Introduce Yourself : Author and Screenwriter from Dagestan — Introducing THE MISSING CONDITION by Davud Zulumkhanov

Davud Zulumkhanov, welcome to Stage 32. THE MISSING CONDITION sounds like a fascinating concept, especially the idea of using quantum science to preserve a father’s voice and then opening the door to something much bigger. I really like that you’re grounding the science fiction in grief and unfinished human wishes that gives the story an emotional hook beyond the science. Wishing you the best with the pilot and connecting with the right producers and managers....

Clarke, thank you so much — I really appreciate you taking the time to read the pitch closely enough to catch the grief/quantum-science balance, that's exactly the hook I was going for with THE MISSING CONDITION. The idea grew out of wanting to explore consent and unfinished conversations through hard science fiction rather than pure horror.

One structural note that might interest you: across the season's eight episodes, each one runs a biblical apocrypha alongside the modern plot — not as decoration, but as a parallel investigation. The ancient story examines a human relationship (a father's blessing, a broken vow, a mother's claim), and the lab story examines a quantum uncertainty, and by the end of the episode the two turn out to be asking the same question from different centuries. It's been one of the more rewarding things to build.

Still finding my footing on Stage 32 — happy to connect and hear more about your own work if you're open to it.

Best,

Davud

Welcome Davud Zulumkhanov ! I hope you'll join us at our upcoming webcasts in the Writers' Room. Sign up for a Free Month of the Writers’ Room: https://www.stage32.com/writers-room/plans-vip

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Fascinating concept, Davud! The combination of science fiction with such a deeply human theme sounds very compelling. Wishing you success with The Missing Condition!

Zoltán, thank you — glad the concept resonates. At its core, the show is an attempt to solve the mysteries of sacred scripture and the mysteries of quantum mechanics within a single unified theory, one in which the human being is the builder of the world — both the spiritual world and the physical one.

I saw you work in international sales and acquisitions at Evrit — curious what theme is really attracting buyers in your markets these days.

Best,

Davud

That structure actually makes the concept even more interesting. I like the idea of the apocryphal stories functioning as a genuine parallel investigation rather than just mythology layered on top of the science fiction. If each episode arrives at the same question from two completely different worlds, that could give the season a really strong thematic thread. Can you DM.....

Hey @David great to hear from you! What inspired you to writer THE MISSING CONDITION?

Pat, thank you for asking. The project began with a personal question: what remains of a person after death—their voice, memories, unfinished words—and whether technology can preserve a presence without replacing the person it represents.

The project also grew out of a theory of abstraction that I have been developing for nearly two decades. It attempts to address two connected questions: what a human being is and how human evolution has unfolded—not only biologically, but cognitively and socially. Among other things, the theory offers a paradoxical reading of the first chapter of Genesis: not only as an account of the creation of the world, but as a description of how human consciousness learned to distinguish, name, and thereby construct the world it perceives.

I wanted to turn these ideas into an intimate story: a physicist grieving his father undertakes a single experiment born of compassion—and opens a much larger conflict about consent, faith, and the boundary between a human being and their digital sign.

Welcome, Davud, and congrats on getting THE MISSING CONDITION out into the world. The premise has a genuinely compelling core, using a quantum experiment to preserve a father's voice, only to awaken something that fulfills the unfinished wishes of the dead, gives you both a hard sci-fi hook and an intimate grief story underneath it, which is exactly the kind of dual engine elevated sci-fi needs to work. Grief, unfinished business, and the ethics of technology that can grant wishes is rich territory, especially adapted from a novel where you've presumably already worked through the emotional architecture.

The line between "intelligence that fulfills wishes" and "monkey's paw" is probably the most interesting tension to manage carefully as the pilot unfolds, since that's usually where philosophical sci-fi either earns its ideas or tips into gimmick. Sounds like you're aware of that balance already given how you're framing it.

Happy to read pages and trade thoughtful feedback if you're looking to engage with other writers' work, and I'm a professional script editor as well if you ever want a more structural pass on the pilot itself. Wishing you good connections here, the concept has real potential to stand out.