Script Sample - Episode 5 - A Helping Hand

Without further adieu I thought I'd better get the script online, my teachers have already seen it but thought I'd better get it online just incase! Here it is:

SCENE 1. NEUTRON STAR

The small Neutron star can be seen in the background spinning rapidly and unpredictably.

The light that it gives off is bright for such a small object and flickering quickly as the star spins.

The ship lingers, drifting helpless in front of it.

SCENE 2. BRIDGE

The bridge is a fairly dark room, lit up by the light from the monitors and instruments. The back of the room is almost totally dark except the door, which is illuminated.

The engineer and doctor are gathered and anxiously watching as the captain paces across the bridge in front of them, deep in thought.

Eventually the silence is broken by the captain turning to the front of the bridge and asking SAI a question.

CAPTAIN

I can't think of any way out of this. SAI, any idea how we can get away from here?

SAI

Yes sir, using basic plasma propulsion we will be able to reach the nearest star in around 100 years, though I'm quite sure that this isn't an acceptable solution.

CAPTAIN

(Patronizingly)

No... No it isn't.

He turns to face the crew behind him.

CAPTAIN
What about you? Any suggestions?

DOCTOR
(Panicing)
Stuck? We can't be stuck here, we'll go mad!

ENGINEER
(Nervous)
Without the energy from a star, the reactor alone will never make enough energy to get us away. She's right, we're going to go mad here.

CAPTAIN
Stay calm the both of you, you'll panic the rest of the crew.

SAI
Captain! We're receiving another transmission, it's much stronger this time.

The monitor switches to show static, which slowly clears and shows an alien speaking to them.

ALIEN
(Speaking slowly)
Human vessel can you hear us? We are aware of your situation. We will be there to help shortly.

CAPTAIN
(Quickly)
Wait! Who are...

Shortly after the alien had finished speaking the transmission was stopped, interrupting the captain.

The captain turns and looks at the crew members in disbelief, who are also staring shocked back at him.

ENGINEER
(Whispering)
Oh I don't like this one bit...

SCENE 3. NEUTRON STAR

The ship is still drifting lifeless through space, with the neutron star still spinning menacingly.

Time begins to slow down, the star appears to slow it's spinning, and space above the ship appear to bend and stretch.

A huge ship appears above the human ship casting a shadow over it.

Time returns to normal and the star is back to spinning rapidly and menacingly.

The ship makes a strange growing humming noise and emits a growing dim glow.

The humming and the glow build up becoming louder and brighter, until a brilliant flash of light engulfs both the human and the alien ship.

The light fades with a crackling sound and the ships have both disappeared entirely. Leaving ripples in space, which quickly fade.

SCENE 4. RIGEL

The ship is now in orbit around a very large blue star, Rigel. The star totally dwarfs the ship.

SCENE 5. BRIDGE

The crew members on the bridge who had braced themselves for an impact begin to recompose themselves.

Once they have all risen, SAI speaks:

SAI
(Emotionless)
It appears that we are now in orbit around the star Rigel of the Orion constellation, around 500 light years from our previous location, there is no sign of the alien vessel. Scans are showing surface temperatures of over 10,000 kelvin and an enormous amount of energy across all wavelengths, over 70,000 times that of our Sun, energy appears to be recharging extremely quickly.

CAPTAIN
(Relieved)
That's all well and good but how exactly did we arrive here so quickly?

Light footsteps are heard from behind the crew. A figure emerges from the dark edge of the bridge, behind the crew.

It is an alien of the same species that spoke on the transmission. Slim with smooth turquoise skin and darker markings over his shoulders and head.

He is holding the tips of his long fingers together in front of him as walks forwards and speaks.

ALIEN
(Calm)
I believe I may be able to offer some insight into that.

It's not the end the episode, it's probably just over half the episode, maybe 2/3rds and seemed like a good point to stop the sample section. The formatting might be a little off since copying from Celtx removes all of the formatting, so I've had to redo it in blogger (not a huge job at least!).

Anyway, back to work for me.

Budget Research: More Property

While doing my budget it occured to me how much more staff I have than expected... I'll certainly be needing a larger office than my originally planned Edgar House, Bath (2,200 sq f). Not much more but I will need more. So I decided to look around for some industrial space, to use as office space. Around 4,000 - 5,000 sq f.

Sadly there's absolutely no available space in Bath, but Bristol turned up a lot of results. Surprisingly cheap results too!

http://www.estatesgazette.com/propertylink/advert/avon_trading_estate_bristol-bristol-3282942.htm

A pretty dingy space in Bristol, 5900 sq f, in what looks like a fairly busy lorry yard. Only £18,000 a year though!

http://www.estatesgazette.com/propertylink/advert/gatton_road_bristol-bristol-3272709.htm

This one looks quite a bit nicer, 6100 sq f at £35,000 per year. Still pretty reasonable. It already has a large office area. There is also a warehouse space, which would be fairly useless to me and coud be converted into more office space if I needed more. The office space is already quite a bit larger than the Edgar House space though, so should be more than enough!

So! New property: 

5B Gatton Road, Bristol

6,163 square feet.

