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newnumber6(Oh, first another minor update on the last WIDW. For 'Sliders', the episode 'Cutting Edge', I'd include one of the plotlines being an AI entity asking the Sliders to free it by taking it to another world. This plotline might continue later on, with the AI being a (usually dormant) 'ally' that accompanies them on worlds, and the AI might help with decrypting the timer coordinates for 'home'. Anyway, on to this one...).
'Mutant X' was a travesty. A poor X-Men ripoff with bad actors, bad concept, and really bad writing. It made me ashamed to live in the city it filmed. So, accepting for the moment that a series is being made to capitalize on 'X-Men', here's What I'd Do With it...
Now, the 'X-Men Ripoff' you can't really avoid. They weren't allowed to actually make an 'X-Men' TV series, but they still wanted to do their best to play with the same concept and ride off the coattails of the X-Men movie. Now, the 'secret super powered operatives working to protect a world that hates and fears them', although important to X-Men in general, is also I think one of the key points in that lawsuit that said Mutant X was too similar to X-Men (even though Marvel produced the show, someone else has the rights to 'X-Men' TV stuff). So, I'd try to shift the main focus somewhat. I'm a bit of a fan of angsty teen dramas, so I'd move it a little more in that direction, I think, capitalizing on the 'Welcome to Mutant High' phrase in the first movie... (I should note that this one, more than some of my others, I'm making up more or less as I go along, rather than plotting too far in advance)
Assuming (probably wrongly) that while you couldn't make an actual X-Men TV series, but you could use the wider X-Men universe as a whole, so long as it couldn't be construed as actually being an X-Men series and just called, say, X-Factor, what I would do is as follows:
Focus it on the New Mutants. If at all possible, have Xavier be the 'force of Good' for them, and have occasional cameos from other X-Men as special teachers. If not (and really, probably not given that lawsuit), because of licensing issues, Moira McTaggart would be a geneticist (and adoptive parent of Rahne) who is studying the mutant phenomenon and has convinced the parents of the NM to send them to her for medical overseeing of their condition while they attend school. On the other side, the Hellfire Club, who are using High School as a crucible to hone their own prodigies, the Hellions, for manipulating their way through society.
Cast would definately include Roberto, Rahne, Doug, and Dani, as all of them have fairly easy powers to depict without much CGI. I'd like to have Sam too, but flight is always hard. I'd say take him, but we might need to tweak it so that, although he certainly _can_ fly, his powers are more often used as a more or less stationary invulnerable shield that he blasts around him (which puts him in an interesting contrast with Roberto.. one has strength with no invulnerability, another has invulnerability with no super strength). Warlock would definately have to be cut, as probably, sadly would Illyana, but I'd look towards introducing her later as the show goes on as sort of a wild card who could end up with either side, and explain her powers as a bridge between mutancy and magic (her mutant power is easier access to magic, most especially teleportation). Karma is a maybe. I like her, but there's possible cast bloat. Still, she provides a useful 'make sure nobody knows what just happened' 'out'.
No Magma, she just can't fit without a dramatic change in her origin anyway, and CGIwise she's probably too intense. Plus, again, the cast is too bloated anyway. With Villains, we'd have Empath, Roulette, Catseye, Thunderbird and Tarot probably, and of course the HFC 'in charge' of them, and possibly others. Actual stories from NM probably wouldn't be adapted (maybe once mutants are 'outted' the Larry Bodine suicide story), but some of the themes could well work (including Roberto's father being a HFC member).
If we had to divorce it even more from the comics, so we couldn't use any actual characters or organizations from the comics, then I'd do something similar. It'd still be a teen show with a Buffy/Roswell/Smallville combined with X-Men Evolution vibe, about 'mutants' in a New York high school, discovering each other and trying to live normal lives while covering for each other.
They wouldn't all live in a 'mansion', or even together at all, they'd essentially be unlikely and somewhat unwilling friends just because their shared differences bring them together. There would be some reason why there are so many mutants in the area (maybe 60 actual mutants in a school population of a couple thousand), and although I've got something specific in mind I won't detail it. For the main cast, my first instinct is to go with the generic Breakfast-Club 'types', Jock, The Popular Girl, the Nobody/Nerd, Freak, Troublemaker, (with of course all having more personality than just the basic stereotypes) or some variation thereof, and maybe play it a bit against type with the powers... for example, the Nerd might have super strength. Not necessarily of course, but that'd be the preliminary design. Powers would have to be things that work on TV, so flight is out for everyone. Also, as it _is_ a TV show, you don't have to get terribly inventive.
