Original Air Date: 17th December, 1995
Written by: Marilyn Osborn
Directed by: Tucker Gates
Edited by: James Coblentz

This transcript is taken from the initial airing on the Sci Fi channel. Transcription by Sue, begun - December 2002, finished - May 2003

Enclosed in {} are parts where it is hard to hear the dialogue and I've given it my best guess. (These parts have been checked using the closed captioning but that did not help. If you have suggestions let me know at swanage@rocketmail.com)

Enclosed in [] is dialogue that was deleted from the audio track but is clearly spoken. This is not necessarily what CC says should be there.

Notes: In this episode, McQueen plays a recording from the Apollo 8 mission when the astronauts:- Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell Jr., and Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders read from the book of Genesis to end a live television broadcast from lunar orbit on 24th December, 1968. Towards the end of the episode Wang reads a quote from Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene 2) by William Shakespeare. The transcript is punctuated as Wang speaks it. I've included more of the passage at the end of this transcript, together with a link for more information.

When I needed to do some checking on various details related to this transcript I used the Space:Above and Beyond Ready Room at

http://www.space-readyroom.de/

A wonderful resource!

Note from the transcriber: It's been a while since I last posted. Real life doesn't always cooperate when you need it too. Many thanks to those who've emailed me feedback, it is greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy reading this one too! Affectionately Sue, your healthy again transcriptionist. (imagine a happy dance here)


We see a black and white photograph from WWI. It shows a group of soldiers gathered around a Christmas tree. We see other photographs of the horrific conditions experienced by the soldiers in WWI and then return to a series of WWI Christmas photographs.

WANG'S VOICE: It had been five months of the most horrific warfare in Earth's history. A war in which rivers of blood flowed in trenches, for a few yards of advancement. A cold, modern war, born from ancient nationalist hatred. A war which saw the introduction of awesome technological weapons; the machine gun, the armoured tank, nerve gas. And yet, on December 24th 1914, German, British and French soldiers climbed out of their trenches, to meet in no man's land to peacefully celebrate Christmas. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged cigarettes and autographs, posed for pictures, buried their dead. The silence remained throughout Christmas day. In the following three years nearly eight million would die and less than two decades later the same armies would be engaged in the greatest loss of human life in history. The world had never seen anything like it before, and one hundred and forty nine years later, to the day, it's impossible to ever imagine seeing it again.

Alien craft attack a convoy of Earth spacecraft. Cut to the inside of an ISSAPC.

DAMPHOUSSE: (at a console) Bandits! Two o'clock, six o'clock.

HAWKES: (controlling a gun battery on the outside of the ISSAPC) I got him.

They fire on the attacking alien vessels.

DAMPHOUSSE: Six o'clock! Six o'clock!

WANG: (firing a gun battery) Yeah, come on! Get some!

Wang fires at an alien craft and destroys it. The battle continues. An Earth vessel is hit and explodes.

VANSEN: (in the cockpit) Red Devil, this is Wild Card. The enemy is superior. We're tight on your five, tight on yourfive.

The Wild Card's ISSAPC is hit.

HAWKES: Bend over, Chiggie man.

As the battle continues another Earth spacecraft is taken out.

WEST: (in the cockpit) We're hit!

Their ISSAPC starts to spin. Alarms are blaring.

WEST: Engines one, two, four and five are out. Mayday! Mayday!


Opening credits.


The Wild Cards' ISSAPC continues to spin through space.

WEST: Main port engine, it's grinding us in an introverted spin.

VANSEN: It's venting fuel. Shut it down and it might not fire off again.

HAWKES: A freeze dried burrito is talking to me.

WEST: Shut down main port engine!

The engine shuts down.

WEST: Burn primary and Vernier R.C.S. thrusters to stabilise.

WANG: Negative, it'll take all the thrusters fuel. We can't land.

WEST: We'll roll forever, lose consciousness.

WANG: Oh! Fire those thrusters!

WEST: Burn them now, to stabilise. Four, three, two, one. Now!

The thrusters fire. The spinning slows and stops.

WEST: Shut them down! Vansen, shut them down!

VANSEN: I don't have to. ... We're out of fuel. So much for the thrusters.

One of the crew throws up.

HAWKES: We're all doomed.

VANSEN: (to West) Hey, good flying. You did the right thing.

Their ISSAPC drifts through space.

