RED PLANET

An original radio drama by

Toby Griffin

PRODUCTION SCRIPT
January 19, 2021
 RED PLANET

CAST

CAPTAIN MCTAVISH Captain and leader of the crew

SIMON RILEY The crew’s engineer
JAMES ROLAND The medical officer and botanist
GARRICK The crew’s geologist
THE MATIAN The alien hunting the crew
ELON MUSK (interview)
STEPHEN COLBERT (interview)
COMPUTER SYSTEM The base’s ai system
 RED PLANET

SCENE ONE: INT. CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS – NIGHT

(McTavish)

MCTAVISH: No one warned us. No one told us that you

will be the first crew in history to
encounter hostile alien life. No one told
us that we weren’t alone on the red
planet.

SCENE TWO: INT. CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS – MORNING

(McTavish, Elon, Stephen)

SOUND: INTERVIEW STARTS TO PLAY

STEPHEN: How long before we can turn mars into some

place we could live?

ELON: It is a fixer-upper of a planet. So, at

first, you’re going to have to live in
transparent domes. But eventually –

STEPHEN: Yes, we’re going to be huffing each

other’s spank

SOUND: AUDIENCE LAUGHS

ELON: Yeah. But eventually you can transform

earth into an Earth like planet.

STEPHEN: How would you do that?

ELON: The fast way is drop thermo nuclear
weapons over the poles

SOUND: INTERVIEW STOPS

MCTAVISH: And that is exactly what we did. Now that

the radiation has, my team and I have been
sent in to find a suitable area for the
first Mars colony. Simon Riley, engineer.
James Roland, medical officer, and
botanist. Garrick, geologist. And myself
Captain McTavish. We are paving the way
to-

SOUND: BANGING ON GLASS

SIMON: Captain! You need to see this.

MCTAVISH: end data entry

SCENE THREE: INT. MAIN AREA – MOMENTS LATER

(McTavish, Simon, Garrick, Roland)

SOUND: DOORS OPEN

MCTAVISH: What is it Riley?

SIMON: Garrick… found a rock

SOUND: ROCK PLACED ON TABLE

MCTAVISH: You called me out here… for a rock?

SIMON: Not just any rock sir… it’s a fancy rock

GARRICK: It is a fossil sir

MCTAVISH: You mean that there-

GARRICK: There use to be life on Mars sir. I was

examining the bomb site and I found a cave
full of them, I brought back a few
specimens.

ROLAND: What kind of life?

GARRICK: I still need to do some testing, but from

what I have seen, they seem to be
arthropods and humanoid in nature.

SIMON: So, it’s a walking bug, that’s not scary

at all.

GARRICK: From what I can tell, even the new-borns

are around 6 feet tall, it most likely
didn’t develop proper vision until it was
an adolescent, it would’ve hunted off
sound

SIMON: You are just a barrel of laughs, aren’t

you

MCTAVISH: And what is that thing?

ROLAND: That is what I helped him hall back in the

rover, killed suspension.

SIMON: Yay, more work and you decommissioned the

rover for just a bigger rock
GARRICK: I am hoping that there is a skeleton
preserved in there, from my estimations,
it should have room for one.

MCTAVISH: Well then, get it in the lab and run some

tests

SCENE FOUR: INT. CAPTAINS QUARATERS – MID-DAY

(McTavish, Simon, Roland, Garrick-on radio)

MCTAVISH: Well gentlemen we’ve done it.

SOUND: GLASS CHEERS

MCTAVISH: We are the first people in history to

discover extra terrestrial life, doesn’t
Garrick want to be he for this?

ROLAND: No, he said he isn’t leaving the lab until

he finds out what’s inside that rock. Have
you managed to reach Earth yet and tell
them?

MCTAVISH: No, the signal can’t seem to reach. I cant

even reach the colonists they’re meant to
be landing in a few days.

ROLAND: Simon! Why didn’t you tell us that the

comm towers down?

SIMON: Because I wanted the message to fail…

obviously I didn’t know!
ROLAND: Well at least the heart monitors are still
working

SIMON: Ill get on it right away, I’m gonna make

some eggs first, you guys want any.

ROLAND: No thanks.

SOUND: DOORS OPEN/CLOSE

MCTAVISH: (under breath) eggs…eggs?

ROLAND: What is it sir?

MCTAVISH: It’s just…why would all the fossils be in

one cave, if they were wiped out, wouldn’t
where be fossils everywhere? Why all in
one cave?

ROLAND: maybe they were trying to wait out the

extinction event underground? Maybe they
were hibernating (trails off)

MCTAVISH: What did you bring into the base?

