Advance Team: Zoo

Title Advance Team: Zoo

Synopsis The Alzyne Scout Delegation has arrived on Earth, tasked with assessing feasibility of colonizing the planet. Alzynes don’t like to share planets with other intelligent species, and from what they've learned from our transmissions that may include humans, apes, dolphins, and a confusing array of other species sometimes depicted as large-eyed speaking creatures that act just like humans and sometimes depicted as ordinary animals. There’s a lot to work out.

As the team assigned to the city zoo, Trick and Lake are to begin sorting Earth species into 4 categories:

S: easily subjugated;

T: transformable into creatures more like those of Alzyne;

I: irrelevant, or;

E: to be eliminated.

Cephalopods (octopi and squid) are excluded, given that they are earlier alien invaders who made the annoying choice to just bop about in the oceans, minding their own business.

As Trick finds affinity for life on Earth just as it is and becomes increasingly drawn into the animal and human community at the zoo, he must work to save them by sabotaging the mission.

Characters

Trick: A highly energetic and curious Alzyne who finds it difficult to lie (hence his choice of a perhaps overly-transparent name). Like all of the mission field agents, he uses the last name Wang - the most popular last name on the planet. They haven't caught on that some names are associated with certain races, and this one fits some of them better than others. Trick tries to act guarded and professional like his partner, but by nature he is an open book.

Lake: A very focused and ambitious Alzyne with little sense of humor. She is deliberately paired with Trick to keep him under a watchful eye. Although she seems impossibly rigid, by the end of season 1 Trick has won her over to his side. A key turning point for her is when their human friend Carl is discovered in the Alzyne’s basement laboratory and she must decide whether or not to support Trick in his improvised lie that they collected Carl for an experiment.

Luis Marquez: Springbrook Aquarium and Zoo (SAZ) Volunteer Coordinator, a relentlessly cheerful fellow, determined to ensure his strange new volunteers are successful. The fact their family foundation made a sizable contribution to the SAZ just prior to their arrival makes it even more imperative to foster a good relationship with them, in spite of their bizarre questions and actions.

Maya Iwuji: An animal keeper at the SAZ, Maya is intensely dedicated to providing the best care to the animals in her section, often by imagining their thoughts and motivations to a ridiculously improbable level of specificity. Some of her most overreaching theories of what animals want turn out to be surprisingly accurate.

Bob Carnahan: A SAZ Facilities Maintenance worker who presents as the stereotypical gruff and unsentimental man of the wrench, but is actually very open-minded and caring, especially when it comes to the animals of the zoo. He and Lake eventually begin flirting with one another with an ineptitude painful for any unfortunate bystanders to witness.

Carl Becker: Teen son of the SAZ Animal Care Director - an awkward lad given to sharing a near constant stream of information about the zoo's animals, completely unrelated to any topic at hand. He finds familiarity in Trick and Lake's quasi-humanness and takes to following them around, complicating their task of collecting DNA samples and the occasional small animal. He is however useful in giving careful and unperturbed consideration to questions such as “Would it be possible to utilize howler monkeys as uranium miners?” He eventually deduces what Trick and Lake are up to and discovers the Alzyne basement laboratory and their array of other-worldly genetically modified animals, but is uniquely capable of rolling with it and keeping the secret when they save him from the other Alzynes.

Amandeep (“Manny”) Singh: SAZ Head of Conservation Science. Manny is a passionate scientist, who helps Trick and Lake understand the complexities of humans’ relationship with the natural world. Trick becomes infatuated with him, causing great frustration with his random choice of a male body, given that Manny is straight.

Harkloob: An octopus in the SAZ aquarium section. Trick and Lake occasionally answer a hypersonic summons from Harkloob to come argue about planetary occupation ethics, or do him a favor and suggest that his keepers provide more of the tasty little red crabs. He eventually becomes something of a mentor and ally, providing ingenious ideas for undermining the Alzyne’s occupation plans. It is his idea that Trick and Lake convince the others that a creature they create from ape and rabbit DNA is a transformed Carl so they can release him. He later thinks of convincing Captain Wiggins that Carl is his own twin when the Alzyne captain spots the boy while conducting a surprise team observation at the SAZ.