WEST: Home base, this is Wild Cards, come in. Repeat. Home base, this is Wild Cards, come in.

West listens for a reply but there's just noise.

WEST: Radio's dead.

West and Vansen remove their helmets and get out of their seats. Cut to the Saratoga. Colonel McQueen is watching as the convoy returns. He counts them in. Cut to a corridor on the Saratoga. McQueen is walking with two pilots.

PILOT ONE: Yes, sir, I definitely saw it. Ship in front of the fifty-eighth took a hit. Then they got it. Left engine.

PILOT TWO: No, man, right engine.

They all stop.

PILOT ONE: Right, left, they're toast.

PILOT TWO: No, man, we got a mayday after they got hit.

McQUEEN: Where's the communications officer?

PILOT ONE and TWO: Over there.

The two pilots point in different directions.

PILOT ONE: Left.

McQueen leaves them.

PILOT TWO: Right.

Cut to another corridor on the Saratoga. McQueen and a female officer are walking.

McQUEEN: You got a mayday from the fifty-eighth.

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER: Yes, sir. I confirmed they received our signal but they never responded.

McQUEEN: Transmitter could have been damaged.

They come to a halt by the cockpit bay.

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER: Or there could be no one left to respond.

McQUEEN: I want your radio receiver's log. Get me the fifty-eighth's last known position. ... (shouting) Do it!

The communications officer leaves. McQueen grabs a crewman who is passing by.

McQUEEN: Inform Commodore Ross I want ten S.A.R. teams formed immediately to be deployed in thirty mikes.

CREWMAN: Aye, aye, sir.

Cut back to the Wild Cards.

WINSLOW: Four out of ten momentum wheels are down.

Vansen walks through the main cabin as reports are called out.

WEST: Main propulsion system is inoperable.

WANG: Partial pressure, O2 sensors at twenty-four kilopascals.

DAMPHOUSSE: Main on-board computer ... is singing with Elvis.

Vansen comes to a halt by Damphousse.

HAWKES: We're dead.

VANSEN:Without a computer we're on our own. Guess it won't be the first time. Damphousse, radio?

DAMPHOUSSE: Left high gain antenna damage is nominal. I think I ...

VANSEN: Get on with it.

DAMPHOUSSE: Right!

VANSEN: Fuel cell damage?

WANG: Extensive. Solar arrays are inoperable. Fuel cells, secondary batteries were low when the dog fight started.

WINSLOW: We're going to have to shut down some electrical systems in order to save power for cabin air, thermal control, the radio, if it's working.

WANG: Without propulsion we won't be needing telemetry, ... navigation. If we're getting home it looks like someone is going to have to find us.

VANSEN: Make it, happen.

Vansen walks back down the cabin followed by Hawkes. He grabs stuff from a bunk and she stops. The others are watching her.

VANSEN: Twelve minutes after midnight ... Christmas.

McQUEEN'S VOICE: Wild Cards this is Queen Six. Wild Cards this is Queen Six.

DAMPHOUSSE: Queen Six this is Wild Cards. Queen Six this is Wild Cards.

McQUEEN'S VOICE: Wild Cards this is Queen Six, respond.

DAMPHOUSSE: Queen Six this is Wild Cards. Queen Six this is Wild Cards.

Cut to the Saratoga radio room.

RADIO OPERATOR: No response, sir, and the T.D.R.S. system confirms our signal has been received.

McQUEEN: Have it pin-point the location of the signal reception.

RADIO OPERATOR: The linking tracking satellite was taken out in the fire-fight.

McQUEEN: So what you're saying is they can hear us but we can't hear them?

RADIO OPERATOR: Sir, just because a signal is being received ... doesn't mean there's anyone around to receive it.

McQUEEN: They're out there ... I can feel them.

Cut to the Wild Cards.

McQUEEN'S VOICE: We believe your radio to be in receive mode. We are ... presently conducting search and rescue operations in the Procyon System. I know you're out there. ... Hold on. ... Don't lose faith.

Wang uses a sextant to take a reading though a window.

WANG: We're not in the Procyon System. We're far from it, we got knocked out in the fire-fight.

HAWKES: We're dumping in the river.

WINSLOW: That must be Hawkes way of trying to say we're up a creek without a paddle.

