Story Discussion
May 30, 2016 16:17:00 GMT
Post by philj on May 30, 2016 16:17:00 GMT
'Dandelions'
By Phil Janvier
A three part adventure
Cast Suggestions:
Megan Woods
Lucy Smith -
Alan Roberts –
Dr Jon Myles –
Walter Bates –
Extra Roles: Played by the cast
Police Officer –
UFO Nut –
Co-pilot
Episode One: The Silent Killer
• Intro: Music then wind noise and birds singing.
• Megan Woods, a botanist/biologist specialising in toxicology, jokingly called a 'dandelionologist', is standing over a flock of dead sheep. With her is Dr Jon Myles, they discuss the deaths of the sheep. The locals blame the weather, aliens, a wolf, and bad luck. They discuss the merits of the dandelions (Research information for their discussion: Dandelion is eaten readily by sheep but is relatively low yielding as forage. The plants have some nutritive value in pasture and are relatively high in calcium, nitrogen, copper and iron. The fibrosity index is low compared with ryegrass. Dandelion leaves provide winter food for pigeons. The flowers are a rich nectar source for insects and the seeds are eaten by many bird species. The roots are used in medicine as a tonic and for their diuretic properties. Dandelion plants release ethylene, a chemical that can affect the growth of neighbouring plants. The plant can carry economically important viruses some of which are seed borne. Nematodes can infest it too.)
• Megan spots a swarm of insects flying above a body, but this one is human and is covered in terrible burns. Carefully slipping ID out of the body’s pocket they return to the village to notify the police and the medical unit. The local police officer looks at the ID and explains that there are two tourists missing. After ascertaining that the body was near the cliff he calls the Coast Guard on the mainland and asks for a helicopter to come and search the surrounding rocks and waters for the another body. The Coast Guard reluctantly agree to send a helicopter as Hurricane Donna is heading their way and they are so remote.
• Megan leaving the police station hears a scream and finds a Lucy Smith, Dr Jon’s niece, with a severe burn on her the back of her hand but no sign of what caused it. She bandages her hand with the contents from her car’s first aid kit. In the journey back to the Research Centre Megan describes her earlier life and goes into details about her work on the island. She explains how her work was intended to save the planet. Lucy explains how she loves dandelion clocks and could not help picking one up in the lab blowing the dandelion clock and making a wish when she got outside.
• At the Research Centre Megan cleans Lucy's wound, finds a dandelion seed in it and realises the seeds are the source of the terrible burns and injuries. The sheep having eaten them had died a terrible death but the human victim had been stung by the seeds that floated in the wind.
• Megan demands a meeting with Dr Jon and explains what she has discovered. One seed touching a person is enough to seriously burn them but anyone touched by more than a few will die. (Research information: Dandelions are often 'beneficial weeds’; Dr Jon inserted pesticide into them, to provide coverage for symbiotic crops. That pesticide became toxic to livestock. GM strains are usually clonal, a monoculture, meaning that a successful pathogen (bacteria, fungus etc.) will easily infect all those plants and spread rapidly. It appears a normally harmless bacteria has taken off due to the spread of the dandelions. Gene splicing isn't like clicking a Lego into place, it's more like play dough. An inserted gene can disrupt its neighbours. The toxic properties of the dandelion come about de novo (newly created) by accident. ) Megan is livid that her research has been altered without her knowledge and expects Dr Jon to take immediate action, but he seeks to play her fears down. Eventually, Megan argues with him and he agrees to take action. Leaving the room she slams the door behind her and we hear Dr Jon pick up the phone and instruct his aid, Walter Bates to deal with her as he has too much to deal with without her histrionics.
• Acting immediately Walter calls Megan and asks her to join him at Haven Point where he has found something that might explain all the unexpected deaths.
• They meet at the cliff edge and when Megan realises that she has been duped she understands that Walter had brought her here to kill her.
