Wormholes Pitch Bible HR

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DURATION: 11’ GENRE: Cosmic Comedy Adventure FORMAT: 2D AGES: 6 - 11 IN DEVELOPMENT

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A teen worm and his cosmic buddies
adventure through the Zooniverse
with a collection of friends and foes,
facing a rule-mad Melon, and turning
the laws of physics upside down!

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“Mmpa-pa-paah!” Hear that mouth-trumpet? Classic Billick; proud, honest, and a total dingus. Billick dreams
of being all the worm he can be! But even with friends like Sherm and Jiggles, it turns out making your mark
on the Zooniverse is no easy task.
That’s cos space is a really wild place! Surfing radio waves or skipping through magnetic fields, you might
encounter an angry gas giant (who should not be taken lightly) or stumble on a nerdy solar system holding
his pants up with an asteroid belt. And best avoid that black hole! It sucks.

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And we’re off!

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The gang’s HQ on Planet Wiggelon

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Billick, Jiggles and Sherm hail from Planet Wiggelon; one of the most advanced planets in the Zooniverse. Like all
Wiggelonians, Billick and his buds have Wormhole Power, allowing them to open portals through space!
As the son of Wiggelon’s president, Billick is more than a little
obsessed with the whole prove-yourself thing, and will go to any
lengths to do so. If Billick breaks a vase, mere glue won’t do; he’ll
travel to a universe where time travels backwards so the thing can
remake itself! Or to prove he’s responsible enough for a pet, he’ll
volunteer to babysit an entire nursery of unruly baby stars!

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Of course, Billick’s schemes always descend into chaos and catch the meddlesome attention of the trio’s number one
nemesis, The Grand Consultant Burocratis Melon: a Safety Inspector with a penchant for unnecessary regulations.
The Melon’s rules are dangerously boring; when Billick caused a hurricane on Planet Sockhop (with a dance move so
bad it broke nature), Burocratis banned dancing on the planet forever!
So Billick, Sherm and Jigs must find screwball solutions to sidestep
Burocratis and restore the Zooniverse to the awesomely fun place it’s
meant to be. And with Billick’s heart, Sherm’s intellect and Jiggles’
weirdo intuition they know that…

Where there’s a worm, there’s a way!

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Burocratis interviews for a sun

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Billick

An idealistic worm
who really wants to
be a leader, but
mostly ends up
leading his friends
astray.

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Don’t worry... We got your back, tiny bro’s

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Here is a worm of great passion, loyalty and optimism! But he’s also easily confused and
a bit of a butterfingers. Even so, as the son of President Barbara, he wants to show his
respected mom that he’s a real worm of substance.
Billick is a deeply emotional and expressive worm, his feelings an open book to the world.
He may ululate with joy, contort into the drawer-of-shame when he’s humiliated, or employ
a cooling “rage cap” (he keeps it in the fridge) to calm his boiling blood after some
offence.
Billick may be a bit of a banana-brain, but it’s hard not to root for a guy who always wants to be more, better,
bigger! To prove himself, get things right, and patch up the endless trail of damage that he leaves in his wake.

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A wormfull
worm

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Jiggles

A misfit philosopher with a talent
for observation, but a lack of tact.

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“Are teeth bones? Am I brushing my skeleton?!”

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Gettin’
Jiggy

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Jiggles is a cherished member of the gang, even if she never quite manages
to “read the room”. Not that she isn’t perceptive in her way; she has a
Sherlockish ability when it comes to guessing who’s dating who, or who’s an
undercover agent.
Jigs’ strange brain affects her Wormhole Power, so her space-folding abilities
can sometimes manifest in some terrifying anomalies in the timespace
continuum; Jiggles may cause a “boredom field” to warp her surroundings, or
open a rift to 2-dimensional space if she’s feeling a bit flat.
Jiggles may be a bit gangly and awkward, but she certainly isn’t shy, relishing
a poetic turn of phrase!

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Sherm

A teen-scientist of
extraordinary genius!
But he’ll pull the
toaster apart to fix it
before he’s checked it’s
plugged in.