£35,000 per year.

On site parking, warehouse, large office space, security gate.

Merchandise Research: Space Food

Being an at least semi educational series about space, it only makes sense that some of the merchandise be space food. Though the food that they eat aboard the ship would largely be replicated in my film and therefore very much like regular food, I think people would be interested enough to want to try space food as it currently is.

It was only just over 50 years ago that we were able to get the first object into space (1957 - Sputnik) and the first person went into orbit in 1961 (Gagarin); only 50 years ago. Already space food has developed a lot.

In 1961 Gagarin became the first man in space. For food he ate 3 160g toothpaste tubes of pureed food; 2 pureed meats and one chocolate sauce for dessert. 

In 1962 when America began manned space flight they experimented with various foods to establish what kinds of food would be edible in space. They found that surprisingly, low gravity does not affect digestion or the ability to swallow solid foods as previously thought.

In 1973 with Skylab, refrigerators and freezers were included in order to better preserve more traditional foods. They had foods such as canned meat, bread, biscuits etc. 

In modern day space flight, the primary concern is practicality. Taking into account eating and preparing in low gravity, as well as being well preservable. Otherwise, 'regular' Earth food could be and sometimes is used in space, which is a treat for the astronauts. 

Interestingly, carbonated drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi are used in space. The national space station refrigerators have stocked cans of both for several years. Though consumption of them is not recommended, due to the effect that low gravity has on belching; namely 'wet burps'. 

Space food has been commercialized primarily in China, where it is a popular novelty product. It has also been commercialized in other countries of course. Often in the form of high nutrition bars and pre-prepared food such as meat in sachets.

For my merchandise, I'd like to do a range of both savoury and sweet food in bar and packet form. I'll get the drawings up later!

Budget Research: Computer Equipment

Now a look at the equipment we'll be needing in the studio for the staff!

Probably the most important equipment, the animation work stations. These computers are high specced as they will be used not only for the 3D animation and modelling, but also for rendering.

Main Specs:

3.1Ghz Quad Core Intel i7

16 Gb Memory

2 Gb Nvidia GPU

2x 2 TB HDDs (RAID 0)

22" Widescreen 1920 x 1080 Monitor

Comes to £1,419.00 inc VAT from http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk.

I'll need 14 of these machines in total, 4 for animators, 4 for the modellers, 1 for the lighting / camera, 1 for Cloth / Hair, 1 each for the lead artist and animator, and 1 each for the editor and compositor.

The rest of the machines, which will only be using photoshop and word will be lower spec to save money:

Specs:

3.1Ghz Quad Core Intel i5

4 Gb Memory

512 Mb Nvidia GPU

2x 1 TB HDD (RAID 0)

22" Wdescreen 1920 x 1080 Monitor

Comes to exactly £700 including VAT, again from http:www.pcspecialist.co.uk.

I'll need 5 of these, for the admin folk (4), and the sound editor (1).

So that's 19 computers... One for each of the staff who will need one, the software needed for each will go ontop of that.

I'm having some trouble finding the price of software at the moment, I know that you can buy a license for a business that allows you to install software on all of your machines. But it's impossible to find an actual price! I'll have to com back to this, or buy the software for each individually.

On top of that, I need to head over to staples.co.uk or something and find a bunch of desks and chairs, and some stationary equipment.

Budget Research: Staff

With the studio now pretty much decided on, it's time to have a look at the staff I'm going to need:

The animation itself is going to be CG with 9 episodes at 10 minutes each. 

With this in mind I'll be able to make a decision on the size of the team I'll need, then have the teachers check over it before anything is final of course! I'm using our course references for studio staff and their wages, which I'm not sure if I can upload onto my blog... So I won't.

Admin

1 Producer

1 Director

1 Production Manager

1 Human Resources

Written

1 Script Writer (Temp)

Visuals

1 Lead Artist

1 Lead Animator

1 Storyboard Artist

4 Animators

4 Digital Artists (Modellers)

1 Lighting / Camera

1 Cloth / Hair Technician

1 Concept Artist (Temp)

Audio

1 Audio Editor / Track Layer

1 Composer (Temp)

5 Voice Over Artists (Temp)

Post Production

1 Compositor

1 Editor

That seems to be about everything that will be needed, with sound editing being in house rather than outsourced (I'm a bit of a control freak and this is imaginary... So I want everything in house).

That's 20 in house staff for the duration of the production, and 8 temporary contract staff.

Theoretically the production should take around 6 - 8 months.

Next up is the equipment budget!

Merchandise Research

A good starting point for merchandise seems to me to be having a look at Star Trek merchandise, as it's a space sci-fi series aimed at a relatively close target audience to mine.

http://store.startrek.com/

There's even an official store!

Now the merchandise for Star Trek is probably one of the most extensive of any series, so there are quite a lot of items that would be ridiculous for me to use for my merchandise. Things like kitchen wares, glassware, fragrances wouldn't make any sense for me to use, and don't really for Star Trek... But they get away with it because of the popularity of the series. People like to fill their homes with all sorts of star trek stuff!