Before the new New Mutants series came out, I probably would have given the popular girl Pheremone powers, but probably won't anymore. One person will probably have some level of super strength or invulnerability, because that's a standard. Maybe someone who can hear the thoughts of others, a short range teleporter. If I have an energy projector, a pyrokinetic would be the way I'd go. For the last, maybe wrap it up with a Healer (healing others, but perhaps not him/herself), a limited shapeshifter (only people of the same general build), or some sort of cyberpath.
I'd probably cap it off by including one of my favorite concepts, Anne, who is cursed with the power that anytime she leaves someone's sight, she automatically wipes their memory of her existence. Many of the cast would be unaware of her most of the time, but a couple might be able to remember her.
Keep her hidden from the audience at first, too, with just the occasional reference from one of the people who can remember her that might sound a bit off until she's revealed a few episodes down the line.
As for actual plots, in general more character driven than 'superheroish' (although perhaps one of the characters, like the 'nerd' is actually a comic geek and believes it's their duty to use their powers for good and go out and help people. But he's smart enough at least not to go in for a gaudy costume to do it. This could lead to an ongoing plotline dealing with how much harder it would be to be a superhero in the real world than most comics suggest), with hiding their secrets and the existence of mutants in general being a big thing and to a smaller degree taking out other mutants who are a threat. Maybe play a bit on the theme about all the bullying and near warfare that seems to go on in schools right under the teacher's noses without them being aware of it.
A secret conflict between different groups of mutants at the school, teachers being unaware of it in part because nobody really knows about mutants (aside from the gov't, tabloids, and people who've directly experienced them). Not played significantly for laughs though, which kind of means you can't play too much with it at all.
Rather than the Buffy style 'Even if they might have been popular at first because they all hang out together they're really at the same social level', I think I'd rather have it so at least at first their associations are only casual, only getting together almost in secret to discuss things that need to be discussed and then otherwise mainly interacting within the context of the preexisting groups of friends. For example the Jock and the Popular Girl might hang out but neither would go and have an extended conversation in public with the Nerd. They would break out of this naturally, but it would happen slowly.
Romance would be a factor in the interactions too, and maybe leading to some of the breaking down of their respective 'cliques' (no use trying to hide that one of the 'cool' people is dating one of the 'uncools'... well, actually, that's not true, there's plenty use trying to hide it, and it can make for a good couple of stories of conflict, but there's no use expecting it to last. Although, maybe if Anne is involved in one of the romance angles, and she should be eventually, because I can think of a lot of good material to exploit there).
Supporting cast will be important, each person having their own friends that aren't even mutants, just friends. Depending on the dynamics of how the thing works out, some of these can potentially rise to prominence and maybe even become one of the 'main cast', but in general they're scenery to develop out main characters, and the occasional fodder for plot-related foo.
As to how they all get together and what keeps them together? I'm still a little unsure.
My first instinct was to have most of them forced to be together for some school related thing (I know I mentioned Breakfast Club earlier, but I don't plan on using 'Saturday Detention', as fun as it may be), with the others coming later, but perhaps a non-school thing would be better. I think one of the keys should be that they have to know that a) mutants exist (aside from just them... some of them might be just discovering this though).
There are ways for their powers to become quickly apparent to each other... for example, the pyro accidentally starts a fire, invulnerable person works to put it out, isn't burned, but others are, healer heals them. Maybe the telepath twigs onto them later by hearing their thoughts. Any MUSHer probably can think of a thousand different ways it could go down. Still, that seems a little hinky, and it doesn't really give a good reason for not banding together with every mutant they meet.
The other main option is a 'mentor' type character, but an ongoing mentor type seems a bit overdone. I'm not sure I'd want to go that way with this if it's not the actual New Mutants. Maybe some combination, where they're introduced to each other and the existence of mutants by a member of faculty or something (maybe even do the 'detention' thing as his way to get them all together so he can talk to them, trumping up charges if necessary, and explain to them the truth). Then, shortly after they get to know each other that faculty member winds up dead and all his files have been erased. The group knows he was planning on approaching other mutants, and all evidence points to one of these mutants killing him. So there's a little bit of a 'trust no one' vibe as they suspect that any of the mutants they meet could have killed him.