• Music to fade
Episode Two: The Research Station
• A coast guard helicopter with a crew of two (Alan Roberts and one other) looking for the lost person gets a seed blown into the cabin, it affects the pilot, causing it to crash. An on looking UFO hunter comes running towards Megan and Walter, believing he is seeing a crashing UFO. The witness and the crashed helicopter prevent Walter from pushing Megan over the cliff.
• The Helicopter makes a troubled landing, incapacitating the co-pilot. The helicopter is in flames and the pilot is trapped in his safety harness. The UFO hunter does not know what to do, Walter walks away, leaving Megan to free the pilot and to help rescue the unconscious the officer.
• Shocked but unhurt the pilot, Alan is told by Megan what is going on and the need to quarantine the island. Rushing back to the burning helicopter Alan tries to call for help gets through briefly but is told that everything is grounded because of the hurricane’s effects on the base. Megan drags him away from the burning helicopter telling he has more brawn that brains. The helicopter does not exploded but it is burnt out.
• Their only option is to get back to research centre and its medical facility for the co-pilot and call the police to get them to try to contact the mainland and arrange for the coast guard to send a second helicopter.
• In Megan jeep, they make their way to the Research Station, to find it deserted (everyone is hiding). Megan and Alan get the co-pilot to the medical unit and make him comfortable. They are joined by Lucy, who after treatment is feeling much better. Megan introduces Alan, describes the incident with Walter and the helicopter crash. Lucy notices they are hiding something from her and makes them tell her about Dandelion threat. Research on the dandelions indicates that their growth process had been boosted and that their lifecycle accelerated to make matters worse other ingredients as well as pesticides had been included (The Bombardier Beetle: able to create a boiling mist it sprays on predators, Milkweeds and Stinging Nettles: Two different chemicals. Milkweeds contain cardiac toxins, stinging nettles inject a histamine like molecule, and Hyper-antigen. Histamine sucks, it's meant to kill parasitic worms, but in humans it can go overboard against harmless dandelion stimuli. An ulcerating welt can look like burning.) Angry and without Alan and Lucy noticing, Megan makes a data backup of the research data and hides it.
• The wind changes direction and a cloud of dandelion seeds blow their way and they are trapped in the Research Centre. Frustrated by their lack of progress they agree to seek Dr Jon out. Alan asks about the research centre’s communications system, Megan, frustrated by the missing the obvious takes them to the communication centre to find it powered down. Reactivating the system Megan discovers it has been sabotaged, however, using spare parts (while Alan watches) she repairs a small unit and activates it.
• After an initial but crackly conversation with the mainland Walter bursts into the room, grabs the radio and smashes it. Producing a gun he forces them to move away from the windows
• Lucy threatens Walter with her uncle’s wrath and he laughs, Dr Jon will do as he is told he explains, because if he does not Walter will hurt or kill Lucy. When challenged why he is doing this, Walter explains that no bad news must leave the island. That the only story to be released is one genetic engineering being developed to improve. That Dr Jon’s is working to reduce the need for bee killing pesticides by splicing a natural poison into crops which keeps insects away but the testing on dandelions worked too well and has becomes poisonous to people too. Ends justify means. Walter gets paid too much to allow anything to get in Dr Jon’s way, that his genius needs defending and the less he knows the more plausible is his deniability. (There are tensions here, Megan, Alan and Lucy wanting to do what is right, Walter enjoying being well paid but also enjoying the power he has to bully and dominate others. Like a lot of thugs he is failing to recognise that Dr Jon is all about end justifying the means, he wants to save the world but on his terms and that failure is not an option.)
• However, while he needs Lucy, he does not need Megan or Alan and he forces them to open the door and tells them to go outside into the swirling dandelion seeds.
Episode Three: End Game
• Refusing to go outside Megan tells Walter she would rather be shot. Maliciously Walter admits he would rather watch her die slowly outside. Lucy calls him a monster and runs at him. Grabbing her he threatens to throw Lucy outside if they do not go out willingly. Bravely Megan swears at him and attempts to leave. Lucy cries out, struggles with Walter and Alan grabs Lucy from his arms and Megan pushes Walter outside and slams the door. Walter dies screaming.