Captain Wiggins: The Alzyne mission leader, who has clearly modeled himself on the classic square-jawed American military captain of war films. He always wears a cap and full uniform. Captain Wiggins has no first name.

Pilot Episode Synopsis

Alzyne Invasion Reconnaisance Mission, Day One

On-screen caption) SPRINGBROOK AQUARIUM AND ZOO

On a sunny spring morning at the SAZ, the perpetually smiling Luis Marquez stands before the sun bear exhibit, orienting two new volunteers standing at attention and wearing childrens’ backpacks and large hanging name tags. He thanks them for their Foundation’s extremely generous donation and their interest in volunteering. He leafs through their applications, first double-checking that both have the last name Wang (they claim to be siblings, in which case at least one must have been adopted), then clarifying a few matters. Although their enthusiasm and surprisingly broad availability is appreciated, he explains that working 24 hours is not an option and they do have to leave each evening as the zoo closes. Quantum disentanglement methodology was not the type of answer he was looking for under “Highest Level of Education”. Nor is “oxygen concentration above 19.5% and intact epidermis” what was meant by “Special Medical Needs”. No, they most certainly may not borrow any of the animals.

Slightly befuddled, Luis regroups and shifts focus to some basics of the collection and safety around animals and enclosures, but his new volunteers frequently interrupt with questions.

Montage in front of a succession of enclosures, with animals in background:

“Do the bears accept subjugation readily?”

“How high is red pandas’ intraspecies variation?” “Do they ever develop dorsal fins?”

“Which of these animals can we speak to?”

“Is penguin meat above 1 mg per gram sodium?”

“Do these ever develop dorsal fins?”

Luis talking and gesturing to macaws while Trick and Lake turn to follow a visitor’s Labrador service dog with intense interest, traveling out of frame.

In the aquarium, the volunteers seem to lose interest and blandly absorb all information with no questions at all. Until their eyes lock on an octopus. Luis continues on walking and talking, unaware that his volunteers have stopped dead in their tracks. The octopus pulses quickly and deliberately up to the glass, turning one eye balefully toward Trick then Lake.

LAKE (whispering): Oh, don’t start with us!

TRICK: We have just as much right to be here as you lot do!

They lift their chins and turn to march after Luis.

Cut to them strolling behind a still talking Luis in front of a large aquarium as a growing collection of small squid and octopi come up to the glass to track along behind them. Lake and Trick freeze in their tracks again at a squeaking sound, looking about frantically for the source. An aquarium worker is cleaning glass with a squeegee. Lake and Trick relax and continue on, the cephalopod swarm resuming their motion behind.

In front of the cafeteria, Luis sends them off to get lunch and indicates that another guide will finish their orientation in the afternoon. He hustles off with obvious relief.

CAFETERIA: Lake unpacks a bagged lunch and opens a container of gelatinous grey goo when Trick plops down beside her with a well-laden cafeteria tray. She slowly examines his haul: french fries, corn dog, powdered doughnut, fried rice, mixed green salad, watermelon slice, a large soda….

LAKE: What are you doing? We don't even know if we can safely eat any of that!

TRICK: Human body, human food! Are you smelling that? Are you seeing all these shapes and colors?!

LAKE: (Emits a hissing squeak), I smell sodium and saturated oils! And sugar! That isn’t safe for us or humans!

TRICK: Hang on, what did you just call me?

LAKE: (Repeats hissing squeak)

TRICK: OK, that just sounds like you’re calling me ‘foul gas’. Just speak a language this body is meant for. And eat food that’s meant for it!

