From the Earth to the Moon and Back Again

Script and Stills

Awards this film has won

Cast and Crew

Technical Details

There are little images at various places throughout this script. These are thumbnails of stills from the video. Click on a thumbnail to see the image at full size. The full-sized images are each 352 by 288 pixels and are JPEGs of between 40K and 80K each.
The characters
Jeremy Nettlecrouch - a stereotypical geek. He has an obsession with rocks.
Jemima Nettlecrouch - Jeremy's wife, who has some of Jeremy's geekishness, but is much more intelligent and worldly-wise than her husband.
Bob - a friend of Jeremy and Jemima (to use the word rather generously). The long-suffering cameraman. Unless the script says otherwise, he doesn't appear on screen. When he speaks, he mutters, as though he's trying not to be picked up by the camera's microphone.

Opening Titles

Jeremy and Jemima are sitting on a sofa in their living room. Jeremy looks uncomfortable; he doesn't really like being in front of a camera. Jemima looks relaxed and confident.

Bob (Off-camera) Action.

Jeremy (Taken aback) Oh - right. (Pause. Deep breath.) Hello everybody. My name is Jeremy Nettlecrouch, and this (indicates Jemima) is my wife Jemima.

Jemima Hello. (She gives a little wave.)

Jeremy Now, in 1865, the science fiction writer Jules Verne published a book called From the Earth to the Moon, in which he sent his intrepid explorers on a fantastic journey from the Earth to the Moon. And exactly 178 years later, we - that's Jemima, myself and our good friend Bob the cameraman - er, say hello, Bob...

Bob (apathetic) Hello. (He waves his hand in front of the camera.)

Cut to midshot of Jeremy.

Jeremy Er - yeah - 178 years later, we made the same epic journey in reality. Only, er, we went there for our honeymoon, oh, and to see the rocks, and, er, then we came back again. But anyway, while we were there, we made a little film, and, er, this is it.

(Back to two-shot. Jeremy has a little gadget one hand - my Series 5 will be fine - which is projecting a small hologram above itself. This is a kind of preview of the shuttle. He is poking a finger around in the hologram to manipulate it. He is frantically trying to finish it before Jemima stops talking.)

Jemima Our journey started from the Mboya Spaceport in Kenya, where we boarded the shuttle to make the trip into orbit. We weren't allowed to use the camera there, but Jeremy put together this sequence on the computer to show you what it was like. (she turns to him) Is it ready?

Jeremy (relieved) Yeah - just in time.

Close-up of Jemima.

Jemima (Looking at Jeremy's gadget.) It goes faster if you wind the handle, you know. It's high time you got yourself a brain implant, instead of waving your hand over a hologram like some medieaval magician.

Back to two-shot. The hologram is now a freeze frame of the first shot of the shuttle docking sequence.

Jeremy (Turning to her. Hurt.) It does the job, doesn't it? I've had this computer for twenty years, and I'm not going to go sticking a bit of wire in my ear just because this is a bit slow.

He waves his hand through the hologram, moving it towards the camera. The hologram grows and moves out from Jeremy's computer to fill the screen. Dissolve into sequence of shuttle ascending into orbit and docking with spaceliner.

Jemima (voiceover) The shuttles carry fifty-four passengers and eight crew. For the first few minutes, you weigh about three times as much as normal. But then the engines switch off, and you're weightless for the rest of the flight.

Jeremy (voiceover) Two thousand kilometres above the Earth, we docked with the spaceliner Artemis, which was to take us to the Moon. The first thing you notice as you approach Artemis is its enormous size. It's by far the biggest man-made thing in space. It dwarfed our shuttle, as you can see in this shot, where the shuttle's almost too small to see as it comes in to dock.

Jeremy and Jemima on board Artemis, standing in front of a big window which looks out onto space. They are facing the camera. The ship is rotating, such that the view appears to move upwards. Just before Jeremy starts speaking, the Earth is near the bottom of the window.

