G-Force Goes to the Dogs

tatsunokofan Gatch Guru posted 21 Oct 2009 10:52 (edited 24 Jun 2010 00:05)

Hi all! In a move that will likely shock those of you who know of my general ambivalence toward fanfic, I'll be the first one to submit a piece that makes a BotP version of an unused Gatchaman episode! There's a bit of background that goes with this that you should be aware of. To start with, this was originally written in late 1981 or early 1982. In the summer of 1981, I obtained copies of Tatsunoko's translations for the scripts of the first 30 episodes of Gatchaman. These translations were of varying quality, but were good enough to tell you basically what was going on. To us, they were gold. At that time, the closest any of us had come to seeing the Japanese version of Gatchaman was the Gatchaman movie and 10 episodes from Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter, so reading the stories that revealed us how the Gatchaman stories were altered to make BotP was a great thrill. Discovering the stories from the five episodes in that batch of scripts that weren't part of BotP was just as thrilling. I had given copies of the scripts to several fellow fans, and when I was talking with a pair of them, Janice Hornyak and Joann Sabljak, we all agreed that episode #20 would have made a perfect BotP episode, and wondered why they hadn't used it. On a lark, I took it upon myself to use the translation to write a script for it. Being a fan, I threw in a few references that other fans would enjoy, and sent the thing off to Joann and Janice. They made a few humorous comments about it in the margins and sent it back to me. I later ran it in an early issue of Bird Scramble, and it's pretty much sat, nearly forgotten, ever since. But, seeing the challenge here brought it to mind. So, I dug it up and retyped it (As it only existed in hard copy) to present here, seeing the light of day for the first time in a couple of decades. I am including the comments made by Janice and Joann in here as well, since they were often quite amusing. You'll find them as the italicized text scattered throughout the script. There are a few things that need to be noted before you read this. There are a few elements in the descriptions that might not match exactly with what actually appeared in the episode. My excuse for that is that I was writing from a poor translation of the events and I had never seen the episode itself (That wouldn't happen for more than a year after this was written). I was tempted to correct these parts, but have decided against it (Though I have corrected typos and misspellings). I felt that it was better to present it more as a document from its time than to modernize it. Along those same lines, there are a couple if things you need to be aware of that relate in part to the history of this fandom. At that time period, most of us (Something like 99.99%) knew virtually no Japanese, beyond possibly recognizing the katakana that spelled out "Gatchaman" and that "Sayonara" meant "Goodbye." So we had to rely on what little English appeared in Japanese publications as our guide. When it came to things like character names, we took from wherever we could find anything to help us. That led to Dr. Raphael being called "Dr. Ruffel," because that was how his name was spelled out in the book, "Gatchaman Materials Collection." Yes, we thought it was a silly name, but how were we to know? We figured that, being Japanese, they knew what they were talking about better than we did. We neglected to consider that, while they might understand Japanese fluently, their grasp of English might not be so good. Count Egobossler was another victim of this lack of familiarity with the Japanese language. Since we had found no guide for spelling his name, it took a while for the "Egobossler" spelling to be generally agreed upon. At the time this was written, it was more common to go with the phonetics for his name, "Egobosura." I've noticed that Tatsunoko uses that spelling in their description for Gatchaman Fighter on the English side of their website, so maybe we shouldn't have changed... The translations had numerous exclamations that were things that people would never actually say, at least not in the way they were written. One of my favorites was, "That hurts me like a hell." One that you'll see here is, "Shuck! The big blowhard!" The line was just so silly that I had to leave it as it was. Another was the tendency in so many Japanese productions to have somebody telling someone who is dying, or perhaps is already dead, to "Pull yourself together." Again, so silly that I had to leave it. Anyway, enough introduction, here is what is likely to be the only fanfic you'll ever see from me. Enjoy! James ************************* [Note: The "Title Page" and "Cast List" page were on two separate