This was something I started writing for fun. I wanted to do a nod to bad 50's sci-fi movies along the lines of Teenagers from Space and Mars Needs Women. Its a fine line however between parody and homage. I like some of the ideas behind the script, but I'm worried it's too tongue-in-cheek. Plus the accent has to go.
FADE IN:
Ext outer space
Classical music. Push-in to star-studded blackness of space.
NaRRATOR (O.S.)
Space. A vast universe filled with countless galaxies, of which our own Milky way is but one. Making up these galaxies, stars more numerous than the grains of sand on a beach. And orbiting these stars, worlds!
Ext outer space
Push in to small red planet orbiting a star. Sizzling SFX.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Some may be barren and hot like our own Mercury.
Small ice covered planet. Generic wind blowing SFX.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Others cold, frozen, like our distant cousin Pluto.
Sunlight glints off of colorful blue planet.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
How many among them are unique like our own planet Earth, blessed with the miraculous spark we call, life?
Music swells. Zoom into atmosphere.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
How many worlds have given rise to primitive organisms like our own earliest ancestors, bacteria and algae?
Pan down to seaweed covered ocean. Splash into water.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
How many have witnessed the transformation of single celled organisms into thriving ecosystems of multicellular life?
Montage of stock images: ferns, dragonflies, crocodile sliding into the water, hissing frilled Gila monster.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Of all these potential life-bearing worlds, how many yet have given way to that last, final stage of evolution, intelligence?
Caveman, bearded, dirty furs, hunched painting on a cave wall by torchlight, cavewoman cooking over a fire in BG.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Is our own fertile world unique among the millions scattered throughout the emptiness of space, the sole intelligent tenants of this cold cosmic estate?
Ext cave - moRNING
Caveman and Cavewoman holding hands stroll off-camera. Pan down, zoom-in on bare foot print in the sand.
NARRATOR (CONT'D)
Or are we not alone?
A futuristic silvery boot stomps on top of the caveman's print. Music climaxes. Superimpose title. Boot steps away, treaded print replacing the caveman's, humanoid shadow sweeps past. Pan up to the sky. Music simmers and fades.
DiSSOLVE TO:
EXT OUTER SPACE
Opening titles over montage of space images, Theremin music.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT outer space
Rocket Ship, Mars-1, rocketing across the backdrop of space. Slow push into the cabin port hole.
INT flight deck mars-1 - cONTINUOUS
A crew of five man their controls: Expedition leader Captain Brace Cannon, 35, physics P.h.D., Square-jawed former college quarterback; the lovely and attractive Dr. Berverly May, 28, brunette bespectacled lab assistant; Prof. Hermann Landau, 76, Brace's mentor, shock white-haired architect of the Mars Mission; Astro-Navigator, Buddy Kent, 27, freckled Iowa farmboy; and Co-Pilot, Milo, chimpanzee, and lab experiment.
A red light flashes, beeps, breaking the silence.
Buddy
It's official now. We've left Earth's orbit. It's all outer space from here on out.
Landau
Ze last great frontier ist conquered. Ve are ze first Men, und Voman, to venture zis far into space. Vat dangers ve vill face now, no von can say.
Beverly
Or what wonders, Professor. Surely Earth's early pioneers discovered as much beauty as danger on their journeys.
LANDAU
Ach, you are correct my dear. Vat wonders ve vill face, no von can say.
Brace
Leave it to a woman to put things in perspective for you, Professor. One thing we can all agree on is no telling what we'll find out there.
BuDDY
One thing I know for sure, we won't find anything out there more beautiful than our own Dr. May.
BeVERLY
Now Buddy, that's not what I...
LANDAU
How astute you are Kent. I zink it no small coinzidence Dr. May vaz choozen for zis mission. I zuspect Marz is not ze only heavenly object ze Captain vishes to conquer.
BrACE
All right, that's enough locker room talk you two. I needn't remind you Dr. May was chosen for her achievements in xeno-biology, and not simply her looks.
BEVERLY
Thank you, Dr. Brace.
She blushes, turning away.
BRACE
Now then, being that we are the first to visit Mars, I want the rest of this mission to go by the book. That means no more chatter on deck. From here on out all I want to hear is operational procedure. Buddy, I want a full Navigational run-down by oh eight hundred.
BuDDY
Aye-aye, Captain!
Buddy turns to his controls, imitated by Milo.
BRACE
Professor, I know we won't reach Mars for another three weeks, but in the meantime I want data on every square inch of space between here and there.
LANDAU
Ja, mein Captain.
BRACE (CONT'D)
And, Beverly?
BEVERLY
Yes, Brace?
BRACE
What do you say to brewing up a pot of your world-famous coffee?
BEVERLY
Of course, Dr. Brace.
BUDDY
Only from now on seems we should start calling it 'space-famous'.
