Institute of Antiquities
Genre:
This show was originally designed as one hour, science fiction/adventure for television. Because I favor hard science fiction, it’s at the upper limits of what might be on television, but not as cerebral as my short stories.
Premise:
“What if a group of scientists were allowed to open all the crates and files in a secret government archeological warehouse hiding the existence of ancient advanced civilizations?”
The Institute of Antiquities exists because the National Security Commission, a secret branch of the Military, had to bargain with a group of civilian scientists who outwitted them.
The scientists will investigate the secret warehouse’s contents and haggle with the NSC for a portion to be shown at the Institute Museum. Their goal: to narrow the gap between the “truth” of ancient history and what is accepted by professionals today.
The NSC utimately has a different goal: finding ancient technologies with weapon potential – something the group would like to avoid as long as possible.
Thank you, Steven Spielberg! I saw the first Indiana Jones movie the first day it opened in Westwood (next to UCLA) and walked out of the theater totally focused on the final scene where the Ark of the Covenant was buried in the warehouse. I wanted to know what was in the other crates, assuming that their contents would be as interesting as the Ark. A few months later I read Atlantis by Charles Berlitz, and ‘knew’ what was in the other crates. I owe the over-arching concept behind the series to A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. The first version of ‘Message to Atlantis’ was filed with the WGA December, 12, 1989, with the idea it would be the two hour opener for a science fiction television series that would see what was in those other crates.
Colonel Steven Byrd, M.D.: 50 year old, career Army officer, National Security Commission Chief of Crisis Mobilization of Scientific Personnel who becomes the head of the Institute of Antiquities and their bio-medical specialist. He is of Southwest Spanish-Indian descent, stands 5’10”, is ruggedly attractive, in excellent shape and is almost always in uniform; he’s never been married. An Army brat and only child, he had one regulation authoritarian, cold father who was absent a lot – and a somewhat neglectful, working mother who died when he was thirteen. Byrd never lived anywhere longer than a year his whole upbringing – and did live all over the world.
His adjustment to all the moving had been to form superficial relations with people via productivity, eg. work on a Student Council Committee project, but never let anyone get close. He went to UCLA and then on to Harvard Medical School and was drafted in the Army upon graduation where he sewed up wounded soldiers in Vietnam. He started in the Pentagon as Medical Chief, but his quick mind was soon turned to other uses. Despite a seemingly distant exterior, Byrd has a soft underbelly of caring for the people around him, a projection of his own unmet dependency needs. Drinks coffee. He fears loss of control and is passionate about the history of Native Americans.
Irina Izarde, Ph. D.: 48 year old linguist who specializes in ancient languages, especially Basque and Iberian. Never married and of Basque-American descent, Irina has bounce and bubble, is upbeat and is even a touch of a character – but without losing her intelligence. She is well balanced, enjoys life and is rather unflappable. She has a sense of michievousness and humor. She was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but went to Europe for much of her training in linguistics; minored in Psychology and still has a psychological bend. Before the government hijacked her, she was a professor at the University of Ohio for almost twenty years where she had a wide network of friends. She was active in social causes, especially fighting for environmental reforms. She lived with two cats. She is attracted to Colonel Byrd and goes after him without illusions about the low odds and the long time frame; she chips away at his armour without manipulation. She has a mother and two married sisters still living in Philadelphia; as a child she was the family mediator. Her inspiration for linguistics came from her Basque grandmother. She dresses “between” Linda and Cynthia, sometimes simple blouses and skirts and sometimes smarter outfits. Drinks tea with a twist of lemon or iced. She is passionate about life and fears secretly her unmarried state
Mike Richardson, Ph. D.: 41 year old, University of Michigan Ancient History professor who specializes in pre-history. Married for twelve, now divorsed for six years – because he was never home enough – he has a sixteen year old daughter who lives with her mother in Minnesota. Was born, raised and schooled in Madison, Wisconsin and found his interest in ancient history because of the neighboring Aztalan Indian burial mounds seen better from the sky at a time when no one was supposed to know how to fly. Well adjusted with a sense of humor (puns), he is a thoughtful, even-keeled man. Although he appears very pliant and easy-going, he has an inner strength of character. He’s somewhat stuck in time and speaks a like a hippy; he was a war protestor. He has taken a liking to Cynthia (see #4) and enjoys subtly needling her overbuilt social defenses and bickering with her – perhaps a very subtle reparenting of her or Pygmalion. Comes from a strict, Jewish religous upbringing that never “took;” a city kid and into computers. He wears vests and sweaters, the occassional sport coat without tie, sometimes jeans. Drinks coffee or tea. He is on the ectomorphic side. He is passionate about his work and fears stagnation by staying in one place.
