New screenplay tells the story of famous West Lothian UFO encounter ( msn )

 A talented writer has penned a screenplay telling the story of the day aliens were said to have visited West Lothian.

James Turner has written a feature film script about the notorious case in 1979 when West Lothian man Robert Taylor claimed he was attacked by aliens.

And the screenplay – ‘The Robert Taylor Incident’ was named a finalist in the Page Turner Screenplay Awards 2021 – one of the top six screenwriting competitions in the world.

In a story worthy of the ‘X-Files’, Bob Taylor claimed to have come face-to-face with alien life after he was confronted by a UFO at Dechmont Law woods in Livingston, claiming he had encountered a metallic sphere hovering in a clearing in the woods.

He said that as he approached it, two smaller spheres emerged and started to drag him towards the object before he lost consciousness.

Police investigating the incident found unusual marks in the clearing that did not match any known vehicle and tests on his clothes showed it was likely they had been ripped by a sharp upward pull, such as a mechanical device.

The case has become well-known around the world, featuring on Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World, the BBC One Show, Quest TV, Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

Author Malcolm Robinson also released a book in 2018 on the 40th anniversary of the mysterious event.

James, who is director of Ironstone Films, producing literary content for the screen, obtained exclusive rights to the feature-length scripted screenplay after striking a deal with Robinson.

He said he has always been fascinated by the case and his screenplay is loosely based on Robinson’s journal ‘The Dechmont Woods UFO Incident’ which features witness testimonies from the time.

James said the screenplay features flashbacks and material that will leave it up to the reader whether they think Bob really did encounter alien life that day.

He told the Courier: "I used to camp out with my friends at the exact location of where the plaque to Robert Taylor is where we would have a campfire and tell stories about aliens and talk about movies we liked.

"I was always into the story but I never saw myself as a professional screenwriter.

"I never considered myself professional enough to write it until after I got my qualifications in screenwriting and had good experience writing my own stuff. I also had to do some research on spiritualism and be confident enough to approach Malcolm Robinson who had the rights to the published testimonies and real persons accounts which is from his novel 'The Dechmont Woods UFO Incident'."Spiritualism is new to me and it was a pleasure interviewing Ann Treherne who is the chair of the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre in Edinburgh about the subject, which features in the story because ultimately the story is about the bigger themes of the universe, did god create aliens? Are aliens responsible for religion? etc. Malcolm is a spiritualist in real life. Ann attended the Scottish UFO and Paranormal conference last year when Malcolm won the Tartan Skull Award at the event for his life long career in pursuing the unknown."

James said he also wanted to tie in themes with the script about mental illness.

He continued: "Robert Taylor was not mentally ill in any way and people wrongly labelled him as someone who had hallucinated the entire event. However, there are many people who have wrongly been put in psychiatric wards for saying similar things about UFO's whether they are mentally ill or not and been dismissed out of hand or been stigmatized as a result of it.

“The story accounts for the forensic evidence that was gathered by the police, it might have not been a flashback from the war, the UFO might have been real.

"Malcolm Robinson features in the story as a rookie paranormal detective who investigates a conspiracy and discovers revelations about the psychiatric patients at the nearby Bangour Hospital.

“He consulted a whistleblower in real life that alluded to secret bunkers underneath the area including the hospital itself."

He continued: "I believe the event could be real only because of the evidence gathered by the forensics. There was indentations and marks in the soil where the object had to weigh more than several metric tons to make the compressions.

"The tears in Bob's clothes were not caused by a snag or by burning, the clothing was pierced forcibly.

"There is no evidence to prove the the thing was a hallucination and there was no track marks going from and to a place from where the landing marks in the soil was found. I was trying to tie in the comment that the police might have gathered more evidence to prove aliens landed in Dechmont than some of the cases that they were pursuing."Also, some of the theories offered to disprove the UFO story are more unbelievable and unprovable than the simple fact that we might have had visitors from outer space here. It might scare people if the government was to suddenly say it was true, which is maybe why the subject about the UFO incident in Dechmont remains unsolved.

"The story has also made me question some of the things certain scientists say because they might be covering up evidence that other scientists have obtained to prove the unbelievable. ".

"It was a pleasure working on the script for the Robert Taylor Incident, it's an amazing story and it is unbelievable it hasn't been made into a film yet."

James is no stranger to success when it comes to script writing.

He co-produced short films that have gone on to win awards, most notably ‘Deadly Ground’ which won the Gold Award at the Neo Noir Film Festival in Los Angeles.

James said he likes to write crime scripts that may have a social-realist and/or supernatural edge to them and his influences range from Quentin Tarantino and the Coens to Paul Laverty.

And while he missed out on the top prize at the Page Turner Screenplay Awards 2021, he said he was happy to be nominated along with many other talented submissions.

Debbie Hall 

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