Jeremy This is one of the observation decks near the bow of the ship. The ship rotates once a minute, which is why the starfield's moving. Now in a few seconds, we should see the Earth go past.

They turn to look out of the window. Just before this point, the Earth moves out of view. For thirty seconds, nothing happens apart from the movement of the stars.

Jeremy You sure it was this window?

Jemima Observation Deck Four, the sailor said. And this is Observation Deck Four, or I'm a wet kipper.

(pause)

Jeremy He might've been lying.

Jemima And why in the name of Gates would he do that?

Jeremy Well, if I had passengers asking me all day where they could see the Earth going by, I'd be tempted to misdirect a few of them.

Jemima I'm sure you would, but that's because you're a misanthropic git.

Jeremy (irate) Me? Misanthropic? You - you - !

Bob (weary) Oh, give over moaning - look, here it comes now.

Sure enough, the Earth comes into view. All three are silent as it moves up the screen. When it's roughly in the middle:

Jemima (softly) Wow...

Bob Yeah, very pretty, I'm sure. Now can we go? My battery's about to pack up.

Dissolve into shot of Artemis firing its engines and beginning to move.

Jemima (voiceover) After a couple more days in Earth orbit, Artemis fired its engines and began the five-day, four hundred thousand kilometre journey to the Moon.

Map (preferably a globe) of the nearside of the Moon, with some labels and graphics showing settlements and (maybe) political divisions. As Jeremy says "New Tenerife" a large hand moves onto the screen, holding a sign with those words on it. Another hand moves in from the opposite side, pointing to the precise location.

Jeremy (voiceover) When the ship arrived in lunar orbit, we boarded a shuttle down to the Moon. We stayed in New Tenerife, a resort on the edge of the Mare Imbrium, in the foothills of the Lunar Apennines.

Jeremy and Jemima in a kitchen. This is supposed to be the place where they're staying. My kitchen will probably be fine for this. Jeremy is standing nearby, throwing something up in the air and catching it, amazed by the low gravity. Jeremy is on the left of the picture, so his legs are hidden behind the cupboard. Jemima is on the right of the picture.

Jemima (spreading her arms to indicate the surroundings) Well, we've arrived at our apartment at last. As you can see, we're self-catering. It's a wee bit cramped for three people, and there's a sign in the bathroom that says water is limited to thirty litres per day, but overall, it's not bad for five thousand a week.

Jeremy misses whatever it was he was throwing. It hits the floor and bounces.

Jeremy (looking at Jemima) How much?

Jemima (ignoring him) I guess we'll have to take our showers on different days.

Jeremy (hopeful) Or we could take them together.

Jemima turns to face him, grabs something from the worktop, and makes as if to hit him. He flinches, pushing himself up against the wall.

Jeremy (hastily, putting his hands up in self-defence) Just a thought.

View of the resort from the roof of a tall building. The resort is under a dome, maybe a kilometre across. The lunar landscape is visible beyond - a broad, flat plain with occasional rocks. The camera pans across the scene. At the start of the pan, there are mountains in the distance, but these soon disappear. One mountain is noticeably taller than the others. Partway through the pan, we see a collection of domes further off. A road leads from this dome to one of the others. The camera zooms in on them. The shaking gets worse as the camera zooms. The camera stays on the domes for a few seconds, and then zooms back out to resume the pan. A few seconds later, it stops and then reverses. It goes past the domes and then zooms in on the tall mountain.

Jeremy (voice-over) This is the view from the roof of our hotel.

Jemima (as the camera zooms in on the other domes) That's Armstrong, the first city to be established on the Moon, and still by far the biggest. (Click here for a larger version of this picture.)

Jeremy (as the camera zooms in on the mountain) There's Mount Alice, one of the tallest mountains in the Lunar Apennines. The rocks around it are mostly granite, but there are some brecciated exotics as well.

Two-shot of Jeremy and Jemima sitting at a table outside a cafe, eating. (McDonalds will do nicely.) Bob is sitting opposite them, his back to the camera. The camera is on a tripod. Other tables are in the background.