Cynthia Smythe, Ph. D.: 40 year old crack Archeologist, workaholic.
Child of psychologically abusive alcoholics, divorced when she was 14, her father is a somewhat famous TV preacher; her Mother projected social climbing needs onto her. As a kid, she hid out and fared well in school and later work. Reactive to authority, but exacting in her work. Strong just-world beliefs. History of one brief, stormy marriage with a photo-journalist at 23. In fearing her dependency needs, she’s defensive, tart, aggressive and oppositional a good amount of the time. Out of distrust, she throws up barriers and will self defeat in her relationship with Mike. Mid-season she will throw herself at General Bucky Vandervordt, General Reicher’s replacement. She has an older and younger brother. Cynthia is not afraid to get dirty on digs, but, otherwise, she always dresses smartly and expensively; borders on over-made-up. Drinks coffee, black with one sugar; still occassionally smokes. Plastically attractive. She secretly fears being lesser than others.
Virgil Harper, Ph. D.: 47 year old Black Meteorologist, jack-of all-trades, and Vietman War combat veteran. Raised in an intact family with a younger sister and brother in Atlanta, he was drafted to Vietnam out of high school where he learned weapons, electronics and mechanics in a special unit not unlike the Green Berets, but not acknowledged by the govenment. He has occassional PTSD. After the war, Virgil went to college in New Orleans where he met his, now, wife, Linda (see #6); they have two children, VIRGIL, JUNIOR, age 11 and ALICIA, age 7. He has no trust initially for the Colonel or the government, a residual from Vietnam. Hobby – photography which started with the birth of his children; he’s an involved father. He wears short-sleeved shirts or “polo” shirts on the job, but no jackets or tie. Drinks juices. He is in good physical shape and is at least six feet tall. Calls his wife “Honey;” has mild Southern accent.
Linda Harper, M.L.S.: 39 year old Black part-time librarian, mother and Virgil’s wife. Raised in the Creole section of New Orleans, also in an intact family, she took her undergraduate schooling at Columbia, but returned to New Orleans for her graduate work where she met Virgil. She comes from a humungous family, seventh of thirteen kids, and because both her parents did, too, she has family “everywhere.” She wears simple skirts and blouses on the job, but slacks when not. She is easy-going, contains Virgil’s residual PTSD with a warm loving environment and is a caring mother. She calls Virgil “Honey” or “Big Honey” and has some Southern accent. Her fears are for the future of her children; she is passionate about family.
Amanda “Mandy” Bredelow, Ph. D.: 26 year old, straight out of school Geologist. She’s the daughter of recently deceased famous Geologist, Malachi Bredelow of Stanford. She would have gone into physics without his influence. She initially has doubts about her abilities and credentials to be part of such a high-pitched team and in some ways represents youth fitting into an aging society. Scuba background. She was raised in Seattle when her father taught at the University of Washington, but when her parents divorced when she was sixteen, she and her father moved to Palo Alto. She wears classic clothes that never go out of style, but is not very imaginative in her clothes or make-up; has a few freckles to go with “almost red” brown hair. Loves horses. Drinks soda. When secure, she is outgoing and upbeat, but socially shy and introverted. Will develop a needed mother-daughter relationship with Irina. Her fear is she will never live up to her father; she is passionate about being well-read and well-rounded.