So some things that I think would be applicable for my series are more related things, aswell as some items aimed at the younger end of my particular target audience.

Clothing

Uniforms, quotations, costumes

Accessories

School satchel

Collectables

Sticker book, fact cards, figurines

Posters

Mouse mat

Beginner telescope

Stargazer kit

satchel, notepad, pen, light, starguide

Books

Starguide, fact book, fiction

Space food

That seems to be a fairly comprehensive list of the merchandise I'd like for the series. Amazingly I don't actually think that mugs would fit in with the series... So I'll be skipping the 'go to' merchandise completely!

Production Budget Research - Properties

An important part of a productions budget, and a pretty sizeable chunk of it too is the property where it will be made. Now then since this is imaginary it doesn't really matter where we actually have our office though it does have to be large enough for our imaginary needs.

So since there's no rule telling me where to go, I can have my office anywhere I like, and where I'd like is in Bath, England, because it's where I'll actually be living after uni.

I'll check for properties in or near Bath and pick whichever I prefer.

Edgar House, George Street, Bath

I like this property, it's in the center of Bath and is a decent size for what I need. The property has 2 floors and they can be rented independently. The rent is calculated at £13.50 per square foot.

Floor 1: 1,245 sq f = £16,807.50 per annum

Floor 2: 1,425 sq f = £19,237.50 per annum

Both: £36,045

Vintry / Wine Street, Bristol

This is a large office block in Bristol, with 3,310 sq f, rentable per square foot at £9 each per annum.

Walcott Street, Bath

A nice looking office in a convenient location in Bath, no information is included on the website about price or size however...

Gay Street, Bath

The cheapest office I've come across so far. Located near the center of Bath and only £350 pcm (per calendar month). No info on the size again, and it looks rather small...

London Road, Bath

Again within walking distance to the center of Bath, no prices are included on the website.

So far, Edgar House is my favourite by a country mile. It is the most expensive of the ones I've looked at, at £13.50 per sq f but at £36,045 for the year it's still a fairly reasonable amount, especially for property in Bath.

New Episode 9: The Final Frontier

Even more happens in this episode! But again I managed to trim off about a third. I felt that there way too much detail in the original one, most of those details would be left for the script. I think that this is a great way of ending the series, and opens up opportunities for future series's, should the need arise.

New:

The ship warps into a distant orbit around the huge star. The crew are stunned by it's size. The captain asks SAI to scan the star, she informs them that due to it's size the star is relatively cool and charging will take longer than predicted. Noko suggests that with the power of the new reactor, and because of the low density of the star, that they could supercharge the ship by orbiting quickly inside the surface of the star. This causes an argument amongst the crew. The captain asks SAI if Noko's idea is possible, she confirms that the plan has a high chance of success. The captain tells her to take them inside the star, and the ship dives into the surface of the star, orbiting quickly. Alarms sound but SAI says shields are holding and energy is charging rapidly. With the alarms silences the captain asks the crew for suggestions on how to test the new technology. Noko says that the reactor is capable of taking them to another galaxy, where he has the coordinates for a star that his species knows harbors life. The crew are amazed by the opportunity, and Noko gives the coordinates to SAI. She explains that the journey will take several months. The captain looks at his crew and after a moments contemplation tells her to take them there. The engines power up and the ship shoots out from the star and to their distant destination.

Old:

The ship warps into a distant orbit from the huge star VY Canis Majoris, the hugest star the crew has ever seen. SAI informs the captain that because of it's size the star in actually relatively cool and the charging will take a very long time. The captain asks SAI to scan the star while he thinks, SAI begins to relay the information as usual. Noko suggests that  because of the stars extremely low density that with the new output of the reactor, it should be able to sustain the shields and allow them to actually enter the star, which would speed up the charging considerably. This starts an argument from the crew, the engineer in particular is still suspicious of his reasons for helping the human crew. The captain asks SAI if Noko's idea is possible, she responds saying that if the ship was to maintain the shields and an extremely fast orbit inside the atmosphere of the star that there is a high chance the ship will escape unharmed. Noko admits he hadn't considered escape velocity, but that the plan was now a complete certainty. The captain agrees and tells SAI to take them inside the star, the engine power up and the ship appears to begin flying past the star before diving into the surface at extremely high speed. Alarms sound due to the stress on the shields, SAI says that shields appear to be holding and that energy is charging rapidly. The captain asks the crew for suggestions for what to do to test out the new reactor now that it's at full. Noko says that the reason that he has given them this technology is that his species have known of life in another galaxy, but they are themselves unable to travel outside of this galaxy because of their method of propulsion, hence their interest in the humans who given enough energy would be able to journey there. The crew are amazed by this revelation and the opportunity to journey to another galaxy, Noko gives the coordinates to SAI, she explains that the journey itself there will take several weeks. After a moment of contemplation the captain tells SAI to take them there. The engines power up and the ship shoots out from the huge star and to it's distant destination.

New Episode 8: The Zirconium Star!

Quite a lot happens in this episode so I couldn't really cut too much out of it, without it not making sense. Still I managed to trim off quite a few lines... Hopefully that will be enough.

