TWO WORLDS — An 8-Episode Limited Series

The Pitch

Why This Show. Why Now.

Format: 8-episode limited series. Prestige drama. Complete story, definitive ending.
Tone: Chernobyl meets The Expanse meets Apocalypse Now.
Core question: What happens when we find alien intelligence — and decide it's in the way?

The Tragedy Is the Point

This is not a redemption story. Earth wins. The aliens die. The protagonist dies with them. The audience watches the machinery of genocide operate with institutional efficiency — and recognizes it.

Three Friends, Three Responses

Same childhood, same intelligence, same information. One builds the extraction machine. One commands the military operation. One defects to die alongside the aliens. The wound is the same — the choices are what differ.

Hard Science Fiction

One fictional propulsion technology. Everything else extrapolated from real 2026 engineering and astrobiology. The alien civilizations are rigorously constructed: non-humanoid, non-verbal, provably sentient by any honest measure.

Written in 1932

Edmond Hamilton wrote this as explicit anti-imperialism in the age of empire. Ninety years later, the story's thesis has only become more urgent. No prior adaptation exists — not film, not television, not graphic novel. This is virgin IP entering public domain January 1, 2028.

What Makes It Different

Other Space Shows	TWO WORLDS
Humanity triumphs	Humanity conquers — and that is the horror
Aliens as threat	Aliens as victims of our industrial machinery
White savior defector	A defector who fails — and whose failure IS the point
Redemption arc	Tragedy — the system wins, the individual dies
Handwaved colonial metaphor	Explicit, unflinching colonial mechanics
Aliens who look like us	Non-humanoid intelligence that demands empathy anyway

The Story

Four Acts. Two Worlds. One Epitaph.

Act I — MarsEpisodes 1–2

2049. KAIC — the Kuiper-Asteroid Industrial Consortium — confirms microbial intelligence in Mars's subsurface aquifers: lithotrophs that build crystalline structures, communicate chemically, and exhibit collective problem-solving. The Discovery Science Review Commission classifies them Category B: Pre-Sentient. Mark Dowell, embedded as KAIC's science liaison, watches the classification hearing. He knows the lithotrophs are sentient. He signs the report anyway.

His oldest friend, Lena Voss, designed the classification framework. His other oldest friend, James Harker, commands the security operation that enforces it.

Act II — EuropaEpisodes 3–4

KAIC discovers something beneath Europa's ice: a civilization. Not microbes — coordinated, tool-using, bioluminescent beings living in a pressurized subsurface ocean. The Europans are undeniably intelligent. DSRC classifies them Category B: Pre-Sentient again. Same framework, same result. The resource extraction operation begins. Mark is posted to Station Cousteau, the deep-ocean research habitat. He makes first real contact with an individual Europan — Sonder — and understands that the classification is a lie.

Act III — DefectionEpisodes 5–6

Mark breaks. He transmits raw contact data to Earth — unclassified, unfiltered, undeniable proof of Europan sentience. KAIC kills the broadcast. James is ordered to bring Mark in. Lena faces a choice: her framework enabled this, and she knows it. Mark goes underground in the Europan ocean, protected by Sonder's people, hunted by James's tactical teams. He is not a hero. He is a man who can no longer participate.

Act IV — Two WorldsEpisodes 7–8

The final operation. KAIC deploys thermal lances to crack Europa's ice shelf and flood the subsurface habitat for mineral extraction. Mark fights alongside the Europans. James leads the assault. Lena watches from orbit. The Europans are destroyed. Mark dies in the flooding. James stands in the wreckage of a civilization and understands what he has done. Lena resigns. Earth celebrates the successful extraction.

Final image: Sonder's empty chamber. Water rising. Silence.

Episodes

Eight Hours. No Redemption.

Episode 1

"Classification"

~58 min

Three childhood friends reunite on Mars. KAIC discovers microbial intelligence in the subsurface. The classification hearing begins.

Mark watches his best friend's framework erase an entire species from moral consideration.