• Outside there is the sound of helicopter landing and they rush through the building to find Dr Jon and confront him. They find Dr John waiting having put on hazmat gear to walk safely in the swirling seeds to the helicopter. Delighted to see Lucy he produces a second suit and tells her to put it on for they are leaving and that he going to blow up the island and they can complete his research in a new place.
•Lucy tells him she hates him, devastated Dr Jon tells Lucy that he has done all this for her, he explains that he promised his sister that he would always look after her. That Lucy is the reason behind the existence of the research centre that he wants her to have world.
• Dr Jon admits that Megan’s dandelions, though lethal, are a potential to stopping the world from starving and that the lethal side effect is a temporary problem. He intends to ‘wipe the slate clean’ and start again in another remote place. When asked what he means by ‘wiping the slate clean’ replies, by the blowing the island up.
• There is only room on the helicopter for the crew and Dr Jon and Lucy. Megan demands to know how she and everyone else on island is going to escape, Dr Jon, admits that his plan will kill every living thing on the island, something to be sad about but a justifiable cost to feed the world.
• Megan demands that Dr Jon release his research to the world and allow others to save the research, but he does not want to, he loves Lucy and will do anything for her, but the world can go to hell because this will make him a ‘god’ and insanely rich.
• Lucy agrees to go with him and puts on the gear and they head off to the helicopter leaving Megan and Alan, a computer timer begins and self destruct system is activated.
• At the helicopter, Lucy yanks off Dr Jon’s headgear and runs back towards Megan and Alan. The door of the helicopter slams shut and it takes off. As Dr Jon’s helicopter rises and departs • In the distance they watch Dr Jon’s helicopter, out of control, crash down into the research centre. There is a massive explosion and the Research Centre goes up in flames but the auto destruct is cancelled and the scientists and residents of the island survive.
• In the police station Megan explains that the island will be quarantined, Alan asks, 'What about the toxic dandelions seeds?' She replies, 'I have a back up of the research data so we can begin to develop a solution but until then, if just one escapes in the wind then the world is in trouble.'
• Music to fade
By Phil Janvier
A three part adventure
Cast Suggestions:
Megan Woods
Lucy Smith -
Alan Roberts –
Dr Jon Myles –
Walter Bates –
Extra Roles: Played by the cast
Police Officer –
UFO Nut –
Co-pilot
Episode One: The Silent Killer
• Intro: Music then wind noise and birds singing.
• Megan Woods, a botanist/biologist specialising in toxicology, jokingly called a 'dandelionologist', is standing over a flock of dead sheep. With her is Dr Jon Myles, they discuss the deaths of the sheep. The locals blame the weather, aliens, a wolf, and bad luck. They discuss the merits of the dandelions (Research information for their discussion: Dandelion is eaten readily by sheep but is relatively low yielding as forage. The plants have some nutritive value in pasture and are relatively high in calcium, nitrogen, copper and iron. The fibrosity index is low compared with ryegrass. Dandelion leaves provide winter food for pigeons. The flowers are a rich nectar source for insects and the seeds are eaten by many bird species. The roots are used in medicine as a tonic and for their diuretic properties. Dandelion plants release ethylene, a chemical that can affect the growth of neighbouring plants. The plant can carry economically important viruses some of which are seed borne. Nematodes can infest it too.)
• Megan spots a swarm of insects flying above a body, but this one is human and is covered in terrible burns. Carefully slipping ID out of the body’s pocket they return to the village to notify the police and the medical unit. The local police officer looks at the ID and explains that there are two tourists missing. After ascertaining that the body was near the cliff he calls the Coast Guard on the mainland and asks for a helicopter to come and search the surrounding rocks and waters for the another body. The Coast Guard reluctantly agree to send a helicopter as Hurricane Donna is heading their way and they are so remote.
