What would you remove to start over

[PennLady]

So I'm a fan of "Walking Dead," and wondered at various points why no one referred to the monsters as "zombies." It's mostly "walkers," occasionally "biters." Is this a world without George Romero, I wondered.

Well, yes, basically it is, according to a statement I read by the creator of the series, Robert Kirkman. He said that he didn't want everyone to know what to do when the zombie apocalypse came; they had to learn from scratch, even learn that the only way to stop them is to destroy their brain. So no, there are no zombie movies, etc., in the Walking Dead universe.

With that in mind, what basic element would you take away if you were constructing a universe? Not necessarily in the horror vein, but that'd work, too. But... what if air travel hadn't been invented yet? And not just not invented, but hadn't occurred to anyone to try?

 

[patientlee]

That is an interesting question. I am going to think about that one. I've never tried to write anything like that. (Although when I read The Handmaid's Tale recently, I thought that if I would write an alternate reality, it would have been like that. Too bad it's already been done.)

So I'm a fan of "Walking Dead," and wondered at various points why no one referred to the monsters as "zombies." It's mostly "walkers," occasionally "biters." Is this a world without George Romero, I wondered.

Well, yes, basically it is, according to a statement I read by the creator of the series, Robert Kirkman. He said that he didn't want everyone to know what to do when the zombie apocalypse came; they had to learn from scratch, even learn that the only way to stop them is to destroy their brain. So no, there are no zombie movies, etc., in the Walking Dead universe.

With that in mind, what basic element would you take away if you were constructing a universe? Not necessarily in the horror vein, but that'd work, too. But... what if air travel hadn't been invented yet? And not just not invented, but hadn't occurred to anyone to try?

 

[elfin_odalisque]

So I'm a fan of "Walking Dead," and wondered at various points why no one referred to the monsters as "zombies." It's mostly "walkers," occasionally "biters." Is this a world without George Romero, I wondered.

Well, yes, basically it is, according to a statement I read by the creator of the series, Robert Kirkman. He said that he didn't want everyone to know what to do when the zombie apocalypse came; they had to learn from scratch, even learn that the only way to stop them is to destroy their brain. So no, there are no zombie movies, etc., in the Walking Dead universe.

With that in mind, what basic element would you take away if you were constructing a universe? Not necessarily in the horror vein, but that'd work, too. But... what if air travel hadn't been invented yet? And not just not invented, but hadn't occurred to anyone to try?

Light. Our whole planet revolves around sight and light.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I think a lot of us are actually doing it already. Almost all of my stories are set in a world without STDs. That's a world I'd like to live in.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

I've thought about writing a story set in a reality where no one dies, ever, for any reason. What would we do with the sheet mass of humanity? How awful it would be to live in a world without death. What new atrocities would we commit? Would we hurdle the unwanted into space? Box them and bury them in the ground? There would simply not be enough space. What happens to the belief in love when every romance is tested by eternity?

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I've thought about writing a story set in a reality where no one dies, ever, for any reason. What would we do with the sheet mass of humanity? How awful it would be to live in a world without death. What new atrocities would we commit? Would we hurdle the unwanted into space? Box them and bury them in the ground? There would simply not be enough space. What happens to the belief in love when every romance is tested by eternity?

Torchwood: Miracle Day

 

[drinkz]

......

 

[SandraMustard]

Not exactly remove but modify: our sense of sight. Instead of registering in the visible light range, we see infrared thru xray. Imagine the effect on sex.

 

[StrangeLife]

Clothes....


Or maybe religion...

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Torchwood: Miracle Day

I've never seen it. British television leaves me cold for some reason. I think it's the production value. Oddly enough, I love old movies.

Still, I assure you, however, that I did not, for one second, think this was an absolutely original idea. It's too grand in scheme. Doesn't mean it can't be good or successful. The Walking Dead, which inspired this thread, is anything but original in concept, but execution is everything.