Episode 2

"Category B"

~55 min

The Mars extraction accelerates. The lithotrophs' crystalline structures are bulldozed. Mark signs off on the environmental impact report. He knows what he is doing.

"Pre-sentient" is not a scientific finding. It is a permission slip.

Episode 3

"The Deep"

~62 min

Europa. Beneath the ice: bioluminescent intelligence. Station Cousteau descends. Mark makes first contact with something that is unmistakably a person.

Sonder does not speak. Sonder does not need to.

Episode 4

"Chromatic"

~60 min

Mark maps Sonder's communication system — bioluminescent color sequences encoding abstract concepts. DSRC classifies the Europans Category B. The same framework. The same result.

The classification committee has never been to Europa. Mark has.

Episode 5

"Defection"

~63 min

Mark transmits raw contact data to Earth. KAIC kills the broadcast. James receives the order to bring Mark in. Mark disappears into the Europan ocean.

He is not a hero. He is a man who can no longer participate in what he sees.

Episode 6

"Brothers"

~58 min

James hunts Mark through the subsurface. Lena confronts the framework she built. Two friends on opposite sides of a line neither expected to cross.

James does not hate Mark. That is what makes it worse.

Episode 7

"Last Message"

~65 min

KAIC deploys the thermal lances. Mark records a message for Earth — one last attempt to make the species see what it is doing. The Europans prepare for what they cannot stop.

Sonder's people have no word for war. They are about to learn.

Episode 8

"Two Worlds"

~72 min

The ice breaks. The ocean floods. Mark dies fighting alongside Sonder's people. James stands in the wreckage. Lena resigns. Earth moves on.

The epitaph is not delivered with sentiment. It is delivered with silence.

Characters

Three Friends. Three Responses. One Wound.

Lead — All 8 Episodes

Mark Dowell

Mid 30s • Science Liaison, KAIC

Quiet, methodical, conflict-averse to a fault. The man who sees everything and says nothing — until he can't. Not a rebel by nature. Not an activist. An ordinary person confronted with extraordinary clarity about what his institutions are doing.

Arc: Compliant participant → horrified witness → defector → martyr. Not a hero — a man who ran out of ways to look away.

Wound: His father was a whistleblower who was destroyed for telling the truth. Mark learned silence. Until silence became complicity.

Series Regular — All 8 Episodes

Lena Voss

Mid 30s • Chief Xenobiologist, DSRC

Brilliant, precise, politically savvy. She designed the sentience classification framework — a genuine scientific contribution that KAIC weaponized for institutional purposes. She is not evil. She built a tool. She watched it become a weapon. She kept her name on it.

Arc: Institutional architect → conflicted enabler → witness to consequences → too late to stop it. Resigns after the destruction — but resignation is not absolution.

Wound: Her work was her identity. Admitting the framework failed means admitting she failed. She chooses the institution over the evidence until the cost is irreversible.

Series Regular — All 8 Episodes

James Harker

Mid 30s • Security Commander, KAIC Operations

Disciplined, loyal, genuinely decent within the parameters of his authority. Follows orders because the alternative — individual soldiers making moral judgments in the field — is how atrocities happen. Except this time, following orders IS the atrocity.

Arc: Dutiful commander → hunter of his best friend → the man who carries out the final operation → the one who has to live with it.

Wound: His brother died in a field op where someone made an unauthorized call. James believes in chain of command because the alternative killed his family. He is wrong — but not stupid.

Series Regular — Episodes 3–8

Sonder

Europan • Bioluminescent Intelligence

Not a symbol. A person. Communicates through chromatic light sequences. Curious, patient, capable of abstract reasoning and something that maps to humor. The first Europan to make sustained contact with a human. Does not understand what is coming. When understanding arrives, responds with something the audience will recognize as grief.

Arc: Curious observer → Mark's guide → protector of a human fugitive → witness to the destruction of everything. The audience needs to grieve Sonder specifically — not "the aliens" in the abstract.

Sonder has no wound. Sonder has never needed one. That is what makes the ending unbearable.