New:

The ship warps into orbit around the small cloudy zirconium star. The captain asks Noko how he will gather the zirconium. Noko explains that he is reconfiguring the ship's replicators to transport the zirconium atoms from the atmosphere into the reactor room. As he leaves for the reactor room he says he should not be disturbed. Shortly after the lights dim and SAI says that the reactor has stopped. The captain assures the crew the shouldn't worry and asks SAI to scan the strange star, which she does. SAI is interrupted by the engineer shouting and storming out of the bridge. The captain follows him to the reactor room, where he is banging on the locked door, demanding he be let in, and ignoring the captain's orders to calm down. The lights brighten, SAI appears and informs them that the reactor is back online and energy output has dramatically increased. The door unlocks and Noko emerges, he apologizes for the panic and explains that the reactor now functions like a miniature star, able to store enormous energy. The captain asks SAI to take them to the most powerful known star. SAI says that the star is called VY Canis Majoris as the engines power up, and the ship shoots off to it's next destination.

Old:

The ship warps into orbit around the small cloudy blue star, the clouds shimmer because of the high levels of metals. The captain is curious about how exactly Noko intends to gather the zirconium he needs from the star. Noko explains that he is reconfiguring the replicators to transport the zirconium atoms out of the atmosphere and into the reactor room. As he leaves for the reactor bay he says that he should not be disturbed. The engineer voices his concerns for allowing him to make unsupervised changes, and that he could be doing anything, the captain says that he trusts him. Shortly after the lights dim and SAI says that the reactor has been stopped and the ship is now running on stored power. The captain assures everyone that they shouldn't worry and asks SAI to scan the star, she begins to relay the information as usual to the captain, but they are interrupted by the engineer who again voices his concerns about Noko and storms out of the bridge. The captain follows him down to the reactor room, the engineer starts to bang on the locked reactor room door, demanding he be let in, ignoring the orders of the captain to calm down. The lights now brighten and SAI appears and informs them that power has returned, and energy output of the reactor has increased dramatically. The door reactor room door unlocks and Noko emerges, apologizing for the panic. He explains that the reactor itself is now capable of not only generating energy but storing enormous amounts of it, like a miniature star and that they should find a bright star to charge it. The captain obliges and asks SAI for any powerful stars nearby. SAI suggests various supergiant stars, the largest of which the captain picks. The ship's engines power up and the ship shoots off to it's next destination: VY Canis Majoris, the largest star in the galaxy.

New Episode 7: Déjà vu

I thought that this episode was already pretty concise, I didn't really change very much, just trimmed some of the fat! I think it reads better now.

New:

After a much longer than usual jump through space the ship arrives at another large blue star. The crew think that they haven't left the Rigel system and believe Noko has sabotaged the ship. SAI explains that they have in fact traveled almost 2000 lightyears to the blue supergiant Deneb and that energy reserves are rapidly recharging. The captain tells SAI to find all known blue stars and note their locations for future recharging, he apologizes to Noko for his crew and asks about the progress of the ship upgrades. Noko says that in order to complete his final upgrade he needs a material called zirconium. SAI informs them of a recently discovered zirconium star within safe jump distance. Noko says that if the ship can get close enough that he has a way to retrieve the substance and assures the captain that the upgrade will be worth the effort. The captain agrees, the engines power up and the ship blasts off to the zirconium star.

Old:

With the ship at it's new double energy maximum the captain has asked SAI to take the ship as far as safely possible. SAI has chosen the distant star Deneb, and after a much longer than usual flight the ship reaches it's destination. The star appears very similar to Rigel and the crew wonder why they are back there. SAI explains that they have actually traveled almost 2000 light years and they are now orbiting the blue supergiant Deneb, and that again the energy reserves are quickly on their way to maximum capacity again. The captain tells her to find all blue stars and note their locations, and to inform him when they need to recharge the ship. Noko enters the bridge saying that in order to complete his upgrades on the ship, he needs a material called Zirconium in order to reinforce the reactor, much more of it than the replicators are able to supply. SAI suggests that there is a recently discovered Zirconium star within safe traveling distance, Noko says that if the ship can get close enough he has a way of retrieving the substance, and assures the captain that the upgrade will be well worth the time. The captain agrees, the engines start up and they blast off to the Zirconium star.

New Episode 6: So What Now?

This one was slightly tricky to resize, I had to juggle some bits around in the story too. I realized that in the previous episode there was no star facts and in this episode there were 2 sets. So I made SAI scan Rigel in the previous episode, and scan Rigel B and C in this episode. Although they are the same star system they certainly differ enough to be worthy of an episode each. Also there's quite a lot happening other than the facts at this point.