WANG: Well he's ... almost right. If we were on Earth, our ship would seem to be going through the Eridanous Constellation, a river of stars. When I was a kid ... in the winter it would get dark real early. ... And on my way home from basketball practice I'd see Eridanous in the sky. ... It gave me comfort to see it return every year. To know some things never went away.

HAWKES: We're going to go away if we don't do something.

WEST: If Wang knows our position ... we can send out a bistatic lydar flare. If they find it they'll know our actual position.

DAMPHOUSSE: B.L.F. canisters are fired out of pulse cannons. We haven't the power.

VANSEN: Look, we could drop it out of the air lock. It's better than nothing.

WANG: It isn't better than nothing. Our position is beyond the Von Braun line. ... We're in no-man's-land ... falling ... towards enemy territory. A flare'll just ... announce our presence to the Chigs.

Cut to the Saratoga cockpit hangar.

ROSS: Colonel, you've requested ten S.A.Rs to search for the five-eight in the Procyon region.

McQUEEN: Yes, sir.

ROSS: That area was just subjected to an intensive aerial engagement. One from which our heavily armed ships were forced to retreat. I can not despatch ten lightly armed ...

McQUEEN: Then send five, sir.

ROSS: The battleship Charles Lacey Veach is under attack. We have been ordered to provide all possible ...

McQUEEN: Then send one, sir. I'll fly it.

ROSS: Colonel, searching for them with a hundred ships in that vast region of space is the equivalent of trying to find a specific drop of water in the Mississippi river.

McQUEEN: As long as I know that drop is there, sir, I'm going to try and find it.

Ross turns to leave.

ROSS: You can have three ships. No fighter support. And the first sign of any Chigs they are to get the hell out of there.

McQUEEN: Aye, aye. ... Thank you, sir.

Cut to the Wild Cards.

VANSEN: The cabin temperature is dropping.

WINSLOW: The secondary power is running low, that's why.

DAMPHOUSSE: If I were at home, in New York tonight ... we'd all be around the fire place right now.

WEST: At this rate, in a couple of hours, it'll be below freezing.

Music starts coming from the radio. It's the theme from the 1960s tv show Batman and Robin. They gather around the radio

DAMPHOUSSE: McQueen.

HAWKES: What the ...?

WEST: It's that old TV show ... where ... one guy's like a bat and the other one's like a ... bird. I liked that show.

WINSLOW: Wow, I guess we caught a lucky break, a good tv show before drifting off into eternity.

VANSEN: If we ever get home we should chip in and get McQueen a good therapist.

WANG: It's not McQueen. Television signals have been inadvertently beamed into space since ... the 1940s. We're probably just intercepting it.

There's a series of noises from outside.

DAMPHOUSSE: Chig fighters!

WEST: This is it.

The aliens fly by.

WINSLOW: What the hell was that?

HAWKES: Those were fighters not scouts.

VANSEN: May be they wanted to be home for Christmas.

DAMPHOUSSE: Must have ... taken us for dead.

HAWKES: No ... they're like a cat that's got a mouse by the tail.

WANG: Coop's right. I don't know why they took off but ... they'll be back ... Chigs always finish the job.


Vansen walks through the cabin, pulls down a bag and starts handing out packages.

VANSEN: (very fast) Look, ... I know this is weird, but under these circumstances I don't want to not do it and I don't want you guys to feel weird about it all right? I have been hiding them in here so I just happen to have them.

DAMPHOUSSE: Shane, ... I don't know what to say, you shouldn't have done this.

VANSEN: (very fast) I just happen to have them. It's no big deal. Just pretend that there's a big Christmas tree with lights and dinner cooking in the kitchen and a big bag for the wrapping paper and we are far from this dark, cold box and it's safe and warm with the Whos in Whoville singing Da Who Dor Eh. Da Who Dor Eh. Just open them.

Damphousse and Winslow open theirs. They get knives.

VANSEN: I, I, I, wish it could have been a necklace or something but ... we are light years away from home and it's all they had in the Saratoga P.X.

DAMPHOUSSE: Shane, it's beautiful, thank you.

VANSEN: They're engraved.

Damphousse removes her's from its sheath.

DAMPHOUSSE: To Phousse. Hoo-yaa. Christmas 2063.

WINSLOW: It'll be an honour to stab a Chig with this.

West opens his present. It's socks. He pulls them over his hands.