Lake eats her goo and watches with disgust as Trick samples everything on his tray with exclamations and chuckles that begin to draw the attention of the families around them. Lake unfolds a map of the zoo and tries to hold Trick’s attention to review how she has labeled various species: she points to “S” and “T?” notations on the penguin section and says the waddly little birds seem subjugable - perhaps a food animal, but could be transformable to something like their (squeaky sound), while the puffins received an I for Irrelevant. Trick is more focused on eating, but suddenly stops. He jumps up and sprints to the restroom.

When Trick returns and sits slowly back down, he looks very unwell.

LAKE: You’ve had that body for a day and you’re already breaking it. Typical.

Trick shrugs and drinks his soda, looking sadly at the scattered remains of the food.

Carl arrives, recognizing Trick and Lake by their name tags. As Trick and Lake stand to follow him, Trick stuffs a handful of french fries into his jacket’s chest pocket.

CRANE ENCLOSURE: Carl, Trick, and Lake are standing inside a nicely landscaped zoo enclosure. Carl is explaining that the White-naped cranes are locked in their interior enclosure while the staff do some work. He shares a smattering of facts about a variety of birds but is drowned out by the roar of a chainsaw, then the sound of a person making strange high-pitched noises. They come around a rock feature to find Maya making the sounds while swinging a dead crow on a string around over her head.

Carl explains that Maya is trying to convince the local crows that it’s dangerous to come into the exhibit, so they will stop harassing the young crane colts. He and Maya begin arguing, with Carl taking the position that if she wants the other crows to think she actually killed the one she found dead, why would it be cawing? Or flying about? Maya argues that she is imitating a crow alarm call to alert the other crows to danger, and making herself look like a crow-murdering lunatic.

While Lake watches the argument, Trick climbs up to where Bob is standing by a chainsaw and cut branch, carefully filing the branch stob smooth on the small tree he’s working on. Bob isn’t talkative and seems grouchy, telling Trick to mind he doesn’t step on any plants and keep his hands off the chainsaw. But when pressed, he explains that the branch wasn’t a hazard - it’s just that Maya says that Bertie, one of the cranes, has a fascination with Gloria, a maned wolf in the next exhibit. And the best place for Bertie to watch Gloria at her favorite sunning spot is from here, but the branch was in his way. Trick looks through the newly cleared view as a maned wolf emerges to lie on a sunny rock and smiles.

(On-screen caption) ALZYNE COMMAND CENTER

Six human-appearing Alzynes are visible, seated around a table, with Captain Wiggins at the head.

WIGGINS: Advance Team Finance, report!

Cut to two Alzynes at the end of the table in their native form, rather blobby with grainy red and blue mottled skin, a row of four small black eyes, tiny mouth, and two tentacles sprouting from each side below where a neck should be. They are using these tentacles to interact with translucent computer screens, through which are visible a shifting array of graphs, maps, and blocks of alien text. One Alzyne emits a series of squeaks much like a squeegee on a wet window. Subtitles reveal that they have siphoned funds from 1,000 sources, set up accounts at 20 international banking institutions, made the payments to secure teams’ positions at the zoo, library, military history museum, and state legislature offices, and succeeded in hacking into the stock markets and dropping the averages by 6%.

WIGGINS: Advance Team Zoo, report!

Trick freezes in the act of putting french fries in his mouth. He very slowly closes his mouth and restores the fries to his chest pocket.

Lake gives a quick overview of some initial impressions of species that may be readily subjugated and a number that show promise for transformation. Trick pulls 3 greasy vials from the same chest pocket, containing fur samples for DNA work. Lake produces 8 vials and 5 feathers too large to fit in vials from her backpack while describing some traits that make these species potentially useful.

Another Alzyne interrupts to say that, well, they've already learned enough at the military museum to classify humans as "exterminate". An argument erupts until Wiggins yells for silence.

WIGGINS: We will abide by protocol, gather the data, then I WILL decide if the humans can be subjugated!

Camera stays on Trick as Wiggins calls for the library team's report. As he listens, he pulls a half-eaten corn dog from his chest pocket and chews thoughtfully.