Spaceship Earth Spiel
Here is my new script for Spaceship Earth. I don't know who the narrator should be. If you have any ideas, please post them.
Female Announcer: Please step carefully onto the moving platform. The platform and your time machine are traveling at equal speed. If you or a member of your party requires assistance in entering your time machine, a Cast Member is present to accommodate you or a member of your party. Thank You.
Narrator: Where have we come from? Where are we going? The answers begin in our past. Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time. And for a brief moment, we have been among its many passengers.
Narrator: During the prehistoric era, we bonded together in small tribes. In these tribes, we developed language to help us gain food, water, and shelter. This is the dawn of communication.
Narrator: In the times of Tutankhamen and Ankhesenamun, papyrus scrolls led to the the first piece of paper. Now, without ever leaving their palaces, pharaohs could deliver proclamations and decrees to subjects across the land.
Narrator: Ages later, the world was unified with a common alphabet as fine ships took the scrolls to sea. Remember how easy it was to learn your ABCs? Thank the Phoenicians, for they invented them.
Narrator: Deep in the shadows of Mount Olympus, scientific breakthroughs and new philosophies flower with bold expression. All hail the mighty Greeks: Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Homer. The theatre was born.
Narrator: The mighty Roman empire bridged three continents with a vast system of roads, the fastest information highways the world had ever known. North, south, east, and west, all roads led to Rome. But these same roads were turned against Rome by invaders whose destruction left ages of knowledge and wisdom in the ashes that would become the Dark Ages.
Narrator: But all was not lost. For far across the land, from Cairo to Cordoba, Jewish teachers and Islamic scholars continued the quest for knowledge. In libraries of wisdom, they debated ideas and shared new discoveries with all who would listen. In the western world, monks toil endlessly in lonely isolation copying books of wisdom and revelations for future generations.
Narrator: From the ashes of the Dark Ages came the European rebirth: the Renaissance. This era of mankind brought news ideas to every aspect of life, from art and music to science and philosophy.
Newsboy: Extra, extra! Read all about it! Civil War over! Union emerges victorious! (loop)
Narrator: In 1977, a young man from California tinkered with a strange gadget in his garage for quite a long time. That work paid off for he had created the first personal computer.
(A mother, father, son, daughter, dog, cat, grandmother, and grandfather gather around to watch three programs on their multi-screen HDTV: the 2010 Super Bowl, the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence from Fantasia, and the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. We now see a giant laptop showing the following three Internet hits: Numa Numa, the Annoying Orange, and the Nyan Cat.)
Narrator: Today, we posses the ability to connect with one another instantly, anywhere on the planet. No longer just written text, but images and videos are posted on the Internet for all to see. As time goes on, we'll discover new ways to share our ideas and dreams, creating a better world for today, tomorrow, and Tomorrow's Child.
("Tomorrow's Child" song becomes louder and can now be heard with vocals. A woman is heard as the lead singer while a children's chorus sing the parts in brackets.)
Tomorrow's child.
(Tomorrow's child.)
Gathering gifts from our past.
Tomorrow's child.
(Tomorrow's child.)
Shaping a world that will last.
Holding the spark, as we embark,
on a great journey together we're learning
to reach for hope and desire.
Building a world to inspire.
Tomorrow's child, tomorrow's child,
shining a brand new way,
for the future world is born today.
(Born today.)
Tomorrow's child, lighting the path as we're going.
(Tomorrow's child.)
Tomorrow's child, seeing that knowledge keeps growing.
(Tomorrow's child.)
Searching through time, longing to find,
answers to guide us and dreams to unite us.
Reaching for hope and desire,
building a world to inspire.
Tomorrow's child, tomorrow's child,
shining a brand new way,
for the future world is born today.
(Born today.)
Narrator: Yes, Tomorrow's Child, our gateway into the hopes and dreams of the future. A future made possible by the information age. The technologies of this new era will extend our reach, expand the capabilities of the human mind and help us shape the promise of tomorrow.