VANSEN: Mmm ... Nathan, you're hard to buy for. You don't have too many interests outside of ... Kylen.

West stands and walks away. He makes his way to the cockpit and listens from there.

VANSEN: I guess I shouldn't have put it that way.

DAMPHOUSSE: Well, ... let's face it, Nathan is a little different from the rest of us. You, Wang, Winslow, we all joined the Corps because we wanted to be lifetakers and heartbreakers. Coop, he was sentenced to the Corps but ... he's got it in him.

HAWKES: West doesn't have it in him?

VANSEN: Oh yes he does. And he's got a lot more than that. Nathan is not just some guy pining away for his girl friend. She's become his faith, someone he would die for because be believes it's right. ... Are you going to open yours, Coop?

HAWKES: What's it for?

VANSEN: It's a Christmas present.

HAWKES: Guess I never told you guys this ... but I kinda ... took off from the ... invitro educational facility before ... they taught us stuff like this. So all I know about Christmas is that there was one day of the year in Philadelphia when everything was closed and it was a headache and it was lonelier than usual.

DAMPHOUSSE: Coop, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

WANG: Actually it's the continuation of the Roman festival Saturnalia. Jesus of Nazareth was born September 15th, 7 B.C.

HAWKES: Nazareth and Christ, now who are those guys?

WINSLOW: It's one guy.

DAMPHOUSSE: And he was born in Bethlehem. A star directed three wise men from the east who, believed, the son of God had been born.

WANG: And this star was actually a rare alignment between Jupiter and Saturn or possibly a super nova or may be even a comet.

DAMPHOUSSE: He was conceived as a miracle of immaculate conception.

WINSLOW: His mum and dad didn't ... do it.

WANG: A myth of immaculate conception.

HAWKES: Like an Invitro?

There's silence in the room.

VANSEN: You going to open your present, Paul?

WANG: Shane, it's ... really nice of you to do this but I ... I can't take this ... it's just ... I really don't believe in it any more.

WINSLOW: That never stopped my family from opening gifts.

WANG: Well it stops me.

DAMPHOUSSE: Paul, ... you cross yourself before every mission.

WANG: It's superstition, it's habit, it's it's like my Chicago Bears T-shirt.

VANSEN: Did something happen to make you feel this way?

WANG: With all the death we've seen in the last six months. The things I've ... done. How can you believe in all this garbage?

A pipe breaks and gas starts leaking. They run towards the problem.

VANSEN: Shut it off.

A crewman slaps his hand over the hole. Gas is still escaping.

KELCHER: Oh, it's frozen.

HAWKES' (?) VOICE: The bolts are brittle, they're breaking.

DAMPHOUSSE: West, decrease O2 into control valve to 400kps.

West does as requested. The crewman continues to stand there with his hand frozen in place.

VANSEN: Lockhart get those pipes secured, now!

KELCHER: Maybe some warm water.

VANSEN: Look, even if we had hot water it would only cause these pipes to crack more. It's coming off the hard way Kelcher. Coop.

HAWKES:Come on.

Hawkes pulls Kelcher's hand off the pipe.

KELCHER: Ow!

HAWKES: It's alright, Tom.

Hawkes leads Kelcher away to get bandaged up.

VANSEN: We probably lost about two hours of O2 supply just now.

WANG: More.

VANSEN: Everyone is to limit their movement. I know it's probably impossible but some sleep would help.

HAWKES: Yeah, that way we don't have to see the Chigs coming.

WANG: I'll pull watch on the radio.

Hawkes reaches down and picks up his present and opens it. Pieces fall out. It's the cd Never Mind The Bollocks and its case has broken.

HAWKES: (to Vansen) Oh it's okay ... it's just ... just that you got me something makes me feel good.

VANSEN: Oh Coop. You may have run away from that invitro facility but you do know what it's all about.

Vansen squeezes Hawkes' arm.

Cut to the Saratoga command centre.

MAN'S VOICE: Queen Six, this is S.A.R-One, we've got a negative on any sighting of the fifty eighth, visual or lidar. Permission to sweep area 300k M.S.Ks from sight of dog fight.

McQUEEN: Roger that, S.A.R-One.

CREWMAN: Colonel? Here's the optical disc you requested.

The crewman hands the disc to McQueen, who puts the disc into the console in front of him.

