Script: W.A.S.P. episode FOUR

Part four of the animals in space comic draft scripts. Still looking for a home.

World Animal Space Patrol FOUR
Enos' Heavenly Music Exploration

The origin of the alien conflict story, told by Enos the chimp, who was introduced last episode. WARNING: contains flashbacks and actual historical references.


PAGE ONE
Albert's office back on Earth. Albert and Enos talking. Enos is still wearing his NASA spacesuit, but no helmet or gloves. Albert is in his usual suit with elbow patches and pipe deal. Enos is in grief, and feeling guilty. He hangs his head, puts it in his hands, that kind of thing. Albert does the whole fatherly reassurance thing, hand on shoulder, and so on.

1/1
Enos: "I can't believe it, my brother's dead?""
Albert: "Ham died a hero... Protecting his fellow team members."

1/2
Enos: "I never should have left."
Albert: "You had to do what you had to do."
Enos: "Did I?"

1/3
Enos: "I volunteered for my mission."
Albert: "And Ham respected that. He was proud of you."

1/4
Enos: "But don't you get it, Albert? I'm the one responsible for his death."


PAGE TWO
Two small panels at the top, then a big title panel that shows mentally tortured Enos in close up.

2/1
Albert: "You? Don't be silly, Enos. Ham's death couldn't have been your fault."
Enos: "Ah, but it was ..."

2/2
Enos: "I've put you all in danger. You, Lakia, Felicette ... "

2/3
Enos: "... the entire earth is in danger because of me!"
TITLES
World Animal Space Patrol FOUR
Enos' Heavenly Music Exploration

PAGE THREE
3/1 [ 1964. Project Orion. Officially cancelled a year earlier. ]
An old Atlas style rocket taking off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_rocket

[ A secret payload. Records say it was a commsat that malfunctioned. In reality it was me. ]

3/2
[ They called my mission the Road to the Stars. ]
Orion style spaceship moving through space. The next frame is a zoom in to show the engines in more detail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
[ A road paved with good intentions... ]

3/3
[ ... and littered with secrets and lies. ]
Close up of the engines showing a nuclear radiation symbol, and the words "Nuclear Pulse Propulsion".
[ The whole project was banned under the International Test Ban Treaty. ]


PAGE FOUR
Page that has a pan out over three panels, then a big torture scene done with a nod to da Vinci
4/1
[ None of that mattered to me. I was going to the stars. ]
Enos close up with a big smile on his face.

4/2
[ ... eventually.]
Pan out so we see that he's smiling asleep in a cryogenic sleep unit.
[ Forty years of sleep. I had dreams. I don't like to remember them. ]

4/3
[ Although when I woke up it was worse. ]
Pan out more, so that we see some of the aliens surrounding the cryo-chamber. Put more ice on the outside, etc. to show the passage of time.

4/4
[ They were not friendly. ]
Enos being tortured. Hung up by his arms, his legs out in that classic da Vinci Vitruvian man kind of pose. In fact, try to reference that pose as much as you can, by putting a circle of something (metal?) around him. Maybe that is what he is tied to, a big metal circle.
[ But that was because of something we'd done. Something they considered abhorrent. Something so foul they couldn't bear it... ]


PAGE FIVE
5/1
[ We'd played music at them. ]
Large panel showing Enos' spaceship floating through space with radiating circles that represent a music broadcast coming from it.
[ Radio transmissions of Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Louis Armstrong ... even Chuck Berry. But it was the Javanese gamelan that they found most offensive. ]
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html

5/2
[ Our music was very close to their spoken language. ]
Enos being tortured some more. But have musical notes coming from the aliens as they speak.
[ Even as they tortured me I could only appreciate the lyrical speech of my tormentors.

5/3
[ But what that one piece said to them was not polite. ]
Close up of very angry alien 'yelling' at Enos. Flecks of spit, wide bulging eyes, etc.
[ It sounded just like the most offensive phrase that existed in their language, repeated over and over. ]


PAGE SIX
Back in the office of Albert.

6/1
[ I tried to explain. I tried to reason with them. ]
Enos in Albert's office, finishing his story.
[ I failed. ]

6/2
[ I tried to resist their probes. ]
Flashback to alien with a probe and a look of horror in Enos' face.
[ I failed. ]

6/3
[ I tried not to think of home. Of Earth. ]
Back in the office. Enos with his head in his hands.
[ Again I failed. ]

6/4
[ Now they know where we are. Now they want revenge for what we have said to them. ]
Panel showing a fleet of flying saucers approaching the Earth.
[ Now they want to destroy us all. ]

NEXT: ANTARCTIC MONKEYS