Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi : 1 : A New Threat
What is it ? : We are told that the age of the Jedi and Sith has ended as has the art of building lightsabers, but the galaxy is at war as warlords rise. Among them Nawaam is spreading terror as worlds fall under his control. Meanwhile Margrave Juro is trying to rebuild the Jedi Order to restore peace.
We then cut to Margraves starship fleeing from a large cruiser, Lah is firing the turret, and they communicate that they are being tracker by a homing beacon placed on their vessel. The smaller ship slips around an asteroid, but the cruiser simply blasts its way directly through. Their droid pilot, Gramps, makes a hyperspace jump and they emerge round a black hole, the cruiser tracks them, but the larger vessel is caught in the gravity well while Margraves ship slips away.
However the commander of the cruiser, Gennoh, uses the Force to drag the ship out of the black hole although it takes heavy damage.
Margraves ship arrives at the world of Makoma Ko, and they go to meet it's leader, Dunbai. Margrave attempts to convince him to join their new Jedi Order, but he refuses, and the situation is made worse as the cruiser arrives over the planet.
Margrave gives Dunbai a lightsaber, telling him to use it to protect his people. The group then returns to their ship and slips into hyperspace as the cruiser lands droid forces on the world after Dunbai denies knowing of any Jedi on the planet.
The droids begin slaughtering the planetary defence forces, but Dunbai joins the combat, obviously a skilled Jedi. Margraves Ship returns to Makoma Ko and hides beneath the cruiser with Lah and Gramps boarding the cruiser to take out the droids. They enter a large computer centre, but Gennoh is waiting there after being warned that his ship had been boarded, he ignites a red lightsaber, and he and Lah fight, she tells him she is the daughter of the Sabersmith, and he responds that he knows her father, who is now a faithful servant of Nawaam.
He is a superior fighter to her, but she reveals soon that she is only distracting him which Gramps deactivated all the droids. We see the battle droids beneath failing, but also the command crew of the cruiser and it begins to crash into the ocean of Makoma Ko. Gennoh flees in a fighter, and Lah and Gramps escape as the ship crashes.
Later Margrave tells Dunbai to keep the lightsaber, and we get a flashback of him sending Ethan and 99-99 on a mission. We see Nawaan visiting Lah's father in a cage where he calls himself a sabersmith, but Nawaan questions why he would use this lower title rather than calling himself a Jedi, and we see Lah being haunted by dreams of her father in captivity.
We then see Ethan on his mission, Nawaan allows anyone to challenge him for control of his empire, and Ethan is with a group of such challengers. Nawaan confronts one such challenger, who he claims is a masterless Jedi. The Jedi fights using a spear, and Nawaan activates his lightsaber which is blue, causing Ethan to wonder if Nawaan is actually a Jedi, but Nawaan easily defeats the masterless Jedi who refuses to name himself, refusing to give his name to a tyrant. . . .
High Points : Well first of all, the design continues to be stunning, during my reviews of The Ninth Jedi and Child of Hope I complemented the design style, and here is remains excellent. The cruiser used by Gennoh is striking and interesting, the battle droids, and of course the world of Makoma Ko all look fantastic. This is a world I want to see more of, to explore and to enjoy the sights of.
And we're straight into the story, Hargrave is trying to restore the Jedi, and Nawaam is a warlord who is set against that, it's easy to understand and gets us straight into the action. We don't need to know how they got a tracking beacon on their ship, it's just there and like A New Hope we're into a space battle. Gramps tactic of heading to the Black Hole also takes us to another gorgeous environment to behold, and seems clever as the larger ship gets caught in the black hole, only saved by manipulation of the Force by Gennoh.
Low Points : For all of the great design, I have to comment on Gennoh and Nawaan just being more Dark Siders in black cloaks, they're not visually interesting or distinctive from dozens of other Sith we've seen over the years.
And using an entirely droid crew all controlled from a central computer on their ship is a tactic which was defeated back in The Phantom Menace, does no-one read history books in this era to know that it's a silly idea to have a single point of failure for your entire army.
So what do you really think ? : It all feels a bit derivative, with the space battle straight from the beginning, like a New Hope, the droids being deactivated from a central computer, like The Phantom Menace, it's like it's a greatest hits of Star Wars rather that forging it's own path. Now this might just be for the recognition factor, we know this is Star Wars because of these shared elements, so I'm not putting that as a Low Point for lack of imagination. But it does seem to have it's own ideas, and the concept of Dunbai being a former Jedi, so while Margrave is trying to forge a new Jedi Order, there's still lots of Jedi remaining could prove interesting.
Final Words : Both the Ninth Jedi and Child of Hope were pretty interesting and absolute feasts for the eyes, the series begins with the same abundance of visuals and with some new ideas, but I just found it a little generic. We shall see how it goes forward, will I bond with these characters (Gramps seems pretty interesting, and given he was the droid that shuttled Lah from the surface in The Ninth Jedi, it's interesting to see such a minor character become a main character in this series), and will the plot grab me beyond Lah wanting to rescue her father.
Score : 8/10
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