McQUEEN: Queen Six to Wild Cards, this is your interstellar disc jockey, Colonel McQueen. ...

Cut to the Wild Cards.

McQUEEN'S VOICE: Here's a little something I'd like you to hear. It occured 95 years ago last evening. ...

Cut back to McQueen on the Saratoga.

McQUEEN: It's a message to Earth from the first men to orbit the moon. ... It's not my Christmas present, that'll be to get you home. (McQueen presses a button that starts the recording.)

As the recording plays we see the Wild Cards listening as they wait to be rescued.

WILLIAM A. ANDERS' VOICE: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

JAMES A. LOVELL JR.'S VOICE: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

FRANK BORMAN'S VOICE: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close, with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.

We see McQueen, seated. Commodore Ross approaches and puts his had on McQueen's shoulder. Cut to Wang, watching the radio screen. The display spikes and there are noises in his headset. He tries to focus in on the signal and starts making notes. Cut to McQueen reacting to the same signal. Cut to Wang, who moves to a window and gets out a sextant and tries to get a bearing on the stars. He also uses a telescope. Someone approaches from behind.

HAWKES: Chigs?

WANG: A comet ... and it's approaching at an angle and a direction that's on a direct path with this ship.

HAWKES: How did you know it was there?

WANG: I don't know.

Cut to a view of the comet.


The Saratoga command centre.

McQUEEN: Those numbers mean anything to the star charts?

CREWMAN: Sorry, colonel, a little off duty Christmas Eve partying in Astronomers' quarters. Some corporal tried to make scotch out of his aftershave. These charts are looking like a bunch of white dots.

McQUEEN: There are men and women out there who will never have a chance to have a hangover again if you don't get those white dots focused.

McQueen moves away and towards communications.

McQUEEN: You locate the source of the transmissions?

RADIO OPERATOR: They're not from any frequency used by the armed forces, even classified frequencies. And the Morse code, it's weird, it's like broken English like someone who doesn't quite know it.

McQUEEN: All our pilots and crew know it inside and out. Could be a ... distress signal. Any reports of civilian activity in the Procyon region?

CREWMAN: You'd be looking in the wrong area. These coordinates indicate the position of the comet Yanelli-Wimberly, that's closer to Epsilon-Eridanous.

Cut to West and Vansen.

WEST: Short burn from the main engine could take us out of its path.

VANSEN: Well, we run the risk of tumbling again with no thrusters to stabilise.

Move to Damphousse, Wang and Hawkes.

DAMPHOUSSE: This code is weird.

WANG: I'm telling you guys it was really weird. It's like ... I could feel ... even through the radio that the sender wasn't human.

West and Vansen join Damphousse, Wang and Hawkes.

DAMPHOUSSE: Are you sure you recorded it correctly? Look everybody's exhausted ... we're freezing ...

WANG: Okay, what d'you mean, did I get it right? There's a comet barreling down on us, we wouldn't know about it if I didn't get it right.

HAWKES: Wang, ... why don't you ... let me take a shift on the radio.

WANG: I'm fine.

VANSEN: Yeah, take a break, Paul.

WANG: I'm fine!

VANSEN: Take a break, Paul.

Wang gets up and leaves. Hawkes takes his place.

McQUEEN'S VOICE: Wild Cards, this is Queen Six. As your position remains undetermined to us at present time, ... we're reporting the presence of a comet bearing 89 degrees by 15 degrees, zero-niner in the Eridanous region.

WANG: See, they intercepted the same signal.

WINSLOW: It, it could be an enemy trap?

VANSEN: A trap? They would have blown us out of the sky when they flew by us.

HAWKES: May be they just wanted to save their missiles and let this comet do the work.

McQUEEN'S VOICE: Five-Eight, ... we're still out there searching ... don't let down. I've, uh ... got a message here from the commodore.

ROSS' VOICE: I won't insult you by wishing you a merry Christmas, five-eight. I'll say it to your faces when you return. ...

Cut to Ross in the command centre.

ROSS: Now, this may not be proper conduct for a commander but given the circumstances, I, er ... and no, I'm not drunk.

Ross begins to play his guitar and hums the song. Cut to reaction shots of the Wild Cards.

DAMPHOUSSE: That's, I'll Be Home For Christmas.

Cut to Ross. Cut back to Wild Cards. Wang hears noises again in his headset. He rushes over to the radio and Hawkes gets out of his way.

