Script (Stage Play or TV/Movie) First Place Winner: “Andromeda’s Way”
Congratulations to Michael Keane, first place winner in the Script (Stage Play or TV/Movie) category of the 89th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. Here’s his winning TV Pilot script, “Andromeda’s Way.”
Congratulations to Michael Keane, first place winner in the Script (Stage Play or TV/Movie) category of the 89th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition. Here's his winning TV Pilot script, "Andromeda's Way."
Andromeda's Way
FADE IN:
TWO COLLIDING GALAXIES
The spiny, spinning Milky Way.
The warm, rolling Andromeda.
Toward their united cores, the light becomes BLINDING. MONTAGE - STARFARING CIVILIZATIONS
NARRATOR
They say crowns are cast in the fires of fate.
The GALACTIC CORES shine as a molten backdrop to...
--Planets sparkling with color.
--Caravans arcing across the stars.
--Imperial palaces. Mercantile moons.
--Spaceships like triremes fused with retro-style rockets. A far future era in a Bronze Age hierarchy.
NARRATOR (cont’d)
That none go lost when the road is straight.
The caravans converge as roads to Rome on... SPACE - EMPIRE OF ATENRA (HOMEWORLDS)
FOUR PLANETS: bright with life. Orbital superstructures ribbon around them, swarmed in space traffic.
NARRATOR
Yet as the sky turns, and as the sea churns, so does fortune favor a break.
SPACE - EMPIRE OF ATENRA (HOMEWORLDS - RUINED)
The light of the worlds -- fractured in a neon burn. The superstructures -- cast into rivers of debris. The orbital traffic -- lawless and wild.
NARRATOR
But with every new wreck, there comes a chance.
A TRIMARAN SHIP races past--
SPACE - OVER A HOMEWORLD
A boxy CARGO BOAT and its ESCORT slog up a transfer orbit.
NARRATOR
When the ashes lie warm and steady.
The trimaran ship swoops in from a debris field. It’s hull gleams: the COPPER COMET.
NARRATOR (cont’d)
Even coal-filled hearts, can forge new starts.
Cannons bristle from the Escort.
NARRATOR (cont’d)
When the fires of fate are ready.
BOOM BOOM BOOM--
The Comet dodges, firing thrusters on its outriggers. It flies alongside the cargo boat. Deploys HARPOONS. PIRATES.
They zip to the boat, bristling with weaponry. Their CAPTAIN, cloaked in an armored spacesuit, watches them fly.
The BOARDING PARTY spreads over the hull, forcing open cargo bays, detaching CRATES--
A GATLING GUN rises up before them.
The pirates take cover as the GUNNER fires. Bullets tear through crates, destroying their cover, when--
FWOOSH. The pirate CAPTAIN blasts in.
Propelled by air jets in his suit, he uses his inertia to yank the GATLING GUN upright and swing to the hull.
He draws a CUTLASS and presses a button on the hilt. A small thruster spits from the blade’s flat edge and--
SCHWING--
The Gunner - and gun controls - split in two.
The Captain floats down before the final cargo bay. Behind him, the Escort ship burns.
He draws a PISTOL.
INT. CARGO BAY - CONT.
PAFF.
The locks release. The door slides open.
Through the slit in his visor, the Captain’s eyes widen.
Inside the bay lies a single, transparent container. Inside that container stands a YOUNG WOMAN (25), bruised but not beaten, arms outstretched in front of SIX CHILDREN.
On her forehead: a PURPLE STAR.
NARRATOR
Behold the passion of a once-proud sight...
She stares him down.
He raises his visor.
NARRATOR
...and a steel-edge soul where might makes right.
The Escort explodes behind him. He doesn’t notice. He’s shaken. No longer just the Captain, he is ERIMAN (28), a stone-cold professional.
Or so he always thought.
NARRATOR (cont’d) Let us begin our story now.
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