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A five page Future Shock by Nick Fortune

PAGE 1 (5 Panels)

1.1 Establishing shot of New Albion, a high tech world torn by protracted warfare. However you want to do it - ruined cities, ragged troops, refugee columns - it's up to you. Just keep the enemy off panel until the last page.

1.2 Exterior shot of the Albion Strategic Defence HQ. It's your basic slope sided concrete pillbox protecting access to the underground facilities. Around it troops scramble into combat positions as the fighting starts. Perhaps we can see the first shots arriving from off-panel.

1.3 Int. The Planetary Director's study in the bunker. JOHN MYNAH (Sid James being posh - let's not be too obvious), meets ADRIAN SWALL (Peter Davidson in his late 50's). These two are going to have a nice polite little chat, quite oblivious to the carnage unfolding outside - shades of the insane dinner party in Carry On Up The Khyber. To reinforce that, the study is a cosy place, with armchairs, bookshelves and a coffee table. The only military touches are a few maps and battle schematics tacked up on the walls. Maybe there's a viewscreen somewhere that gives the occasional glimpse of the battle outside. (I don't expect all that in this one panel - this is just to give you a feel for the place.)

1.4 Outside the base. The soldiers are in position. They're firing at an off panel enemy. We might see some big guns mounted in the bunker firing as well. We can definitely see some enemy fire.

1.5 Mynah and Swall take their ease. A trim young female officer serves tea.

PAGE 2 (6 Panels)

2.1 Meet DAISY the Nanocow: Silly, friendly and slightly artificial or computerised. I imagine her as slightly pixelated, as if generated by dodgy mid 80's computer graphics, but you may have better ideas than that. Daisy is standing side-on, but with her head turned to look at the reader. In front of her is a feed trough filled with all sorts of inedible stuff: old boots, discarded tires, broken bottles, whatever works.

2.2 Just Daisy's rear end in this one, plus a fresh steaming pile of dung, and a cartoon farm worker. The worker is carrying a shovel, holding his nose and making a face at the smell. There's a bucket, possibly full of cowshit, at his feet. The bucket is marked $$$. If you can figure out how to make a cowflop look electronic and still look like what it is, that'd be great. If you can stick a single dollar sign on the thing without ruining the effect, even better.

2.3 Full shot of Daisy again, this time with someone milking her. It'd be nice to have a few buckets visible to suggest that each teat is giving something different. Better still, if we can label the buckets. I imagine you'll only be able to show part of the labels since we need big technical words: Polycarbons, photonics, microchips, metallurgy...

2.4 Daisy's head and shoulders making, well, "cow eyes" at the head and shoulders of a distinctly lustful nanobull. Stick a big heart shape in the background. (Awww...)

2.5 Daisy and Daisy Jr - a smaller version of Daisy. Maybe Daisy is giving the little 'un a "shush" look.

2.6 Daisy standing behind one of those x-ray/fluoroscope screens to show her insides. Only here the screen shows Daisy divided up like those charts you see in butchers' shops showing the traditional cuts of meat. They're labelled a little differently from tradition though: construction, aerospace, textiles, electronics, prosthetics... We only need one or two to be legible, but if it won't fit, we can survive without the labels. Standing by Daisy's rear end, a guy in a white coat is indicating one of the cuts with a pointer.

PAGE 3 (6 Panels)

3.1 Back to Swall and Mynah in the study. We could do with that view screen showing unheeded scenes of carnage, just to remind folks that there's a battle going on. Maybe Mynah is dunking a rich tea biscuit.

3.2 Ext. Three or so big guns, artillery pieces, blazing away. They're either built into the bunker itself, or perhaps an outlying pillbox.

3.3 Heavy-duty energy beams from off panel destroy the guns.

3.4 The wreckage of the gun emplacement. Guns melted to slag, concrete shattered.

3.5 Soldiers fighting a desperate rearguard action against the, as yet, unseen enemy.

3.6 Back in the study again.

PAGE 4 (6 Panels)

4.1 One last Daisy slide. Here, as in the first one, Daisy is standing at her feed trough. This time however, it's filled with stale nano - glowing, sparky, dangerous looking stuff. There's maybe a radiation or biohazard label on the trough. Daisy looks shocked.

4.2 Swall and Mynah in the study.

4.3 Ext. The soldiers being shot, fried and blown up as they try to retreat.

4.4 Ext. Close on one of the soldiers. He's firing his rifle upward, plainly terrified.

4.5 Pull back for a middle distance shot of the same soldier. All his comrades are dead or fled. In the background we can see the bunker behind him.

4.6 A huge, somehow familiar looking hoof comes down, filling half the panel. It squashes the soldier flat and partially obscures our view of the bunker.

PAGE 5 (Splash Page)

5.1 Looking past the bunker, we finally see the terrible adversary the troops have been fighting as she advances on the bunker. Yes, it's Daisy the Nanocow, insane, blood crazed and grown to fifty feet tall. Walking on her hind legs, she's breathing fire, shooting shells from her horns and lasers from her udders. (Feel free to improve that if you want.) In the sky behind her, fighter-plane like nanocows duel with more conventional fighters.

THE END

Copyright Nick Fortune, 2001.

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