WANG: Move it, Coop. Move it. Move it.

WINSLOW: You've even got a problem with a Christmas song?

WANG: Shut up. Shut up.

Cut back to the Saratoga. McQueen is reacting to the same noises. Cut back and forth between the Wild Cards and the Saratoga.

WANG: Had it. It's in there.

WEST: What was it?

DAMPHOUSSE: Some ... scientific language. Rudimentary, it's as if ... Einstein were trying to explain relativity to a child.

WANG: Give me a minute.

Wang stands and heads back through cabin, scribbling in a book. He looks out of a window then turns to face the rest of the Wild Cards.

WANG: I know what it is. ... Telemetry data. Orbital mass, ISSCV mass, speed, pitch, yaw, azimuth. These are directions on how to get trapped into an orbit of the approaching comet. It's trying to tell us how to hitch a ride.

HAWKES: What good would that do?

WANG: Well, it's heading away from enemy territory. In fact, back towards the Saratoga.

VANSEN: We could drop a B.L.F. canister once we got into friendly territory.

WEST: Can it be done?

WANG: Asteroids and comets have been known to have ... orbiting satellites but if we follow these signals we'll be going on complete ... faith.

VANSEN: What needs to be done?

WANG: It would require an approx. fifty-six second burn from the main left engine. (Wang walks through the group.) Less than fifty-six seconds, we'll miss the comet's gravitational range, fly deeper into Chig territory. More than fifty-six seconds, 'll take us right into the comet.

HAWKES: Hey, we're going to get nailed by it anyway.

WANG: The one thing is ... well, the primary one thing is ... the engine can't be fired in its current position.

WEST: So much for that.

WANG: Well, we could try to manually adjust its position.

VANSEN: That would require an E.V.A.

WEST: We've only got one suit with ... fifteen minutes O2 supply.

VANSEN: I'll do it.

WEST: I've E.V.A.d before.

WANG: It's my idea.

DAMPHOUSSE: We don't know who's idea it was.

VANSEN: Wang goes.

WINSLOW: Why Wang?

VANSEN: I have faith in him.

Wang puts on the E.V.A. suit with help from Winslow.

WEST: I want you to have this, Paul.

West offers Wang the photo-id of Kylen.

WANG: Nathan, I, ... I can't.

WEST: Y'all said it yourselves. It means more than a photo-tag now. You could use it.

West puts the photo-id around Wang's neck.

WANG: Let's do it.

Wang puts on his helmet, then heads into the air lock. After closing the door, he decompresses the air lock and opens the outer hatch. The Wild Cards move to a different position in the cabin so they can see what is happening outside. Wang connects himself to the hull with a leash and exits the ship. He floats through space to the engine.

WEST: Twelve minutes.

Wang reaches the engine, opens a hatch and presses a series of buttons. Nothing happens.

WANG: Ahhh! (Thumps ship.) The mechanism's jammed.

WEST: Eight minutes.

Wang moves around the engine and physically manipulates it until it is in position. When this is successfully accomplished there is cheering and clapping inside the ISSAPC.

WANG: Hoo-raa!

Wang looks out into space and gets a great view of the comet approaching.


The Saratoga command centre.

McQUEEN: I'd like to dispatch a navy L.C., with a squadron of S.A-forty-threes to the comet's region.

ROSS: You and I both know where that signal originated.

McQUEEN: Yes, an enemy transmission, sir.

ROSS: Probably disinformation. They're aware we're conducting a search and rescue.

McQUEEN: That's why a fighter escort for the rescue vehicle, sir.

Ross and McQueen exchange a look.

McQUEEN: Why doesn't one of us come out and say what we're afraid these signals could be.

ROSS: Setting up an ambush.

McQUEEN: Presenting us with a gift.

ROSS: I wouldn't bet on that.

McQUEEN: But I do believe it is one thing to go on, toward finding the fifty-eighth.

ROSS: Dispatch the L.C. and the thirty-second squadron to the comet Yanelli-Wimberly.

Cut to the Wild Cards.

DAMPHOUSSE: Comet 72,000km and closing, bearing seven-five-niner.

HAWKES: Roger that. Main port engine pressure is at ... 80%. We are go for burn.

WANG: Reset the flight clock. It's crucial we have a burn time of fifty-six seconds.