Maybe in their initial meeting he mentions something about someone else involved, and Mentor having determined that the main characters weren't directly involved with this person, Mentor'd probably be a mutant himself) but he was continuing to investigate. So when he winds up dead, they have to be wary. The specifics of which approach I'd take, I'd probably only decide on when I have a clearer picture of what my resoures are in producing the show.
Eventually of course one of the threads would be government interests getting involved in the school, but not for a while, probably. Maybe turn it around a bit and have the government send a 'mutant hound', a person who can sense mutants if he, say, touches them, but instead of turning the school in to his superiors, lies and investigates what's going on (what with so many localized in one place) on his own.
I'd also like to avoid the cliche of the Eeeeevil Government Conspiracy (although it might look that way at first), not because I don't necessarily believe the government is evil or liable to conspiracy, but just because I think it's overdone. The government will be looking into it from a public safety standpoint, with a possible eye towards recruitment in special services (The 'Hound' isn't a slave, he has the same rights as any other government employee (who has signed a heady nondisclosure agreement) and his personal agenda might be _more_ sinister than the government) for those that meet the qualifications and are willing.
This might be a decent springboard to move the show.. since most 'High School' centered shows can only really last in high school about 3-4 years at best, the question always pops up about what to do next.
In this, what comes 'next' would probably be recruitment into the real government, with the next year set at a training facility set up by the government for the 'heroes' of the show, now friends, either while attending a nearby college or making a college part of the facility. The other main option after high school ends would be to put them in an 'on the run' position, with different groups out to get them, perhaps, if we want to get more plotly and superheroish, have some mutants hijack the government machine which, previously being fairly benign, becomes out to get them, but they also have to try and strike back against it and save the american people from a tyrant with mind control powers. Or perhaps none of this could happen, they could graduate normally and all just independantly decide to wind up going to the same college and be best friends forever and find that there are a bunch of new mutants at college for no particular reason.... Nahhh. ;)
Well, there we go, that's about as far as I'm willing to take the speculations at least at this point. Comments welcome. (This and previous WIDWs are available on my Memories page)
'Mutant X' was a travesty. A poor X-Men ripoff with bad actors, bad concept, and really bad writing. It made me ashamed to live in the city it filmed. So, accepting for the moment that a series is being made to capitalize on 'X-Men', here's What I'd Do With it...
Now, the 'X-Men Ripoff' you can't really avoid. They weren't allowed to actually make an 'X-Men' TV series, but they still wanted to do their best to play with the same concept and ride off the coattails of the X-Men movie. Now, the 'secret super powered operatives working to protect a world that hates and fears them', although important to X-Men in general, is also I think one of the key points in that lawsuit that said Mutant X was too similar to X-Men (even though Marvel produced the show, someone else has the rights to 'X-Men' TV stuff). So, I'd try to shift the main focus somewhat. I'm a bit of a fan of angsty teen dramas, so I'd move it a little more in that direction, I think, capitalizing on the 'Welcome to Mutant High' phrase in the first movie... (I should note that this one, more than some of my others, I'm making up more or less as I go along, rather than plotting too far in advance)
Assuming (probably wrongly) that while you couldn't make an actual X-Men TV series, but you could use the wider X-Men universe as a whole, so long as it couldn't be construed as actually being an X-Men series and just called, say, X-Factor, what I would do is as follows:
Focus it on the New Mutants. If at all possible, have Xavier be the 'force of Good' for them, and have occasional cameos from other X-Men as special teachers. If not (and really, probably not given that lawsuit), because of licensing issues, Moira McTaggart would be a geneticist (and adoptive parent of Rahne) who is studying the mutant phenomenon and has convinced the parents of the NM to send them to her for medical overseeing of their condition while they attend school. On the other side, the Hellfire Club, who are using High School as a crucible to hone their own prodigies, the Hellions, for manipulating their way through society.
