Making the Concept Happen

I read my previous post and found that I use a lot of air quotes (you know, "air quotes") so this is a problem I'll need to address.

However, my biggest problem is not that, or ideas or even materiel, although the latter is kind of a problem.

My biggest problem right now is putting together a video that tells the story of Zombie Warship. Then, my next buiggest problem is how I get collaborators that like the idea of Zombie Warship involved in making it happen. Maybe to call these things problems is not accurate, maybe they are challenges or milestones, right?

At it's furthest extents, it is easy to see how the concept could be expanded to include TV,  movies, books (both textual and graphic), music, then logo licensing a'la Hello Kitty, and of course merchandise. Because what's not to like about the noble mission idea of zombie control in outer space?

So, this is where I'm turning to Kickstarter.com and setting up a project, and why I need a video that tells the story of Zombie Warship.

I'm hoping to put such a video together this weekend.

Does the World Need This Project?

The world needs this project no more than any other creative endeavour intended primarily for amusement and secondarily for some provocation of meaningful thoughts. It is telling that these sorts of things are often subjects of great demand in the modern world, but this is not the reason for this undertaking.

Really, the reason for this undertaking is that I had an idea, a concept, and I want to make some things based on that concept. I like science fiction, the straight-ahead action-oriented type like Star Wars, Star Trek and the like, but also the "twisted and dark"kind and the"ironic, humorous, complex and somewhat tongue in cheek kind".

Now, a mixture of real science and fairly easy to believe pseudo-science should be at the center of any of this sort of thing, and I am kind of proud of my central concept. Here it is:

In the future, not too distant but distant enough, mankind has created several technologies that allow him to travel beyone the solar system, to explore and even colonize distant planets. These are standard fare, for the most part: a high speed drive and also a "hyperspace extension" that bypasses conventional space distances; a "stasis field" that slows time for the people inside of it, so long space missions seem like days or hours; and various means of automated construction and planet-molding that prepare prospective worlds.

Then, after that, for a good action space opera, you have to have the "unexpected thing" or the "antagonist element" that poses an obstacle. In this case, and as the title might portend, it is zombies. This hearkens back to the Ed Wood movies, and this is a plus in my estimation, because to some extent it is that kind of cheesiness that entertains without trying.

Now, the pseudo science that "invokes" the zombies is my primary original contribution. I am introducing this in "public" to make it clear who thought of it first: it appears first mentioned publicly in this blog, to the handful of readers that may encounter it, most likely randomly.

The solar system, our solar system, is surrounded by a "shield" generated by the Sun's magnetic field. At this point, as we read, spacecraft launched decades ago are just now piercing that shield to collect more detail on whay lies beyond, but in essence the solar system travels through space in a "bubble" set up by the Sun's magnetic field, which protects what's inside that bubble from much of the energies that travel through interstellar space.

The Bubble that is Our Solar System

Now, in the time in which our story takes place, likely Earth-like worlds have been catalogued and targeted for settlement, and the technology to execute those settlements exists. But, an unexpected thing is discovered, so similar to so many of the unexpected things that space discovery has brought all along.

When living Earth-creatures, like ants, cats, goats and humans travel beyond the Sun's protective bubble, among the expected energies that they are bombarded with on a day to day basis are some unexpected energies.

One of these energies is popularly dubbed the "Double R" energy, or "Reanimation Ray". This particular energy is only partially understood, and it "fluxes" between highs and lows and this frequency and that, but the effect it has at a certain flux and frequency is to reanimate the recently deceased creatures that are evolved enough to have brains. Once reanimated, they exhibit all of the marvelous properties of the classic "zombie", not the least of which is an insatiable craving for the consumption, by any means possible, of living examples of the species which they, until recently, were members of.

So, it is a force of nature, a weird happenstance, that when you get out of the solar neighborhood, something reanimates you if you die, if that something is at the right intensity within a few days after you die. It's one of those things that societies outside of the solar system need to be aware of, along with cold, heat and pollution indices, severe weather, volcanoes and planetquakes.

Early settlements discovered this phenomenon in the most unfortunate way, many of them almost completely wiped out when several days of heavy Double R bombardment created legions of zombies (and of course, when a zombie "gets one", one becomes a zombie) that overwhelmed the budding colonies.

And so, to combat this force, the "Extra-Solar ReAnimation Control Command" (ESRACC) was established, popularly referred to as "the AntiZombie Force".

The project concerns itself with the exploits of the Reanimation Control Vessel 'Azrokonos'.



Intial Post, the Project Premise

I'm starting a new project that is designed primarily to amuse, entertain and intrigue me, and in the process do the same for people who share the same types of amusement, entertainment and intriguement.

It is a science fiction space opera concept and it should be fun and funny. It will be multimedia, narration,video and music. The music will not be "operatic" but it will be thematic. It will be cheesy in all the right ways with regards to it's science fiction roots, infused with a 1950s-60s-B-movie-style story line.

It will be entitled "Zombie Warship", hence the title of this blog.