pages from the rest of the script, as they would generally be in a real script. They are included here for the sake of completeness.] Battle of the Planets G-Force Goes to the Dogs (Formerly "The Puppy That Saved G-Force") Copyright 1978 by Sandy Frank Film Syndication *****End Title Page****** G-Force Goes to the Dogs (Formerly "A Puppy Joins G-Force") Cast List: Mark Jason Princess Keyop Tiny 7-Zark-7 Security Chief Anderson Susan 1-Rover-1 Zoltar Spectran Commander Baka Soldier Scientist A Scientist B *****End Cast List Page***** G-Force Goes to the Dogs (Formerly "Jason and the Puppy") (& "The Puppy That Saved G-Force") Copyright 1978 by Sandy Frank Film Syndication 1. Exterior of Center Neptune Fish swim by Zark: Deep beneath the sea is this fantastic security complex, Center Neptune. 2. Interior of Zark's Command Center The scene moves across the empty room, showing the flashing lights. Outside the window, fish swim by and bubbles rise. Zark comes down his elevator. Zark: And this is where I get to see every planet in the heavens without even moving an inch. Zark walks over to his monitor screens. Zark: I know what you're thinking, "Boy, I sure wish I could visit Center Neptune. How lucky that 7-Zark-7 is!" Well, to tell you the truth, I just think of it as "home." 1-Rover-1 barks behind Zark. Zark: And 1-Rover-1 is such a well-trained per that I almost forget that he's not real sometimes. But, of course, I never forget anything. I'm a robot. Say, 1-Rover-1, let's see some of your tricks! Roll over. 1-Rover-1 rolls over. Zark: Fly. 1-Rover-1 flies. Zark: Wasn't that wonderful?! I feel like he's just one member of my family. Susan's monitor comes down. Susan: (Breathy) 7-Zark-7. Zark's antenna boing. Zark: Susan! How perfectly delightful to hear from you! I was just talking about my family. I wish you were close enough to be a member. Susan: (Breathy) Maybe I can. I'm going on vacation tomorrow and I would like to visit you...and your controls. Zark's antenna boing. Zark: Oh, Susan! That will be wonderful! I can hardly... Susan: (Breathy, interrupting) I hate to break up this pleasant chat, but I saw a spaceship heading toward our galaxy from the Crab Nebula not long ago. Zark: The Crab(by) Nebula? Only one planet in that dark cloud of swirling gases would send a spaceship toward up, the planet Spectra! I'd better get the spaceship on monitor right away! On Zark's monitor screen, a flash of light is seen moving through space. Zark: And there it is! And it's heading into our space! A planet come onto the screen, the light circles around it and disappears. Zark: And it's landed on the planet Ruffel! I'd better warn G-Force, that highly trained team of young people, about this right away! 3. A city on the planet Ruffel, at night A highway is seen, with the headlights of many moving cars. Underground, a subway moves speedily along. Suddenly, the ground in front of the subway rips open as a shovel-like hand comes out. The driver of the subway slams on the breaks of the train. The mole tank digs up to the surface, and breaks out in a road. The people in the area run away. The mole tank starts to crush buildings with its massive, shovel-like hands. 4. Control room on the mole tank On the screens in the tank, the city is shown. Zoltar and the mole tank commander, Baka, talk. Baka: Zoltar, everything is going as planned. But, I wonder if that meddlesome G-Force will show up? Zoltar: Ha, ha, ha... Yes, they'll come. But you mustn't worry about them. Baka: Yes, sir. 5. The city, at night The tank continues to destroy buildings. One falls onto a tower, which collapses. Zoltar: (Over) This tank is invincible. Even G-Force's mysterious powers can't destroy it! Ha, ha, ha...! A jet attacks the tank, but is caught and thrown away. The tank then shoots some laser beams at cars on a highway, which start to explode, one after another. The highway finally breaks, and several cars fall to the ground. Zark: (Over) Fortunately, I was able to warn everyone in time to get to shelter, but all the material damage will be enormous! 6. Exterior of the propeller plane The propeller plane flies in the night sky. 7. Interior of the propeller plane Mark is steering the plane. Zark: Commander, a mole tank has appeared on Ruffel. Mark talks into his Cosmic Communicator. Mark: That must be Spectra again! Have everyone meet in the city! What are they doing on the planet Ruffel? The plane changes into the G-1. Mark: Trans-mute! 8. The exterior of the G-1 The G-1 flies in a night sky. 9. Interior of the G-1 Mark, in uniform, flies the G-1. 10. The city, at night The G-1, the G-3, and the G-4 dock aboard the Phoenix, and fly over the city. Below them, the G-2 drives up.

tatsunokofan Gatch Guru posted 21 Oct 2009 10:56 (edited 22 Oct 2009 12:24)

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