Richard “Rick” Lundgren: 32 year Chinese-American, never married, outdoors expert/ex-Marine with an insatiable zest for adventure. He’s tall for someone who looks Asian – about six feet – and is very good looking and mesomorphic. Has worked on many underwater treasure hunts, mountain climbing expeditions, jungle expeditions and glacier walks leaving him with an exposure to archeology. He wears casual clothing – modal: t-shirt and jeans. His father is still a Field General, and they’re on bad terms; his mother died while he was in college, and it was only then he joined the Marines. He keeps few possessions and lives minimalistically even on the estate. Does John Wayne imitations and uses 80’s slang. Drinks a lot of water. He is outgoing and a bit brash. He fears confinement and boredom.
RECURRING CHARACTERS:
Dr. Nathanial Carruthers: 65 year old, self-titled Doctor of Archeology who’s authored a series of popular books on forgotten, ancient civilizations such as Atlantis. Arrogance only made worse by confirmation of his theories through the “secret files;” he is the member of the original expedition who was let go. Non- affiliative. Has the money of a big publishing house behind him, ulitmately giving him almost as big a budget as the IA. He is the recurring antagonist who tries to scoop them on finds and snoops after them.
Eventually opens a competing museum. Always writes in a leatherbound journal. Wears Colonial-style safari clothes on expeditions. Often wears a dark green corduoroy jacket with leather hunting patches when not. Drinks tea. He is passionate about his work and is insecure about his lack of formal training and degree.
General Herman Reicher: Borderline-unbalanced, robust but grey, 68 year old Air Force member on the NSC and chief antagonist in the two hour opener.
He’s gung ho military with little use for civilians and originates the idea there is weapon potential from the ancient finds. He worked his way up the higher ranks in Korea. He became involved in the secret warehouse even before he was assigned to the NSC (late 60’s) because of a typo in papers assigning him there that took eight months to be discovered in the late 50’s. As a result, Reicher knows more about the contents of the warehouse than anyone alive and really didn’t want to share it with anyone. Widowed in his early 50’s, he has two adult sons who keep little contact with him. He spearheads the idea the Group should be detained, and on his way to a stroke, tries to have them killed.
Unbeknowst to anyone until late in the first season: first, he is the sometimes paramour for Lillith the Librarian – the almost seventy year old, sweet, white-haired, little old lady – who runs the secret warehouse!
Second, she’s been sneaking into the warehouse, sometimes stealing papers from the Group’s chosen items to subvert them, and he leaks information to Carruthers and his publisher; she’s why Carruthers shows up on most of their expeditions!!
Admiral Evan Cutworth: the Navy’s member on the NSC, he’s a 73 year old, white haired, bird-like ultra-conservative from Maine. He’s the last of the biggies from Korea, distinguishing himself repeatedly. He staunchly supports Reicher in the opener and becomes the focal dissenter after Reicher is removed. Married to Martha 48 years, four children, seven grandkids. He’s ineffective in impacting the Group about half the first season, outnumbered by Hartman and Scorventino, allowing the Group to establish and do modal stories of unboxing finds.
General Samuel Hartman: from the Army, he’s the head of the NSC foursome. A 53 year old Black man, he is part of a generation of Blacks who had to be ten times better to get the job. From rural Texas, he worked in the fields until he was eight when a Social Worker recognized how bright he was and helped him get a scholarship to a military academy where he quickly caught up despite bigotry and social alienation. Career boosted by a quick-thinking manuever that saved a thousand US lives during the evacuation of Saigon in ’75. Married to Naomi 39 years, three children, one grandchild.
From the beginning, he has misgivings about uncovering these past secrets, and that quality gives him a fall either way quality that works nicely while there is only three NSC Chiefs during the first half season. But around mid- season, a series of pictures of ancient cities provokes a Pandora’s box of fears and sends him into a staunchly conservative stance. But unlike Cutworth, he can be reasoned with about the Institute Museum. He has had mild social interaction with Colonel Byrd over the years.
Admiral Anthony Scorventino: 51 year old, New Yorker, somewhat liberal, Marine contribution to the Chiefs. He’s been a friend of the Colonel’s since Vietnam and is virtually an automatic vote for what the group wants. He’s the person who pulled Colonel Byrd’s career off of a strictly medical track back in the 80’s. He is the only Chief with a good sense of humor. Married to Gina 25 years, six kids, six grandkids.