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A world is born

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Sherm idolises the founding worms; great thinkers of Wiggelonian antiquity, and
dreams that, one day, he’ll be held in the same esteem. He approaches all aspects
of life with the scientific method, but his big-thinking tends to omit smaller, everyday
issues which often affect his experiments and inventions.
Sherm loves his buddies; a champion and cheerleader of their efforts. The problem
is, his logical approach isn’t always what’s needed; you can’t fix every problem
with your head.

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Billick has another rough day

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An officious, rule-
mad, gourd and official
Safety Inspector for
the Zooniverse.

BMuerloocnratis

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On literal power trips through the stars, Burocratis puts an end to fun wherever he finds it. The ultimate bureaucrat who
cannot see beyond the rules, even if they don’t have much meaning.

Like all bullies, Burocratis Melon feels small in the world. He will go to any lengths to ensure that his nonsense regulations
are followed. But of course, that’s why our worm trio take up an inordinate amount of his time!

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President Barbara

President of Wiggelon, Mom of Billick,
Worm of Importance

Barb is one of the UPZ’s (United Planets of the Zooniverse) most respected members.
She’s a worm of the people, not afraid to get her hands dirty; she’ll happily don a
hazmat suit and Wormhole onto the toxic surface of some far-flung slime-moon.

Though extremely diplomatic, Barb has a tough job, which means making choices
that aren’t always popular with everyworm. When push comes to shove, this worman
doesn’t suffer fools lightly. Except when their name is Billick.

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It cannot be unseen!

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LeBurp Nanbag

Instead of admiring our trio’s friendship, he’s A handbag-villain filled with lipsticks, tissues,
jealous of it. LeBurp loves them, he hates them, and plans to take over the Zooniverse. Nanbag
and he hates that they don’t love him. He’s the acts all sugarpuffs-and-lavender, but this creature
guy everyone avoids cos he acts like a jerk, so has a shady underbelly, merrily plundering
he feels lonely and hateful, and then acts even planets and thieving resources as she scrambles
worse; the vicious cycle that plagues all the to satisfy her every capricious whim.
unlikeables of the world.

Prof. TMI Toast
Wrof
Wrorry This crumb-droppin’ pal of Jiggles is an overshare
type; TMI = too much information! It’s a “I’m late
This worry-wort prof at Zoo U cos I got stuck in a suitcase. Oh and here’s that
(the prestigious University of the book you lent me, sorry it’s wet, it fell in the toilet”
Zooniverse, located on Wiggelon), kinda thing. Toasty grew up on Wiggelon after
is often approached to help with a being found adrift in the cosmos as a baby-toast.
Sherm-related science blunder. Only She often needs help when her antics get her lost,
the trio know Wrorry’s terrible secret; kidnapped or sucked into a black hole.
when his emotions get the better of
him they cause a ‘Jelly Shot’, jellifying
everything in sight! This makes his lab
conditions more than a little unstable!

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Our Corner of
the Zooniverse

The Planet Wiggelon is home to our heroes; where they live, love and
totally mess with the physical laws of the Zooniverse. Knowledge and
wisdom is revered on Wiggelon; a national characteristic which is reflected
in Wiggelon’s University, Museum and Library (where Sherm volunteers as
a book monitor).

With all that wisdom, Wiggelonians know the value of fun; an ordinary act of crossing the road sees
citizens challenged to an increasingly difficult skipping-rope scenario, and boring old stairs have been
replaced entirely by slides and winches.

Wiggelon’s Forest Moon is a much-enjoyed getaway for the enjoyment of nature and all its wonders. Here,
Wiggelonians may go camping or learn about natural history.

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32 The Statue of Wormity

More on Wiggelon

President Barbara lives and leads in the head of the Statue of Wormity, a figure of a
Founding Worm, the revered Wiggelonian heroes of old.
Near to this monument, is the trio’s HQ, an architectural
wonder of bubbles and spheres. The trio are housemates in this
epic digs, not always co-habiting in perfect harmony as Jiggles
can get a bit grumps in the morning if Billick wakes her up too
early, laser-skeet-shooting bread to make toast, for example.

