Coma: TV series
LOGLINE: When her twin brother wakes after five years in a coma, Abi's stubborn refusal to give up on him is finally vindicated. But as seemingly impossible resurrections coincide with disturbing events around the world, she sets out to discover what's really happening to Gus and the others.
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Drama
10 x 60′ TV drama
Written by K.J.Heritage
PILOT: 'Stirrings'
Mysterious awakenings and unexplained transformations - a sci-fi thriller weaving personal crises with a hidden global threat.
In the US, the brain-damaged, comatose twin brother of a young lawyer is starting to recover, to the consternation of his doctors.
In a remote region of Northern Kenya, a meningitis outbreak is killing teenagers, but one such teen wakes up after being declared dead.
In the French Alps, a seasoned skier makes an inexplicable escape from a deadly avalanche.
And in Papua New Guinea, a pair of amateur rare bird podcasters make an astounding discovery in a mountainside forest.
Four events, all with different circumstances, that have nothing obvious in common, beyond the fact that they involve inexplicable events.
For the families involved and the rest of the world, these are extraordinary stories with happy endings.
But this is just the beginning...
Writer statement for COMA
The idea for COMA began with a simple question: what if people who should never recover suddenly started doing just that?
I liked the idea that people would initially see these events as miracles. For Abi, whose twin brother has spent five years in a coma, it’s the answer to everything she’s ever hoped for. She is not interested in the how or the why, just in the outcome: a miraculous recovery. And why would she question something she’s spent years hoping for? And she isn’t alone. Equally inexplicable events unfold in Kenya, the French Alps, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere.
What troubles me is how the word ‘miracle’ is applied so easily and readily by those wanting to believe, and how readily they will accept the inexplicable when it gives them something they desperately want. Especially when that something is the return of someone they love.
Equally fascinating is the messy human response to the inexplicable, the seemingly desperate need to make everything fit inside their particular ideology. As news of these events spreads, people suspect they might be connected. And as the global significance of these ‘happenings’ grows, humans start to interpret them through the lens of existing belief.
I’ve always enjoyed writing mysteries where viewers/readers suspect something is wrong long before the characters do. When writing COMA, I took that unease and spread it around the world, but wanted Abi to remain its emotional centre. Her relationship with her brother gives the wider mystery a personal dimension, and her determination to believe in his recovery makes her eventual doubts all the more difficult. There’s still plenty of scope for drama, more inexplicable events and black humour.
What particularly interests me is the change in Abi herself. Initially, she has no reason to question what has happened to her brother. But as she begins to notice things that don’t fit, she finds herself questioning the very thing she’s spent years hoping for. And it’s her relationship with Gus, and the extraordinary bond between them, that I wanted to remain at the emotional heart of COMA, even as the story develops into something far more sinister.
About K.J. Heritage
K.J. Heritage (Kev) is a bestselling British author of mystery science fiction, crime, action-adventure and epic fantasy.
His fiction blends suspense, pace, big ideas and dark wit. His first short story, Escaping the Cradle, was runner-up in the Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction Competition, and his short fiction has appeared in anthologies alongside writers including Hugh Howey (Silo/Wool) and Samuel Peralta (The Future Chronicles).
His story Churchill’s Rock, from Chronicle Worlds: Legacy Fleet, travelled to the Moon as part of the Lunar Codex Peregrine mission in 2024.