Get your own Free HomepageI caught the Pilot of Archangel Thunderbird on its second showing in the UK (excepting any screenings at conventions) and was instantly hooked. So the following Saturday I posted a message on Compuserve, asking fellow AT fans to step forward. Unsurprisingly, considering the small audience it went out to, no one replied, but a few weeks later another AT message was posted - this one from AT co-creator and British Manga hero Tony Luke. And thus I was drawn into the murky world of Archangel Thunderbird fandom.
For those of you who haven’t seen the show (the majority, I’d expect), here’s what it’s all about:
It’s early in the twenty first century, and a group of demons have invaded London, destroying the city and taking it for their own. The only man who can stand in their way is maverick scientist Dr John Churchill, who had prophesied the demons’ arrival to a disbelieving UN council some time earlier. Unfortunately, he has now gone to ground and no-one has seen him since the arrival.
Unknown to the public, John has created Doomshield, an agency dedicated to ridding the world of the demons and their leader, the Anti-God Baal. At Doomshield’s disposal is the Archangel Thunderbird, an arcane warrior with six distinct configurations, controlled by schizophrenic Miki Manson. We join the story with Rob Cainer, a young man who is somewhat overwhelmed by the circumstances. Not long after his arrival at Doomshield, Baal sends his wife, the witch Dygon to destroy Churchill and his team. Doomshield responds by powering up the Archangel for the first time, and we see the battle for humanity’s future commence.
Stylistically, the show is incredibly innovative. While it’s a British show, it has had input from legendary Japanese Manga artist Yasushi Nirasawa, and borrows many visual aspects from both Japanese monster movies and anime. Okay, so there are no wide eye schoolgirls, men in monster suits (the demons and archangels are stop motion animated) and Tokyo tower isn’t likely to be destroyed in any episodes, but this is the closest that any British company has come to making a Japanese film - and the best thing is that it *works*.
On the home front, comics master Alan Grant has worked on the storyline, and Bruce Attley created the models used in the show. Impressive creative team, no? The cast is just as good, with Doug (Hellraiser) Bradley as Churchill, and Neil (Sandman, Neverwhere) Gaiman as Baal, and Eileen Daily and Adrian Bunting as Miki and Rob, respectively. The feel of the show is something like a 2000AD comic strip. The visuals are flashy, and contain elements of live action, CGI, stop motion and traditional animation. The soundtrack is a storming fusion of rock and techno, produced by Luke’s own band.
The Pilot was a pure rush of adrenalin, centred as it was around one lengthy battle, but there were more than a few clues as to the murky backgrounds of the characters. When I watched the show, I immediately picked up on these threads and formulated ideas about what might happen in future episodes, should the show be picked up. When Tony Luke asked for opinions on what to change and what to keep after the show had been picked up, I mailed him an extensive "wish list". When I started to write The Cutter, I thought it only fair that I obey my own guidelines. What you see below is a depiction of one direction that the show might move in. The characters have been fleshed out a bit, the seeds of story arcs have been sown, and effects that would have been too expensive to film have been added. While I obviously couldn’t duplicate the visual nature of the show, I’ve tried to compensate by using a better plot than the Pilot (which had no real plot to speak of). I hope you all enjoy the script, and even if you don’t, I highly recommend that you seek out the Pilot and the series when it is made. Keep an eye on the Sci-Fi Channel’s schedules for it.
© Dan Ness, 1998. So you want to redistribute this, huh? Well tough! This is my work, and it stays here. Link to the title page.
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