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Wormholes

Wiggelonians are capable of wiggling at
a certain frequency which open portals in
space! Wormholes themselves almost never
behave perfectly; Billick usually wiggles
his wormholes open a little high off the
ground, and he’s gotten used to face-plants
upon arrival.

As a whole, Wiggelonians use Wormhole
Power for high-minded, noble endeavours
such as exploration and cross-cultural
exchanges throughout the Zooniverse, but
also for near-instant pizza delivery, and
using spatial rifts for mid-day nap spots.

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Astro-Funsics

Just as physics (regular, quantum and astro)
governs the laws of our own universe, so astro-
funsics governs the laws of the Zooniverse.
Each Wormholes episode is inspired by some
apparently absurd quantum truth, such as the
fact that there is (probably) an infinite number of
universes existing side by side: Finally, a way to
enjoy all your social engagements! Or: You might
not be able to go faster than light, but does that
mean you should just give up in the run-up to the
annual marathon?

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WEoprismohdoeless

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The Sockhops of Chestadraws (Pilot)

Entrusted with the job of leading this year’s annual Worm Pride Parade, Billick is
swept up by the cool moves of Wiggelonian dancers. He tries to pull his own groove
but horrifies the audience with his terrible dancing. He’s very embarrassed seeing his
mom’s awkward face on all the jumbotrons (she’s the President of Wiggelon!), but
Jiggles and Sherm offer a solution. They will take him to Planet Sockhop, interpretive
dance centre of the Zooniverse, where he will learn to dance in no time.

Upon arrival, Billick tries to copy the Sockhoppian dance moves by using his brain to
analyse and mimic the dance, thereby breaking the sensitive laws of Sockhoppian physics, which rely on heartwaves,
not brainwaves to maintain stability. In the unstable environment, Billick’s flux-related terrible-dance-move causes a
devastating hurricane on the planet, the winds tearing the pairs of socks apart. Burocratis Melon arrives, announcing
that he shall ban dancing forever; a massive blow to the Sockhops who use their heartwave dance to draw themselves to
their matching counterpart (the pairs are forever getting separated). He
installs a “dance monitor” on the wall; when it detects dancing, it shoots
out an immobilization ray, rendering the dancer paralysed!

Billick must now find a way to quell the gales and defy the rule-mad
melon before he destroys love on the planet forever! Jiggles distracts
the Melon while Billick discovers how to dance with his heart. But the
Melon escapes Jiggles’ distraction just as Billick is getting the hang of it!
Burocratis activates the dance monitor but Billick is so bad, it responds
with, “no dancing detected.” Now Billick is free to use his heart dancing
to fix the Sockhoppian atmosphere!

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Ice Cream for the Ice Creamless

In deep space, the villainous Nanbag feels run down. It’s time to go on the “ultimate holiday”; perhaps a lovely
break on Wiggelon? She dismisses the idea because, hoo boy, it’s hot down there! Worms are taking strain in an
unprecedented heatwave. Sherm and Jigs peel a sticky Billick off the walls and he whispers hoarsely for ice cream.
Arriving at the local dairy parlour, Billick loses control, desperately binging on the frozen treat. He’s pleasantly
cooled, but soon realises he’s eaten ALL the ice cream on Wiggelon! Worms jostle in an angry mob, accusing Billick
of being the most selfish worm in history.

Consumed with guilt, Billick has an idea; Ice Cream for the Ice Creamless! Free ice cream for everyone forever! This
is his chance to make Wiggelon a better place; he’ll be a national hero! Billick wiggles open a Wormhole between
Wiggelon and the udders of the giant shiver cow, source of the coldest, sweetest ice cream in the Zooniverse. Ice
cream pours forth and Wiggelon is inundated. Delighted worms gulp handfuls of the ice cream filling parks and
streets. It seems idyllic, until a pandemic of ice cream headaches strike. The nation falls apart as worms collapse
from crippling brainfreeze. Even President Barb is immobilised! As civilisation begins to fall,
Billick closes the wormhole, hoping that the sun will melt the ice cream and things will return
to normal. But no dice! A huge shadow is cast over the entire planet by... a gargantuan
pine tree?