• Megan leaving the police station hears a scream and finds a Lucy Smith, Dr Jon’s niece, with a severe burn on her the back of her hand but no sign of what caused it. She bandages her hand with the contents from her car’s first aid kit. In the journey back to the Research Centre Megan describes her earlier life and goes into details about her work on the island. She explains how her work was intended to save the planet. Lucy explains how she loves dandelion clocks and could not help picking one up in the lab blowing the dandelion clock and making a wish when she got outside.
• At the Research Centre Megan cleans Lucy's wound, finds a dandelion seed in it and realises the seeds are the source of the terrible burns and injuries. The sheep having eaten them had died a terrible death but the human victim had been stung by the seeds that floated in the wind.
• Megan demands a meeting with Dr Jon and explains what she has discovered. One seed touching a person is enough to seriously burn them but anyone touched by more than a few will die. (Research information: Dandelions are often 'beneficial weeds’; Dr Jon inserted pesticide into them, to provide coverage for symbiotic crops. That pesticide became toxic to livestock. GM strains are usually clonal, a monoculture, meaning that a successful pathogen (bacteria, fungus etc.) will easily infect all those plants and spread rapidly. It appears a normally harmless bacteria has taken off due to the spread of the dandelions. Gene splicing isn't like clicking a Lego into place, it's more like play dough. An inserted gene can disrupt its neighbours. The toxic properties of the dandelion come about de novo (newly created) by accident. ) Megan is livid that her research has been altered without her knowledge and expects Dr Jon to take immediate action, but he seeks to play her fears down. Eventually, Megan argues with him and he agrees to take action. Leaving the room she slams the door behind her and we hear Dr Jon pick up the phone and instruct his aid, Walter Bates to deal with her as he has too much to deal with without her histrionics.
• Acting immediately Walter calls Megan and asks her to join him at Haven Point where he has found something that might explain all the unexpected deaths.
• They meet at the cliff edge and when Megan realises that she has been duped she understands that Walter had brought her here to kill her.
• Music to fade
Episode Two: The Research Station
• A coast guard helicopter with a crew of two (Alan Roberts and one other) looking for the lost person gets a seed blown into the cabin, it affects the pilot, causing it to crash. An on looking UFO hunter comes running towards Megan and Walter, believing he is seeing a crashing UFO. The witness and the crashed helicopter prevent Walter from pushing Megan over the cliff.
• The Helicopter makes a troubled landing, incapacitating the co-pilot. The helicopter is in flames and the pilot is trapped in his safety harness. The UFO hunter does not know what to do, Walter walks away, leaving Megan to free the pilot and to help rescue the unconscious the officer.
• Shocked but unhurt the pilot, Alan is told by Megan what is going on and the need to quarantine the island. Rushing back to the burning helicopter Alan tries to call for help gets through briefly but is told that everything is grounded because of the hurricane’s effects on the base. Megan drags him away from the burning helicopter telling he has more brawn that brains. The helicopter does not exploded but it is burnt out.
• Their only option is to get back to research centre and its medical facility for the co-pilot and call the police to get them to try to contact the mainland and arrange for the coast guard to send a second helicopter.
• In Megan jeep, they make their way to the Research Station, to find it deserted (everyone is hiding). Megan and Alan get the co-pilot to the medical unit and make him comfortable. They are joined by Lucy, who after treatment is feeling much better. Megan introduces Alan, describes the incident with Walter and the helicopter crash. Lucy notices they are hiding something from her and makes them tell her about Dandelion threat. Research on the dandelions indicates that their growth process had been boosted and that their lifecycle accelerated to make matters worse other ingredients as well as pesticides had been included (The Bombardier Beetle: able to create a boiling mist it sprays on predators, Milkweeds and Stinging Nettles: Two different chemicals. Milkweeds contain cardiac toxins, stinging nettles inject a histamine like molecule, and Hyper-antigen. Histamine sucks, it's meant to kill parasitic worms, but in humans it can go overboard against harmless dandelion stimuli. An ulcerating welt can look like burning.) Angry and without Alan and Lucy noticing, Megan makes a data backup of the research data and hides it.