Jeremy We've found this delightful little cafe not far from the market, serving authentic twentieth century American cuisine.

Jemima It's a small, but well-established, family business, and was actually one of the first cafes to open on the Moon.

As Jemima says "family business," cut to a long shot of the same scene, showing the McDonalds logo. If possible, there should be no sky visible in this shot.

Dissolve into various drawings and photos from the NASA archives.

Jemima (voice-over) The following day, we decided to go on a mystery tour. This turned out to be the landing site of one the Apollo missions. Bob couldn't come, unfortunately. We think the American cuisine disagreed with him. He didn't trust us with his camera, so we hired a still camera for the trip.

Dissolve to G71-66-9232_a.jpeg (astronaut holding US flag).

Jeremy (voice-over) This is Jemima next to the flag that the astronauts planted. For those of you who skipped modern history in school, the flag is that of the former United States of America.

Dissolve to G69-47-6961_a.jpeg (lunar lander).

Jeremy (voice-over) This is the spaceship which the astronauts landed in.

Dissolve to G69-40-5927_a.jpeg (astronaut in front of lunar lander).

Jeremy (voice-over) This is Jemima standing in front of the spaceship.

Dissolve to G69-40-5902_a.jpeg (astronaut by landing strut of lunar lander).

Jeremy (voice-over) This is Jemima looking at part of the spaceship's landing gear.

Dissolve to G69-0684_a.jpeg (astronaut facing camera).

Jeremy (voice-over) This is Jemima looking at the landing gear from another angle, but also looking at a rather interesting rock which was behind me.

As Jeremy is speaking, Bob puts his hand around the front of the camera. He is holding a piece of paper which reads: "And this is Jeremy, trying to chat up a very attractive rock!" The paper completely blocks out the picture of the astronaut.

Jemima (bursts out laughing)

Jeremy (flustered, trying to be assertive) Bob!

The paper stays where it is.

Bob also begins laughing, and pulls away the paper to reveal a two-shot of Jeremy and Jemima. Jemima is doubled up with laughter. Jeremy is looking at her, doing his Queen Victoria impression. ("We are not amused.")

Jeremy Now isn't that pathetic. My wife is in hysterics because our cameraman has decided to play a pitiful practical joke on us.

Bob (has finished laughing, but talks as though he might start again at any moment) It was her put me up to it, Nettlecrouch.

Jeremy (turns to camera) I might've known.

Jemima (has stopped laughing and is gasping for breath) Oh come on, Jeremy. Can't you take a joke?

Jeremy (Turns back to her. Sternly:) No. I'm famous for it. Why else do you think I like rocks so much? (becoming tearful) It's because rocks don't play stupid tricks on you, the way certain people do.

Jemima (Suddenly straight-faced, she turns to Jeremy and shrugs. She looks at the camera.) OK, Bob, that's enough for today. (She stands up and moves away from the sofa.)

Bob Right-oh.

Cut to credits for cast.

Bob picks up the camera and folds up the tripod. (Sounds of this.) The camera pans around a bit as Bob and Jemima are putting other equipment away, but then returns to Jeremy. Bob (apparently) slings the camera over his shoulder and begins to walk away. The camera swings around a bit. If possible, it should show the kitchen which was supposedly in their apartment on the Moon.

(suddenly forlorn and plaintive) Is the game over already? Won't you visit again soon?

The camera pauses and tilts about a bit. Jemima is now in frame.

Bob Here, Jem, can you carry this for me? (He hands something to her.) Ta.

Jemima (Turns, but doesn't look directly at Jeremy. Distracted, trying to fob him off:) Yes, of course we will, Jeremy darling.

The camera starts moving again.

Jeremy Thank you. I do love you, you know.

The camera goes out of the door and into the hallway of the flat. The hallway is dark, so the picture goes black.

Cut to credits for crew.

Cut to Jemima and Bob in the corridor outside.

Jemima That was definitely one of his better days. I think he's improving, slowly.

