Beginnings - Late 1981

 

1981.  The Empire Strikes Back, to an 11 year old kid, was a distant memory, the monthly comic from Marvel being one of the primary outlets of Star Wars goodness available.  The other - my imagination.

The Palitoy figures were still monster sellers, filling shelves across the land and just like any number of other kids, those figures led to new stories and new adventures.  Living in Burntwood as I did at the time, myself and three other friends - Lee Powell, Adrian Bishop and Roger Alexander - started to plan a short cine film. 

Lee would direct, Adrian provided the camera and would do effects, I would write the story and Roger the music.  I remember clearly the small, red velvet wrapped notebook that I kept my ideas in.  The thrust of the tale has long since faded into the past but I do remember three things.  The key world was to be a pink-hued planet called Anga, there was a world called Elany in there and Lee's character was called Romanoe, a character that's been used often and to great effect down the years in roleplay sessions and Lightsabre stories.

Honestly, I cannot remember if Jan was thought up of at that point.  I think he might have been, but I couldn't swear to it.

For whatever reason - budget, time constraints, being 11 - the film never got off the ground, but the thought of doing an original story stuck and so I started the first draft of what would eventually become Quest for Freedom.

 

 

First draft - January 1982

 

I so wish I still had the very first version of Quest.  It was written - as were many later stories during the NHP (Newbold-Hicks Productions) era, on a Silverline red-covered notepad.  But, being eleven and still developing my handwriting style I decided to re-write the first version and expand upon it.

The first version had the basic outline that exists in the 2007/8 comic version.  Lando and Chewie were escaping Anga, bound for places unknown on their quest to find Captain Solo.  Evading Imperial capture their story would parallel that of Luke and Leia - very much in the vein of their characters in Splinter of the Minds Eye - as they seek to destroy the Imperial Star Destroyer Executor.  The story ended with the two groups coming together and succeeding in their mission.

The settings of that first draft evade me.  I know it was on worlds familiar to Star Wars fans and there was no mention of anything to do with Jan Lomona.  And, vitally, Lando and Chewie found Han Solo and freed him from his captives.  Knowing that it wasn't quite what I wanted, I started on the second draft.

 

 

Second draft - May 1982

 

I embarked on the 40 page second draft in early 1982 and immediately things were different.  Yes, the tale was still an obvious sequel to the Marvel tale 'Hello Bespin, Goodbye' with Lando, Lobot and Chewie evading Commander Treece (a name I retained but morphing into a new character).  But in the second draft a fortunate piece of serendipity played itself out.

While writing a line describing Chewbacca's growls I mis-spelled a line, and instead of writing 'A deep growl from the towering wookie' I wrote 'A de-...'

What was I going to do?  I didn't want to tear the page out of the book and start again, I'd had to do that once already.  I didn't have a typewriter, PC's and word processors were a few years beyond me, so I improvised and came up with this instead.

'A-desando' replied Lando's aide, Lobot.  Yes, in my version Lobot could speak...

However, I saved my bacon and gave the characters somewhere to head towards.

The world of A-desando has understandably evolved quite a bit since 1982.  Now a world of towering, Amazonian people, back then Jan Lomona was practically a dwarf, his character later informed by the Bey character of the Marvel series and growing to two metres plus.  Following the story line of The Empire Strikes Back, this time Lando was the visitor bringing trouble and Lomona was the administrator.  The Empire soon track down Calrissian and his friends and invade the city, flattening Ecaps (Space spelled backwards) City in their attempts to capture the Millennium Falcon.

At this juncture there was no Frans Latka, she would appear in the 1985 fourth draft, and no Paige Retgarr-Lomona, who wouldn't be created until 1996 when Jason Brown magicked up a daughter for Jan, and I would work her in to Jan Lomona and the Sirens of Amagad in 1998.

The story switches over to Luke and Leia aboard the Executor - again, it wasn't rechristened until the third draft - as they stalk the corridors in search of Han Solo.  For some reason I hadn't realised that Han would still be in the carbonite block, despite the comics acknowledging it during the Marvel run, and had the two Rebels come across Han aboard the Imperial Super Star Destroyer, but not before some pre-brother and sister snogging a'la Splinters in the corridors and being captured by Lieutenant Treece.

By now Lando has returned, leaving Jan and his ship The Shanndaors Revenge behind (yes, the grain transporter from Han Solo's Revenge).  Again, Jan's ship wouldn't be named the Berone Sunrise until the 1983 third draft.

Back on the Executor, Han is in the hands of Marvel villain Orion Ferret, administrator of Bazaar, a huge trading outpost that was the inspiration for Chancai in the sequel The Lydon Legacy.  Luke and Leia, escaped from their captors, shoot down Ferret and wait in the docking bay for the Falcon to land and whisk them away to safety.

The group fly back to the Rebel fleet and the forthcoming battle over Mantin-7, which is the new main Rebel base, as Treece and Lans have to face Darth Vader for a briefing and inform him that they know the Rebels whereabouts.  On Mantin-7, General Jan Dodonna - phonetically the inspiration for Jan Lomona's name - is briefing the pilots for their attack with Luke and Wedge Antilles leading the attack.  Luke is shot down over the Executor and picked up by Solo in the Falcon, and Artoo by Wedge.  The skirmish is concluded as the Rebels escape, unable to destroy the vessel.

