You have to imagine this episode being accompanied by Also sprach Zarathustra.

My first idea for the episode was a long series of panels where nothing actually happens but it looks fantastic!

Panel 1: A solid black monolith stands among vegetation, framed and back-lit by the sunrise.

Caption:

Earth, four million years ago.

Panel 2: The scene pans out and a solitary monkey approaches the monolith. Next to the monkey are a couple of bleached-white bones.

Panel 3: Close-up of the base of the monolith, where the monkey is now standing up-right on its back-legs. The monkey is holding one of the bones and is bashing it against the monolith.

Panel 4: The scene pans out again and we see the monolith has fallen on top of the monkey, crushing it. There are two off-screen voices, implied to be coming from the sky, or maybe even space.

Off-screen Voice #1:

Aww nuts! Not again.

Off-screen Voice #2:

I told you the foundations ought to be deeper. Let's try a different planet.