New:

Noko is stood beside the captain on the bridge, waiting to greet the cautious crew. Eventually they each shake his outstretched hand. The captain asks SAI about Rigel, which they are still orbiting. SAI begins to scan the star, and explains that the enormous power of the star has fully charged the ship's energy extremely quickly. Noko mentions this is why they were transported here, and also that he will be able to make several upgrades to the ship, massively increasing it's energy capacity, he and the engineer leave to begin the upgrades immediately. SAI informs the captain that there are 2 other stars in the Rigel system, and after the captains confirmation the ship makes a very quick jump to them. SAI positions the ship in the center of the 2 orbiting blue stars. The engineer hails the bridge excitedly explaining that Noko has already doubled the ship's energy capacity with a simple reprogramming. SAI confirms this and that the 2 stars are quickly charging the ship. Eager to test the new technology the captain asks SAI to take them to the farthest 'safe' star. The engines power up and the ship blasts off from between the 2 stars.

Old:

Noko is stood beside the captain on the bridge, in front of the rest of the crew with his arm outstretched to greet them. He notices the crew's caution and assures them he means them no harm, and slowly they each shake his hand. With the formal introduction out of the way the captain asks SAI about Rigel, which they are currently orbiting. SAI explains that the star is a blue supergiant, one of the most powerful stars in the galaxy, which has fully charged the ship extremely quickly, which Noko mentions is the reason they were transported here, while on the topic he also informs the captain that he is capable of making several upgrades to the ship that will increase the amount of energy it can store considerably. Surprised but eager to avoid any situations like at the neutron star the captain gives permission, but instructs the ship engineer to oversee the upgrades. Noko agrees and he and the engineer leave the bridge. SAI informs the captain that there are 2 more stars in the system relatively close and after the captains confirmation the ship makes the quick jump there, SAI positions the ship right in the center of their mutual orbit, and the 2 blue stars are clearly visible on either side of the ship and SAI relays the results of her scans to the captain. The engineer hails the bridge and excitedly explains that Noko has already doubled the energy capacity of the ship with a simple reprogramming. SAI confirms this, and also states that the 2 stars have already charged the ship to the new capacity. "Excellent" replies the captain, "let's test out this new technology shall we? SAI, take us to the farthest safe star for energy gathering". The engines power up and the ship blasts off from between the 2 stars.

New Episode 5: A Helping Hand

This was probably my longest episode of the lot, it took quite a lot of compressing, but it's certainly a less daunting wall of text now. I don't think that I cut any necessary plot points out either.

New:

The captain is pacing, trying to figure a way out of this situation. He asks SAI for suggestions, she responds that using basic propulsion it would take over 100 years to reach a nearby star. The crew begins to panic as the gravity of the situation sets in. Their panic is interrupted by a transmission from an alien race offering help, and soon after a large alien ship warps in above them. A bright light engulfs the ship and seconds later they are in orbit around a large blue star. SAI informs them that she cannot detect the alien ship, and begins to scan Rigel, relaying the information. The captain asks how exactly they got here so quickly when a calm voice speaks from behind them, one of the aliens who just rescued the crew. He explains that his crew have been attempting to contact them for a while and that he has been left to share his knowledge with them. He and the captain exit for a private conversation, leaving the crew anxiously pacing on the bridge. They re-enter the bridge and the captain formally introduces the alien Noko as the newest crew member.

Old:

The captain is pacing deep in thought, trying to conjure a way out of this situation, he asks SAI for any solutions, to which she responds "Using basic plasma propulsion we can reach the nearest safe star for energy gathering within 100 years, though I'm quite sure that isn't an acceptable solution", and it sets in just how bad a situation this is for the crew. Right when all seems lost the ship receives another transmission from an unknown source but it's clear this time, the alien race is offering help and shortly after warps into view. A bright light engulfs the ship and seconds later the crew find themselves somewhere completely different, now in orbit around a huge blue star and the alien ship no where to be seen. SAI notifies the crew that they are now in orbit around the star Rigel and that energy reserves are rapidly filling, though she can detect no sign of the alien ship or how they arrived here so quickly. It is then that a calm voice speaks from behind the crew, it is an alien, one of the crew that just rescued them. He introduces himself and explains that his crew have been attempting to make contact with them for some time and that luckily they were able to follow them to the neutron star and retrieve them, and he has been left to join the crew and share any knowledge that he can. He and the captain leave the bridge and have a private conversation about the nature of his joining the crew and about his species' interest in the crew and then return to the crew on the bridge. The captain formally introduces the alien Noko as the newest crew member.

New Episode 4: Where Are We?

Another compressed episode for your viewing pleasure! Also gives me chance to reread and add bits and amend some continuity issues in the story.

New:

After a much longer than usual jump through space the crew are clearly nervous and confused about where they are. Seeing this SAI explains that her orders were a little vague but she has followed them as best she could, and brought them to a neutron star 424 lightyears from Earth. As SAI begins to scan the star it appears on the monitors, she explains that despite only being 20km in diameter the star is extremely hot and produces enormous energy. The captain asks her to move in to gather energy, having used all of the energy to reach this distant star. SAI refuses because the powerful waves of radiation and beams from the poles make it far too dangerous to approach. Unable to gather energy from the star from this distance the ship is stranded a very long way from home.

