However, unlike the franchise’s previously forays into audio drama, Dooku: Jedi Lost is both original and canonical. Scott’s story delves into a time period unexplored since the Disney reset, allowing him to shine a light on a potentially fascinating character incredibly short-changed by the movies and portrayed only as a megalomaniacal heel in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The light shone by Scott casts a long shadow, and though it would not be accurate to say that this production is the story of Dooku’s turn to the dark side, it is nonetheless the apotheosis of a life of disillusionment – like it says on the tin, Jedi lost.
If you pay any attention to the Star Wars Timeline that opens each (written) book in the range, you will note that Dooku: Jedi Lost is its earliest entry, presumably as the preponderance of its plot takes place in the decades leading up to The Phantom Menace. Strictly speaking, though, it actually takes place during the Clone Wars and from the point of view of Asajj Ventress (superlatively recreated for the medium by Orlagh Cassidy), Dooku’s assassin and secret apprentice, who’s been tasked with the rescue of Dooku’s kidnapped sister, Jenza. With three or four times the running time that he’s accustomed to, Scott uses his freedom to fuse the dynamism of audio drama with insightful, first-person prose. Ventress pores through Dooku’s old letters, diaries and holos; the young Jedi’s words bleeding seamlessly into present-tense, full-cast action.
Furthermore, unlike the out-and-out audiobooks in the range, such as the recent Resistance Reborn, the production values here are superb. John Williams’ authentic music is still used to score the drama, but it’s used suitably sparingly, and edited with such precision that it often sounds as if it’s been composed specifically for this production. By necessity, a number existing leitmotifs have had to be reassigned – “Across the Stars”, which Williams wrote as Anakin and Padmé’s love theme for Attack of the Clones, jars the most as its strings often swell around Dooku here, but only if you’re as pedantic as I am with these things. In terms of tone, which is really all that matters, the musical selections can’t be faulted. The sound design is equal to the melodic side of the soundscape; lightsaber duels, swoop-bike races and even great Serennean Sith war beasts are brought graphically to life by Lucasfilm’s foley artists. At times, listening to Dooku: Jedi Lost is like watching a Star Wars movie with your eyes closed.
Scott’s story is a sweeping, snapshot affair that covers all of the formative events in Dooku’s life leading up to him leaving the Jedi Order to assume his ancestral throne as the Count of Serenno. Some of the best Star Wars stories in recent years have spun out of the crippling flaws in the franchise’s movies, and Count Dooku is the locus of many of the prequels’. With his unexplained – and unlikely – nobility and burning questions concerning how much he knows of Palpatine’s masterplan and why the Sidious-soundalike Sifo-Dyas decided to order the Republic a grand army of clones, even Christopher Lee’s stunningly sombre performance struggled to paper over the narrative cracks in Episodes II and III. Dooku: Jedi Lost at least begins to address these issues, taking what initially appeared to be gaping plot holes and weaving them into a truly magnificent back story that enriches Dooku to such a degree that you could almost believe the gaffes were deliberate.
The prequels were keen to emphasise the links between attachment and the gateway to the dark side of the Force, and here Scott reveals that Dooku has more common with his Clone Wars nemesis than we previously knew. Born into royalty on Serenno, baby “Doo” was handed over to the Jedi by his father who loathed his son’s unnatural abilities. Only years later, as a teenager, would Dooku learn of his pedigree through a chance meeting with his sister – a sister that he would then latch onto. Meanwhile, Dooku’s only real friend amongst his fellow Jedi initiates is Sifo-Dyas – a singularly anxious young man plagued by vivid premonitions, which, again, the prequels stressed were pathways to the dark side. From its very first act, Dooku’s dark fate and Sifo’s tragic descent into insanity seem inexorable - what’s so bloody good about this production is that Scott makes you not want them to be.
Clearly taking his cues from JK Rowling, Scott delights in exploring the intricacies of Jedi schooling, with Sifo-Dyas playing the amiable Ron Weasley to Dooku’s troubled Harry Potter. Scott even provides them with a Malfoy-like foil from another Jedi “clan” (Jedi for “house”), while and Marc Thompson’s uncannily accurate Yoda assumes a kindly, Dumbledorean role. Some of the story’s most charming moments see Doo and Sifo get into Ron-and-Harry-like scrapes as they think they’ve uncovered a secret Sith masquerading as a Jedi, only to find themselves a Lupin-like hero figure in her, or see them sweat over the lightsaber tournament that might just earn them their padawanships. Particularly in these parts of the production, Euan Morton really convinces as Dooku - he and Sean Kenin (Sifo) have such a great rapport that it pains when the two best friends are inevitably separated.
Even as Dooku grows older and starts to become Nigel Farage in space, he remains somewhat sympathetic, though admittedly Morton does struggle to channel Christopher Lee in his more stately performance. Dooku’s two knighted padawans, the headstrong Qui-Gon Jinn (stunningly played by Jonathan Davis) and space cowboy Rael Aveross, are still able to penetrate his cold veneer, often reminding him of what’s important and supporting him in even his most ill-conceived and frowned-upon endeavours. In keeping with Mace Windu’s comments about him at the start of Attack of the Clones, Dooku is always portrayed as an idealist here, and Scott does an exemplary job of showing that it’s political ideology that comes between Dooku and the Jedi, as opposed to his secret dalliances with the dark side.
However, whilst “Sheev”, the not-yet influential Naboo politician who drives the whole Star Wars ennealogy (“Skywalker Saga” my arse), may only have a walk-on part here, the seeds of Dooku’s turn are still sown. Dooku: Jedi Lost draws patent parallels between Dooku and Vader, Jenza and Padmé, even Serenno and Tatooine, but it’s far more than just a variation on a theme. Dooku’s descent into evil is far more complex than a snap-decision to try to save a loved one’s life - the dark side is with Dooku from his earliest days as an initiate; his family’s house was literally built on it. Unlike Anakin’s, Dooku’s seduction is the tale of a lifetime, and perhaps the best thing about this wonderful production is that it is only the start of a much larger story.
If you’ve have told me fifteen years ago that Cavan Scott would be writing full-cast Star Wars audio dramas, I’d have been jumping up and down – and with just cause. Dooku: Jedi Lost breaks the mould that has contained Star Wars fiction since the Expanded Universe was first created, delivering a best-of-both worlds experience that possesses all the depth and complexity of a novel while retaining all of the immediacy and intimacy of audio drama. Buy it now, and they might make us some more…
Star Wars - Dooku: Jedi Lost is available to download from iTunes for £7.99 or Amazon for £19.24.