(Ahead on the left, we see a boy lying on the floor of his typical American room using his computer. He is checking e-mails on his computer that came from a British girl and he is talking to her on his Verizon iPhone. The video downloads include a written caption saying what is depicted in the videos. She plays a video clip of her tap dance for him to see. Fiber optics zip from his room up and across the ocean to her room in London, showing the transfer of the information. She is sitting on the floor of her home in London with a similar computer to the boy's, talking on her Verizon iPhone.)
Ashley: Matthew, do you want to see my latest tap recital?
Matthew: Cool. Launch it over.
Ashley: Okay, wait...
Matthew: Ashley, it’s you! Excellent! I knew you were a star. I'll send you some footage of our team's baseball game on Saturday.
Ashley: Launch it over. Oh no! You missed the catch!
Matthew: Yeah, I can see. Wait, wait. Watch this. (hit)
Ashley: Yes! Oh, Matthew. You're a star, too.
Matthew: You're right. We won the game and went out for pizza afterwards. (loop)
(On the right, we pass clouds, a star field, and an occasional lightning strike. The vehicles, still descending backwards, pass four dioramas, each depicting how telecommunications will help people around the world stay closer together. The first one shows a girl talking with her mom via cell and video phones. The daughter is sitting in bed with her father's arms around her shoulders. The mother is in another place like a hotel.)
Mother: Goodnight, sweetheart.
Daughter: Goodnight, mommy, I miss you.
Mother: I miss you too.
Daughter: Can you sing my song one more time? Please?
Mother: Of course.
Mother & Daughter: Hush-a-bye. Don’t you cry. Go to sleep our little baby. (loop)
(Dr. Nap receives her diploma while her grandparents are watching her via videophone from their home.)
Professor: Juanita Nap, Doctor of Clinical Psychology and class valedictorian! (clapping) Congratulations, Dr. Nap.
Dr. Juanita Nap: Thank you, professor, and thank you, all my fellow classmates. This means so much to me! And especially to grandma and grandpa who couldn't be here! I did it! I did it! Thank you. (loop)
(The third diorama shows a pregnant mother in a hospital bed. A nurse is assisting the woman's doctor, who is at another location but is directing the nurse via video phone, with taking a sonogram. The mother's husband stands next to their son as the boy is talking to his mother's doctor.)
Tommy: Can we you see, doctor?
Doctor: Well, this is not exactly what any of us expected.
(The doctor shows the sonogram of the womb and they see that there is more than one baby.)
Tommy: Is my baby brother okay doctor?
Doctor: Surprise, Tommy, your baby sister is doing just fine. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins, you have beautiful, healthy baby twins on the way!
Tommy: When will they be here?
Doctor: Let me take a look. I think you'll only have to wait another three more months. (loop)
(The last diorama depicts an archeologist showing his fellow scientists what he has found at the site. This screen contains both English and Spanish translations.)
Man: From the hologram, it looks like a full mandible.
Eddy: It is. Except for this. How'd you like to get bit by a set of these babies! Their cranial structure's almost perfect!
Woman: Es increible. Felicidades, Eduardo. (It's incredible. Congratulations, Edward.)
Man: Great, Eddy. It's more than we ever hoped for. (loop)
(These four dioramas are followed by two small-sculpted scenes. The first shows a person in a cave reviewing diagrams and the second shows a woman in the jungle. Both are sending information through the network to the vast, fiber optics filled, modern city on the waterfront beyond. Fiber optic lights spread away from the city up and over the vehicles.)
Female Announcer: We now invite you to visit our global neighborhood: the Earth Station. Here you can make EPCOT Center dining reservations, get information on Walt Disney World activities, and explore the park with the WorldKey Information Center. Verizon: rule the air.
Female Announcer: Please step carefully onto the moving platform. The platform and your time machine are traveling at equal speed. If you or a member of your party requires assistance in exiting your time machine, a Cast Member is present to accommodate you or a member of your party. Thank You.