The World

Technology, Institutions & Alien Intelligence

Propulsion & Ships

VASIMR-X: The one fictional leap — an advanced variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket enabling practical interplanetary transit. Everything else is real engineering.
Prometheus: KAIC's deep-space transport. Industrial, functional, not beautiful. Built for tonnage, not aesthetics.
Station Cousteau: The subsurface research habitat on Europa. Cramped, cold, the deep-ocean pressure audible in every scene.

The Institutions

KAIC: Kuiper-Asteroid Industrial Consortium. A public-private entity authorized to extract resources from celestial bodies. The language of "development" and "bringing civilization." The mechanism of colonial extraction.
DSRC: Discovery Science Review Commission. The body that classifies alien intelligence. Its framework was designed for scientific rigor. It has been captured by institutional interests.
Classification system: Category A (Sentient), Category B (Pre-Sentient), Category C (Non-Sentient). Category B is the permission slip. Nothing stays Category B for long — it either gets promoted to A or demoted to C. Both Martian and Europan life were classified B.

The Aliens

Martian Lithotrophs: Silicon-based, subsurface, crystalline structures that grow in response to environmental signals. Communicate chemically. Collective problem-solving behavior. Classified B. Bulldozed for mineral extraction.
Europans: Bioluminescent beings in Europa's pressurized subsurface ocean. Communicate through chromatic light sequences encoding abstract concepts. Tool-using, social, curious. Classified B. Destroyed by thermal lance operations.
Design rule: Neither species is humanoid. Neither is conveniently relatable. Both are provably sentient by any honest measure. The audience must do the work of empathy across the species boundary.

Visual Grammar & Tone

Earth/Corporate: Clean, institutional, well-lit. The banality of bureaucratic violence. Reference: Chernobyl, Sicario.
Mars: Dust, pressure suits, industrial extraction. Red desert shot like a war zone. Reference: Blade Runner 2049.
Europa/Subsurface: Dark water, bioluminescent glow, claustrophobic pressure. The alien ocean is beautiful and terrifying. Reference: The Abyss, Arrival.
Sound: Sparse, textural, never heroic. The score is dread, not triumph. The destruction of Europa should sound like an industrial accident, not a battle.

Production

Budget & Production Approach

Budget Overview

Estimated total: $96M – $144M ($12–18M per episode). Comparable to 3 Body Problem (~$20M/ep), The Expanse S4–6 (~$12M/ep), Foundation (~$15M/ep).

Category	Estimate
Above-the-line (cast, creators, writers, directors)	$24–36M
Below-the-line production (crew, locations, sets, equipment)	$30–45M
Visual effects (two alien worlds, space travel, subsurface ocean)	$30–45M
Post-production (editorial, sound, score, color)	$12–18M

What This Project Needs

Showrunner: Someone who has run morally unflinching prestige drama — colonial violence, institutional complicity, no redemption arcs. Comfort with tragedy as the correct ending.
Lead: An actor who can carry eight episodes of moral disintegration — quiet, precise, devastating in the final hour. The audition scene: Mark watching the classification hearing, saying nothing, understanding everything.
Pilot Director: Someone who shoots institutional violence with documentary restraint. The extraction scenes should feel like corporate B-roll that turns into a war crime.
Writers Room: 4–6 writers, heavy on structure. Familiarity with colonial history and decolonial scholarship. Every episode ends worse than it started.
VFX Lead: Someone who can build two alien civilizations that are not humanoid, not CGI-spectacle, but emotionally legible. The audience must mourn creatures that look nothing like them.

VFX Approach

This is the most VFX-intensive of the three Threshold candidates. Two alien worlds, interplanetary travel, subsurface ocean environments, two non-humanoid alien species, military operations on Mars and Europa.

Strategy: Concentrate and contain.