An original idea...hmmm...How about a world in which scientists have gentically engineered panda bears to be more fertile and plenteous, but something goes terribly wrong, and the black and white bandits overproduce and become intelligent, banding together into an extremest terrorist, group, which only one man can stop: hard-drinking, ex-cop, John McClane. Don't miss this summer's blockbuster starring an aging Bruce Willis who, despite the wrinkles, still only seems capable of two facial expressions in, "Dye Hard: Black and White and Red All-Over".

 

[MrFoxwood]

Containers. Yep. I started writing a story about this years ago, about this couple living in a world where there were no containers of any description. I wasn't really sure where it was going but I wanted them to decide to have a baby and then go through this insane sequence of growing a baby without a womb or petri dish or anything, just having it growing on the rug in their house. I think I stopped when I couldn't decide if a house qualified as a container or not, and that made me question the whole womb thing too.

I was a teenager at the time and reading a lot of Will Self.

 

[StrangeLife]

I've never seen it. British television leaves me cold for some reason. I think it's the production value. Oddly enough, I love old movies.

You might want to check out Torchwood some day. We don't have anything like it in the US. The closest match would be an adult version of Warehouse 13 where everybody was sleeping with everybody...


http://coveofsolitude.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/torchwood-the-members-of-torchwood-subject-to-change.jpg

 

[PennLady]

I've never seen it. British television leaves me cold for some reason. I think it's the production value. Oddly enough, I love old movies.

The production values have improved immensely from the old Doctor Who days.

But in "Miracle Day," people stop dying, which means you have a double whammy of people not dying, and people continuing to be born.

What I was thinking about was more like the TWD premise, though. Not something that changes in the world, something that never was and suddenly is. Because it has other implications. For example, the concept of zombies comes from places like Haiti and beliefs like voodoo. So, does Haiti exist in this universe? Does voodoo? If yes to both, does this version of voodoo just not include the idea of zombies?

I'm drawing a blank on it myself. Although vampires is probably another obvious example. Suppose we didn't have that mythology, no tales that tell you to dispose of them via sunlight or a stake to the heart. No Buffy.Then something happens and vampires are now real. People would have to discover how to kill them. Would the even call them vampires?

 

[PennLady]

You might want to check out Torchwood some day. We don't have anything like it in the US. The closest match would be an adult version of Warehouse 13 where everybody was sleeping with everybody...


http://coveofsolitude.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/torchwood-the-members-of-torchwood-subject-to-change.jpg

"Children of Earth" and "Miracle Day" were probably the best of Torchwood, although I enjoyed the more traditional seasons as well. The rebooted Battlestar Galactica might be close in a spiritual sense, since that was definitely geared toward adults too.

 

[Hypoxia]

Imagine a world without banjos. Oh, the horror...

I won't suggest totally impossible absences. A world without bugs and disease and pain and death would quickly self-extinguish. Humanity without greed, hate, violence wouldn't be human. A world without photons would be awfully dark and lonely.

So let's look at worlds without specific discoveries and inventions. If Michaelson and Morley (or anyone else) hadn't discovered that light had a fixed speed, we wouldn't have modern physics and electronics. No pocket computers nor internet. If Hobie Alters hadn't figured how to cover foam blanks with fibreglas, we wouldn't have surfing culture. If Albert Hoffman hadn't worked on psychedelics... well, hell, a whole generation of heads would have gone un-turned.

Imagine a world without beers. Oh, the horror...

 

[AMoveableBeast]

A world without art, where no one, ever, had the urge or desire to depict anything. Blank cave walls and undecorated houses. In that world, Hitler sucked at dentistry before going all tiny-mustache-big-ideas on everybody. Wait. Does a mustache count as art? Am I a poem? I'm going all post-modern narcoleptic over here. Zzzzzzz. Nothing matters. Zzzzz.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Why take something away?

How about a world where everyone knew exactly what was going to happen next. Everyone! Would there be any point in living?

