Movie/TV series: Web Trek (provisional title) Pitch: Around The World In Eighty Days meets Short Circuit Synopsis: This is the story of a young girl or boy (it works either way) whose scientist father dies and their mother eventually remarries another scientific type. Whereas the father encouraged the child to learn about everything, the stepfather has no interest in children and it seems that the mother never really wanted the child in the first place. The mother and the stepfather take trips abroad regularly but never take the child with them. They even send back postcards from places like Disney World saying things like "You'd really like it here", which only makes worse the sense of being left out. They provide a very generous allowance for the child and regard that as being "loving". The child is somewhat precocious in that they have an advanced intellect and have learned a variety of disciplines on their own, including radio electronics and computer programming. They are active on the Internet and have developed some hacking skills. The child decides that they too will see the world, but in their own way and by proxy. They design and build a model solar powered flying vehicle that can be controlled remotely by them. The vehicle is equipped with an LCD screen, several Webcams and two way audio, so that audio-visual communication in both directions is possible, both for guiding the vehicle and for communicating. Initial trials of the machine show that it can be reliably flown and controlled but only for short distances - at most a mile or two - before the radio signal becomes inadequate. The stepfather's work gives him access through the Web to a group of orbiting satellites in order to issue radio commands to a remote telescope. The child hacks into the account and obtains use of the satellites to issue commands to their vehicle, and the journey begins. Each time the vehicle has daylight locally and the child is free to contact and control it, they fly it slowly across the world. The child monitors weather and sunspot forecasts for the local region and before dusk each time finds a safe place to land the vehicle where it can stay until daylight comes around again. The child encounters a variety of situations and people (and animals) along the way. Through the vehicle the child begins to see more of the world, and with a combination of the telephone, the Web and direct communication through the vehicle, they also help to resolve problems for others, witnessing and reporting crime, interacting even with people who do not speak the same language (which requires the child to build a language translator from components available on the Web), and so on. The range of potential adventures is limited only by budgets and the imagination, but each adventure should carry a sensible moral and leave the child with greater knowledge and understanding. Author: Peter G Q Brooks pcbrooks@earthlink.net (323) 851-1958 Agent/Attorney: Stuart A Bronstein sablaw@sbcglobal.net (415) 285-5511