Getting The Butter There

There may be one or two people who read this journal who recall almost a year ago when I boasted that I'd outlined my fanfiction third Star Wars trilogy within a week of the premiere of Episode III. Most readers will recall my recounting the story here more recently when moping about my recent lack of fanfiction output generally and lack of progress on the trilogy specifically. Well, I've gone and scripted the Doctor Who crossover Episode VII: A Galaxy Divided. But there's a major problem with it.

First of all, recall or observe that chronologically my crossovers are restricted to real time: When Property X is crossed over with Property Y and for story needs the crossover's set during Property X's continuity of the 1998-1999 tv season, Property Y's continuity is also that of 1998-1999. Captain Kirk's career spans the first seven Doctors; Captain Picard's spans the sixth through present's. Leia Organa attended poker games at the 4077th; Padme Amidala on the Enterprise-E. Daniel Jackson and Kenny McCormack spent the same year dead (I think). I made this decision about my crossovers in the 1970s; I think it's logical, and I think it's tidy, helping me to track my crossovers' chronology more easily.

I announced and intended I'd debut my Episodes VII-IX annually in May (just as Star Wars trilogies always debuted every three years in May): May 2006, May 2007, and May 2008. I also intend(ed) for continuity purposes to treat these debut dates as I do premiere/air/publication dates - i.e., the Doctor Who continuity in Episode VII is to be that of Doctor Who 2005-2006.

In fact I've incorporated the Doctor's regeneration into the action of the story. (Which is fudging it a little. The new Doctor's debut episode aired last December, not this coming May. But then I'm altering the circumstances of the regeneration too.) And there's the rub. See, the more I work the script I have for A Galaxy Divided, the more I realize the events it chronicles are, structurally, the events of a middle Star Wars trilogy episode. These events belong in Episode VIII, not VII. But it was this year that the Doctor regenerated.

I see three options at this point, none of which I like.

1. Rename this script Episode VIII and draft a new Episode VII. Drafting a new episode that's a prequel to this one wouldn't be difficult; there's enough backstory in this episode to support it. Debut the new episode as Episode VII next month, but set it in Doctor Who continuity of May 2005; then next May debut the existing episode as Episode VIII set this May with the regeneration element intact. This option would violate the intended debut-date-as-setting-date chronology principle.
2. Debut the script I have next month as planned. This option would violate established Star Wars trilogy structure and leave me with little or no story to tell in Episode VIII next year.
3. Rename this script Episode VIII and draft a new Episode VII. Debut the new episode as Episode VII next month, setting it in present Doctor Who continuity after the regeneration; then next May debut the existing episode as Episode VIII set in then-present May but with the regeneration element removed. This option would violate no Gadzikowski or Lucas principles but would lose the regeneration element; and that would really, really suck because it genuinely has relevance to the trilogy's plot. (Of course, it's fanfiction; I could regenerate him next year and invent a Doctor. Despite my views on the concept of canon, however, to me the point of fanfiction is not to deviate too greatly from the familiar. If you want to invent things, what are you writing fanfiction for?)

Stay tuned.