 

[StrangeLife]

"Children of Earth" and "Miracle Day" were probably the best of Torchwood, although I enjoyed the more traditional seasons as well. The rebooted Battlestar Galactica might be close in a spiritual sense, since that was definitely geared toward adults too.

The conclusion of Children Of Earth was probably the most haunting dilemma I have seen since The Mist... and that's saying something. And Miracle day didn't pull any punches either. The problem is, that the US TV viewers expect fast moving action with feel-good endings.

But the big problem is, that they kinda did away with the kinky sex of the two first seasons in order to placate the US primetime audience. I mean, Eve Myles making out with a lesbian alien who fucks guys to death for food? Or John Barrowman fighting and subsequently gaying it up with James Marsters? Or Barrowman's bi lover who keep his ex, an insane cyberwoman, trapped in the basement? Without that kind of kinky weird stuff, it's not really Torchwood y'know...

 

[49greg]

No seasons. The earth rotates at exactly 90 degrees to the plane of its orbit, and the orbit is an exact circle. No changes in the seasons. No winter, no summer, no spring or fall.

 

[Swilly]

Here's an interesting one considering the site we're on. No sexes. Reproduction is sexless and solitary. Remember the Seinfeld episode where George gives up sex and becomes a genius? Who knows what mankind could accomplish in such a world! Wouldn't be much fun, though.

 

[StrangeLife]

Here's an interesting one considering the site we're on. No sexes. Reproduction is sexless and solitary. Remember the Seinfeld episode where George gives up sex and becomes a genius? Who knows what mankind could accomplish in such a world! Wouldn't be much fun, though.

Kill me now.

 

[Swilly]

Lol. Evil geniuses would figure out something!

 

[MrFoxwood]

The conclusion of Children Of Earth was probably the most haunting dilemma I have seen since The Mist... and that's saying something. And Miracle day didn't pull any punches either. The problem is, that the US TV viewers expect fast moving action with feel-good endings.

But the big problem is, that they kinda did away with the kinky sex of the two first seasons in order to placate the US primetime audience. I mean, Eve Myles making out with a lesbian alien who fucks guys to death for food? Or John Barrowman fighting and subsequently gaying it up with James Marsters? Or Barrowman's bi lover who keep his ex, an insane cyberwoman, trapped in the basement? Without that kind of kinky weird stuff, it's not really Torchwood y'know...

I never watched Torchwood, mostly because Barrowman pissed me off, but now I feel like I should, the first two seasons at least.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

The production values have improved immensely from the old Doctor Who days.

I don't see the point of Dr Who without that obnoxious song from the Tom Baker days (I think it was Tom Baker). Obnoxious, yes, but I haven't heard it in almost twenty years and can still bring the tune into my mind on cue.

What I was thinking about was more like the TWD premise, though. Not something that changes in the world, something that never was and suddenly is.

I'm honestly thinking extraterrestrials. Imagine if there was no Area 51 controversy, and we no films or books to draw our attention to the idea, then they showed up. What would the reaction be, and what expectations would we really have of them? We would have no reference, real or fictitious, of what they might look like.

Q_C

 

[PennLady]

I don't see the point of Dr Who without that obnoxious song from the Tom Baker days (I think it was Tom Baker). Obnoxious, yes, but I haven't heard it in almost twenty years and can still bring the tune into my mind on cue.

They still use the same basic theme on the new Dr Who series. It changes a little with every Doctor, but it always has.

I'm honestly thinking extraterrestrials. Imagine if there was no Area 51 controversy, and we no films or books to draw our attention to the idea, then they showed up. What would the reaction be, and what expectations would we really have of them? We would have no reference, real or fictitious, of what they might look like.

Q_C

Yes, that's what I'm thinking of. What if you didn't have that fictional background, those "rules" for something like that? I mean, we know if we found extraterrestrial life, that'd change so much. But we've explored a lot of the what-if situations in books in movies, so even if it's wrong, we have a sort of basis.

But what if aliens showed up and it had never entered anyone's mind that aliens might exist in the first place? That could be pretty wild.