SAGE - The Series
I had to write a premise for a TV series I pitched in my writing class this morning; it's behind the cut. Read, tell me what you think, comments, questions, concerns are all greatly appreciated. Basically, I'm begging for feedback of any kind.
SAGE
By Shannon Traska
Demons and aliens are everywhere today. They are in the present and in the future; on earth and in space; hatch plans that are good and plans that are evil; however, one place they have yet to invade is the Old West. SAGE, a one-hour action series, seeks to remedy that. Best described as THE LONE RANGER meets SUPERNATURAL, SAGE takes the Old West you think you know and turns it on its ear. A masked gunman, his Indian companion, and a genius doctor - up against the most insidious threat the world has ever known.
NEW MEXICO, 1867. The Civil War has been over for two years; the nation is rebuilding and expanding. For those who make the move, the West is full of opportunity. CLAYTON POWELL III is one of those willing to take the chance. A young Confederate Army veteran, Clayton left his native Arkansas with his wife and young son in search of a better life. Now a U.S. Marshall, Clayton is on his first official assignment when he is inadvertently dragged into the hotbed of the alien conspiracy. Suddenly separated from the ones he loves, a fugitive from the very law he has sworn to uphold, Clayton finds himself fighting for his family, his reputation, and his very life against an enemy who can hide in the very skins of those he knows and trusts.
Clayton isn’t alone in his crusade, though - EZEKIEL “DOC” THORNDIKE aids the young U.S. Marshall, providing intelligence about and analysis of the alien menace. A genius doctor from Washington D.C. with an education from Harvard Medical School, Doc has his own problems: the aliens killed his entire family, placing the blame on him, forcing him to flee to New Mexico. An expert chemist and the brains behind the brawn, Doc has recruited Clayton to help avenge his family.
What Clayton and Doc don’t know about the aliens HENRY CLIFF-DWELLER does. A young Navajo brave, raised by his uncle and then sent to a New York school to learn the ways of the “white man”, Henry returned to his homeland to find his friends, family, and all that he had known destroyed by the Navajo purges of Kit Carson. His tribe weakened by the U.S. government and at the mercy of the aliens, Henry temporarily overcomes his hatred of the society Clayton and Doc represent in order to defeat the extraterrestrial threat. He hasn’t forgotten what happened to his family, though - that is a reckoning that can only be delayed, not denied.
Their adversaries are the TOLKAK KINTARKLA - shape-shifting creatures from another star. Stranded when their colony ship crashed, these carnivorous aliens have co-habited the Americas in an uneasy truce with the Native Americans for a thousand years. Wolf-like in their natural form, they prefer to hunt their prey - and the more intelligent that prey, the better. In the old days the Tolkak liked nothing more than to chance across a lone Indian hunter, pitting their wits against him until the inevitable culmination: dinner for the Tolkak. The Native Americans learned the secrets of the Tolkak, including how to detect them, and how to kill them. Thus came the Pact - the Tolkak would refrain from infiltrating the tribes, and the Indians would refrain from wiping them out. When the westward expansion began, the Indians tried to warn the white men about the Tolkak, but their warnings were written off as primitive superstition…allowing the Tolkak shape-shifters to easily infiltrate the U.S. government at many levels.
This infiltration means that there is no one in authority Clayton, Doc, and Henry can trust. Already wanted fugitives, the only thing that will allow the men to clear their names, save their country, and return to the lives they’ve known is the complete eradication of the Tolkak Kintarkla…and they have to do it on their own.
Each episode can work as a stand-alone story, with Clayton, Doc, and Hank travelling to different locations in the Old West to root out and destroy the Tolkak impersonating the rich and infamous in the Old West. A variety of possible plot lines can each be resolved in single episodes, while simultaneously furthering a season-long story arc involving the overall plans and eventual defeat of the aliens. Every old chestnut of a Western plotline can be freshly reworked into this formula - train robberies, bandit attacks, Indian raids, the works.
The Tolkak are long-lived, slow-breeding, and limited to the technology they had when they crashed. When they have to, they’ll use the human weapons of the day - six-shooters, rifles, whips, all the old standbys. Whenever possible, they’ll shift into their own form and rend people limb from limb with their bare talons. There won’t be any shiny Star Trek corridors, laser pistols, or friendly whooshing doors - these aliens are almost as low-tech as the humans they seek to dominate.
In addition, the struggles of each of the characters psyches can be explored: Doc’s grief concerning the loss of his family, Clayton’s desire to return to his and let them know that he’s alive (fully aware that doing so would result in their deaths), and Henry’s conflicted soul as he helps the same people who have so mistreated his own blood. Other plotlines can follow how the characters relate to each other, and how those relationships change and evolve as the season progresses. Although primarily an action series, the tension between the characters should offer plenty of opportunities for witty banter.
What are the final plans of the Tolkak Kintarkla? How far up the government ladder does their infiltration go? What can a ragtag group of desperate individuals do to save the world from the Tolkak menace? And did you really think that John Wilkes Booth shot the real Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865? SAGE is the answer to all these questions, and many more.
In less happy news, I was informed today that employment with the Indian contracting firm is not in my future; my position (my entire group, in fact) has been deemed redundant by the the new company. Sometime in Q1 2008 I'll get the tap on the shoulder, and 30 days after that, I'm unemployed.
