On Friday, a group of us got together and pitched a new network retro-scifi TV show. The show we described is pleasantly hokey (but not in a way that the characters acknowledge), with futuristic ray-guns and robots that mean well but don’t have the finest motor control.
The series stars Lt. Johnny Coburn, Commander Hank Houston, Alginon Rockefeller III, Willhelm Wolfgang Muler, and KRNCH-E.
We played one round of scenes after finishing the pitch.
The show started off with the silver bright spaceship landing, sinking slightly into the soft ground. The gangplank dropped and a line of suited figures in classic bubble helmets strode forward and down the gangplank. Coburn kept an eye out for danger, Houston posed for the cameras, and Willhelm held up a sampling rig, while Myrtle… coughed and started to topple. Alginon and KRNCH-E made themselves scarce!
Houston caught her, while Willhelm unhooked his air supply and fed it into her suit. Coburn leveled the swaying grasses with his raygun. Myrtle was rushed to the medical bay where quick analysis revealed that cyclotoxins were responsible. The ship was buckled up tight…
(Missing Scene?)
The next scene involved KRNCH-E and Muller setting up atmospheric purging stations around the ship. Eerie green lights and clouds of purified fog billow around the ship.
Lt. Coburn struggled to get approval to adequately secure the compound. An electrified chain link fence was erected to form a secure perimeter around the ship; Coburn was unable to get authorization for the six turrets that would create a secure space, but two were allowed. Somehow, he’d make it work.
Alginon decided to get mining analysis underway; he convinced Houston to send ten marines to escort Gerald, the mining geological expert, to the nearby mountains. Hours later, panicked cries came in over the radio from the scout team–but the transmission was abruptly cut off.
Huston and his simmering second in command, “Big” Dan Anderson, led every marine to the site of the ambush. A radioed call from base warned of disaster from everyone’s absence, and mentioned impressing civilians into running the turrets. Huston peevishly ordered five men to scour the area for the bodies of all of the fallen, while he hustled back to base with the remaining 25 soldiers.