Outline for a "Dies The Fire" TV Series Season One

https://www.facebook.com/notes/sm-s...f-outline-by-eric-blackburn/10151740179717468

Jim Reid from SM Stirling Fan Group said:
Episode # 1 "The Change" - The Change occurs. Mike Havel crash lands with the Larsons and leads them to the safety of a forest ranger cabin. Juniper, Dennis and Eilir has an altercation with Eddie Liu and Mack. They decide to flee Corvallis for her uncle's cabin in the mountains.


Episode # 2 Mike Havel and Eric Larson set out to find help for the rest of their party. They encounter the white supremacists and the captured Huttons and free Angelica and Luanne. Juniper and her party stop at the Finney farm and advise him to make preparations for living without power or firearms. They encounter Sally and Terry and take them along.


Episode # 3 Mike and Eric rescue Will Hutton and the Larsons from the white supremacists. They bury Mary Larson and set out from the ranger cabin. The Huttons are reunited. Juniper and her group come first to the Fairfax homestead and then to Juniper's cabin where they are happily reunited with the coven, and Juniper gets the tragic news about Rudi and suggests they begin living as a clan.


Episode # 4 Mike and his group encounter the bear and kill it. Mike narrowly survives and spends the next few days recovering. Will begins to build weapons and armor for the group. Juniper and the coven begin to make plans for long-term living in her uncle's cabin. Juniper discovers an injured Sam Aylward while hunting.


Episode # 5 The Bearkillers come to a town and begin taking in recruits. Introduction of Josh Sanders, Pam Arnstein, and Billy Waters. Juniper and the clan begin planting their crops. They defend their territory against a group of foragers from Salem. Juniper agrees to begin training the clan for combat.


Episode # 6 The Bearkillers begin offering their combat services and weapons as barter. They enter Sioux territory and agree to investigate recent disappareances in return for goods and services. Clan Mackenzie begins construction of what will become Dun Juniper. Sam and Chuck begin combat training for the clan.


Episode # 7 The Bearkillers encounter and destroy a nest of Eaters. Mike decides to send scouts into the Willamette Valley. Juniper decides to do the same. Scouting parties both depart.


Episode # 8 The Bearkillers encounter Protectorate territory and meet Norman Arminger. Juniper and her group witness the death zone around Salem and are attacked by Eaters. They are rescued by Mike and his group. They two groups spend some time together and Juniper and Mike spend time alone before they part ways.


Episode # 9 Both scouting parties return home. Dun Juniper is almost completed and has grown. The Bearkillers have grown and agree to dispose of Duke Iron Rod for Sheriff Woburn. Sutterdown begs for help from the clan.


Episode # 10 The Bearkillers defeat Duke Iron Rod and his group. Clan Mackenzie defeats a PPA raiding party. Sutterdown joins the clan. Juniper discovers she is pregnant.


Episode # 11 The Bearkillers, CORA, Corvallans and Mackenzies gather at Dun Mackenzie to discuss the PPA. They agree to cooperate in destroying a Protectorate Fort that is blocking access to the Willamette Valley. Astrid comes to live with the clan and quickly forms a bond with Eilir.


Episode # 12 The coalition attacks and destroys the PPA fort, capturing several soldiers of the PPA. Juniper gives birth to Rudy.


Episode # 13 The Bearkillers reach Larsdalen and Mike declares himself Lord Bear. Juniper brings Rudy home to Dun Juniper and christens Rudy in the sacred wood.

You like? I'd definitely watch this series.

(Lest anyone freak out, this is a fan suggestion, not a serious proposal. But one can dream...)
 
As long as they have better writers for the show than the books. SM Stirling can come up with some interesting ideas but his execution is not always as good as his conception.
 
As long as they have better writers for the show than the books. SM Stirling can come up with some interesting ideas but his execution is not always as good as his conception.

Agreed. The first book was wonderful for the drama it presented between characters and the very real threat they felt under, it was one of Stirling's better works IMO.