Episodes 1–2 (Mars): 60% practical. Real desert locations, practical pressure suits, CG extension for Martian landscape
Episodes 3–4 (Europa): VFX-heavy. Subsurface ocean environments, bioluminescent Europans, Station Cousteau interior (practical set)
Episodes 5–6 (Defection): 50/50 practical/CG. Character-driven episodes with VFX for underwater chase sequences
Episodes 7–8 (Destruction): Highest VFX concentration. Thermal lance operations, ice shelf collapse, flooding, the final battle
Estimated 90–110 shoot days. Primary locations: Iceland (Mars), underwater stages (Europa), studio builds (ships, Cousteau)

Comparable Productions

Title	Per-Episode Cost	VFX Load
3 Body Problem	~$20M	Heavy (alien VR, countdown, nano-wire)
The Expanse S4–6	~$12M	Moderate (ships, planetary)
Foundation	~$15M	Heavy (Trantor, spaceships, The Vault)
Avatar: TWOW (film)	~$31M/min	Extreme (full underwater CG)
TWO WORLDS	$12–18M	Heavy but contained

The Market

The Gap TWO WORLDS Fills

$5.2B

Avatar Franchise Box Office

Expanse Seasons (Ended 2022)

Chernobyl Emmy Wins

1932

Source Novelette — Public Domain 2028

Platform Targeting

Platform	Fit	Why
Netflix	Primary	Proved appetite for hard SF with 3 Body Problem. Global reach for anti-colonial themes.
Apple TV+	Strong	For All Mankind, Foundation, Severance. Prestige SF is their brand.
HBO / Max	Strong	Chernobyl DNA. Prestige tragedy. TV-MA without flinching.
Amazon / MGM	Good	The Expanse audience is already there. Direct successor.

The Void TWO WORLDS Fills

Post-Expanse Audience

The hard-SF audience has had no home since 2022. The most loyal genre viewers are underserved. TWO WORLDS is the direct successor — same rigor, higher stakes, darker conclusion.

The Anti-Avatar

Avatar's $5.2B proves the audience for "humans encounter alien civilization." TWO WORLDS is the version where the humans win and the audience has to sit with what that means. Same thesis, opposite resolution.

Prestige Tragedy

Chernobyl proved audiences will watch institutional horror played straight. TWO WORLDS applies the same model to colonial violence in space. No heroes. No salvation. Just the machinery and the people caught in it.

Downloads

Full Materials Available

Complete production package: pilot screenplay, series bible, episode guide, character breakdowns, and the source novel adaptation.

Production Package

📋 Executive One-Pager 📊 Pitch Deck 🎬 Pilot Screenplay 📜 Series Bible 👤 Character Breakdowns 🎦 Production Bible 📄 Episode Guide

Source Novel

📖 Source Novel (EPUB)

For the Science Geek

The Science Behind TWO WORLDS

VASIMR-X propulsion, Europa subsurface oceanography, lithotroph biology, bioluminescent communication systems, and extremophile intelligence — with peer-reviewed citations.

Not required reading. But if you paused Europa Report to check the ice thickness — this is for you.

5-Minute Read

The Plain-English Version

Same ideas, no equations. A bridge to the deep dive for the curious but equation-averse.

About the Author

Jeremy Salsburg

Jeremy Salsburg is a systems engineer, hedge fund founder, and software architect whose work spans high-frequency trading infrastructure, precision aerospace optics, and advanced energy research. Trained in mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and later earning an MBA from Nova Southeastern University, he has built and operated real-world systems where physics, control theory, and failure modes are not abstractions but constraints.

Early in his career, he contributed to beam control optics on the U.S. Air Force’s Airborne Laser program and to optical systems supporting inertial confinement fusion research at the National Ignition Facility. He has also engineered thin-film vacuum deposition systems used in advanced materials fabrication.

Today, he designs large-scale systematic trading platforms while writing hard science fiction grounded in physical law, engineering limits, and the unintended consequences of ambitious technology. A certificated private pilot, he writes at the intersection of aerospace, physics, and disciplined systems thinking.

Ready to Talk?

Pilot screenplay, series bible, and complete production package available for review. Creator available for meetings.

Jeremy Salsburg

Author & Creator

ConquestTwoWorlds.ThresholdFiction.com | [email protected]