Old:

After a much longer than usual jump through space the crew have found themselves a long way from home. The crew are clearly nervous about this and the captain asks SAI where they are. SAI responds "The orders given to me were a little vague sir, I have brought you to the nearest, smallest and most powerful star I could find", she has brought them to a neutron star 424 lightyears from Earth. On the monitor is a very distant and very small star, the crew don't really know what to make of it, seeing this SAI explains what the object they are looking at is a very rare and powerful star despite only being about 20km in diameter. The crew want to move closer but SAI informs them that moving closer is too dangerous. Readings are taken, showing that the star has a surface temperature of over 10million K and spewing out radio and x-rays from its rapidly rotating magnetic poles. The captain makes the decision to leave while they can, but the ship has used most of it's fuel getting here, unable to get close enough to the neutron star to gather energy they are stranded a very long way from home.

New Episode 3: Are You Sirius

New title for the episode, I couldn't resist!

Ok so I decided on a 13 line limit for my synopsies... Not so tough for now, but might get more difficult for some of the beefier episodes... I may up the limit if I feel it's really needed for some, but as a guideline I'm going to aim for 13... The aim was 10 lines, which I achieved but converting to Courier made it 13, still acceptable in my opinion.

New:

The ship arrives at Sirius, a bright blue star double the size of our sun. SAI begins to scan the star as the crew stare in amazement. As they orbit another much smaller white star slowly begins to appear over the horizon of Sirius. After gathering energy from and scanning Sirius the ship moves on to the smaller star, which the crew underestimate because of it's size. SAI informs them that it was originally more than double the size of the larger Sirius and despite it's small size the surface temperature is more than triple than that of Sirius. Amazed by the news that small stars can be so powerful the crew excitedly begin to shout direction at SAI to fly to another small powerful star, SAI looks to the captain for confirmation as the engines power up. The captain replies with a nod and the ship shoots off to it's next destination.

Old: 

The ship arrives at Sirius, 8 lightyears away from Earth the star appears blue rather than orange and is double the size of our Sun. The crew, initially amazed by the bright blue glow begin to scan the star as they orbit around it. Slowly another much smaller white star, about the size of Earth comes into view around the horizon of the large Sirius. After gathering data and energy from the large star the ship moves to look at the second smaller star, which most of the crew underestimate. After scanning has begun SAI informs the crew that the star was previously more than double the size of Sirius and because of this burned out much faster, and despite it's size the surface temperature of the small star is actually almost triple that of the larger star. All of the crew apart from the captain are surprised that such a small star could still output so much energy and heat, the crew excited by this start to shout at SAI orders to move to the nearest white dwarf star to them, SAI looks around to the captain and says "Sir?" as the engines begin to ready, to which he nods and the ship shoots off to it's next destination.

New new episode 2: Alpha Centauri

With for the sake of compressing the episodes down to be more concise I altered episode 2 again, slightly. Though I'd better upload it for the sake of continuity in my development work.

New:

With their first mission behind them the crew set off towards the nearest star - Alpha Centauri; a solar system of 2 stars, 5 lightyears away! Relieved that the ship's prototype engines worked as expected the crew's celebrations are cut when the ship's systems detect a 3rd star not visible from Earth that is actually closer to us - Proxima Centauri, which they scan before moving on to their original destination. While gathering enery from the 2 stars the crew receive another mysterious broken transmission, after analysing the signal they find out that it is an alien message over 3000 years old, but with no leads on the origin of the signal there is no choice but to continue to the next mission, the supermassive star Sirius.

Old:

With their first mission behind them the crew set off towards the nearest star - Alpha Centauri; a solar system of 2 stars, 5 lightyears away! Relieved that the ship's prototype engines worked as expected the crew's celebrations are cut when the ship's systems detect a 3rd star not visible from Earth that is actually closer to us - Proxima Centauri, which they scan before moving on to their original destination. While gathering enery from the 2 stars the crew receive another mysterious broken transmission, after analysing the signal they find out that it is an alien message over 3000 years old, but there is no indication of where the signal came from. With no leads on the origin of the signal the crew have no choice but to continue to the next mission as planned, to the supermassive star Sirius.

Episode 9: The Final Frontier

With the new reactor ready to go the team need to find a powerful source of energy to bring it to capacity, and are now on their way to VY Canis Majoris, the largest known star in the galaxy.

Episode 9 Synopsis:

The ship warps into a distant orbit from the huge star VY Canis Majoris, the hugest star the crew has ever seen. SAI informs the captain that because of it's size the star in actually relatively cool and the charging will take a very long time. The captain asks SAI to scan the star while he thinks, SAI begins to relay the information as usual. Noko suggests that  because of the stars extremely low density that with the new output of the reactor, it should be able to sustain the shields and allow them to actually enter the star, which would speed up the charging considerably. This starts an argument from the crew, the engineer in particular is still suspicious of his reasons for helping the human crew. The captain asks SAI if Noko's idea is possible, she responds saying that if the ship was to maintain the shields and an extremely fast orbit inside the atmosphere of the star that there is a high chance the ship will escape unharmed. Noko admits he hadn't considered escape velocity, but that the plan was now a complete certainty. The captain agrees and tells SAI to take them inside the star, the engine power up and the ship appears to begin flying past the star before diving into the surface at extremely high speed. Alarms sound due to the stress on the shields, SAI says that shields appear to be holding and that energy is charging rapidly. The captain asks the crew for suggestions for what to do to test out the new reactor now that it's at full. Noko says that the reason that he has given them this technology is that his species have known of life in another galaxy, but they are themselves unable to travel outside of this galaxy because of their method of propulsion, hence their interest in the humans who given enough energy would be able to journey there. The crew are amazed by this revelation and the opportunity to journey to another galaxy, Noko gives the coordinates to SAI, she explains that the journey itself there will take several weeks. After a moment of contemplation the captain tells SAI to take them there. The engines power up and the ship shoots out from the huge star and to it's distant destination.

