucas, for $4.05 billion. The acquisition came in the wake of Lucas's announced retirement on May 31, and the subsequent June 1 announcement that veteran film producer Kathleen Kennedy was succeeding Lucas as Lucasfilm's Co-Chair. As part of the merger, Disney revealed that it planned to release a new sequel trilogy of films, beginning in 2015, that would include the long-awaited Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. Lucas will remain involved as a creative consultant, with Kennedy serving as executive producer.

In March of 2013, it was confirmed that many off-shoot products would be put into production to coincide with the release of Episode VII. LucasArts' focus has been redirected towards the release of the new movie, and they have announced Star Wars: The Force Unleashed III, which will tie into Episode VII.

Star Wars Episode VII has already been in development for several months as of the Disney–Lucasfilm merger. Lucas has written the story treatments for each of the three upcoming films. According to Kennedy, the development team is currently in the process of sitting down with writers to discuss story ideas. According to a Lucasfilm source, the basis for Star Wars Episode VII will be an original story, rather than taking inspiration from previous Expanded Universe content, such as author Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy of novels, which chronologically follows the events of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi in the Star Wars canon.

Assembling the team
"I've consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller. He's an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands."

- George Lucas, on J.J. Abrams

Lucasfilm confirmed on November 9 that pre-production has begun on Star Wars Episode VII, and that screenwriter Michael Arndt will write the script for the film. News outlets first reported Arndt's involvement on November 8, announcing that, according to insiders, Arndt has already turned in a forty-to-fifty-page story treatment that will reportedly bring the Skywalker family saga to a close in a new trilogy.

Reports first announced on January 24, 2013 that J.J. Abrams, known for his work on the television series Lost and the most recent entries in the Star Trek film series, will direct Star Wars Episode VII. StarWars.com confirmed the reports the following day.

According to reports, Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg will co-produce all three films of the upcoming sequel trilogy. Kasdan and Kinberg will also reportedly share writing responsibilities for both Star Wars Episodes VIII and IX, although the exact division of roles has yet to be determined. Kasdan originally wrote the screenplays for both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. StarWars.com confirmed Kasdan's and Kinberg's involvement as project consultants for Star Wars Episode VII on January 25.

Star Wars actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Ewan McGregor, Billy Dee Williams and Samuel L. Jackson have all been reported to be interested in returning for the new films, though most actors have yet to be confirmed by Lucasfilm sources.

During a concert with the Young Musician's Foundation Debut Orchestra on February 9, composer John Williams stated that he was hoping to get the chance to write the musical scores for the entire new trilogy.

Mark Hamill commented about the sequels in late February 2013 stating that "they are talking to us" and he is scheduled to meet with writer Michael Arndt and Kathleen Kennedy. Hamill stated that so far nobody has signed a contract though there appears to be interest in the entire cast. Hamill went on to say that George Lucas would like to get Peter Mayhew and Anthony Daniels back for the new films as well. Mark Hamill feels that he will return to be "an Obi-Wan type role."

In March 2013, Fisher confirmed she will return as Princess Leia. A day later Lucas confirmed that Hamill, Ford and Fisher were in the final stages of negotiations and that all three were in discussions to return prior to the Disney sale. Lucas stated "Maybe I'm not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them. I won't say whether the negotiations were successful or not".

A new direction
"It's an original story."

- A Lucasfilm source, speaking about the plot for Star Wars Episode VII

On March 28, 2013, a significant amount of material was made available exclusively to the Wookieepedia administration about the plot and production of the upcoming film. It was revealed that in an unprecedented joint venture with Viacom, the "Abramsverse" of the Star Trek films of 2009 and onward would be merging with the continuity of Star Wars to form an entirely new reality. The new film, being produced under the dual working titles of "Star Wars Episode VII: Star Trek" and "Star Trek III: Star Wars" would have a budget of $350,000,000, the largest film budget in history even adjusting for inflation.

Previous fragmentary reports began to make more sense, as the "Obi-Wan type role" that Mark Hamill stated he would be playing was revealed to be as a mentor to Spock, who has discovered that the mental powers of many Milky Way races such as Vulcans, Betazoids, and Humans with ESP, are in fact primitive Force powers, while the crews of the Enterprise and the Millennium Falcon must work together to stop a threat that has come from the Milky Way to threaten the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

Future plans
"We're hoping this sets the stage for future crossovers. We're already in talks with the BBC."

- George Lucas

Under the current plan, future installments of the Star Trek franchise will be set in the new continuity, and will not follow any episodic titling or specific release schedule. Future movies with the Star Wars title will include the two further primary episodes, plus an unspecified number of spinoffs. The one confirmed plotline is the fall and redemption of Spock, and other plotlines are likely to include Starfleet missions to learn the connection between humanity in the two galaxies. Further, Disney-Lucasfilm is planning additional crossovers, including ones with Doctor Who, Marvel Comics, and other continuities. This is substantiated by the success of crossover stories in comics, like IDW's Doctor Who/Star Trek mashup titled Assimilation2.