With Lomona now joining the gang the second attack is planned, but not before Solo, Calrissian and Chewbacca leave on a private smuggling venture that promises to bag them thousands of credits.  Luke and Leia hatch a plot to destroy the Executor from the inside by themselves, the attack squad idea not evolving until the third draft, and daringly fly close to the destroyer, entering through a hatch and setting explosives and escaping before the Super Star Destroyer explodes.

 

 

Third draft - 1983 - 1984

 

As my knowledge of the Star Wars universe increased I felt it was time to update and correct many of the glaring errors contained in the second draft of Quest.  This time I knew where the story was heading and what to do to correct the mistakes - well, mostly.  Following the basic plot I introduced many more elements still at play in the stories today. 

The Falcon fled Anga in much the same manner as the 2007/8 comic strip, evading TIE's, BUG's and the Revenger.  Much like in the Marvel comics, I had Treece demoted to Lieutenant, therefore making his subordinate Lans his new commander.  This has largely remained in the modern stories, only with Lans taking a larger control after Treece's apparent death in Jan Lomona and the Sirens of Amagad.

In this 23 page draft we find Luke and Leia aboard the Revenger much earlier in the plot, hidden on board an Imperial Shuttle.  They sneak off and escape into the corridors.  The Falcon arrives on A-desando and stays as Jan's guest for a while until the arrival of the Empire at Ecaps, and the breakout of the Battle of Ecaps.  As usual with Jans early changing character, he was a wide boy with ties to the Empire - much like Calrissian had been in Empire.  This came in useful later for the character, as Jans family are almost entirely Imperial. 

The battle progresses in more detail, using the cityscape as a canyon to weave through, but instead of escaping right away as in the previous and later versions they stay another night, showing that in this incarnation of the story they totally defeated the Imperial battle group.  Again Lomona remains on A-desando, unlike later versions where he joins the search for Solo immediately.

Luke and Leia are captured by Treece and Lans as before and come quietly before Luke uses his Lightsabre to escape, and sprinting for the docking bay they call Lando and the Falcon to rescue them.

Once again Treece and Lans report to Vader and inform him of the Rebels base on Mantin-7, and Vader formulates a plan of attack.

As this was written after the release of Return of the Jedi I was able to incorporate a number of elements from the final film.  Dodonna and Riekan were replaced by Admiral Ackbar, despite him describing the Revenger as guarding the construction of the second Death Star a year before it was referenced in Jedi itself.  And it gave me chance to include a wealth of Return of the Jedi references when Solo's carbonite block was hoisted onto Jabba's wall.

Just as the Rebels are planning to attack the Revenger, Jan leaves A-desando  en route to Rallion and calls the Falcon.  Once the situation is explained he aborts his job to join the battle and help his friends.  Interestingly Jan has a ginger-haired female co-pilot, Frans, who in the fourth draft would evolve into his fiancé Frans Latka.

With the battle underway Lando and Luke are in the thick of it when Vader enters the fray.  I made reference to Vader claiming to be Luke's father, and flying his old Star Wars TIE Fighter, which was fun. 

Interestingly I also managed to tease the sequel in this latest draft, with Lando mentioning his ties to Jabba the Hutt.  The group - Lando, Chewie, Jan, Frans and the droids - leave the Headquarters Frigate as it dips out of hyperspace and embark on their mission to rescue Han Solo in the Sunrise and the Falcon in 1983's The Lydon Legacy.

There's another interesting scene where Leia tells Luke that it would be just the two of them attacking the Revenger, and as she enters her private quarters she looks at a holo-photo of Han Solo and thinks of 'the events of the last week.  Leaving Hoth, flying through the asteroids, landing on Bespin and losing Han.' As she continues her musing Luke enters the room with his wingman, Terrie.  In later drafts she would become Terrie Saffra, the eventual commander of Squadron Indigo.

As in the previous draft Luke and Leia enter the destroyer and blow it up, before coming home and being hailed as heroes by Mon Mothma and the Alliance.

 

 

Fourth draft - 1986 - 1988

 

By 1986 I had met Jonathan Hicks and together we had embarked on our audio company NHP.  In '86 we started our Star Wars line of stories, and this inspired to yet again go back to Quest and work out a final version.  The fourth draft is the most cumbersome, as it took two years to complete, with additions and addendums lacing throughout as we vastly expanded our own NHP Star Wars Universe with new characters and stories, but also changed the focus of the tale from being primarily about Lando and Chewie, Luke and Leia to being as much about our own characters.

The 31 page fourth draft opens, as do all Quest for Freedom drafts, with the escape from Anga and Lando chewing on a cigarillo as per his earlier adventures by L Neil Smith, which I had recently read.  The opening battle was vastly expanded and plotted more densely, detailing the action and leaving our heroes flying towards their friend on A-desando (not yet specifically in the Setnin Sector as Jonathan had yet to come up with the term Setnin - or Setlin as he originally called it).

