Behind the Scenes of
Wild Kingdom
by Denise Felt 2011
We were talking one day at the Write Mice forum about what animals resembled our favorite characters from UFO. It was a silly conversation, and we all had a good laugh at some of the ideas we came up with to describe the commander, Alec, Paul, and Virginia. But later, I had this scene pop into my head where poor Lt. Ford was wandering around HQ and all the staff were animals. Wild animals. And this story was born.
It is one of the shortest UFO stories I’ve written, coming in at just over 3000 words. But though I tried, I couldn’t seem to drag it out any longer. The story begins with Keith Ford heading for work. Just your average day at Harlington-Straker Film Studios – right? Except that a UFO is hovering above the studio.
Now if that had been me, I’d have turned my car around and gone back home. I mean, really. What could he have done at that point but be destroyed too? But our zealous lieutenant doesn’t do that. Instead he drives onto the lot and goes inside the main building to see if he can do something to stop them. Now that’s dedication!
He heads for the elevator to go down to HQ, but sees a lion. Ford realizes later that this young lion must be Col. Foster. I hope the reader wonders (as Keith does) who the unfortunate lamb had been? He heads for Straker’s office and runs into another predatory animal: a falcon. It was a lot of fun coming up with animals to suit the UFO characters. I had a few ideas to start with, because of the conversation from the group, but very few of the other writers thought the animals would be what I thought they would be. So this story made me smile every time I got to show another of the regulars in the animal form I chose for them.
I never tell who the lynx and hawk were, but as Ford says, it really could have been anybody on staff in HQ. The komodo dragon was Dr. Jackson, who I’ve always seen as slightly reptilian. The silver fox was Col. Lake, which doesn’t take any stretch of the imagination to accept. The black panther was Ayshea, the white-tailed deer was Lt. Ellis, and the tortoiseshell cat was Lt. Barry. I thought it might be humorous to have Keith having a crush on one of the Moonbase girls, and Nina got chosen. (Besides, I like her better than Gay.)
Keith gets overwhelmed by all the animals in place of the people that he’d once worked with, and he decides that there’s nothing he can do here by himself. If the aliens have gotten this far in stopping HQ, it’s only a matter of time before they take over the planet. He decides to go home and get drunk. I don’t know how I would have reacted in his shoes, but I do know that I would have felt the despair that he experienced. I mean, how would you stop such an attack?
But when he leaves, he finds that someone isn’t too happy with his decision. A large timber wolf (and doesn’t that just sound like Alec?) comes after him, and he barely makes it away from him. He puts two and two together, and being the genius he is, he figures out who all these animals are. But he still can’t help them. He goes to Straker’s office to head back to the surface and finds that the office isn’t empty any longer. I loved having him realize who the animal is even before he sees him. It’s the commander’s office, after all, and he hadn’t run into him in HQ. But he was sure to be angry at Ford for deserting them during this crisis, just as Alec had been, and Ford finally faces his furious boss. I love white tigers. To me, they are one of the most beautiful animals in the world. Powerful, majestic, and gorgeous. Gee, that sounds just like Straker!
Then we find out that this was just a bad dream, brought on by the anchovies on Ford’s pizza the night before. It’s good to know that HQ is still being run by humans, and the aliens haven’t taken over. But I hope the reader leaves the story a little sad to say good-bye to all those fun animals!
We were talking one day at the Write Mice forum about what animals resembled our favorite characters from UFO. It was a silly conversation, and we all had a good laugh at some of the ideas we came up with to describe the commander, Alec, Paul, and Virginia. But later, I had this scene pop into my head where poor Lt. Ford was wandering around HQ and all the staff were animals. Wild animals. And this story was born.
It is one of the shortest UFO stories I’ve written, coming in at just over 3000 words. But though I tried, I couldn’t seem to drag it out any longer. The story begins with Keith Ford heading for work. Just your average day at Harlington-Straker Film Studios – right? Except that a UFO is hovering above the studio.
Now if that had been me, I’d have turned my car around and gone back home. I mean, really. What could he have done at that point but be destroyed too? But our zealous lieutenant doesn’t do that. Instead he drives onto the lot and goes inside the main building to see if he can do something to stop them. Now that’s dedication!
He heads for the elevator to go down to HQ, but sees a lion. Ford realizes later that this young lion must be Col. Foster. I hope the reader wonders (as Keith does) who the unfortunate lamb had been? He heads for Straker’s office and runs into another predatory animal: a falcon. It was a lot of fun coming up with animals to suit the UFO characters. I had a few ideas to start with, because of the conversation from the group, but very few of the other writers thought the animals would be what I thought they would be. So this story made me smile every time I got to show another of the regulars in the animal form I chose for them.
I never tell who the lynx and hawk were, but as Ford says, it really could have been anybody on staff in HQ. The komodo dragon was Dr. Jackson, who I’ve always seen as slightly reptilian. The silver fox was Col. Lake, which doesn’t take any stretch of the imagination to accept. The black panther was Ayshea, the white-tailed deer was Lt. Ellis, and the tortoiseshell cat was Lt. Barry. I thought it might be humorous to have Keith having a crush on one of the Moonbase girls, and Nina got chosen. (Besides, I like her better than Gay.)
Keith gets overwhelmed by all the animals in place of the people that he’d once worked with, and he decides that there’s nothing he can do here by himself. If the aliens have gotten this far in stopping HQ, it’s only a matter of time before they take over the planet. He decides to go home and get drunk. I don’t know how I would have reacted in his shoes, but I do know that I would have felt the despair that he experienced. I mean, how would you stop such an attack?
But when he leaves, he finds that someone isn’t too happy with his decision. A large timber wolf (and doesn’t that just sound like Alec?) comes after him, and he barely makes it away from him. He puts two and two together, and being the genius he is, he figures out who all these animals are. But he still can’t help them. He goes to Straker’s office to head back to the surface and finds that the office isn’t empty any longer. I loved having him realize who the animal is even before he sees him. It’s the commander’s office, after all, and he hadn’t run into him in HQ. But he was sure to be angry at Ford for deserting them during this crisis, just as Alec had been, and Ford finally faces his furious boss. I love white tigers. To me, they are one of the most beautiful animals in the world. Powerful, majestic, and gorgeous. Gee, that sounds just like Straker!
Then we find out that this was just a bad dream, brought on by the anchovies on Ford’s pizza the night before. It’s good to know that HQ is still being run by humans, and the aliens haven’t taken over. But I hope the reader leaves the story a little sad to say good-bye to all those fun animals!