I really started to go far afield here, which is what happens when a story is getting worked on over and over. The title becomes "The Tomb of Ra." A minor thing about Egyptian culture being seeded by aliens goes from a brief take away to a whole "Battlestar Galactica" level of plot. Sun gods, boccie ball, spider webs, they all are here. Some of them stay in, some don't. My boccie ball joke got folded into a running gag that Doc went to some "finishing school," whenever he brings up his past.
Apologizes for the quality. I only had a 2nd generation xeroxed copy of the script in my files.
There was a final draft, we go back to the name The Ax. We stay with the crystal theme, up to and including "sonic meld plates." The flashbacks are reduced to psychic images of the snake people in the temple. In the show, the trapped Burro gets away by simply hitting a button on his hindquarters, which releases his tail like a seatbelt (which is a great gag and I don't think it was mine).
The problem for me was that the show became one of the Rangers "chase" episodes, where the Rangers (in any combo) would show up, get in a situation and then have to outride the bad guys to get away/save the day. The final version of the episode is very much them fleeing The Ax in a very "Temple of Doom" way and coming up with obstacles along the way. Plus, in every episode they had to deploy their powers, so finally there had to be a computer system that controlled the temple which Doc could hack with his software buddies. Because we all know all your best crystal beasts are computer operated.
Oh, and Burro can talk. It was not written to do that. But then, every machine in the series talked, so I guess it was inevitable. Also, The Ax went from being a 7-foot Golem to being slightly the size of King Kong. Niko and Doc are together because he happens to be in the same ship as Niko when they are called in from training maneuvers (so no simulators). The humanoid Ax was built by some Egyptian snake beings. Oh, and the Ax never really swings his ax, but it's a sonic weapon of some sort. The Bocci ball gag becomes a baseball gag. Using the badge as a ninja throwing star becomes a throwing grenade disk. And they finally settled on how Doc can control computers (and the apps talk too). And we do wind up back to the Egyptians hung with space aliens trope. But the episode runs fast and fun, even though the temple turns out to be an SAT to get the treasure. The the burro gag at the end? Not a dog bark, not a meow, not a moo, just a weak "hee-haw." But we do end on the "Don't call me Wally" gag.
The episode got approved and I got my check. I was given my next assignment. There would be multiple changes to the script after it was "finalized" which I wouldn't learn about until I watched the show on TV. They began passing around "completed" scripts from other writers, so we could see how they were handling the characters and the premises. And that was something I had to learn too; how they were running the scripts to keep continuity and characters on point. Which I would have to apply to my future scripts.
The problem for me was that the show became one of the Rangers "chase" episodes, where the Rangers (in any combo) would show up, get in a situation and then have to outride the bad guys to get away/save the day. The final version of the episode is very much them fleeing The Ax in a very "Temple of Doom" way and coming up with obstacles along the way. Plus, in every episode they had to deploy their powers, so finally there had to be a computer system that controlled the temple which Doc could hack with his software buddies. Because we all know all your best crystal beasts are computer operated.
Oh, and Burro can talk. It was not written to do that. But then, every machine in the series talked, so I guess it was inevitable. Also, The Ax went from being a 7-foot Golem to being slightly the size of King Kong. Niko and Doc are together because he happens to be in the same ship as Niko when they are called in from training maneuvers (so no simulators). The humanoid Ax was built by some Egyptian snake beings. Oh, and the Ax never really swings his ax, but it's a sonic weapon of some sort. The Bocci ball gag becomes a baseball gag. Using the badge as a ninja throwing star becomes a throwing grenade disk. And they finally settled on how Doc can control computers (and the apps talk too). And we do wind up back to the Egyptians hung with space aliens trope. But the episode runs fast and fun, even though the temple turns out to be an SAT to get the treasure. The the burro gag at the end? Not a dog bark, not a meow, not a moo, just a weak "hee-haw." But we do end on the "Don't call me Wally" gag.
The episode got approved and I got my check. I was given my next assignment. There would be multiple changes to the script after it was "finalized" which I wouldn't learn about until I watched the show on TV. They began passing around "completed" scripts from other writers, so we could see how they were handling the characters and the premises. And that was something I had to learn too; how they were running the scripts to keep continuity and characters on point. Which I would have to apply to my future scripts.
You would think that's the last we'd see of the Ax, and you'd be right. Kinda. In the hopper was a follow-up story, we wrote with crossed fingers for a second season.