The story swings to the Executor as Commanders Treece and Lans arrive to brief Darth Vader.  Angry at not being told of the Falcons close capture, Vader demotes Treece.  I decided to do this much earlier in the story, which in retrospect was a mistake as it drained Treece of any 'bad guy' menace he might have had.

I kept the next scene the same, with Luke and Leia exiting the shuttle on the Revenger, and then moved to A-desando with Lando and Chewie being met by Jan Lomona, who is now the seven foot tall character we know.  A small scene with Treece being alerted to the Falcons presence was added before we go back to Jan and Lando sharing the amazing views of Ecaps.  In the scene Chewie leaves them to go for a wander and I wrote a scene showing his amazing strength when he is attacked by a huge alien, which he defeats in a scene similar to one from one of the Han Solo novels.

Then all hell breaks loose as the Imperials attack and their weapons are let loose on the city.  The A-desandian fighters - G-Group - blast off towards the enemy with Jan and Lando, and Chewie in the Falcon. 

Luke and Leia again get captured but this time avoid their now-incestuous kissing scene as Lando and Chewie depart the wrecked Ecaps City and leave Jan behind to piece the place back together.  The Falcon returns to Mantin-7, where we meet Artoo and Threepio.

Luke and Leia are still captured and escape much as before, but instead of being collected by the Falcon they steal an Imperial shuttle and blast away.  Meanwhile on Mantin-7 Lando and Wedge are reminiscing about Han and I had the chance to slip in some NHP Star Wars references with Lando talking about a job on "...where was it?..oh yeah, Tantum IV." 

In a briefing scene Ackbar once again refers to the Revenger as guaring the construction of the second Death Star, and details the plan as "Blue Group attack first, followed by orange, red, yellow, gold and green."  In this draft Lando decides now is the moment to offer his services to the Alliance and joins the attack group.

I kept the Fett on Tatooine delivery scene but lost the fake carbonite swap before moving the focus to the Battle of Mantin-7 as it built up.  Again I was able to intersperse a lot of Return of the Jedi references into the combat speak and also build the Revenger into being a monster machine, even more so than the Executor.  I also kept the scene of Jan aborting his job to Rallion and instead racing off to help Lando.  This time the battle is slightly different, with the Revenger coming into play later and being the focal point of the fight against the Rebels.  This was also where I thought up Squadron Indigo, with them being the back up plan in the battle.  They were described as a 'New Rebel squadron', but I later did a long back story with previous rosters and the groups origins years previously.  Defeated, the Alliance battlegroup jumps to hyperspace, but not before Vader senses Lukes presence.

In the fourth draft the Sunrise appears after the battle has concluded and docks aboard the Mon Calamarian ship Headquarters Frigate.  As in the third draft they concoct a plan to make some money and save Solo, with Frans returning to A-desando to oversee the rebuilding process, and blast away.

As before Leia explains the plan to Luke to enter the Revenger, into the garbage bay in a reconditioned 'Junk Shuttle'.  Here I took the opportunity to throw in a character from the Marvel series, Gemmer the mechanic, and again mentioned Terrie.  She was also in a new scene, where her and Luke, unable to sleep, are in the flight hangar discussing the mission.  At this point Terrie was a raw recruit, nervous and unsure of herself and nothing like the confident expert she later becomes in the stories.

The Junki Shuttle disembarks, dropping away from the Frigate and into hyperspace bound for the Revenger with seven crew aboard.  Present are Gemmer, Beyad (who survived the battle on A-desando), the commander Kings, Ozz, Luke, Leia and Terrie.  They take a slow and tortuous route towards the destroyer and are almost there when a SIE fighter opens fire.  Luckily, the garbage is dropped and they manage to enter the ship and sneak out into the Revenger. 

Fire fights ensue and Kings, making a stand to give them time, is gunned down. 

Vader is alerted to their presence in a scene deliberately written to mimic the Meditation Chamber scene from Empire, and the ship placed on high alert as the Rebels split up to cause more mayhem and plant their detonators.  Ozz is killed and as they regroup back to the garbage area they'd landed in they find the ship gone, moved by Imperial workmen to another bay. 

Vader is next seen sitting in an Imperial Shuttle as it leaves the Revenger and jumps to hyperspace just before the vessel explodes in a fireball.  Our heroes break out the beers and celebrate as the news reaches the Headquarters Frigate.  The Junk Shuttle returns to a rapturous welcome in the mess area, and the fourth draft finishes where the others did, with Luke and Leia alone in her private chambers marvelling at the odds "Artoo calculated that our chances of destroying the ship were 37,765 to 1," and thinking of their lost friend Han Solo.

 

 

Fifth draft - 2007 - 2008

 

In 1996 a comic version of the story by Jason Brown was started, with the first page shot of the Revenger being sketched out, but it wasn't until 2007 and the 25th anniversary of the first draft that Quest received its long awaited re-write - it's 5th draft.

The plan is to write a novella of Quest, fulfilling my original intention of 1982 to have a completed version of Quest for Freedom.  With over a quarter of a century of Setnin Sector characters and locations there shouldn't be a shortage of new characters and venues to incorporate into the story.