Just about everyone on planet earth is intrigued with the historical moment in which man first walked on the moon. The event itself is shrouded in both controversy as well as mystery. Thousands of questions are asked, from debating whether or not the event actually happened to questioning the motives of the mission itself. For our Historical Story, we decided to beg the question, “what if the astronauts who went to the moon found something they had to keep top secret? What if they found life?’
Obviously, in tackling a story such as this, we needed to have two real life historical figures play integral roles in our script. It was a no-brainer to have both Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong assume the vital role of discovering an egg within the surface of the moon. The focus, however, is mainly on a NASA official named John Carson and a headstrong reporter named Nancy as the two of them discover the truth with differing attitudes.
After doing some research we discovered that there were multiple articles that did nothing but incite controversial ideals. Many gave detailed description of what Neil Armstrong “really” saw on the moon while others debated periods of radio silence and erased tapes.
According to an article on exopolitics.org, Neil Armstrong claimed to have seen “other space craft out there… lined up on the far side of the crater edge… on the moon watching us.” Now, it’s important to note that exopolitics.org is a site dedicated to proving alien life as fact by any means necessary, therefore it cannot be taken too seriously, but it is a fun idea to play with nonetheless.
Another interesting article we found on the Apollo 11 mission was that there were allegedly over two minutes of tape that was “lost” – which is really just a nice term for “erased.” According to an article on npr.org, the tapes were erased “during a period when NASA was erasing old magnetic tapes and reusing them to record satellite data.” It makes you wonder if they might have been hiding something?
As the writers of this particular script, we decided to have some fun with these two interesting theories and make our own little spin on the historical event. We decided not to go with an outlandish vision of other spacecraft being out there, hovering over the moon, but instead the idea of alien life growing just beneath the surface of the rock. We decided to have our characters John Carson and Nancy play off of those few minutes of information that the government would have wanted erased, as well as the minutes of radio silence. It is during this time, that true interest is peaked in Nancy’s character as she goes about searching for truth.
In the end, we also used another allegedly factual historical event of the time – the use of cocaine in experimental memory loss – to cover up all loose ends. This also spells out a rather unfortunate conclusion for not only Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, but for Nancy as well.
All in all, it was fun to play off of real life events, just like the texts we read about Hurricane Katrina and the Islamic Revolution. Obviously our script plays off of the fantastic more than other stories do (such as Persepolis). Our creative process was perhaps a little more inspired by the outlandish nature of “My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts.”
Sources:
http://exopolitics.org/first-man-on-moon-dies-along-with-secrets-of-what-he-saw/
http://www.npr.org/2009/07/16/106637066/houston-we-erased-the-apollo-11-tapes
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