Cast would definately include Roberto, Rahne, Doug, and Dani, as all of them have fairly easy powers to depict without much CGI. I'd like to have Sam too, but flight is always hard. I'd say take him, but we might need to tweak it so that, although he certainly _can_ fly, his powers are more often used as a more or less stationary invulnerable shield that he blasts around him (which puts him in an interesting contrast with Roberto.. one has strength with no invulnerability, another has invulnerability with no super strength). Warlock would definately have to be cut, as probably, sadly would Illyana, but I'd look towards introducing her later as the show goes on as sort of a wild card who could end up with either side, and explain her powers as a bridge between mutancy and magic (her mutant power is easier access to magic, most especially teleportation). Karma is a maybe. I like her, but there's possible cast bloat. Still, she provides a useful 'make sure nobody knows what just happened' 'out'.
No Magma, she just can't fit without a dramatic change in her origin anyway, and CGIwise she's probably too intense. Plus, again, the cast is too bloated anyway. With Villains, we'd have Empath, Roulette, Catseye, Thunderbird and Tarot probably, and of course the HFC 'in charge' of them, and possibly others. Actual stories from NM probably wouldn't be adapted (maybe once mutants are 'outted' the Larry Bodine suicide story), but some of the themes could well work (including Roberto's father being a HFC member).
If we had to divorce it even more from the comics, so we couldn't use any actual characters or organizations from the comics, then I'd do something similar. It'd still be a teen show with a Buffy/Roswell/Smallville combined with X-Men Evolution vibe, about 'mutants' in a New York high school, discovering each other and trying to live normal lives while covering for each other.
They wouldn't all live in a 'mansion', or even together at all, they'd essentially be unlikely and somewhat unwilling friends just because their shared differences bring them together. There would be some reason why there are so many mutants in the area (maybe 60 actual mutants in a school population of a couple thousand), and although I've got something specific in mind I won't detail it. For the main cast, my first instinct is to go with the generic Breakfast-Club 'types', Jock, The Popular Girl, the Nobody/Nerd, Freak, Troublemaker, (with of course all having more personality than just the basic stereotypes) or some variation thereof, and maybe play it a bit against type with the powers... for example, the Nerd might have super strength. Not necessarily of course, but that'd be the preliminary design. Powers would have to be things that work on TV, so flight is out for everyone. Also, as it _is_ a TV show, you don't have to get terribly inventive.
Before the new New Mutants series came out, I probably would have given the popular girl Pheremone powers, but probably won't anymore. One person will probably have some level of super strength or invulnerability, because that's a standard. Maybe someone who can hear the thoughts of others, a short range teleporter. If I have an energy projector, a pyrokinetic would be the way I'd go. For the last, maybe wrap it up with a Healer (healing others, but perhaps not him/herself), a limited shapeshifter (only people of the same general build), or some sort of cyberpath.
I'd probably cap it off by including one of my favorite concepts, Anne, who is cursed with the power that anytime she leaves someone's sight, she automatically wipes their memory of her existence. Many of the cast would be unaware of her most of the time, but a couple might be able to remember her.
Keep her hidden from the audience at first, too, with just the occasional reference from one of the people who can remember her that might sound a bit off until she's revealed a few episodes down the line.
As for actual plots, in general more character driven than 'superheroish' (although perhaps one of the characters, like the 'nerd' is actually a comic geek and believes it's their duty to use their powers for good and go out and help people. But he's smart enough at least not to go in for a gaudy costume to do it. This could lead to an ongoing plotline dealing with how much harder it would be to be a superhero in the real world than most comics suggest), with hiding their secrets and the existence of mutants in general being a big thing and to a smaller degree taking out other mutants who are a threat. Maybe play a bit on the theme about all the bullying and near warfare that seems to go on in schools right under the teacher's noses without them being aware of it.
A secret conflict between different groups of mutants at the school, teachers being unaware of it in part because nobody really knows about mutants (aside from the gov't, tabloids, and people who've directly experienced them). Not played significantly for laughs though, which kind of means you can't play too much with it at all.
Rather than the Buffy style 'Even if they might have been popular at first because they all hang out together they're really at the same social level', I think I'd rather have it so at least at first their associations are only casual, only getting together almost in secret to discuss things that need to be discussed and then otherwise mainly interacting within the context of the preexisting groups of friends. For example the Jock and the Popular Girl might hang out but neither would go and have an extended conversation in public with the Nerd. They would break out of this naturally, but it would happen slowly.
