Geron Kees

Shh! You're just guessing now!

I do remember that it was a show with some very decent moments. I love old TV, even though most of it is older than I am. Early dramas often have the sense of a play about them, rather than a TV show. The fact that they filmed most of early TV shows, before videotape really became a standard, has preserved a lot of them in (to cage a line from the old Outer Limits) crystal clarity. The writing was good, and a lot of TV shows were written by writers who wrote for a living long before TV created a demand for scriptwriters. Sad, now, to know that so many fine performers are gone. I find the acting in modern TV about as bland as the writing. Something is missing. Even sadder to realize that modern TV watchers don't even know what they've missed.

I think anyone in a similar situation would have two ways to go: either become a homebody, in a secure home, traveling only when necessary, and viewing the outside world as a dangerous place; or adopting a nomadic existence, living off that world, and taking each day as it came. The latter lifestyle is really not suited to a large group, because there are many mouths to feed, many needs to take care of, many backs to watch. Where a lone drifter can enter quietly and leave the same way, traipsing about with a small mob isn't easily done, especially safely. So it was kind of natural that the group picked a spot, fortified it, and have been fairly content there. But such a life, by its very criteria, closes down the daily world to a near and dear place, leaving everything outside of it a land to viewed warily and walked in wisely. This is what the group knows now, and they take those forays into the lands beyond very carefully. I guess that will make those trips similar, after a fashion, because they will operate the same way, in a same world. That world does seem empty to them, though the shadows of what once was will be everywhere. Hard to really grasp what that would really be like. Depressing, for us older citizens, who grew up in a crowded world. For kids...it would be depressing as well, but also maybe a little (just a little) exciting? What comes next I won't say. But I do want to thank you for your insights, and the eloquent way that you always express them. Always gives me a reason to smile.

Thanks!

Ah. I agree that television is somewhat lacking these days. I find a lot of the writing tedious and repetitive, at least on the networks. Recycling should be confined to bottles and cans. Paladin was a cool character, and the show always interesting. Westerns were a new thing for me in 1976, and our cable TV offered several good stations that ran them. I watched a lot of them, and found the storytelling in some to be quite good. You can probably watch any TV drama today and find roots in the writing that go back to western episodes written 60 or more years ago. Westerns were about people, mostly, and people just don't change all that much. There was another rerun I recall, from the decade after westerns, called Then Came Bronson. It was about a guy that traveled around on a motorcycle, getting into the dramas of other peoples lives. I remember thinking, even then, that if you printed the name Harley on the side of any old western Appaloosa from a decade before, you'd have the exact same show. Same with Route 66 and that Corvette. Evolved westerns, both of them. Even Star Trek was a one-wagon Wagon Train, with a visiting Frenchman with pointed ears.

I never thought I would write a story about zombies! Hope it works out for the both of us.

Then the answer is a toughie. There are TONS of Bond villains, from the minor to the major. I don't even know if we're talking just film, or the many novels and short stories featuring our Mr. Bond. That makes you an enigma. And I am not referring to a defunct German code machine, either!

I'm more worried he has a hat with a razor-sharp, steel brim. A lot harder to get away from than a shoe!

Haha. That's not exactly a short list! Gives me an idea of your age, possibly, that you mentioned those particular villains. Savalas was an early Blofeld, wasn't he, in the Lazenby On Her Majesty's Secret Service? You don't sound like a Blofeld, anyway, although I am assuming we are speaking appearances? Still, to know these things, you just have to be something of a Bond fan, so I guess it's not really a good indicator of age. Okay, you don't sound like you're 22, let's put it that way. Actually, my first thought when I saw your user name was of Richard Boone, in Have Gun, Will Travel. I am only 50, but I was a TV kid after I came to the US, and I absorbed reruns like a sponge absorbs sink water. Interesting. Any further clues?

I was just thinking the same thing!

Hi again! Happy to see you back.

Uh oh. How come, when the lights come up, it always turns out to be Larry David?

Yep. They could be gas-powered, too. Mexican food!

It was a little more than that, actually. But we are nearly halfway through this.

You are either a good judge of the story elements, or you have a crystal ball over there. I can't say anything about the story, of course, but I can say how impressed I am with everyone's considerations on all of this. You guys would be a tough audience for a stand-up comic, calling out the punchlines right before he said them

Of course I won't give you any spoilers, but I have to say that every one of you commenting have offered some great insights and ideas. I wish I had incorporated a few of them into the story, even! I don't see why I cannot tell you how long the story is, however. There are 16 chapters, and a short epilogue at the end of chapter 16. Actually, I looked at the word count again the other day, and it was a tad higher than I first thought.

The entire solar-powered thing was speculation. For all we know, they're wind powered, clean and renewable energy beings. With nasty tempers.

Yep. You need more data! Yep, you will get it!

Haha. The story will be disappointing after listening to your ideas! Okay, let's play hot and cold. Let's see where you're going...no...nuh uh...not there...no...cold....cold...colder...icicle...

Oh, I agree that even a zombie wouldn't want to face a chainsaw. Only problem with that as a weapon is how close you have to let the zombie get to you to use it against him. I doubt I'd want to try to swing that sort of mass around fast enough to counter the speed of one of them. Still julienne fries are nice!

Thanks for that. I felt the need for something different. I have a usual storyline? I'll have to watch that!

He had his attached to the stump of a severed arm, didn't he? I doubt the guys are willing to go that far!