"Ziggy"

Written By
Joseph Crouch

INT. HALL OF SPACE, WAXWORKS

The HALL OF SPACE - a waxwork display charting the space
race from early test rockets, the moon landings, further
Apollo missions and beyond!
A young BOY and his MOTHER are surveying the HALL OF SPACE.
His MOTHER spouts enthusiastically about spacecraft as they
do this.
They walk through the procession slowly, paying attention to
each of the displays, particularly the information placards.
FUZZ BALDRIN stands proudly in his space suit placing a flag
into some fake lunar dirt. There is an empty plinth next to
him, covered in baked on dust.
MOTHER
FUZZ BALDRIN?!
She runs over to the FUZZ BALDRIN display. The BOY follows.
The MOTHER gets to FUZZ, turns to the BOY and beckons him
over.
She begins to "fangirl" over FUZZ.
After a while the BOY tires of this. To the side he spies a
few newspaper clippings in a display. He squints at them
before walking towards them.
In them are candid pictures of FUZZ and his crewmates living
in their shuttlecraft. In each photo is a part of an animal,
just cut out of frame so as to obscure its identity.
The BOY searches until he finds the identity of the animal.
A dog. The caption reads "ZIGGY - THE FIRST LONG MISSION
ANIMAL ASTRONAUT"
We SLOW ZOOM into the photo until we are in the scene.
ZOOM AND EXPAND:
INT. APOLLO 11
We are inside APOLLO 11, on its way to the moon.
ZIGGY and FUZZ are floating about in ZERO-G. FUZZ is holding
some rations, about to open them.
FUZZ opens the packet and spills its contents into the air,
they float about, their range expanding across the shuttle
quite speedily.

RED ALERT. RED ALERT. Bleepers bleep and red light engulfs
the shuttlecrew.
ZIGGY sees the floating food, licks his lips in excitement
and pushes off a wall towards the food. He fumbles through
the air like a newborn fawn, not yet used to the lack of
gravity.
Eventually the feasting ceases and the air is once again
clear. The alert is silenced.
CUT TO:
INT. APOLLO 11 - LATER
FUZZ is putting on his space suit.
ZIGGY floats about at his side.
FUZZ floats towards an airlock, and enters it without
wearing his helmet. ZIGGY barks and floats towards him,
holding the strap of his helmet in his mouth.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPACE - LATER
FUZZ and ZIGGY are spacewalking. ZIGGY is just about getting
used to the no-gravity environment and is moving around with
relative ease.
FUZZ is repairing a panel on the shuttlecraft, he hasn't
attached his safety line to the shuttle.
FUZZ bashes the panel into place and goes flying in the
opposite direction.
ZIGGY see's this and grabs something from FUZZ's tool pack which is now slowly floating away. He detaches himself from
his line on the shuttle and pushes off, towards FUZZ.
FUZZ is flailing madly, spinning uncontrollably.
Reaching FUZZ with a bump, ZIGGY passes the object to him.
It is revealed as a GRAPPLING HOOK. FUZZ grabs on to ZIGGY
as they now both spin away from the shuttle.
FUZZ takes aim at the shuttle, times his shot as the shuttle
comes in and out of view with each new rotation.
He takes the shot. The force of the shot sends them further
away.
We watch the hook and line drift towards the shuttle...

CUT TO:
INT. HALL OF SPACE, WAXWORKS
An attendant comes out of a side door near the FUZZ display.
He is holding something under his arm, wrapped in cloth.
He walks towards the display, dusts the empty plinth next to
FUZZ's waxwork, and places the object down caringly.
He pulls the cover off.
Standing there proudly, next to FUZZ, is ZIGGY.
We PAN from the display, glancing the newspaper clippings,
but going beyond that until the camera rests on a
photograph.
An older FUZZ walks ZIGGY on the beach.
FADE TO BLACK.