Over the course of the last year or so I've been submitting scripts for "Futureshocks" (5 page SF shorts with a twist ending) to the comic 2000ad, hoping Tharg will pick one out of the slush pile and publish it. Here, for your enjoyment, are a few of them:
Antimatter
In deep space two massive spaceships sit side by side. One is composed of matter, the other of antimatter. Leena has fallen in love with an alien on the other ship, though they have never met, simply stared at each other across the void.
"Disarmament Now!"
Viktor Previn, Russian biological weapons designer, is watching wars on CNN as he drinks himself to death. As he finishes his daily row with the bartender his past catches up with him.
Extinction Level Event
An X-Ray Laser the size of an aircraft carrier is discovered floating in earth orbit. When a team is sent to investigate they accidentally turn it on.
M4RZ-ST4RZ!
Welcome to M4rZ:ST4rZ!, The first ever Reality TV show to combine a talent contest and Earths first manned mission to Mars! Twelve prospective band members are launched on a voyage to Mars. Unfortunately there is insufficient oxygen aboard the vessel for them all to make it, and so a crewmember must be voted off the ship every week.
The Other Side - Original 5 page version
The worlds first giant intelligent chicken is run down in a car accident. When asked why he was crossing the road he croaks "To get to the other side" and dies.
The Ripper
Reeves, upstart manager of "The London Deathtrap" fires the staff of failed Shakespearean actors and replaces them with robots. Of course, everything doesn't go completely to plan...
Wageslave
Elsie Grimes lives a life of drudgery, getting into the factory at six and filling cans of mushy peas for ten hours. Then, one day, as she stares into a tin of peas, something strange happens.
The Web
Solomon Nomsol, inventor and adventurer, is the first inhabitants of the planet Vortnum to travel beyond the dust cloud which separates them from the rest of the Galaxy. As his spaceship reaches the other side he's surprised to see, instead of the stars he was expecting, the sky has been filled by a vast web of metallic fibres and gleaming nodules.
Antimatter
In deep space two massive spaceships sit side by side. One is composed of matter, the other of antimatter. Leena has fallen in love with an alien on the other ship, though they have never met, simply stared at each other across the void.
"Disarmament Now!"
Viktor Previn, Russian biological weapons designer, is watching wars on CNN as he drinks himself to death. As he finishes his daily row with the bartender his past catches up with him.
Extinction Level Event
An X-Ray Laser the size of an aircraft carrier is discovered floating in earth orbit. When a team is sent to investigate they accidentally turn it on.
M4RZ-ST4RZ!
Welcome to M4rZ:ST4rZ!, The first ever Reality TV show to combine a talent contest and Earths first manned mission to Mars! Twelve prospective band members are launched on a voyage to Mars. Unfortunately there is insufficient oxygen aboard the vessel for them all to make it, and so a crewmember must be voted off the ship every week.
The Other Side - Original 5 page version
The worlds first giant intelligent chicken is run down in a car accident. When asked why he was crossing the road he croaks "To get to the other side" and dies.
The Ripper
Reeves, upstart manager of "The London Deathtrap" fires the staff of failed Shakespearean actors and replaces them with robots. Of course, everything doesn't go completely to plan...
Wageslave
Elsie Grimes lives a life of drudgery, getting into the factory at six and filling cans of mushy peas for ten hours. Then, one day, as she stares into a tin of peas, something strange happens.
The Web
Solomon Nomsol, inventor and adventurer, is the first inhabitants of the planet Vortnum to travel beyond the dust cloud which separates them from the rest of the Galaxy. As his spaceship reaches the other side he's surprised to see, instead of the stars he was expecting, the sky has been filled by a vast web of metallic fibres and gleaming nodules.