Research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VY_Canis_Majoris

VY Canis Majoris is the largest known star in the galaxy, an orange hypergiant at over 2000 times the size of our sun. If it were in the center of our solar system the star would extend out past the orbit of saturn.

It is one of the most luminous stars in existance, this is not to say that it is the brightest, rather that over all spectral wavelengths (Gamma-rays, X-rays, Ultraviolet, Visible light, Infrared, Microwaves and Radio). 

One controversial issue about the star is stating it's actual size, some scientists believe that due to the extreme low density of it's outer atmosphere the actual 'surface' of the star would only be 800 times the size of our sun rather than around 2100 times. The atmosphere of the star is 0.1% as dense as the atmosphere on Earth, though still over 3000K in temperature.

VY Canis Majoris is located 4,800 lightyears away from Earth in the constellation Canis Major.

And that's the end of the series! Finally finished with these. Alright, now all I have to do is go through all of them and synopsize each one. Fun fun!

Episode 8: Zirconium!

Ok if you read the last episode you'll know what's going on next, if not here's a summary... In order to finish his upgrades on the ship Noko requires a material known as Zirconium, and quite a lot of it! SAI has informed the crew of a recently discovered star, with unusually high levels of Zirconium, so we are now on the way there to harvest some... You'll find out how very soon!

Episode 8 Synopsis:

The ship warps into orbit around the small cloudy blue star, the clouds shimmer because of the high levels of metals. The captain is curious about how exactly Noko intends to gather the zirconium he needs from the star. Noko explains that he is reconfiguring the replicators to transport the zirconium atoms out of the atmosphere and into the reactor room. As he leaves for the reactor bay he says that he should not be disturbed. The engineer voices his concerns for allowing him to make unsupervised changes, and that he could be doing anything, the captain says that he trusts him. Shortly after the lights dim and SAI says that the reactor has been stopped and the ship is now running on stored power. The captain assures everyone that they shouldn't worry and asks SAI to scan the star, she begins to relay the information as usual to the captain, but they are interrupted by the engineer who again voices his concerns about Noko and storms out of the bridge. The captain follows him down to the reactor room, the engineer starts to bang on the locked reactor room door, demanding he be let in, ignoring the orders of the captain to calm down. The lights now brighten and SAI appears and informs them that power has returned, and energy output of the reactor has increased dramatically. The door reactor room door unlocks and Noko emerges, apologizing for the panic. He explains that the reactor itself is now capable of not only generating energy but storing enormous amounts of it, like a miniature star and that they should find a bright star to charge it. The captain obliges and asks SAI for any powerful stars nearby. SAI suggests various supergiant stars, the largest of which the captain picks. The ship's engines power up and the ship shoots off to it's next destination: VY Canis Majoris, the largest star in the galaxy.

Research:

Ain't it perty?

http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/157-news2010/1898-a-sparkling-zirconium-star

http://star.arm.ac.uk/press/2010/Zirconium.html

What a stroke of look this little gem was! Here I am looking for a material for Noko's upgrades and I stumble upon a star with billions of tonnes of zirconium in it's atmosphere, and zirconium happens to be the element used to line nuclear fuel rods. So it even sort of makes sense that Noko might need the stuff! Very very happy!

This beautiful little ball is called LS IV - 14 116, it is a blue sub-dwarf meaning that it's really quite tiny... For a star at least.

What's unusual about this star is it's layer of 'clouds', which contains high amounts of metals, including an estimated 4 billion tonnes of Zirconium, 4,000 times the amount annually produced on Earth. This layer surrounds the entire star, which makes the surface impossible to see.

Episode 7: Déjà vu

Déjà vu

With the newly doubled energy capacity of the ship the captain has asked SAI to take the ship o the farthest safe star they can travel to, a necessary specification after the trouble with the neutron star. The next destination is the distant star Deneb.

Episode 7 Synopsis:

With the ship at it's new double energy maximum the captain has asked SAI to take the ship as far as safely possible. SAI has chosen the distant star Deneb, and after a much longer than usual flight the ship reaches it's destination. The star appears very similar to Rigel and the crew wonder why they are back there. SAI explains that they have actually traveled almost 2000 light years and they are now orbiting the blue supergiant Deneb, and that again the energy reserves are quickly on their way to maximum capacity again. The captain tells her to find all blue stars and note their locations, and to inform him when they need to recharge the ship. Noko enters the bridge saying that in order to complete his upgrades on the ship, he needs a material called Zirconium in order to reinforce the reactor, much more of it than the replicators are able to supply. SAI suggests that there is a recently discovered Zirconium star within safe traveling distance, Noko says that if the ship can get close enough he has a way of retrieving the substance, and assures the captain that the upgrade will be well worth the time. The captain agrees, the engines start up and they blast off to the Zirconium star.