Romance would be a factor in the interactions too, and maybe leading to some of the breaking down of their respective 'cliques' (no use trying to hide that one of the 'cool' people is dating one of the 'uncools'... well, actually, that's not true, there's plenty use trying to hide it, and it can make for a good couple of stories of conflict, but there's no use expecting it to last. Although, maybe if Anne is involved in one of the romance angles, and she should be eventually, because I can think of a lot of good material to exploit there).
Supporting cast will be important, each person having their own friends that aren't even mutants, just friends. Depending on the dynamics of how the thing works out, some of these can potentially rise to prominence and maybe even become one of the 'main cast', but in general they're scenery to develop out main characters, and the occasional fodder for plot-related foo.
As to how they all get together and what keeps them together? I'm still a little unsure.
My first instinct was to have most of them forced to be together for some school related thing (I know I mentioned Breakfast Club earlier, but I don't plan on using 'Saturday Detention', as fun as it may be), with the others coming later, but perhaps a non-school thing would be better. I think one of the keys should be that they have to know that a) mutants exist (aside from just them... some of them might be just discovering this though).
There are ways for their powers to become quickly apparent to each other... for example, the pyro accidentally starts a fire, invulnerable person works to put it out, isn't burned, but others are, healer heals them. Maybe the telepath twigs onto them later by hearing their thoughts. Any MUSHer probably can think of a thousand different ways it could go down. Still, that seems a little hinky, and it doesn't really give a good reason for not banding together with every mutant they meet.
The other main option is a 'mentor' type character, but an ongoing mentor type seems a bit overdone. I'm not sure I'd want to go that way with this if it's not the actual New Mutants. Maybe some combination, where they're introduced to each other and the existence of mutants by a member of faculty or something (maybe even do the 'detention' thing as his way to get them all together so he can talk to them, trumping up charges if necessary, and explain to them the truth). Then, shortly after they get to know each other that faculty member winds up dead and all his files have been erased. The group knows he was planning on approaching other mutants, and all evidence points to one of these mutants killing him. So there's a little bit of a 'trust no one' vibe as they suspect that any of the mutants they meet could have killed him.
Maybe in their initial meeting he mentions something about someone else involved, and Mentor having determined that the main characters weren't directly involved with this person, Mentor'd probably be a mutant himself) but he was continuing to investigate. So when he winds up dead, they have to be wary. The specifics of which approach I'd take, I'd probably only decide on when I have a clearer picture of what my resoures are in producing the show.
Eventually of course one of the threads would be government interests getting involved in the school, but not for a while, probably. Maybe turn it around a bit and have the government send a 'mutant hound', a person who can sense mutants if he, say, touches them, but instead of turning the school in to his superiors, lies and investigates what's going on (what with so many localized in one place) on his own.
I'd also like to avoid the cliche of the Eeeeevil Government Conspiracy (although it might look that way at first), not because I don't necessarily believe the government is evil or liable to conspiracy, but just because I think it's overdone. The government will be looking into it from a public safety standpoint, with a possible eye towards recruitment in special services (The 'Hound' isn't a slave, he has the same rights as any other government employee (who has signed a heady nondisclosure agreement) and his personal agenda might be _more_ sinister than the government) for those that meet the qualifications and are willing.
This might be a decent springboard to move the show.. since most 'High School' centered shows can only really last in high school about 3-4 years at best, the question always pops up about what to do next.
In this, what comes 'next' would probably be recruitment into the real government, with the next year set at a training facility set up by the government for the 'heroes' of the show, now friends, either while attending a nearby college or making a college part of the facility. The other main option after high school ends would be to put them in an 'on the run' position, with different groups out to get them, perhaps, if we want to get more plotly and superheroish, have some mutants hijack the government machine which, previously being fairly benign, becomes out to get them, but they also have to try and strike back against it and save the american people from a tyrant with mind control powers. Or perhaps none of this could happen, they could graduate normally and all just independantly decide to wind up going to the same college and be best friends forever and find that there are a bunch of new mutants at college for no particular reason.... Nahhh. ;)
Well, there we go, that's about as far as I'm willing to take the speculations at least at this point. Comments welcome. (This and previous WIDWs are available on my Memories page)