VANSEN: Roger that.

WANG: Less than that, we miss it. More than that, we're all going to have one hell of a headache.

VANSEN: We're reissuing partial power here. Telemetry and guidance are history.

WEST: This whole thing is off-line, we're going to have to fly manual.

WANG: Don't worry, I'll guide you. Or anyway the stars will.

Vansen and West don their helmets.

DAMPHOUSSE: Ninety seconds to burn.

HAWKES: Thirty-five mikes, depletion of N2-O2 supply.

WEST: Let's worry about that at two mikes.

DAMPHOUSSE: Eighty seconds.

Wang uses the sextant to check their position. As he does he notices his Christmas present from Vansen and opens it. It's a small book.

DAMPHOUSSE: Seventy seconds. ... Sixty seconds.

WANG: (reading) and when I shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars. And he will make the face of heaven so fine, that all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish sun. Thank you, Shane.

DAMPHOUSSE: Forty seconds.

WEST: Okay, let's get lit.

DAMPHOUSSE: Thirty seconds to ignition.

WANG: Yaw axis, ten degrees, pitch axis, twenty-twenty-four.

DAMPHOUSSE: Twenty seconds. ... Ten seconds to burn. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, ignition.

WANG: Steady, sixteen degrees. Ten degrees!

VANSEN: ... fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen ...

HAWKES: Come on.

WANG: Adjust two degrees by one degree.

West makes the adjustment.

VANSEN: ... forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight ...main engine off ... It won't shut down! We're over.

Cut to the Saratoga.

THOMAS' VOICE: Queen-Six, this is Lightning Bolts, approaching Yanelli-Wimberly, no sign of enemy activity.

McQUEEN: Any sign of the fifty-eighth?

Cut to the rescue fleet.

THOMAS: Nothing on the lidar. ... Holy! ... I got a visual ... I got an incredible visual ... found them!

Cut to the Saratoga. Ross squeezes McQueen's shoulder.

WANG: Look, ... 'phousse, ... out there. An L.C. convoy. They got us.

WEST: I thought we were dead when we burned too long.

VANSEN: Me too. Until, of course, I saw the actual elapsed burn time, and then I knew we'd be all right.

The flight clock reads fifty-eight seconds. Cut to a decorated Christmas tree in the rec. room. Hawkes approaches Vansen, they're in uniform.

HAWKES: Um, I've never done this before. All right. So I hope I got it right.

Hawkes gives Vansen a present.

VANSEN: Free tickets to the Saratoga bowling alley.

HAWKES: There's a shoe rental too. ... Did I do it right?

Vansen kisses Hawkes on the cheek, hugs him and moves away. West comes over to Hawkes.

HAWKES: Why she?

WEST: Um, Hawkes? Remember, last week, we all went to the lanes, everyone except Shane?

HAWKES: Yeah?

WEST: She thinks bowling's for dweebs.

HAWKES: Damn. See, I gotta remember that stuff. ... She all ticked at me?

WEST: No, man. ... You did good.

HAWKES: Think so?

WEST: Yeah.

West and Vansen share a look.

WANG: (mistletoe in his hair, his speech slurring slightly) Hey, ... you oughta try some hooch ... it's pretty good. For some reason it reminds me of shaving. Oh I ... almost forgot.

Wang removes Kylen's photo-id from around his neck and offers it back to West.

WEST: Merry Christmas, Paul.

WANG: I don't deserve this.

WEST: When you talk about being a kid ... and knowing that the river of stars would always be there in the sky I knew you'd never lost your faith. ... That's what it is. ... Knowing something's always going to be there for you.

Wang crosses the room to where McQueen is standing and gives him Kylen's photo-id.

WANG: From all of us, sir. ... Merry Christmas.

Ross joins McQueen by the porthole. McQueen pulls a piece of red paper from his pocket. It has a hist of numbers on it.

McQUEEN: Looks like I got two gifts.

Titles at the end read:-

From the cast and crew

of

"Space: Above and Beyond"

PEACE


Juliet:

Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd: . . . .


Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene 2) by William Shakespeare.

Found, by using google at Romeo and Juliet in New York, from reviews by John Haber of art and culture

where you can read more about this passage.



Comments? Did you find this transcript useful? Please email me at swanage@rocketmail.com Any and all feedback is appreciated. Sue.

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