General Buckminster “Bucky” Vandervordt: 41 year old, “wunderkind” Air Force replacement for Reicher about half way into the season. Youngest General in the Air Force’s history, he was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. He went into the Air Force to fly planes even his family couldn’t afford and ended up distinguishing himself the last year of ‘Nam and again in Beirut and Greneda. He comes across a touch “Thurston Howell the III,”
definitely not “old Army.” His reasonable looks are a touch plastic, in suble ways his values superficial. Expectation that he’d be conservative is based on his family’s long, active history in the Republican Party, but it turns out he finds the Institute exactly the novel stimuli a bored diletante dreams of. He not only is pretty much pro-the project, from time to time he’ll insist on getting involved – creating opportunities for his relationship with Cynthia to develop and getting the Chiefs too close.
“I wrote the two snippets you hear between scenes and at the end of an act as a single piece with the intent to use it as the opening music. But I couldn’t find an automated background on my key board that would allow me to play it in that tempo. So I chose a tempo that turned that music into the opening music you hear, homage to the music of British television science fiction from the 1970’s.
I’m Barbara Goldstein. I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and started writing as child, first trying to write Nancy Drew-like stories, followed by a puppet play in Spanish that was produced for the ‘Milwaukee Public Schools educational television’. This was followed by several attempts to write Romance as a hormone-laden teen. I started writing science fiction in high school but took a thirteen year hiatus while going to college, starting at the University of Wisconsin Madison and finishing at UCLA. I became a teacher and continued on to become a Clinical Psychologist. After graduating I returned to writing science fiction, turning to script writing with the advent of Star Trek, Next Generation in the 1980¹s. With the help of an agent, I submitted two Next Generation scripts no cigars. Then, I spent four years writing and publishing the Barbie News Network, a newsletter for Barbie doll collectors 1986 1990. I took script writing classes at UCLA Extension starting in 1990 after coming up with the idea for the Institute of Antiquities and spent that decade developing a seasons worth of episodes. At the end of the 90’s I had an agent who pushed the Institute of Antiquities opener, Message from Atlantis, as a stand alone movie, which it was never written to be; it didn’t get anywhere. I started turning the script in the audio book in 2002, doing the recording, the sound mixing and the music. From 1999 to 2008, scifi.com’s Science Fiction Weekly frequently published my editorials on science fiction.
ABOUT THE OPENER: MESSAGE FROM ATLANTIS
This is the origin story of the group of scientists who become the Institute of Antiquities. A massive earthquake in the mid-Atlantic sets the events in motion. What the scientists find puts them on a collision course with the National Security Commission who sent them.
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ABOUT EPISODE #1: THE SECRET OF THE CRYSTAL BALLS
The crystal balls found in the original expedition and a fourth from the secret government warehouse beneath the Smithsonian reveal an amazing secret.
Most of the Institute team goes up the Amazon to verify the existence of an Atlantean-related pyramid and end up linking the Atlanteans to modern history in an unexpected way. They also learn more about the fall of Atlantis and the legacy left. Irina and Linda meet with experts and face an attempt to steal a crystal ball.
ABOUT EPISODE # 3: An Echo of Distant Times
The first pick from the secret warehouse, a wire contraption, and the 18,000 year old book from the Marsala expedition are investigated by the Institute Team. Cynthia’s drunk mother meddles.
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ABOUT EPISODE # 4: Very Large Lizards
The Institute team deals with an ancient medallion mostly encased in granite and a map with an “X” near edge of the North American continental plate. Those at the Institute contend with a persnickety visiting Metallurgist. To get to the answer about the medallion, they break the rules. Those diving the Atlantic face rough conditions at every turn but do find the “horror” they were told to expect.
ABOUT EPISODE # 5: The Truth about Gold and Diamonds
The warehouse picks are an ancient crown and the Arc of the Covenant – sort of. Mandy helps an experiment on the International Space Station. The Colonel battles with the NSC Chiefs over the budget.
ABOUT EPISODE # 6: Almost Modern History
The IA team goes to Egypt to follow up on a find and has another encounter with Dr. Carruthers. Irina translates hidden works of father Giordano Bruno. Rick confronts his estranged father.