Nanbag has dragged a cosmic spruce in front of the sun so the ice cream will never melt!
She’s delighted; this is her chance for a wonderful aspen-style getaway. She can ski and
drink hot chocolate and just take it easy. The trio are unable to move the tree on their own,
and must now turn to their great nemesis, Burocratis Melon. With his begrudging help, the
group enlists the giant shiver cow once more, to graze on the cosmic spruce until the rays of
sun can reach the planet’s surface!

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Another power trip through the cosmos

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Entangled

Some much needed chores need doing around the HQ, and Jiggles is utterly disinterested. How boring! She’s a
worm of excitement, interested in really wild things! Billick and Sherm remain upbeat; housework can be fun when
you’re doing it with friends - even TMI Toast jumps on the chore train. Jigs says she’ll have way more fun by herself,
and wormholes right on outta there. It doesn’t take long for her to find some mischief. Burocratis Melon has gotten a
new hat, and because of it, feels he’s finally, “getting some respect around here”. Jiggles shoots it with a sucker tip
arrow; it gets knocked off and he loses it in a black hole!

The Melon darkens, vowing to bring the culprit to justice. Jiggles tries to evade him, but Burocratis soon identifies
her as the malefactor. As a punishment, he quantum-entangles himself with her. This unique torture means that Jigs
is forced, on a subatomic level, to act in exactly the same way as Burocratis; stand up, sit down, write reports, check
boxes! Jiggles, reaching epic levels of boredom, cannot help it when her space-bending wormhole powers go
awry. She manages to quantum-disentangle herself from Burocratis… by entangling him with the entire population
of Wiggelon instead! Now everyone except Jigs must do as Burocratis does; file
paperwork, and read books about regulation pipe sizes for plumbing. It’s bad.
Burocratis is unaware of the entanglement shift, so it’s time for Jiggles to have
some fun. Enjoying the game of it all, Jigs secretly makes Burocratis do all sorts of
funny things, watching the entire population of Wiggelon, including Billick, Sherm
and TMI Toast, follow suit like a bunch of zombies.

But it doesn’t take long for Jigs to realise that now that Wiggelon is just made up
of mindless shadows, she has nobody to have fun with. She’s all alone which is
way worse than being bored! Now she needs to figure out how to disentangle
everyone safely and get her friends back, and she’ll do any amount of chores to
make it happen.

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Time to Shine

Billick and Jiggles have formed themselves into a song-styling duo, and are extremely excited in the run up to Wiggelon’s
National Talent Contest. Billick wants to show his singing has improved since the last Talent Contest debacle, and Jiggles
has succumbed to her competitive tendencies. The show is to be held in the nation’s Wormity Plaza beneath the Statue
of Wormity. However it’s overcast, and the pair worry that it will rain and the whole thing will be cancelled. Jiggles
and Billick convince Sherm to create some sort of cloud-melter solution, which they deploy in the upper atmosphere. As
the clouds sizzle away, the sun is revealed having a nice, relaxing bath. The old burner is furious! He just wants some
privacy!

The next morning the worms oversleep, waking up late to darkness. Going to investigate, they find a letter from the sun,
“gone forevs”. Now, plunged into darkness, the entire fate of the planet’s crops and economy are at stake. Burocratis
steps in to interview for replacements. But Billick, feeling responsible for this huge mess-up, says they must go on a quest to
bring back their sun. They struggle to find the old guy but with the help of a perky, if somewhat volatile, young sun, they
do find him. Billick discovers that Wiggelon’s sun has become a supergiant, and more than a little insane (“Imma go out
in a blaze of glory, hear?!”). Upon returning, they find Burocratis
has hired the worst, most insipid sun imaginable, a pale, surly dude
incapable of a lovely summer’s day.

