An anthropomorphic alien arrives on Earth to find the last surviving rover of her civilization, but she soon discovers that spores of a fungus, accidentally brought to the planet, were responsible for the extinction of all life on Earth.
Target Audience: Teens and adults interested in sci-fi themes
Run Time: 4–5 minutes
Technique: Frame-by-frame 2D animation, cutout 2D animation
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
The main character, Seit
Earthworm—a pilot episode of an animated series about an alien searching for its place in the universe.
The pilot episode introduces the main character: her compliance with her native civilization and her painful dependence on it. Furthermore, the series delineates the boundaries of the world: Earth has been destroyed, though humanity can still exist somewhere, and ships like the protagonist’s traverse space, «establishing contact» with alien species.
Characters
Sait, rover, mushroom, people from the video recording
Zait’s goal on Earth is to find the rover. Heading toward the point where signals were last received from it, Zait does not notice the numerous mushrooms along the way—a common, harmless find on her home planet. The rovers introduced this invasive species to Earth. The mushrooms, in turn, began to absorb everything around them using the principle of grey slime. At the end of the pilot series, Zait watches a recording from the rover, where the whole truth is revealed to her. But even upon realizing it, she dares not accuse her civilization of making a mistake. Despite triggers prompting a change, the heroine remains blinded by her faith, though something within her begins to fracture.
Environment
The surroundings are familiar, yet barren. Various locations are filled with different clues. Everywhere, dormant fungi lie—most likely, some living creature was absorbed nearby.
Traversing the city becomes a true test of endurance for Seit: upon encountering the crossed-out emblems of her expedition—which people used to express their fear and anger at the impending attack—Seit perceives this as an unfounded insult to her great civilization.
After the episode, viewers will have many questions—but that is precisely the point of the pilot: to hook the audience and engage them both with the story and with purchasing merchandise and other products.