I was kind of expecting it...but there are nine other people in our group who were apparently very rudely shocked.
SAGE
By Shannon Traska
Demons and aliens are everywhere today. They are in the present and in the future; on earth and in space; hatch plans that are good and plans that are evil; however, one place they have yet to invade is the Old West. SAGE, a one-hour action series, seeks to remedy that. Best described as THE LONE RANGER meets SUPERNATURAL, SAGE takes the Old West you think you know and turns it on its ear. A masked gunman, his Indian companion, and a genius doctor - up against the most insidious threat the world has ever known.
NEW MEXICO, 1867. The Civil War has been over for two years; the nation is rebuilding and expanding. For those who make the move, the West is full of opportunity. CLAYTON POWELL III is one of those willing to take the chance. A young Confederate Army veteran, Clayton left his native Arkansas with his wife and young son in search of a better life. Now a U.S. Marshall, Clayton is on his first official assignment when he is inadvertently dragged into the hotbed of the alien conspiracy. Suddenly separated from the ones he loves, a fugitive from the very law he has sworn to uphold, Clayton finds himself fighting for his family, his reputation, and his very life against an enemy who can hide in the very skins of those he knows and trusts.
Clayton isn’t alone in his crusade, though - EZEKIEL “DOC” THORNDIKE aids the young U.S. Marshall, providing intelligence about and analysis of the alien menace. A genius doctor from Washington D.C. with an education from Harvard Medical School, Doc has his own problems: the aliens killed his entire family, placing the blame on him, forcing him to flee to New Mexico. An expert chemist and the brains behind the brawn, Doc has recruited Clayton to help avenge his family.
What Clayton and Doc don’t know about the aliens HENRY CLIFF-DWELLER does. A young Navajo brave, raised by his uncle and then sent to a New York school to learn the ways of the “white man”, Henry returned to his homeland to find his friends, family, and all that he had known destroyed by the Navajo purges of Kit Carson. His tribe weakened by the U.S. government and at the mercy of the aliens, Henry temporarily overcomes his hatred of the society Clayton and Doc represent in order to defeat the extraterrestrial threat. He hasn’t forgotten what happened to his family, though - that is a reckoning that can only be delayed, not denied.
Their adversaries are the TOLKAK KINTARKLA - shape-shifting creatures from another star. Stranded when their colony ship crashed, these carnivorous aliens have co-habited the Americas in an uneasy truce with the Native Americans for a thousand years. Wolf-like in their natural form, they prefer to hunt their prey - and the more intelligent that prey, the better. In the old days the Tolkak liked nothing more than to chance across a lone Indian hunter, pitting their wits against him until the inevitable culmination: dinner for the Tolkak. The Native Americans learned the secrets of the Tolkak, including how to detect them, and how to kill them. Thus came the Pact - the Tolkak would refrain from infiltrating the tribes, and the Indians would refrain from wiping them out. When the westward expansion began, the Indians tried to warn the white men about the Tolkak, but their warnings were written off as primitive superstition…allowing the Tolkak shape-shifters to easily infiltrate the U.S. government at many levels.
This infiltration means that there is no one in authority Clayton, Doc, and Henry can trust. Already wanted fugitives, the only thing that will allow the men to clear their names, save their country, and return to the lives they’ve known is the complete eradication of the Tolkak Kintarkla…and they have to do it on their own.
Each episode can work as a stand-alone story, with Clayton, Doc, and Hank travelling to different locations in the Old West to root out and destroy the Tolkak impersonating the rich and infamous in the Old West. A variety of possible plot lines can each be resolved in single episodes, while simultaneously furthering a season-long story arc involving the overall plans and eventual defeat of the aliens. Every old chestnut of a Western plotline can be freshly reworked into this formula - train robberies, bandit attacks, Indian raids, the works.
The Tolkak are long-lived, slow-breeding, and limited to the technology they had when they crashed. When they have to, they’ll use the human weapons of the day - six-shooters, rifles, whips, all the old standbys. Whenever possible, they’ll shift into their own form and rend people limb from limb with their bare talons. There won’t be any shiny Star Trek corridors, laser pistols, or friendly whooshing doors - these aliens are almost as low-tech as the humans they seek to dominate.
In addition, the struggles of each of the characters psyches can be explored: Doc’s grief concerning the loss of his family, Clayton’s desire to return to his and let them know that he’s alive (fully aware that doing so would result in their deaths), and Henry’s conflicted soul as he helps the same people who have so mistreated his own blood. Other plotlines can follow how the characters relate to each other, and how those relationships change and evolve as the season progresses. Although primarily an action series, the tension between the characters should offer plenty of opportunities for witty banter.
What are the final plans of the Tolkak Kintarkla? How far up the government ladder does their infiltration go? What can a ragtag group of desperate individuals do to save the world from the Tolkak menace? And did you really think that John Wilkes Booth shot the real Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865? SAGE is the answer to all these questions, and many more.
In less happy news, I was informed today that employment with the Indian contracting firm is not in my future; my position (my entire group, in fact) has been deemed redundant by the the new company. Sometime in Q1 2008 I'll get the tap on the shoulder, and 30 days after that, I'm unemployed.
I was kind of expecting it...but there are nine other people in our group who were apparently very rudely shocked.