Crew laughs heartily. Pull out of port hole as Mars-1 hurtles into the uncharted recesses of space.
DISSOLVE TO:
Int FLIGHT DECK MARS-1
The crew look at a red disk framed in the front view port.
laNDAU
Beautiful iz she not? How soon zis vessel shall penetrate her virgin atmosvere und deposit ze first seed of humanity upon her breast.
BeVERLY
Why Professor, I didn't know you were such a romantic.
LANDAU
Ah, my dear. I have been in love with ze red planet since I was just a boy. It is hard to believe that after planning zis mission for over twenty-five years, ze eve of our consumation has finally come. I just hope I am not too old for her. No longer am I as virile as our young Captain.
BRACE
You needn't worry about me old man. My sights are set on other things.
He leers at Beverly from his command chair.
BEVERLY
Oh, you men are all the same. How about you buddy, what do you want from the mission?
BuDDY
Well, I'm just a simple farm boy, Miss May. Guess all I really want is a plot of dirt to call my own. I know Mars isn't the most fertile place in the world, but my mother wasn't much to look at either, but she did all right bringing me up.
BEVERLY
You know, I think you're a romantic too, Buddy. In your own kind of way. And please, call me Doctor.
The deck goes quiet as all contemplate the view.
BUDDY
Hard to believe not a thing has happened these last three weeks. I'm beginning to get comfortable up here.
BRACE
Nobody get comfortable yet. The hardest part of the job is just ahead. Buddy, have the landing preparations been made?
LANDAU
No need. Milo haz already made zem.
Brace is impressed, Landau beams proudly. The chimp nods in acknowledgment and goes back to imitating Buddy.
BUDDY
Golly, professor. I know you're making Milo smarter and all, but gosh if having a monkey at the controls doesn't make me a little nervous.
BEVERLY
Now Buddy, are you worried about being replaced by a monkey?
LANDAU
My boy, you must not vorry. Already Milo haz ze intelligence of an adult human, yes. But, zoon his zimian mind shall equal even my own, und ze door to world peace shall finally be opened.
BRACE
So, what is this experiment about, Doc?
BEVERLY
Dr. Brace, I'm surprised at you. I thought you were an active part of it.
BRACE
Well, let's just say that having a 162 IQ, the last thing I need is a bigger brain. I need something more enticing, more exotic to fire up my intellectual curiosity.
LANDAU
Dr. Brace is more interested in ze functions of ze body zan ze mind, no? Zis experiment iz to prove zat ze effects of gravity retard ze mind. Because of ze Earth's gravitational pull, human intelligence can never attain ze level necessary to save itself from self-destruction. Ve are trapped by ze limitations of a terrestrial mind. We can invent zis phenomenal atomic space ship to probe ze mysteries of ze universe, but zo also do we create ze atomic bomb vich threatens our very existence. I call zis terrestrially limited impulse the monkey mind. Az I have shown with Milo, ze mind freed by gravity suddenly expands like a sponge in water, und a higher threshold is attained.
He pats Milo on the shoulder, gives him a treat.
BUDDY
But, Professor, I've been in space as long as he has, and I'm not any smarter.
LANDAU
Of course not. I have been giving Milo a special serum zat accelerates the expansion of ze mind. Vith ze serun, I have compressed a lifetime into a matter of weeks for Milo. Without ze serum it might take thirty years for your mind to adapt. Maybe forty.
BEVERLY
Is this how it ties into your theories on Mars? Why you believe we will find intelligent life there?
LANDAU
Yes, my dear. Mar's gravity is a fraction of our own. As it iz ze only other world capable of giving rise to life. Thus what life does exist must be more intelligent than our own, and it is zis I shall prove!!
He winces with discomfort, rubs his head.
BEVERLY
All you all right, Professor?
LANDAU
Is nothing. Just a headache. Age has not been kind. Vere vas I?
BRACE
The Mars rant.
LANDAU
Ah, yes. Mars. Alas, I must continue another time. I have exhausted myself. Please excuse me.
He pats himself. Looks around the ship.
LANDAU
Vere have my glasses vandered to again?
BuDDY
They're right there on your head Doc.
LANDAU
Ah, yes, yes. Thank you.
He shuffles off, hunched over, muttering to himself. Milo covers his ears.
BEVERLY
Poor old professor. He's must be exhausting himself.
BRACE
It'll be a sad day for science when his noodle dries up.
Int FLIGHT DECK MARS-1
A red light flashes to klaxon blare. Outside the front viewport asteroids like balls of foil stream past the ship.
BUDDY
Captain, we've flown right into an asteroid field!
EXT OUTER SPACE - cONTINUOUS
A large rumpled asteroid ricochets off the ship, knocking a hole in the side of the ship, spraying out a geyser of gas.
BUDDY
We've been hit! We're leaking gas!
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