SCENE FIVE: INT. OUTSIDE THE LAB – MOMENTS LATER

(McTavish, Simon, Roland, Garrick)

SOUND: BANGING ON GLASS

ROLAND: Garrick! Garrick! Get out!

GARRICK: (MUFFLED BEHIND GLASS) WHAT?

MCTAVISH: Get out now Garrick! That is an order!

Garrick: (MUFFLED BEHIND GLASS) What is it sir?

SIMON: What’s going on guys?

ROLAND: Garrick’s locked in there with it

SIMON: Yeah, he’s doing tests on the rock, like

you said

ROLAND: It’s not a rock

MCTAVISH: It’s an egg

SOUND: egg starts to crack

GARRICK: (MUFFLED BEHIND GLASS) What’s happening

ROLAND: Garrick get out now!

SOUND: ALIEN GROWLS, GORE SOUNDS, GARRICK’S

SCREAMS (MUFFLED BEHIND GLASS)

SOUND: HEART MONITOR FLATLINE

ALL: Garrick!

SOUND: GLASS CRASHING, LANDING ON METAL FLOOR,

GASPING, ALIEN GROWLS
MCTAVISH: (WISHPERING) ssshhh, Garrick said it would
hunt of sound

SOUND: LANDING ON METAL FLOOR, ALIEN GROWLS,

ALIEN SNIFFS

MCTAVISH: Roland make your way to the armoury, we

need weapons to kill this thing. Simon,
get that tower working, we need to warn
the colonists.

SOUND: LANDING ON METAL FLOOR, ALIEN GROWLS,

ALIEN SNIFFS

MCTAVISH: Simon, fix the tower. Roland, get the

guns, take the short cut through the green
house, you know that maze better than
anyone.

SIMON: What are you going to do sir?

MCVTAVISH: I’m going to send the message to the

colonists. We cannot let that thing get
off this planet. Everyone, commit your
task to memory, now go.

SOUND: LANDING ON METAL FLOOR, ALIEN GROWLS,

ALIEN SNIFFS, SHUFFLING

SCENE SIX: INT. GREEN HOUSE – MOMENTS LATER

SOUND: WALKING ON DIRT/GRAVEL/GRASS

SOUND: ALIEN GROWLS IN BACKGROUND

ROLAND: Do we know where it is?

MCTAVISH: (on radio) There’s a heat signature moving

towards the green house. Roland, stay
quiet.

SOUND: LANDING ON DIRT FLOOR, ALIEN GROWLS, ALIEN

SNIFFS, BUSH RUSSLE, TWIG CRACK

ROLAND: Shit

SOUND: HEART MONITOR FLATLINE, ALIEN GROWLS

SCENE SEVEN: INT. CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS – MOMENTS LATER

SOUND: RADIO TUNING, FADED HEART MONITOR

MCTAVISH: Come in Simon?

SIMON: (on radio) Yes sir?

MCTAVISH: Roland didn’t make it.

SIMON: (on radio) So, we’ve got nothing to defend

ourselves, great.

MCTAVISH: Is the tower working, Simon?

SIMON: (on radio) Almost, there just a few loose

connections

SOUND: WELDING, SPARKS

SOUND: LANDING ON METAL FLOOR, ALIEN GROWL

SIMON: Sir, I think it’s here (cut off mid-way)

SOUND: RADIO CUT OUT, HEART MONITOR FLATLINE

MCTAVISH: Simon? Simon? Computer, open data entry

SOUND: COMPUTER BEEP

MCTAVISH: My crew is dead, and soon so will I. This

is a message for the colonists, turn your
ship around, do not come to Mars. No one
warned us. No one told us that you will be
the first crew in history to encounter
hostile alien life. No one told us that we
weren’t alone on the red planet. End data
entry. Send all data entries to ground
control.

SOUND: ALIEN GROWLS, BANGING ON METAL DOOR

COMPUTER: Unable to transfer data entries

SOUND: LOUDER BANGING, ALIEN GROWL

MCTAVISH: Reboot and resend

SOUND: COMPUTER BEEP

COMPUTER: Unable to transfer data entries

SOUND: ALIEN GROWLS, METAL DOOR OPENS, ALIEN ROAR

SOUND: HEART MONITOR FLAT LINB

SCENE EIGHT: INT. NEWSROOM – DAYS LATER

SOUND: NEWS INTRO

NEWS ANCHOR: Radio silence, all communications with the

first manned station on mars fell quiet
just days ago. But with the first colony
ship expected to arrive within hours.
Maybe they, can tell us what occurred on
the red planet.

SOUND: ALIEN GROWLS

END.