Bob Yeah, but face facts, Jem. The doctors say he's never going to come out of there. He's living too far into the future.

Jemima (sad) I suppose you're right, Bob. But that game we played with him today gives me an idea for a film.

They begin to walk out of the shot.

Bob (thoughtful) Hmm, I like it... tell me more...

Cut to club name and copyright date.

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	Opening Titles
	Jeremy and Jemima are sitting on a sofa in their living room. Jeremy looks uncomfortable; he doesn't really like being in front of a camera. Jemima looks relaxed and confident.
Bob	(Off-camera) Action.
Jeremy	(Taken aback) Oh - right. (Pause. Deep breath.) Hello everybody. My name is Jeremy Nettlecrouch, and this (indicates Jemima) is my wife Jemima.
Jemima	Hello. (She gives a little wave.)
Jeremy	Now, in 1865, the science fiction writer Jules Verne published a book called From the Earth to the Moon, in which he sent his intrepid explorers on a fantastic journey from the Earth to the Moon. And exactly 178 years later, we - that's Jemima, myself and our good friend Bob the cameraman - er, say hello, Bob...
Bob	(apathetic) Hello. (He waves his hand in front of the camera.)
	Cut to midshot of Jeremy.
Jeremy	Er - yeah - 178 years later, we made the same epic journey in reality. Only, er, we went there for our honeymoon, oh, and to see the rocks, and, er, then we came back again. But anyway, while we were there, we made a little film, and, er, this is it.
	(Back to two-shot. Jeremy has a little gadget one hand - my Series 5 will be fine - which is projecting a small hologram above itself. This is a kind of preview of the shuttle. He is poking a finger around in the hologram to manipulate it. He is frantically trying to finish it before Jemima stops talking.)
Jemima	Our journey started from the Mboya Spaceport in Kenya, where we boarded the shuttle to make the trip into orbit. We weren't allowed to use the camera there, but Jeremy put together this sequence on the computer to show you what it was like. (she turns to him) Is it ready?
Jeremy	(relieved) Yeah - just in time.
	Close-up of Jemima.
Jemima	(Looking at Jeremy's gadget.) It goes faster if you wind the handle, you know. It's high time you got yourself a brain implant, instead of waving your hand over a hologram like some medieaval magician.
	Back to two-shot. The hologram is now a freeze frame of the first shot of the shuttle docking sequence.
Jeremy	(Turning to her. Hurt.) It does the job, doesn't it? I've had this computer for twenty years, and I'm not going to go sticking a bit of wire in my ear just because this is a bit slow.
	He waves his hand through the hologram, moving it towards the camera. The hologram grows and moves out from Jeremy's computer to fill the screen. Dissolve into sequence of shuttle ascending into orbit and docking with spaceliner.
Jemima	(voiceover) The shuttles carry fifty-four passengers and eight crew. For the first few minutes, you weigh about three times as much as normal. But then the engines switch off, and you're weightless for the rest of the flight.
Jeremy	(voiceover) Two thousand kilometres above the Earth, we docked with the spaceliner Artemis, which was to take us to the Moon. The first thing you notice as you approach Artemis is its enormous size. It's by far the biggest man-made thing in space. It dwarfed our shuttle, as you can see in this shot, where the shuttle's almost too small to see as it comes in to dock.
	Jeremy and Jemima on board Artemis, standing in front of a big window which looks out onto space. They are facing the camera. The ship is rotating, such that the view appears to move upwards. Just before Jeremy starts speaking, the Earth is near the bottom of the window.
Jeremy	This is one of the observation decks near the bow of the ship. The ship rotates once a minute, which is why the starfield's moving. Now in a few seconds, we should see the Earth go past.
	They turn to look out of the window. Just before this point, the Earth moves out of view. For thirty seconds, nothing happens apart from the movement of the stars.
Jeremy	You sure it was this window?
Jemima	Observation Deck Four, the sailor said. And this is Observation Deck Four, or I'm a wet kipper.
