C21st GODS - THE SCRIPT
EPILOGUE
PAGE 67.
1. Plain black page with white text. No graphic.
TITLE
EPILOGUE
PAGE 68.
1. Large panel. A white-walled room. Though it should be bright from the overhead strip light, in fact, everything is sunk in shadow and strange. Two DOCTORS, both male, are standing beside a desk, looking at some paperwork, set out in front of a luminous computer screen. Although we perhaps can't see it yet, CONNOR's Dictaphone is also on the desk.
Behind them, CONNOR sits in a wheelchair, drugged to the gills, staring at nothing. He's wearing a white hospital gown. He's had a haircut and shave, and looks tidier - yet even more screwed up - than when we last saw him. But at this point he's partly out of view, or out of focus, or in shadow; we can't recognise him.
2. Close on the paperwork on the desk, looking down from the DOCTOR's perspective. We can see a file photo of a Russian tanker ship, the конец; a photo apparently taken with a phone camera, looking down from the rail at CONNOR's drifting boat, and a blurry snap of two burly Russian sailors trying to subdue a frantic CONNOR, one to either arm. He's emaciated, bearded, and sun-burned, having obviously been floating out there for some days.
3. One of the psychiatrists holds up CONNOR's Dictaphone to the other, as though showing him it. His thumb hovers over the button.
PAGE 69.
1. A full page panel. In the F/G, one to either side of the page, are the two DOCTORS. The one that was showing the Dictaphone is now clearly holding it in view.
In the B/G, we can clearly see CONNOR for the first time. He's still not looking at the DOCTORS.
Sound is issuing from the Dictaphone; but rather than have a traditional balloon or caption, let's go with something more like a ribbon of text, or little explosions progressing down the page, with each snippet separated by a WWRRR effect to represent the fact that the DOCTOR is playing random-seeming snippets from the journal / voice-over that CONNOR has been recording over the course of the previous three chapters.
CAPTION
There were going to be more bodies.
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
CAPTION
The rich. Powerful.
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
CAPTION
Waiting for me...
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
CAPTION
However bad it got.
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
CAPTION
Ha haa ha! Ha ha!
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
CAPTION
Fucking Fish god!
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
CAPTION
...set me loose...
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
CAPTION
...even farther than I'd thought.
CAPTION
(Dictaphone whirs)
PAGE 70.
1. The SECOND DOCTOR walks over to CONNOR and shines a light in his pupils.
2. CONNOR doesn't react at all.
3. The SECOND DOCTOR looks at the FIRST DOCTOR and nods, as if to say, "You're right, what a lost cause!"
4. The FIRST DOCTOR knocks on a heavy door, which perhaps we haven't seen until now. A bulky, white-uniformed ORDERLY enters.
5. The FIRST DOCTOR motions at CONNOR...
6. ...and the ORDERLY moves toward him.
PAGE 71.
1. The ORDERLY wheels CONNOR through the drab Gothic corridors of an old-fashioned asylum. We're seeing this partly through the filter of CONNOR's perspective, so the tiled walls are oddly angled and there's far less light than there should be, what there is coming from flickering strip lights and a thunder storm that's raging beyond the barred windows.
2. Close on CONNOR, staring numbly ahead.
3. Another corridor, viewed at a strange, steep angle, as the ORDERLY continues to guide CONNOR through the creepy old building, past a row of locked doors with peeling paint and slits for windows.
4. One last image of the ORDERLY wheeling CONNOR, this time through a large communal room. They're close to the F/G and the light source, another strip light, is above them, so that the room beyond is cast in stark shadows, with the sinister, distorted shapes of furniture perhaps white-edged by lighting from a window in the far B/G.
PAGE 72.
1. The orderly wheels CONNOR into a simple bedroom. There's a bed, a cupboard and washstand, and not much else. The only unusual detail is the patio doors at the end of the room and the fact that the ORDERLY hasn't turned the light on, so that the only illumination is coming from the corridor and the storm outside.
2. The ORDERLY wheels CONNOR to the patio...
3. ...and leaves him, closing the door behind himself.
PAGE 73.
1. Unable to move, paralysed by his madness, CONNOR stares into the night.
2. Close on his fingers, as they clutch, white-knuckled, on the arm of the wheelchair.
3. Now our view is from the other side of the patio doors and at a somewhat elevated angle, and we can see CONNOR, pale in the darkness. Beyond the doors is a short, fenced-off patio, and then the ground begins to slope sharply.
4. Pulling back farther and we see that the asylum is perched on a rugged cliffside, the storm-lit sea tumultuous below. Our angle of view is steeper now, and we can just make out a tiny CONNOR, staring back at us.
5. Our angle of view tilts up entirely, so that all we see is the churning ocean.
6. Very close on the sea, echoing the opening panel on Page 1.
<END>
PAGE 74.
1. Plain black page with white text. No graphic. Let's use a different font for this, though, to add emphasis; something like a military teletype perhaps, or maybe a futuristic equivalent would be more appropriate.
CAPTION
"THAT IS NOT DEAD WHICH CAN ETERNAL LIE, AND WITH STRANGE AEONS EVEN DEATH MAY DIE."
H P LOVECRAFT
CAPTION
"A MILITARY MAN CAN SCARCELY PRIDE HIMSELF ON HAVING SMITTEN A SLEEPING ENEMY; IT IS MORE A MATTER OF SHAME, SIMPLY, FOR THE ONE SMITTEN."
ISOROKU YAMAMOTO