As time goes on and they start to all act like one big happy family with no drama between them...well let's just say they all get pretty uninteresting.

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Mind you this outline for a series sounds epic. The siege of the fort would have to be a two-parter I think. One dealing with the planning, one dealing with the assault. The 'Big Action Sequence' of the season as it were.
 
The episode outlines sound good. But the episodes where/when required
would have to introduce the PPA earlier in some form as stories, rumours or so called representives etc to ensure to a smooth intro. Example been
when Eddie Liu 1st meets Arminger in DTF. But Arminger can remain in the predominantly the background with the focus being on the Bikie Gang in the final episodes.
 
The episode outlines sound good. But the episodes where/when required
would have to introduce the PPA earlier in some form as stories, rumours or so called representives etc to ensure to a smooth intro. Example been
when Eddie Liu 1st meets Arminger in DTF. But Arminger can remain in the predominantly the background with the focus being on the Bikie Gang in the final episodes.

Related to this giving Eddie Liu a bigger role would be an excellent idea. He and Mack should be played up as bigger villains, and probably should kill a minor character or two along the way, and be involved in most of the major fights just to show that they really are villains.

In season two they ought to be expanded on as villains. In fact season two should depart from the plot of the Protectors War in a few ways really.
 
Related to this giving Eddie Liu a bigger role would be an excellent idea. He and Mack should be played up as bigger villains, and probably should kill a minor character or two along the way, and be involved in most of the major fights just to show that they really are villains.

In season two they ought to be expanded on as villains. In fact season two should depart from the plot of the Protectors War in a few ways really.

1. Seems like a good idea. Since they joined the PPA pretty early, I imagine they'd achieve high ranks pretty quick. They can command brute squads of the later arrivals.

2. How so?
 
I liked the original Dies the Fire a lot, but as book after book came out the quality just kept slipping and slipping.
 
What's the elevator pitch to say "So this is different than the other show where electricity stops?"

This is the show where the guns and steam power stop? Longbowmen and heavy cavalry in the Willamette?

The show based on the book that had the same idea and executed it better. :)

I don't think the guy who came up with this was seriously intending to pitch it to a TV company.
 
I never thought I'd ever say this, but a DTF Tv series would really benefit from not following the books (aside from the basic premise).

The pitch could be that it's a sort of a apocalypse/cultural regression/deadliest warrior combo. They'd probably have to drop the wiccanwank in any TV adaption, though I'd see that as a benefit...
 
Define "Wiccanwank." I could imagine a hypothetical TV show not focusing on it to the same degree the books do, but shows like Charmed prove that depicting "witchcraft" in a positive fashion isn't a dealbreaker.

And it's not like Hollywood is ruled by Christian fundamentalists...
 
Pretty much defined as paganism replacing monotheism as in the books. The entertainment industry might not care about it personally, but they do care about how their audiences might react.
 
Pretty much defined as paganism replacing monotheism as in the books. The entertainment industry might not care about it personally, but they do care about how their audiences might react.

Considering the chronic negative portrayals of the "Religious Redneck" and religious fundamentalism in general (see "Game of Thrones") seeing the canonical storyline for Sutterdown (the belligerent evangelical preacher leads them through the Change but then dies in battle with the PPA, leading to its assimilation by Clan Mackenzie) seems plausible.

Maybe the "secret Wiccan underground in the PPA" and the paganizing of much of the Bearkillers can be avoided, but the former would take up excessive screentime and the latter takes place much later in the series anyway. One can depict the theocratic/dystopic aspect of the early PPA by showing someone burned at the stake for something else (it's the burning at the stake that's important).

Ironic that Clan Mackenzie get pretty fundamentalist themselves--they execute rapists (often by burying them alive) out of fear the Goddess will kill everyone in the area and many of the younger generation are uncomfortable with Juniper's rather flippant attitude toward the religion's founding. I can easily imagine future generations turning into something out of The Wicker Man.
 
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