• The wind changes direction and a cloud of dandelion seeds blow their way and they are trapped in the Research Centre. Frustrated by their lack of progress they agree to seek Dr Jon out. Alan asks about the research centre’s communications system, Megan, frustrated by the missing the obvious takes them to the communication centre to find it powered down. Reactivating the system Megan discovers it has been sabotaged, however, using spare parts (while Alan watches) she repairs a small unit and activates it.
• After an initial but crackly conversation with the mainland Walter bursts into the room, grabs the radio and smashes it. Producing a gun he forces them to move away from the windows
• Lucy threatens Walter with her uncle’s wrath and he laughs, Dr Jon will do as he is told he explains, because if he does not Walter will hurt or kill Lucy. When challenged why he is doing this, Walter explains that no bad news must leave the island. That the only story to be released is one genetic engineering being developed to improve. That Dr Jon’s is working to reduce the need for bee killing pesticides by splicing a natural poison into crops which keeps insects away but the testing on dandelions worked too well and has becomes poisonous to people too. Ends justify means. Walter gets paid too much to allow anything to get in Dr Jon’s way, that his genius needs defending and the less he knows the more plausible is his deniability. (There are tensions here, Megan, Alan and Lucy wanting to do what is right, Walter enjoying being well paid but also enjoying the power he has to bully and dominate others. Like a lot of thugs he is failing to recognise that Dr Jon is all about end justifying the means, he wants to save the world but on his terms and that failure is not an option.)
• However, while he needs Lucy, he does not need Megan or Alan and he forces them to open the door and tells them to go outside into the swirling dandelion seeds.
Episode Three: End Game
• Refusing to go outside Megan tells Walter she would rather be shot. Maliciously Walter admits he would rather watch her die slowly outside. Lucy calls him a monster and runs at him. Grabbing her he threatens to throw Lucy outside if they do not go out willingly. Bravely Megan swears at him and attempts to leave. Lucy cries out, struggles with Walter and Alan grabs Lucy from his arms and Megan pushes Walter outside and slams the door. Walter dies screaming.
• Outside there is the sound of helicopter landing and they rush through the building to find Dr Jon and confront him. They find Dr John waiting having put on hazmat gear to walk safely in the swirling seeds to the helicopter. Delighted to see Lucy he produces a second suit and tells her to put it on for they are leaving and that he going to blow up the island and they can complete his research in a new place.
•Lucy tells him she hates him, devastated Dr Jon tells Lucy that he has done all this for her, he explains that he promised his sister that he would always look after her. That Lucy is the reason behind the existence of the research centre that he wants her to have world.
• Dr Jon admits that Megan’s dandelions, though lethal, are a potential to stopping the world from starving and that the lethal side effect is a temporary problem. He intends to ‘wipe the slate clean’ and start again in another remote place. When asked what he means by ‘wiping the slate clean’ replies, by the blowing the island up.
• There is only room on the helicopter for the crew and Dr Jon and Lucy. Megan demands to know how she and everyone else on island is going to escape, Dr Jon, admits that his plan will kill every living thing on the island, something to be sad about but a justifiable cost to feed the world.
• Megan demands that Dr Jon release his research to the world and allow others to save the research, but he does not want to, he loves Lucy and will do anything for her, but the world can go to hell because this will make him a ‘god’ and insanely rich.
• Lucy agrees to go with him and puts on the gear and they head off to the helicopter leaving Megan and Alan, a computer timer begins and self destruct system is activated.
• At the helicopter, Lucy yanks off Dr Jon’s headgear and runs back towards Megan and Alan. The door of the helicopter slams shut and it takes off. As Dr Jon’s helicopter rises and departs • In the distance they watch Dr Jon’s helicopter, out of control, crash down into the research centre. There is a massive explosion and the Research Centre goes up in flames but the auto destruct is cancelled and the scientists and residents of the island survive.
• In the police station Megan explains that the island will be quarantined, Alan asks, 'What about the toxic dandelions seeds?' She replies, 'I have a back up of the research data so we can begin to develop a solution but until then, if just one escapes in the wind then the world is in trouble.'
• Music to fade