	(pause)
Jeremy	He might've been lying.
Jemima	And why in the name of Gates would he do that?
Jeremy	Well, if I had passengers asking me all day where they could see the Earth going by, I'd be tempted to misdirect a few of them.
Jemima	I'm sure you would, but that's because you're a misanthropic git.
Jeremy	(irate) Me? Misanthropic? You - you - !
Bob	(weary) Oh, give over moaning - look, here it comes now.
	Sure enough, the Earth comes into view. All three are silent as it moves up the screen. When it's roughly in the middle:
Jemima	(softly) Wow...
Bob	Yeah, very pretty, I'm sure. Now can we go? My battery's about to pack up.
	Dissolve into shot of Artemis firing its engines and beginning to move.
Jemima	(voiceover) After a couple more days in Earth orbit, Artemis fired its engines and began the five-day, four hundred thousand kilometre journey to the Moon.
	Map (preferably a globe) of the nearside of the Moon, with some labels and graphics showing settlements and (maybe) political divisions. As Jeremy says "New Tenerife" a large hand moves onto the screen, holding a sign with those words on it. Another hand moves in from the opposite side, pointing to the precise location.
Jeremy	(voiceover) When the ship arrived in lunar orbit, we boarded a shuttle down to the Moon. We stayed in New Tenerife, a resort on the edge of the Mare Imbrium, in the foothills of the Lunar Apennines.
	Jeremy and Jemima in a kitchen. This is supposed to be the place where they're staying. My kitchen will probably be fine for this. Jeremy is standing nearby, throwing something up in the air and catching it, amazed by the low gravity. Jeremy is on the left of the picture, so his legs are hidden behind the cupboard. Jemima is on the right of the picture.
Jemima	(spreading her arms to indicate the surroundings) Well, we've arrived at our apartment at last. As you can see, we're self-catering. It's a wee bit cramped for three people, and there's a sign in the bathroom that says water is limited to thirty litres per day, but overall, it's not bad for five thousand a week.
	Jeremy misses whatever it was he was throwing. It hits the floor and bounces.
Jeremy	(looking at Jemima) How much?
Jemima	(ignoring him) I guess we'll have to take our showers on different days.
Jeremy	(hopeful) Or we could take them together.
	Jemima turns to face him, grabs something from the worktop, and makes as if to hit him. He flinches, pushing himself up against the wall.
Jeremy	(hastily, putting his hands up in self-defence) Just a thought.
	View of the resort from the roof of a tall building. The resort is under a dome, maybe a kilometre across. The lunar landscape is visible beyond - a broad, flat plain with occasional rocks. The camera pans across the scene. At the start of the pan, there are mountains in the distance, but these soon disappear. One mountain is noticeably taller than the others. Partway through the pan, we see a collection of domes further off. A road leads from this dome to one of the others. The camera zooms in on them. The shaking gets worse as the camera zooms. The camera stays on the domes for a few seconds, and then zooms back out to resume the pan. A few seconds later, it stops and then reverses. It goes past the domes and then zooms in on the tall mountain.
Jeremy	(voice-over) This is the view from the roof of our hotel.
Jemima	(as the camera zooms in on the other domes) That's Armstrong, the first city to be established on the Moon, and still by far the biggest. (Click here for a larger version of this picture.)
Jeremy	(as the camera zooms in on the mountain) There's Mount Alice, one of the tallest mountains in the Lunar Apennines. The rocks around it are mostly granite, but there are some brecciated exotics as well.
	Two-shot of Jeremy and Jemima sitting at a table outside a cafe, eating. (McDonalds will do nicely.) Bob is sitting opposite them, his back to the camera. The camera is on a tripod. Other tables are in the background.
Jeremy	We've found this delightful little cafe not far from the market, serving authentic twentieth century American cuisine.
Jemima	It's a small, but well-established, family business, and was actually one of the first cafes to open on the Moon.