Now it’s up to Billick to convince his mom that Wiggelon needs
his young sun friend to take up the position; he might be a bit
unpredictable, but he has a good heart and a fiery passion to
shine! Pres Barb agrees to a compromise, a binary star system for
Wiggelon. The Day of the Talent Contest arrives and they have
double sunshine for the occasion!

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Mirror Mirror

The amazing President Barbara has smartly avoided a war-like race from invading Wiggelon by wrangling a prized
peace offering; an ancient artefact from her adversary’s history. Billick thinks he might get the chance to hand the
artefact over, as he is a very responsible worm and is convinced his mom sees that. Practicing for the big moment,
Billick breaks the artefact (“Errr, does this mean war?). Worse, Burocratis sees the whole thing and goes off to write
up a report and tell on them to Barbara (not that it means anything now since they’ll all be blasted to goo once their
enemies arrive).

Billick pleads with Sherm to jiggle time around to fix the problem. Sherm warns Billick that things can go wrong
when you mess with time. Eventually he acquiesces however, and uses his science skills to create a mirror-field where
time travels backwards around the artefact in order for it to remake itself. But Sherm gets it wrong! He mistakenly
transports them to a mirror universe where time travels backwards! Though
the shards of the artefact do, in fact, remake themselves, they are involved in
a collision with their backwards selves, and are catapulted back to their own
Zooniverse, seemingly in good health. Though they now have a fixed
artefact, they soon realise that they have brought home the wrong
Sherm! Backwards Sherm uneats a sandwich which unmakes
itself!

Now Burocratis is bent on stopping this backwards force in
the Zooniverse, and locks backwards Sherm up. Sherm is the
only one with the sciencey skills needed to return to the mirror
universe, but the not-so-clued-up Billick and Jiggles have to figure
out what to do to get their friend back from another universe.

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Star Babies

Billick becomes besotted with a giant amoeba, taking it in to be his new pet. Jigs and Sherm flashback to a series of
disasters involving Billick’s previous pets; a disappearing-reappearing face scorpion, a slime-producing hagfish in the
bath, a fire-loving tardigrade etc. All occasions when Billick bit off more than he could chew. But Billick is indignant,
so Sherm and Jigs suggest he can keep the amoeba if he manages one day of babysitting for newborn stars at a
nearby stellar-nursery. Off he wormholes (immediately forgetting the amoeba with Sherm and Jigs).

Billick is struck by the awe-inspiring beauty of the star nursery as he reports for duty. But spying some suspicious-
looking space surveyors, Billick discovers a nefarious secret. A nebula-sized mall is going up and the developers
haven’t done a thorough environmental evaluation of the area. The mall will plow right over the nursery filled with
mischievous baby stars! Billick can’t leave the babies, but needs to get the word out. He fails to contact Sherm
and Jigs who have their hands full wrangling the giant amoeba. He then tries TMI Toast, the most useless of all his
buds. Now TMI must venture to the Labyrinthine Melon Cabinet to file the relevant forms to have the whole situation
reassessed. After a series of blunders on her part (getting sucked into a black
hole, then setting some documents on fire etc), Billick must go to her aid. Now
playing the role of ‘frazzled mom’, Billick gets a sense of what it’s like for Jigs
and Sherm to manage his daily blooper reel.

The day is saved by the most unlikely contenders; Billick’s lack of parenting
skills triggers the star babies to evolve and mature into red giants, using their
solar flares to chase the developers away. Billick agrees that maybe a pet isn’t
the way to go, to a relieved Jigs and Sherm.

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Baloonius Prime

A confused Billick returns from grocery shopping anxious and without his favourite salty snack; popcorn. Billick is
not the only concerned citizen; there seems to be a planet-wide popcorn famine! Sherm receives a call from his idol,
eminent professor, Wroff Wrorry, who has been engaged to investigate the calamity. He enlists Sherm’s genius,
needing all the help he can get. An excited Sherm arrives on the Zoo U campus, where a diverse bunch of creatures
and inter-dimensional beings are hard at work with their studies. But investigating the popcorn dearth, Sherm and
Wrorry are driven nutso by incessant popping noises booming about the campus!