Research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deneb

Deneb is the birghtest star in the Cygnus contellation, hence it's designation Alpha Cig.

 

Deneb is a blue - white supergiant even larger than Rigel. The star has 20 times the mass of the sun and is an enormous 108x larger! One of the largest known blue supergiants. The surface temperature is thought to be approx 8,400K and it's located 1,550 lightyears away from the sun with 60,000x it's luminosity. Deneb is so large that if it were our sun the orbit of earth would be inside it.

Deneb is actually brighter and larger than Rigel, though it is more than twice the distance away so appears considerably dimmer on Earth. Due to it's size the star is burning though it's fuel at a extremely accelerated rate and is expected to die in a supernova in only a few million years. It is thought the Deneb is still expanding ad will eventually become a red supergiant.

The name Deneb is derived from the Arabic "Dhanab ad-Dajāja" meaning "tail of the hen".

Believe it or not, the 'zirconium star' is actually something that has been quite recently discovered (2008... But I only just read about it) and found it s interesting that I had to involve it somehow! If you simply can't wait to read about it check it out here: http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/157-news2010/1898-a-sparkling-zirconium-star... Amazing stuff!

Episode 6: Where To Next?

Now the previous episode was less about gathering data than the episodes prior but I think it would make for good watching, we have a new crew member - Noko, an alien who has just been introduced to the crew at the end of the last episode and the ship is still orbiting around the blue supergiant Rigel, which we will get the facts about in this episode.

Episode 6 Synopsis:

Noko is stood beside the captain on the bridge, in front of the rest of the crew with his arm outstretched to greet them. He notices the crew's caution and assures them he means them no harm, and slowly they each shake his hand. With the formal introduction out of the way the captain asks SAI about Rigel, which they are currently orbiting. SAI explains that the star is a blue supergiant, one of the most powerful stars in the galaxy, which has fully charged the ship extremely quickly, which Noko mentions is the reason they were transported here, while on the topic he also informs the captain that he is capable of making several upgrades to the ship that will increase the amount of energy it can store considerably. Surprised but eager to avoid any situations like at the neutron star the captain gives permission, but instructs the ship engineer to oversee the upgrades. Noko agrees and he and the engineer leave the bridge. SAI informs the captain that there are 2 more stars in the system relatively close and after the captains confirmation the ship makes the quick jump there, SAI positions the ship right in the center of their mutual orbit, and the 2 blue stars are clearly visible on either side of the ship and SAI relays the results of her scans to the captain. The engineer hails the bridge and excitedly explains that Noko has already doubled the energy capacity of the ship with a simple reprogramming. SAI confirms this, and also states that the 2 stars have already charged the ship to the new capacity. "Excellent" replies the captain, "let's test out this new technology shall we? SAI, take us to the farthest safe star for energy gathering". The engines power up and the ship blasts off from between the 2 stars.

Research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_supergiant 

Rigel is the bright star in the center of the screen, it is the 'left foot' of the constellation Orion (as Orion is facing towards us).

Rigel is the brightest star in the Orion constellation, brighter even than Betelgeuse (usually). Rigel is a blue supergiant 17 times the size of our sun, and an astonishing 60,000 times the luminosity! It is the most powerful star in the 'local' region of our Milky Way Galaxy. The closest more powerful star is Naos, which is 1100 lightyears away.

Blue supergiants are some of the most powerful stars in the universe, as large stars tend to be cooler and dimmer. Blue supergiants have surface temperatures up to 50,000K, they are usually considerably smaller than red supergiants.

Rigel is so bright that at 1AU any object would be immediately vapourized and destroyed by stellar winds.

The name 'Rigel' is a contraction of the Arabic "Riǧl Ǧawza al-Yusra" meaning "left foot of the central one".

Rigel is actually almost 250 parsecs away (almost 800 lightyears), and is the 6th brightest star in the night sky. 

Rigel is confirmed to be part of a 3 star binary system though Rigel B and C are infact over 2200 AU away from Rigel A, they do not orbit around Rigel, rather they are linked gravitationally and move through space together. Rigel B and C orbit around each other at a distance of 28 AU (an AU is the distance between the sun and the Earth), slightly less than than the orbit of Neptune around our sun. They orbit extremely quickly, at only 25 days, compared to the 164 years that Neptune orbits the sun.

Rigel B and C are both larger than our sun, at 2.5x and 1.9x the size of our sun respectively. They are both class B stars, making them blue to white in colour and therefor very hot and very bright. Though the proximity to Sirius, which is over 500x brighter makes them difficult to observe.

Story notes:

Although Noko can upgrade the ship, it will take time, though his initial upgrade was quick it will be a while until the ship is fully upgraded. Eventually he will turn the reactor into a miniature star, capable of absorbing almost infinite energy. This is the power source that his race use for almost all of their technology.