	As Jemima says "family business," cut to a long shot of the same scene, showing the McDonalds logo. If possible, there should be no sky visible in this shot.
	Dissolve into various drawings and photos from the NASA archives.
Jemima	(voice-over) The following day, we decided to go on a mystery tour. This turned out to be the landing site of one the Apollo missions. Bob couldn't come, unfortunately. We think the American cuisine disagreed with him. He didn't trust us with his camera, so we hired a still camera for the trip.
	Dissolve to G71-66-9232_a.jpeg (astronaut holding US flag).
Jeremy	(voice-over) This is Jemima next to the flag that the astronauts planted. For those of you who skipped modern history in school, the flag is that of the former United States of America.
	Dissolve to G69-47-6961_a.jpeg (lunar lander).
Jeremy	(voice-over) This is the spaceship which the astronauts landed in.
	Dissolve to G69-40-5927_a.jpeg (astronaut in front of lunar lander).
Jeremy	(voice-over) This is Jemima standing in front of the spaceship.
	Dissolve to G69-40-5902_a.jpeg (astronaut by landing strut of lunar lander).
Jeremy	(voice-over) This is Jemima looking at part of the spaceship's landing gear.
	Dissolve to G69-0684_a.jpeg (astronaut facing camera).
Jeremy	(voice-over) This is Jemima looking at the landing gear from another angle, but also looking at a rather interesting rock which was behind me.
	As Jeremy is speaking, Bob puts his hand around the front of the camera. He is holding a piece of paper which reads: "And this is Jeremy, trying to chat up a very attractive rock!" The paper completely blocks out the picture of the astronaut.
Jemima	(bursts out laughing)
Jeremy	(flustered, trying to be assertive) Bob!
	The paper stays where it is.
	Bob also begins laughing, and pulls away the paper to reveal a two-shot of Jeremy and Jemima. Jemima is doubled up with laughter. Jeremy is looking at her, doing his Queen Victoria impression. ("We are not amused.")
Jeremy	Now isn't that pathetic. My wife is in hysterics because our cameraman has decided to play a pitiful practical joke on us.
Bob	(has finished laughing, but talks as though he might start again at any moment) It was her put me up to it, Nettlecrouch.
Jeremy	(turns to camera) I might've known.
Jemima	(has stopped laughing and is gasping for breath) Oh come on, Jeremy. Can't you take a joke?
Jeremy	(Turns back to her. Sternly:) No. I'm famous for it. Why else do you think I like rocks so much? (becoming tearful) It's because rocks don't play stupid tricks on you, the way certain people do.
Jemima	(Suddenly straight-faced, she turns to Jeremy and shrugs. She looks at the camera.) OK, Bob, that's enough for today. (She stands up and moves away from the sofa.)
Bob	Right-oh.
	Cut to credits for cast.
	Bob picks up the camera and folds up the tripod. (Sounds of this.) The camera pans around a bit as Bob and Jemima are putting other equipment away, but then returns to Jeremy. Bob (apparently) slings the camera over his shoulder and begins to walk away. The camera swings around a bit. If possible, it should show the kitchen which was supposedly in their apartment on the Moon.
	(suddenly forlorn and plaintive) Is the game over already? Won't you visit again soon?
	The camera pauses and tilts about a bit. Jemima is now in frame.
Bob	Here, Jem, can you carry this for me? (He hands something to her.) Ta.
Jemima	(Turns, but doesn't look directly at Jeremy. Distracted, trying to fob him off:) Yes, of course we will, Jeremy darling.
	The camera starts moving again.
Jeremy	Thank you. I do love you, you know.
	The camera goes out of the door and into the hallway of the flat. The hallway is dark, so the picture goes black.
	Cut to credits for crew.
	Cut to Jemima and Bob in the corridor outside.
Jemima	That was definitely one of his better days. I think he's improving, slowly.
Bob	Yeah, but face facts, Jem. The doctors say he's never going to come out of there. He's living too far into the future.
Jemima	(sad) I suppose you're right, Bob. But that game we played with him today gives me an idea for a film.
	They begin to walk out of the shot.
Bob	(thoughtful) Hmm, I like it... tell me more...
	Cut to club name and copyright date.