Wrorry insists they need perfect conditions in the lab; quiet, and free-from-interruption, and
orders Sherm to lay a noise complaint. Sherm is uneasy but sends an email to Burocratis Melon
with the grievance. The Melon returns with the news that the culprits have been found. A group
of balloon students from Balloonius Prime have been popping due to the stress of exam season.
They have all been expelled and banished forever. Billick is horrified by the injustice, but Sherm
is torn between the Balloons and his work with Wrorry. Now Wroff and Sherm have peace and
quiet; perfect conditions for a eureka moment, and yet Sherm can’t concentrate.

He realises he needs to do the right thing, and wormholes to Balloonius Prime to help the
expelled balloons protest the unfair expulsion. In this chaotic, gaseous place, Sherm makes a
strange discovery. The gas that permeates this place causes the popcorn kernels in his pocket
to pop pop pop! Returning to Wrorry, Sherm is triumphant, announcing that science is loud and
messy! Much to the Melon’s chagrin, grateful Wiggelonians now enlist the Balloon beings to pop
all they like all over the popcorn fields, so that their gas may invigorate the popcorn harvest.

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The Pranksters of Prankerion

Diplomats from Prankerion arrive on Wiggelon for a summit. At the press conference, their cultural attaché pranks
President Barbara hard (as a cultural exchange). Barbs laughs it off for the cameras, but through gritted teeth. LeBurp
thinks this is hilarious, records the whole thing on his phone and releases a meme about it which goes viral. Billick
becomes concerned that his mom has been humiliated and decides that in order to defend her honour, it’s up to him
to prank back the Prankerions, convinced it’s what Barb secretly wants him to do.

Gathering the gang, and dressed in a ninja outfit, Billick sneaks through a wormhole, pranking the cultural attaché
wormhole-style. It doesn’t take long for the worms to realise that pranking the pranksters of Prankerion wasn’t the best
idea, for one prank begets another. The prank wars escalate, with more and more of the Wiggelonian population
getting involved. It turns out, Billick doesn’t enjoy this cultural practice at all! He feels guilty and sorry for all his
pranks. But he must do it… for the honour of mom! Burocratis is at his wit’s end trying to mop up all the messes and
file the correct paperwork on the myriad regulation infringements committed by both sides. President Barbara now
launches an investigation as to who is leading this prankster army and is horrified when she discovers it’s her son!
She demands he stop; citing that this prank escalation is the very reason that she never retaliates. Billick can’t believe
it - he’s been trying to please his mom all this time, when he should have just been listening to his own instincts.
Pranks seem so mean!

But now the prank wars only intensify, getting way out of control; the
Prankerions threaten to send real weapons to Wiggelon (as a prank of
course). Now the worms need to figure out how to end the prank war
and maintain diplomatic ties with these culturally complex Prankerions.

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About Lucy Heavens...

I created Wormholes to spread good feels about science, and to do some epic animation! Science is so fun and
weird, (and deeply profound - lolz, science, you so cray).

I think kids are receptive to the BIG ideas about how the universe works when they’re somehow familiar.
And those ideas are wondrous and astonishing AND hilarious and absurd! They’re ideas that help kiddoes
understand the magic of the world around them. Someone should totes make a cartoon about it. Cos cartoons
are the best.

Our hero, Billick, is an emotional guy, filled with energy and hope. I think that, despite the fact he’s a bit of an
idiot, he’s actually kind of a cool role-model too, who’s rewarded for his curiosity and kindness. And that’s how
it should be!

I hope you enjoyed the read. Have a great day, nerds.

PrBeasridbearnat Sherm Billick TToMasI t Jiggles WWrroofrfry Nanbag LeBurp BurMocerlaotnis

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Created by: Lucy Heavens
Art by: Matt Torode

Developed with