Pilot (Dark Saviour)

Pilot is the first episode of the YouTube series Dark Saviour. It was written by series creator, Mike Taylor, who integrated his own dialogue and recorded footage, with the existing footage of the superhero MMO DC Universe Online.

The episode was recently added to the SOE Player Direct playlist on the official DC Universe Online YouTube channel.

Plot
The episode begins with a Dezarrakks monologue, over footage of him dreaming about his escape from the Braniac Harvester ship. He talks of his escape, his determination to use his new found abilities for good, and the support of the Justice League and his father (Dad Taylor.) Dezarrakks makes mention of other heroes, saying the world has its saviours, but this saviour operates better in the dark.

After the title panel Dezarrakks wakes to the sound of his phone ringing. He answers it and Dad asks him to go to his place. Dezarrakks exits his home and flies to Dad's home, monologuing about flight again. On arrival he notices a disturbing sight: the are Braniac forces right outside his house.

Inside Dezarrakks questions Dad, who seems unconcerned about the "ruckus" outside. Dad explains that he and Oracle have been trying to determine exactly what happened to Dezarrakks, but they don't have much information. Dad isn't even sure how Braniac would know of his future tech in present day, prompting Dezarrakks to theorise that future Braniac may have alerted present day Braniac, in the same manner future Lex Luthor contacted his present day self. Dezarrakks then suggests he go out and fight off the Braniac forces, hoping to gain some intel. He goes to suit up, wondering when his proper costume will be ready.

One he's suited up he heads to the East End GCPD safehouse, where the Gotham Special Crimes Unit are attempting to hold back the Braniac army. Dezarrakks joins the fight, facing and defeating waves of Braniac androids. However he starts to falter, feeling the burn of his own fire! Dad suggests a retreat, so Dezarrakks heads to the rooftops.

Once on the rooftop Dezarrakks receives a transmission from Oracle, stating that Braniac is targeting other exobyte infused humans. After briefly wondering how many more were like him he takes off, finding the site. The SCU is on hand, transporting captured exobyte targets to safety, Dezarrakks' task is to take these targets to the SCU, and destroy some hostile alien robots. He is able to accomplish this task, despite near entrapment, himself. Afterwards Dad informs him that Braniac is targeting the Justice League communication systems. Dad suspects that his own private communication network hasn't been targeted because Braniac probably doesn't care about smaller networks. However Dad does warn that Braniac may attempt to shut him down too.

After stopping a breaking and entering, Dezarrakks arrives at the waterfront (outside Dad's house) and begins fighting the androids once more. What makes this battle challenging is that Dezarrakks has to shut down the signal jammers, requiring him to clear the vicinity and get in to hack them. No mean feat, considering more Braniac forces keep spawning. Due to this, Dezarrakks expels more power, leading to a temporary power drain. This is, however, a short lived setback, and he is able to disable the jammers, restoring Oracle's communication systems.

The next day Dezarrakks is talking to Dad, over the phone. Dezarrakks assures Dad that he is fine, needing only to rest it off. Dad then suggests that Dezarrakks check the basement, which Mike finds strange. However he goes downstairs, finding an armoury containing what will be his trademark suit. Dezarrakks is pleased, while Dad tells him they'll begin weapons training. The episode ends with another Dezarrakks monologue, this time while he's fully suited and patrolling the streets.

Production
The episode was recorded using Open Broadcast Software, with the additional dialogue recorded with Audacity. The episode was then edited together with Windows Live Movie Maker.

Two different characters were used for Dezarrakks: the original Dezarrakks character, and the Dezaras duplicate. Dezarrakks is a character on the same account as Dad Taylor, so a duplicate was required to allow them to appear in scenes together. Below is a breakdown:
 * On the Braniac Havester Ship the Dezaras duplicate is used. He was dressed minimally, as Taylor didn't feel it would be realistic if he was in full costume.
 * During the sleeping, and phone, sequences the Dezarrakks character is used, as the Dezaras duplicate was fresh off the ship and didn't have the appropriate clothing at the time. Appropriate clothing was later acquired.


 * The Dezaras duplicate was used for the scenes in Dad's house, along with the rest of the episode.

Three bases were used in the episode. Dad's house was one, but Dezarrakks' home was actually comprised of two bases. The two upper levels were shot in Dezarrakks' lair, but the lowest level used the newly acquired lair of the Dezaras duplicate. Taylor wanted a minimalist look, without removing everything from Dezarrakks' lair, so used the duplicate's basement instead.

Needless to say the episode doesn't fully follow the game's levelling up structure. In earning the duplicate's lair, as well as the Braniac missions, Taylor found himself recording a large portion of the next episode, before completing this one. To accumulate the required footage Taylor followed the general structure of the Batman mentored hero.
 * Escape the Braniac Ship (used here.)
 * The Scarecrow storyline (used briefly here, and in episode 2.)
 * Fight the Braniacs, rescue exobyte targets, disable comm arrays (used here.)
 * The Bane/Cape Carmine storyline (used in episode 2.)
 * Welcome To The WatchTower (not used.)
 * R&D (not used.)
 * Ambush Bug Vault (not used.)
 * Lair acquisition (not used, but the lair was afterwards.)

Music
Music was used from the Batman: Arkham videogame series.

Voice Work
Both Dezarrakks and Dad Taylor were voiced by series creator Mike Taylor. Taylor used his own voice, putting on an accent, for Dezarrakks, but used a different voice for Dad, trying to make him sound older and gruffer. Taylor actually used his (unused,as of yet) Sentinel Prime voice from his Transformers series, for Dad.

Errors
Outside his father's house Dezarrakks spots the Braniac forces. However his belt is different to the one he wears inside, immediately following this scene. While hard to identify the style, the belt is lacking the red tint that it has when Dezarrakks is inside talking to Dad.

Later Dezarrakks is wearing the Biker belt over his jeans, but this isn't necessarily an error, as it stands to reson that he'd own multiple belts, at his home. Also this is the next day.